ALFRED’S NATION BUILDING

CONTEXT AT SOME POINT DURING THE CRISIS OF 878 ALFRED APPEARS TO HAVE CONCIEVED OF THE IDEA OF A UNITED ENGLISH KINGDOM UNDER HIS RULE. THIS WAS HIS RESPONSE TO THE POWER VACUUM CREATED BY THE LIQUIDATION OF THE HEPTARCHY BY THE VIKINGS. THIS WAS A GENUINELY NEW IDEA – EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL PREVIOUS KINGS HAD ONLY EVER LAID CLAIM TO ’OVERLORDSHIP’ OF OTHER KINGDOMS AS BRETWALDAS. WHETHER IT WAS, AS HE CLAIMED, SIMPLY A PRAGMATIC REPONSE TO THE NEW REALITIES OF ENGLISH POLITICS, OR A DELIBRATE PIECE OF OPPORTUNISM IS UNCLEAR.

THE WYVERN OF WESSEX – THE FIRST FLAG OF ENGLAND?

LANGUAGE ALFRED’S LANGUAGE OF KINGSHIP IS DELIBERATE, REVOLUTIONARY AND MAKES MASSIVE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT HIS POSITION. AT WEDMORE HE NEGOTIATES WITH GUTHRUM AS KING ‘EALLES ANGELCYNNES’ ‘OF ALL THE ENGLISH NATION’, CLAIMING THAT HE AND HIS WITAN REPRESENTED THE ENTIRE ENGLISH PEOPLE, PRESUMPTIVE TO SAY THE LEAST GIVEN HE WAS ONLY KING OF WESSEX AND ENGLAND DIDN’T EVEN EXIST. HE FOLLOWS THIS UP IN HIS COINAGE AND THE BOOKS HE COMMISSIONS IN ENGLISH – ASSER REPEATEDLY REFERS TO HIM BY THE SAME TITLE. A FACADE OF REGIONAL INDEPENDENCE WAS PRESERVED – EARLDOMAN AETHELRED WAS FORMALLY RULER OF MERCIA (UNCLEAR WHETHER HE WAS EVER NAMED KING),AND BOTH HE AND HIS WIFE ALFRED’S DAUGHTER ATHELFLEAD GRANT CHARTERS IN THEIR OWN NAMES UP TO 918, ALSO WHEN LONDON IS RECAPTURED BY ALFRED IN 886 IT IS RETURNED TO MERCIA. HOWEVER THEIR TRUE INDEPENDENCE IS OPEN TO DOUBT – AUTONOMY MIGHT BE A BETTER WORD FOR THEIR POWERS.

KULTURKAMPF ALFRED GENUINELY BELIEVED IN THE TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECT OF READING AND WRITING UPON HIS PEOPLE AND EQUATES AN EDUCATED SOCIETY WITH AN OBEDIENT, PROSPEROUS ONE. HE ALSO RECONGISED THAT A LITERATE CULTURE COULD BE USED FOR HIS NATION BUILDING AGENDA. TO THIS END HE PERSONALLY TRANSLATED TREATISES ON GOVERNMENT (E.G. GREGORY’S PASTORAL CARE) INTO ENGLISH CAREFULLY SELECTED TO EMPHASISE LOYALTY TO ONE’S KING. HE ALSO PRESIDED OVER AN EDUCATION DRIVE ; ALL HIS EARLDOMEN HAD TO BE LITERATE; AND SCHOOL WERE SET UP BY HIMSELF AND HIS SUCESSORS (INCLUDING WELLS) FINALLY HE ISSUED THREE HISTORIES THAT WROTE ESTABLISHED A HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE NATIONAL STORY.

ALFRED AND THE CAKES – A 19 TH CENTURY ADAPTATION

RE-WRITING HISTORY ALFRED HAD BEDE’S ECCLESIATICAL HISTORY TRANSLATED AND USED IT AS THE BEDROCK OF HIS NATIONAL MYTH, HE FOLLOWED THIS UP BY COMMISSIONING THE ANGLO- SAXON CHRONICLE WHICH EDITS OUT THE MERCIAN SUPREMACY OF THE 8 TH CENTURY AND PASSES AUTHORITY OVER THE ENGLISH STRAIGHT TO WESSEX VIA HIS GRANDFATHER ECHBEHRT WHOM HE HAS NAMED THE EIGHT BRETWALDA. HE FINISHES USIDNG ASSER’S LIFE OF KING ALFRED WHICH WEAVES HIMSELF AND HIS RECENT DEEDS IN HEROIC TERMS INTO THE NATIONAL STORY. THE SUMMATIVE EFFECT IS TO SEE ALFRED’S RULE OVER ALL ENGLAND AS PART OF AN INEVITBALE, RIGHTEOUS AND DEISBRALE PROPCERSS RATHER THAN OPPORTUNISM.

AN ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE (PARKER COLLECTION, CORPUS CHRISTI, CAMBRIDGE)

THE MYTH OF THE SAVIOUR? EVEN BY THE STANDARDS OF THE AGE, ALFRED WAS A CONSPICIOUSLY PIOUS KING. SUCH PIETY HAD A POLITICAL EDGE HOWEVER, HE WON TACIT SUPPORT FROM THE CHURCH FOR HIS ENGLISH PROJECT BY ENDOWING IT GENEROUSLY AND CONSISTENTLY EMPHASISING THE CHRISTIAN ORIGINS OF HIS POWER – THE PREFACES TO HIS TRANSLATIONS OF THE PSALMS BEAR WITNESS TO THIS. THERE IS ALSO AN UNSPOKEN PARALLEL WITH CHRIST - CHRIST IS THE SAVIOUR OF ENGLISHMEN’S SOULS, ALFRED THE SAVIOUR OF THEIR BODIES AND THEIR LAND. CERTAINLY THE THEME OF SALVATION CONTINUOUSLY APPEARS IN ALFRED’S TRANSLATIONS.

ANGLO-SAXON RELIQUARY CROSS FROM THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSUEM. IT CONTAINS A FINGER SUPPOSEDLY FROM ST MARY MAGDALENE.

POLITICAL UNITY ASIDE FROM HIS QUIET ABSORPTION OF SOUTHERN MERCIA, ALFRED UNDERTOOK SEVERAL STEPS TO CEMENT HIS AUTHORITY POST OF 12 EARLDOMEN ON THE WITAN ARE PURGED AND REPLACED BY ALFRED LOYALISTS AND AT A MEETING AT LANGDENE IN THE 880S THEY AGREE TO SURRENDER THE POWER TO CHOOSE A SUCCESSOR TO HIM. IN PLEGMUND (CANTERBURY) AND ASSER (SHERBORNE) HE ALSO HAS TWO POWERFUL STATESMAN AND LOYALISTS IN THE CHURCH. THE AGGRESSION OF RHODRI MAWR KING OF WALES HELPED HIM – IT FORCED THE PRINCES OF SOUTH WALES AND CORNWALL TO PLEDGE THEIR ALLEIGANCE TO ALFRED (IT MAY ALSO HAVE BEEN A FACTOR IN THE CAPITULATION OF MERCIA). SUSSEX, SURREY AND KENT SEEM TO HAVE BEEN SEAMLESSLY ABSORBED INTO ALFRED’S KINGDOM – THEY FORM PART OF THE BURGH SYSTEM AND THEIR ARISTOCRACY IS MERGED INTO THAT OF WESSEX.

THE ROYAL STONE OF KINGSTON, SURREY – BY TRADITION THE PLACE WHERE ALFRED’S DESCENDENTS WERE CROWNED.

BINDING CURRENCY AND LAW ALFRED STANDARDISED THE TWO INSISTUTIONS OF STATE THAT MOST COMMONLY TOUCHED HIS SUBJECTS THROUGHOUT HIS REALM. IN THE LATE 1890S HIS ‘DOOM BOOK’ WAS ISSUED SETTING A COMMON LAW CODE SENSTIVELY DRAWING UPON PRECEDENT FROM WESSEX, MERCIA AND KENT. IT IS PRESENTED AS A RATIONALISATION BUT IN TRUTH IT IS STANDARDISATION BUILT ON ALFRED’S NOTIONS, AS HE HIMSELF ADMITS ‘MANY OF THE LAWS THAT DISPLEASED ME I REJECTED’. COINAGE WAS MORE GRADUAL AS MINT CAPACITY WAS LIMITED, ALTHOUGH FOLLOWING ITS RECAPTURE IN 886 THE FORMER MERCIAN MINT OF LONDON STARTS TO PRODUCE COINS WITH ALFRED’S HEAD ON THEM. MOREVOER THE SUPERIOR SILVER CONTENT OF WESSEX STYLE COINAGE CAUSED IT TO PROGRESSIVELY EDGE OUT OTHER PENNIES OVER TIME AS THE TRADING DENOMINATION OF CHOICE.

THE CHANGING LANGUAGE OF KINGSHIP – THE PENNY ON THE LEFT MINTED IN LONDON IS INSCRIBED ‘KING ALFRED’, THE ONE ON THE RIGHT ‘KING OF THE SAXONS’

ENGLAND BY 899 – AN EARLY NATION STATE ALFRED’S KULTURKAMPF ENSURED THAT HIS EXPANSION OF WESSEX INTO THE HEPTARHIC POWER VACUUM WAS NOT OVERLORDSHIP BUT THE CREATION OF A NEW, VIGOROUS POLITICAL ENTITY. THIS ENTITY WAS NOT SIMPLY AN EMPIRE SINCE ALFRED’S COMBINATION OF STRENGHTENED ROYAL AUTHORITY, NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT OF A CULTURE THAT SPECIFICALLY ROOTED THE ANGELSC TO THE LAND PRODUCED ONE OF THE FIRST NATION STATES: AENGLA LAND. IT WAS AN IDEA AS MUCH AS AN ENTITY AND AS SUCH WAS CAPABLE OF EXPANSION, THUS IT SURVIVED ALFRED’S DEATH AND WAS ROOTED IN ITS FINAL GEOGRAPHICAL FORM BY HIS SON AND GRANDSON. IT PROVED AN IMMENSELY RESILINET CONCEPT – IN THE 200 YEARS AFTER ALFRED’S DEATH AENGLA LAND WOULD BE CONQUERED TWICE, BY THE DANES IN 1017 AND THE NORMANS IN 1066 BUT NEITHER DISRUPTED THE SENSE OF IDENTITY THAT ALFRED HAD FORGED, ON THE CONTRARY THEY MADE USE OF IT THEMSELVES.

THE VICTORIAN STATUE AND INSCRIPTION OF ALFRED IN HIS BIRTHPLACE OF WANTAGE, BERKSHIRE – THEY HAD A VERY DEFINATE IDEA ABOUT HIS PLACE IN ENGLISH HISTORY