A warrior and a diplomat under the most dire of circumstances. Building a kingdom with English as the written language of state and church. The beginning of common law. Coming back from terrible defeat to a victory that was sustainable. Building those burghs for the people to be safe. Just imagine the people in the middle ages looking up at those castles they were forced to build and knowing they were not for the people's safety. Au contraire. So they looked back and saw Alfred.

I am enjoying listening to this history about Alfred the Great. One caveat: so far, the speaker talks about "dense theological stuff". However, I believe that (from what little I have read), Alfred considered himself responsible for men's souls as an enlightened leader. This would have been in character with the times and I believe he visited Rome at least twice. I read excerpts from "Pastoral Care" which he translated from Latin and paraphrased. It is full of wisdom. I appreciate the scholarly perspective but it is perhaps easy to neglect to see the kings' role in promoting Christianity. I believe Alfred was responsible for helping to convert one of the Viking leaders that he subdued.

I appreciate your videos, I've always loved history- even got a Bachelor's degree in History. I work on a Press for a printing company in East Texas so I do not actually use my degree, but I'm still thankful I have it.

Your channel has quickly become my favourite history channel, I think it's so underrated. I even enjoy your politics videos even though I am right wing and from England.

With Alfred, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms only held out against Viking occupation for another two centuries, although he certainly did make Viking occupation quite short. I think it depends on how influential Anglo-Saxon government and customs are to Britain today, if not, then how long they lasted.

Alfred the Alright

He's the reason English autonomy survived. The Great is in the bag for him as far as I'm concerned.

Yea I think you could call him father of the English state, King Arthur is the father of the English or British people and William is father of the crown

Your channel has been a favourite of ours, but I have to disagree on some points in this video. 1. He was not a translator he was paraphrasing the texts to suit his needs eg. His propaganda purposes. The reason he insisted on the vernacular learning was so people would not find out that the original texts disagreed with his translations. He "translated" specific texts that would suit him and omitted the parts that well went against his divine right to rule. 2. In his first visit to Rome (2 visits) the pope blessed him, ælfreds biographer mentions he was baptized by the pope! again so his rule would not be challenged. 3. It is true that 16th century politicians dubbed him the great but it was exactly what he went for during his life time! 4. He was pretty well known outside of the confines of the British isles as he had correspondence with the patriarch of Jerusalem which provided him with herbs for his Crohn's and a piece of the holy cross (jeez every one has a part of that cross). Now for a minor ruler in a godforsaken place as was england at the time being accepted by two huge christian rulers is an accomplishment on its own. 5. Some modern day scholars claim that the æstels (2nd pic ) were not staffs as it was originally thought but embellishments for the codexes that contained his translations and that they included pieces of (yes you guessed right) the holy cross. This interpretation seems to fit ælfreds need to make HIS version of boethius etc known and embellishing them with jewels meant that they would be protected from viking raids as valuables. 6. So yes he deserves the title the great if only for his propaganda efforts

You missed out the most important detail regarding Alfred's burning the poor lady's cakes/little breads. Once he'd finished warring, he sent her coins to repay her for the damages he'd caused... because the Bible says there shall not be one law for the rich and another for the poor... Loss, damage, injury, menace, nuisance, hazard - same rules/fines for everybody; Liberties and limitations; One law to unite the land... so Alfred is indeed gorgeously Great, and very sorely missed.

You are wrong, he was an strong and fearless warrior, a true badass. The Crohns didn't make him a weak man.

Recent scholarship = revisionist history.

OK I'm getting triggered lol (I hate that word). I believe there is very very little hard evidence of the saxons invading England. There no evidance of mass grave sites, large cities or settlements being destroyed or large battlefields. We have evidence of destruction and graves during the Roman invasion and then nothing until the Viking invasions. The British Isles had a relatively large population compared to many parts of Europe during the "fake" invasion but zero signs of complete population replacement. It just boiled down to a religious reason

You could at least admit in your summary that you opinion is coloured by your upbringing and background.

All of these kings come from the loins of Jacob, Which is fulfillment of the prophecy of being posterity of kings. These tribes all come from the sons of Jacob,