King Alfred the Great is the only monarch in British history to be called "The Great". During the Dark Age of Britain he would be a great warrior, leader, and statesman.
Born at a time when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were under constant threat of invasion from the Danish Vikings, Alfred the Great managed to save the kingdom of Wessex from annihilation and plant the seeds that would eventually lead to the Saxon's reclaiming all of England. Not just a leader in war, Alfred the Great was also a statesman and a scholar. Among his accomplishments were the first English attempts at civic planning and some of the first translations of Latin texts into the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. Alfred not only saved his people from the Vikings, but he helped revive and save their culture as well.
Alfred the Great was born at Wantage in Berkshire in 849AD, the youngest of five sons of Athelwulf, King of Wessex. It was a desperate time for the Saxon kingdoms of Britain. The Viking raids of the previous generations had turned into a full-scale invasion by the Danish. Likely, for this reason, Athelwulf decreed that each of his sons would rule in succession after him, thus avoiding a child coming to the throne in such desperate times. This decision proved a wise one. By 870, Athelwulf and his three eldest sons were dead. King Aethelred ruled a Wessex continuously under threat from the Danes, with Alfred as his chief Lieutenant. Although Alfred helped to defeat the Danes at the battle of Ashdown, the Saxon's continued to lose ground, and soon there after, Athelred died of causes unknown.
Despite history giving him the name Alfred the Great, the first part of his kingship was anything but great. In 878, the Danes under their leader, Guthrum, launched a major offensive that all but overran Wessex. Alfred and the tattered remnants of his household went into hiding. At Easter time in 879, Alfred set up a base in the marshy region of Athelney. At that moment, the great Saxon kingdoms of England had been reduced to one man who ruled a small area of swamp.
Out of the direst of circumstances come history's great heroes, and it was from this hidden base in the swamps that King Alfred became Alfred the Great. From Athelney, Alfred sent messages to those fighting men that were still loyal to him. Seven weeks after taking refuge at Athelney, Alfred emerged from the swamps with a new army. He surprised the Danes at Edington and drove them from Wessex. Guthrum surrendered to Alfred and even accepted baptism with Alfred as his Godfather.
In 886 Alfred signed a treaty with the Danes that established the Watling Street Boundary, a line that divided England into the Saxon kingdom under Alfred and the Danelaw (where Danish Law ruled). Around this time, Alfred took control of London, but whether this was through treaty or force of arms is unclear.
If this has been all of Alfred's achievements perhaps history would still remember him as Alfred the Great, but it is really what he did after this point that sets him apart from other Dark Age rulers.
First, Alfred established the Burghal system where by the whole of Saxon England was reorganized around a series of fortified towns. This allowed the king to organize armies, while ensuring the towns remained defended and thus enabling much longer military campaigns. Although never fully utilized in Alfred's lifetime, the Burghal system would prove instrumental in the campaigns of his son and grandson as they slowly reconquered all of England. These Burghal towns were also the first British cities to be planned out ahead of time instead of growing up haphazardly.
Alfred the Great also made it his job to bring learning back to England. His greatest achievement is now considered to be his translations of many books into the common Anglo-Saxon language. This not only helped to increase literacy rates, but also became one of the first organized attempts to codify this forerunner of modern English. For his translations, Alfred brought scholars from all over his kingdom to work together, to argue, and to debate the translations and, in so doing, to help define the Anglo-Saxon language.
