As part of the peace terms, Guthrun was baptised as a Christian (the religion which Alfred followed) with Alfred as his godfather. The Danelaw Documents and coins from the 890s refer to Alfred as 'King of the English', as opposed to 'King of Wessex'. c. 854 Alfred's father sends Alfred and one of his brothers, Æthelred, on a pilgrimage to Rome. The same year, Alfred's mother dies. In Anglo-Saxon times there were few schools in England and only a handful of people went to them. Schools were established in the 6th or 7th century. Alfred kept Wessex in the southwest, Guthrum took the Viking lands in the North East, known as the Danelaw.

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The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.year=1907–21. VI. Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign. § 4. Codes of Law. Simon Keynes (1999). "King Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey". Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council.

In the seventh week after Easter (4–10 May 878), around Whitsuntide, Alfred rode to Egbert's Stone east of Selwood where he was met by "all the people of Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which is on this side of the sea (that is, west of Southampton Water), and they rejoiced to see him". [42] Alfred's emergence from his marshland stronghold was part of a carefully planned offensive that entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This meant not only that the king had retained the loyalty of ealdormen, royal reeves and king's thegns, who were charged with levying and leading these forces, but that they had maintained their positions of authority in these localities well enough to answer his summons to war. Alfred's actions also suggest a system of scouts and messengers. [46] Excuse me. Yes, you. Did you know that is the statue of Alfred the Great? Ever wondered why he was so great? Well, let’s start at the beginning.Bishop Asser – a Welsh monk who was recruited by Alfred to join the community of scholars at Winchester. In 893 he began writing his Life of King Alfred. He became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s.