Defeats from the Danes. Alfred name meaning

Abstract on the topic:

Plan:

Introduction

• 1 Childhood
• 2 First years of reign
• 3 Defeats to the Danes
• 4 Fleet construction
• 5 Military reform
• 6 Making peace with the Vikings
• 7 Vikings disrupt the peace
• 8 Alfred in exile
• 9 Alfred gathers his strength
• 10 First victories and division of the kingdom
• 11 Strengthening and organizing the state
• 12 Maritime border security
• 13 Legislative and administrative reforms
• 14 Restoration of the destroyed economy and education
• 15 Caring for Science
• 16 Recent years
• 17 Family
• 18 Alfred the Great in modern art
Literature

Introduction

(Anglo-Saxon. Ælfrēd se Grēata; English Alfred the Great; OK. 849 - 26 October 899 or 28 October 901) - king of Wessex, reigned 871-899/901, the first of the kings of Wessex to use the title in official documents king of england.

1. Childhood

Alfred was born on the royal estate of Wanating (modern Wantage) in Berkshire. He was the youngest son of Æthelwulf and Osburga, the brother of Æthelbald, Æthelbert and Æthelred I. As a child, he was in poor health, but he had a strong spirit and indomitable character. From a very young age, he tempered his body with military exercises and hunting. Alfred tried to keep up with his older brothers and adult warriors in everything and achieved success in this. Already at a young age, he always fought in the front ranks, and by the time he received the crown, he was already a strong and courageous warrior, enjoying authority among the army.

2. First years of reign

Alfred became king of Wessex after the death of his elder brother Ethelred I. He was the most learned man among all his compatriots: in 853, while still a child, he made a trip to Rome at the behest of his father. Here Pope Leo IV anointed him as the future king of Wessex. Thanks to his court education, Alfred knew the languages ​​and works of ancient writers.

However, all this did him a disservice at the beginning of his reign: if he had previously won the people’s trust with his courage, then, having become king, Alfred soon lost popularity. He had little respect for the knowledge and experience of the Witenagemot, since he desired the unlimited power of which he had so often read from Roman writers; he wanted to carry out reforms and came up with innovations that were unclear and suspicious to the people. He was very strict, and in this the Saxons saw an attack on their ancient rights and freedom. The king's arrogance, according to contemporaries, was so great that he “he did not deign to receive applicants and listen to their complaints, did not condescend to the weak and considered them as nothing”.

3. Defeats from the Danes

Hiking Great army. 865-879.

The gradual alienation between the king and his people led to the heavy defeats that the Anglo-Saxons soon suffered from the Danes. He lost several battles to the Danes, but after paying tribute he bought himself a truce for several years. Kent and Wessex were freed from their raids for a time, but the rest of England, left without help, was conquered by the Vikings.

The Danes captured and sacked London in 871. Then for several years they accumulated strength by engaging in petty robberies and raids. In the spring of 874, the Vikings attacked Mercia and quickly defeated its army. King Burgred of Mercia fled to the West Frankish kingdom, and the Danish protege Kelwulf II sat on the throne. Some of the Danes then moved north from Repton to the Tyne, but since there was almost nothing to plunder here, Guthrum, elected king of East Anglia by the Danes, returned with most of the army to his kingdom to give the soldiers a rest and gather reinforcements. At the same time, the Vikings began to develop the lands they had captured, build settlements and engage in agriculture. In 876, King Halfdan I of York divided the lands in Northumbria and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: “...they [the Vikings] took up plowing and providing for their livelihoods”.

4. Fleet construction

King Alfred used the five years of truce to great advantage. He already had quite a lot of experience in wars with the Danes and he noticed some features of their conduct of hostilities: the active use of the fleet and avoidance of battles in open areas. Although the Anglo-Saxons arrived in Britain by ship and used their fleet very actively in its colonization, by the 9th century none of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had any significant fleet. Alfred, in great secrecy, began building a large number of ships on the rivers, and by 875 he already had a significant fleet. This year, Alfred's fleet inflicted several defeats on the Danes, which, however, were not very significant, but were important for raising the morale of the troops.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicle says that in one of the battles the fleet led by the Danish king Ubba was defeated. Among the captured trophies, Alfred received a miraculous banner, made, according to legend, by the three daughters of King Ragnar Lothbrok in one day. It depicted Odin's raven, who flapped his wings, calling the Danes on a victorious campaign. Alfred continued the work of creating his fleet and achieved such success in this that the shores of his kingdom were no longer subject to Viking raids and even during the reign of his son, Edward the Elder, the Wessex fleet dominated the English Channel.

5. Military reform

A number of sources attribute military reform to Alfred the Great. Alfred divided the entire country into military districts, in which every five farms ( guide) had to field one warrior, supplying him with everything necessary at his own expense. Each city also had to provide a certain number of soldiers. Service in the army still remained the responsibility of every free person, but now he could spend part of his time on his farm. In addition, some of the soldiers now carried out garrison service in cities and villages, while the other part was in the active army. After a while they changed places, so that the warriors were no longer separated from their home for a long time.

In addition, every farmer had to take part in the maintenance of bridges and fortifications. Alfred was the first to abandon the idea of ​​a people's militia (fird) and began to form a military class. Thegns and warriors of the royal squad were completely freed from work on the land. The thegns became part of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, and the warriors became medium and small landowners for whom the peasants had to work. In the first years after this reform, if necessary, peasants were still sometimes called up to join the militia, but then this began to happen less and less. In addition, Alfred began to restore old and build new fortresses, which could contain significant garrisons and either repel an attack by a small enemy detachment, or withstand a siege until the main forces of the kingdom arrived. By the end of the king's life, chroniclers counted about thirty fortresses restored and built.

6. Making peace with the Vikings

In the spring of 876, Guthrum moved with his army south. At the same time, Guthrum's fleet appeared at Wargham, but Alfred's fleet inflicted a minor defeat on him, after which the Danes sailed to Exeter, where they also raised the Welsh against Wessex. King Alfred came out with an army against Guthrum, but did not enter the battle, but offered him a ransom. The King of East Anglia already knew about the defeat of his fleet, took the ransom and also went to Exeter.

All winter Alfred prepared his army and navy for war with the Danes. In the early spring of 877, Wessex's army surrounded Exeter, and Alfred's fleet blockaded the coast and denied the encircled Danes the opportunity to receive reinforcements. The Danes from Wargham tried to break the blockade of Exeter, but a strong storm scattered most of the Viking fleet and smashed it against the coastal cliffs. Hunger and despair forced the Danes to enter into negotiations with Alfred and capitulate. A peace was concluded in which the Danes handed over hostages, paid a ransom and swore on a sacred bracelet smeared with blood that they would no longer attack the possessions of King Alfred. This was the most sacred oath among the Danes, but they soon broke it. The Danes went north, but, as it turned out, not far. They positioned themselves near Gloucester and waited for reinforcements, which soon joined them. Meanwhile, the reassured Alfred disbanded his army and returned to one of his estates in Somerset.

7. Vikings disrupt the peace

Alfred the Great statue in Wantage.

Taking advantage of the fact that Alfred disbanded his army, in 878 the Danes resumed a full-scale war with Wessex. King Guthrum marched south with a significant military force, captured London, invaded Wessex from several directions, and settled on Avon to spend the winter there. For Alfred and his troops this was a complete surprise. The country was paralyzed by fear and there was no talk of any organized resistance. The Danes swept through the entire kingdom with fire and sword, easily dealing with the small and poorly organized detachments of the Anglo-Saxons.

The cities and villages in the southern part of the kingdom suffered especially. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this year “... the enemy army... captured the entire land of the West Saxons, expelling a huge part of the population overseas, and subjugating the rest to their rule...”. Alfred in vain called on the people to fight, sending messengers with a drawn sword and an arrow to cities and villages to call for war: only a few came to the king. Alfred found himself without an army, surrounded by only a small number of loyal friends.

8. Alfred in Exile

In these circumstances, as Asser reports, Alfred abandoned his warriors and his commanders, renounced his people and fled just to save his life. Wandering through forests and wastelands, he reached the border of the Cornish Britons at the confluence of the rivers Tone and Paret. Here, on a peninsula surrounded by swamps, Alfred settled under a false name in a fisherman's hut. He baked his own bread for his own food from what his poor host gave him in hospitality. The army of the Danes ruled his kingdom unhindered, where almost no one knew what became of the king.

Very soon the Wessexes became convinced that the disasters of conquest were incomparably worse than anything they had suffered under Alfred, whose rule at one time seemed unbearable to them. On the other hand, Alfred himself, having gone through many severe trials, became less arrogant and wiser. Asser writes that when Alfred was hiding in a fisherman's hut, the owner's wife instructed him to watch the bread in the oven, and he, busy repairing his weapon, forgot about it and burned the bread. Then the angry woman scolded him severely, and the king humbly listened to the reproaches.

9. Alfred gathers his strength

Meanwhile, a small detachment gathered around Alfred, who fortified the island located among the swamps with earthen ramparts and a wall in order to protect themselves from surprise attacks. The Anglo-Saxons waged a stubborn struggle against the Danes, trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the conquerors with surprise attacks. Alfred's army gradually grew, but only after six months of war did he decide to announce his name and attack the main Danish camp, located at Ethandun (modern Eddington), on the border of the regions of Wiltes and Somerset, near the so-called Great Forest. According to Asser, Alfred wanted to personally inspect the position of the enemies.

Disguised as a harpist, he entered their camp, entertaining the Danish warriors with Saxon songs. Having returned safely, he sent to all surrounding places to call the Saxons to arms and war, appointing them to gather at Egbert's Stone on the eastern outskirts of the Great Forest, a few miles from the Danish camp. Over the course of three days, armed people, individually or in small groups, arrived from all directions at the appointed place. So all the warriors from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire came to Alfred and they were all very happy to see their king again.

10. First victories and division of the kingdom

On May 5, 878, Alfred attacked the Viking camp from its weakest side with his army and the next day took the fortifications, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, “...remaining the ruler of the place of massacre...”. The defeated Danes took refuge in the fortress, which the Anglo-Saxons kept under siege for two weeks. Finally, the leader of the Danes, King Guthrum of East Anglia, entered into negotiations with Alfred. Peace was soon concluded, according to which Guthrum was forced to promise to leave the territory of Wessex and be baptized. Three weeks later he came to Alfred at Or near Ethelney along with his 30 noble people. King Alfred was his godfather at the baptism, which took place at Wedmore. Here an agreement was concluded on the division of England between the Danes and the king of Wessex. According to the Treaty of Wedmore, the border between Alfred's kingdom and the Viking possessions, which later became known as the Danelaw ( Area of ​​Danish law), went up the Thames and its tributary Lea, reached the Ouse, through Bradford and reached the ancient Roman road, which the Anglo-Saxons called Dear sons of Vetla. All lands captured by the Scandinavians (East Anglia, Essex along with its destroyed capital London, all of Northumbria and the eastern half of Mercia) remained under the rule of Guthrum. Alfred got Wessex, Sussex, Kent and the west of Mercia.

11. Strengthening and organizing the state

England in 886

After the Peace of Wedmore, Alfred began strengthening and organizing his kingdom. Alfred strengthened his rights to the annexed lands by concluding a number of marriage alliances for members of his family with the royal dynasties of Mercia and East Anglia. In his personal possession he left Wessex proper, the upper part of the Thames Valley, the Severn Valley, as well as the fertile plains of the Mersey and Dee from the territory of the former kingdom of Mercia, which from that time began to be called Mercia proper. The rest of Mercia, which remained in the power of the Danes, from that time began to be called Five Danish cities.

In 879, Alfred installed Æthelred II as king of Saxon Mercia. His task was to protect Wessex from attacks from the north, and also to prevent the emergence of an alliance between the Danes and Welsh. In 884, Æthelred II married Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd and, out of respect for King Alfred, renounced his title king and took the title ealdorman(or earl). Thus, Æthelred II was the last king and first earl of Mercia, which was effectively annexed to Alfred's English kingdom.

12. Security of maritime borders

The peace with Guthrum gave the Anglo-Saxons several years of peace within the country, but the Vikings, who were then plundering areas on the opposite bank of the English Channel, also attacked the shores of England, hoping to take possession of the lands here. However, Alfred either prevented them from landing, or inflicted defeats, preventing them from gaining a foothold on the shore. In 884 he forced the Normans to lift the siege of Rochester. His ships constantly patrolled the coast. In 886, Alfred recaptured London, which had suffered greatly from the Danes, who plundered it and almost completely burned it. Alfred restored the destroyed houses and made the renewed city his second residence (the capital of England remained the main city of Wessex, Winchester). Strengthening the defenses of his kingdom, Alfred erected many new fortifications and organized a special militia in all places that could be attacked. Having suffered several defeats, the Vikings stopped sailing to Alfred's possessions.

13. Legislative and administrative reforms

King Alfred restored public order to his kingdom, but placed the royal court above all other courts. During the war years, the old law fell into decay. The nobles arbitrarily constrained the people, the judges did not respect the jury. Alfred, first of all, compiled the first collection of national laws, called "King Alfred's Truth", ordered that the laws of the various Saxon kings be set down in English, and selected the most suitable of them. Now any violation of the laws was considered by the judges as an insult inflicted personally on the king. He introduced order into the administration, restored the old division of the country into communities and counties, and appointed worthy people as counts and judges. The people's court began to be carried out in the same manner and enjoy the same trust of the population, so that the royal court no longer needed to resolve all disputes.

14. Restoration of the destroyed economy and education

The king spent a lot of effort on restoring the destroyed economy. He helped the development of agriculture, distributed empty lands and carried out a new demarcation. He took care of trade and industry. Under him, roads were built and ships were built. Wanting the Anglo-Saxons to learn how to build ships well, he called on skilled Frisian craftsmen. He himself equipped two expeditions - the Normans Ottar, who visited the White Sea, and Wulfstan, who penetrated from Schleswig into the Gulf of Finland. In his houses and rural residences, he built buildings stronger and better than those that the Anglo-Saxons had previously, in this he was helped by the memories and knowledge that he acquired in his youth during a trip to Rome. But most of all he cared about the church, about the religious and mental education of the people. During the war years, many monasteries were destroyed, the cultural level in the country fell very low. Alfred, who wanted to restore his education, had difficult worries ahead of him. But he was not afraid of difficulties, understanding how important it was for the future. He renovated dozens of monasteries at his own expense and established schools with them. Alfred commanded, writes Asser, that every freeborn and able-bodied young man “did not dare to part with the book until he was able to understand English writing”. He himself founded a school for the children of the court and supervised the teaching there. Alfred also ordered that government officials should not dare take their positions unless they were educated. Frightened by this, judges, counts, ministers and other leaders, almost entirely illiterate since childhood, were forced to take up their education.

15. Caring about science

He brought those few scientists who remained in his state closer to himself, gave them honorary positions and encouraged them to do literary work. He filled the lack of such people by inviting scientists from other lands. Among his faithful assistants in these matters are the Welshman Asser, the Saxon John and the Frank Grimbald. He himself set an example for them and, among many government affairs, found time for literary works. So he translated from Latin, which he learned only in the 36th year of his life, into the Anglo-Saxon language the famous work of Boethius “On the Consolation of Philosophy”; The “History” of the Venerable Bede, in its revision, became the favorite reading of the people for centuries; he translated “History against the Pagans” by Orosius and inserted into it a description of the Germanic and northern lands according to the stories of two sailors who visited these places, the Saxon Wulfstan and the Norwegian Ottar (Otthere). Ottar's story about his expedition to the mysterious “land of the Beorms” in the Russian North became the first reliable report about Biarmia in European literature. He translated and revised the work of Pope Gregory the Great, “Care for the Soul.” They also write that he translated some chapters from the Bible and the works of St. Augustine, Aesop's fables and some other books. On Alfred's initiative, in 891, the work that we now know as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun.

Despite the constant weakness of his health, Alfred worked tirelessly until his death. Thanks to abstinence and a correct life, he managed to accomplish an amazing amount. His day was divided into three equal parts: one of them was devoted to food and rest, the other to state affairs, the third to prayer and academic studies. In his expenses he observed the strictest economy, just as in the expenditure of public funds.

16. Recent years

Hiking Great army. 892-896.

In the early 890s, England was again invaded by a large Viking army, who attempted to take possession of the fertile lands of the southern part of Alfred's kingdom, just as their fellow tribesmen had taken possession of East Anglia and Northumbria. In 889 or 890, King Guthrum of East Anglia died. Hasting, who was not inclined to maintain peace, was elected as the new leader of the Danes. In 893, a Danish army led by Hasting invaded Wessex: one part across the Thames from Essex, the other from the south and south-west from ships. For almost a whole year the Danes tried to gain a foothold in Wessex, but they never succeeded. In 894 they crossed the Thames back and began to call on the Welsh to revolt. However, now the Anglo-Saxons themselves went on the offensive: Alfred’s son Edward and the Mercian ealdorman Ethelred II with a detachment of Londoners defeated the Danish camp in Essex and set off in pursuit of the detachment moving along the Thames. They overtook him near the Severn, defeated him and forced him to return to Essex.

It is believed that a person’s name influences his character and destiny, so people at all times have been very careful when choosing one. The science of anthroponymy deals with the study of names. Using scientific tools, scientists reveal secrets, describe character, and explain the behavior of certain people. In the article we will talk about two people who lived in different eras, but bore the same name. We will talk about Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, and Alfred Mirek, a Russian scientist, professor of theory and history of music.

Alfred name meaning

Within the framework of anthroponymy, two approaches to interpretation are used. According to the first, the name Alfred is of Old English origin. It is translated as "advisor". According to another version, the name has ancient Germanic roots, and it means “free.” Let's see if the translation of the name Alfred reflects the fate of the people who bore it.

King of England

We begin the story with the legendary ruler of Wessex, Alfred the Great.

This man was born in the 9th century, during the Middle Ages. He spent his childhood on the royal estate of Wanating (now Wantage, Oxfordshire). Alfred the Great was the youngest son of Aethelwulf (King of Wessex) from his first marriage to Osburga.

Even in early childhood, the future ruler became acquainted with the works of ancient writers and studied several foreign languages. At the insistence of his father, Alfred visited Rome in 853, where he met Pope Leo IV. The next trip to Rome took place in 855. Then Alfred was accompanied by his father.

As a child, the future king was in poor health, but had a tough character. From a very early age, he went hunting, strengthened himself with exercises, trying to keep up with his brothers. By the age of 20, he was considered a courageous and experienced warrior.

The first years after the coronation

Alfred the Great became king after the death of Ethelred, his elder brother. This happened in 871.

In England, Alfred the Great was considered the most educated man among his contemporaries. But at the beginning of his reign this played a cruel joke on him. The fact is that Alfred the Great was able to win the people's trust thanks to his courage. Having become king, he, however, quickly lost it. Alfred did not take into account the experience and knowledge of the Witenagemot (national assembly). He strove for unlimited power and came up with various innovations that were negatively perceived by the elders.

The arrogance of King Alfred the Great, according to contemporaries, was such that he did not even deign to receive petitioners, did not listen to complainants, and did not show leniency towards the weak, considering them “nothing.” The Anglo-Saxons perceived this behavior of their ruler as an attack on their freedoms and rights.

Danish invasion

Alfred the Great's desire to distance himself from his subjects caused general indignation. This, in turn, led to several defeats from the Danes (ancient Germanic tribes that inhabited the lands of modern Sweden, Denmark, and Norway). The king was forced to pay them tribute.

Creation of a fleet

The truce that was concluded with the Danes freed Wessex from raids for some time. However, the rest of the country found itself without the help of a ruler and was soon conquered by the Vikings. Alfred the Great used the truce to build ships.

By 875, a large fleet had been created, which inflicted several defeats on the Danes. As the Anglo-Saxon chronicle says, Alfred the Great defeated the fleet of Ubba (king of the Danes) and captured the banner, which depicted the raven of the god Odin, calling on the warriors to a victorious campaign.

The construction of ships continued. As a result, Alfred the Great created a fleet that reliably protected the kingdom from the Vikings even during the reign of Edward the Elder, his son.

Military reform

According to many Anglo-Saxon sources, Alfred the Great divided the country into districts, in which one soldier was posted for every five households (guide). The warrior was supplied with everything he needed by the residents themselves. The cities also provided a certain number of soldiers.

Alfred the Great reformed the previously existing system, retaining the obligation to serve for free citizens, but giving them some concessions. Thus, each soldier could spend part of his term on his own farm. In addition, some soldiers carried out garrison service in villages and cities, while others were in the active army. After a certain time they changed places. Thus, the soldiers were not away from home for long. In addition, each farmer had to participate in the maintenance of fortifications and bridges.

Alfred abandoned the people's militia. Instead, he began to form a special military class. Representatives of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and soldiers of the royal squad were exempted from working on the land. The warriors became medium and small landowners for whom the peasants worked.

Alfred's great merit is that he began to restore old and build new fortresses capable of repelling attacks from small enemy detachments.

Administrative and legislative changes

During his reign, Alfred paid great attention to public safety. To strengthen law and order in society, he elevated the royal court, placing it above other judicial authorities.

For many years the kingdom waged continuous wars. During this time, the entire legal system fell into decay: the courts no longer respected juries, nobles violated the freedoms of citizens. In an effort to rectify the situation, Alfred compiled the first set of laws. It included the most relevant and relevant regulations of the various Saxon kings.

Last years

At the beginning of the last decade of the 9th century. England was again attacked by the Vikings. Their goal was fertile lands in the south of the kingdom. However, Alfred and his son Edward were able not only to repel enemy attacks, but also to completely clear the English Channel of robbers.

The king devoted recent years to developing plans for an alliance of Christian powers to fight the pagan Normans. He died in Winchester, according to various sources, in 899 or 901.

The film Alfred the Great was released in 1969. Director Clive Donner tried to tell as fully as possible about the fate of this man, who was faced with the task of uniting England and repelling the Viking robbers.

Alfred Mirek: short biography

This man was born in 1922, on November 21 in Tashkent. Alfred Mirek is the founder of the Museum of Russian Harmonica. After his death, his wife Natalya Alexandrovna headed the Museum.

At the beginning of 1923, Mirek's family moved to Odessa. Here Alfred began learning to play the piano at the age of five. In 1930, the young man entered the school named after. E. F. Gnesina. In 1938, Alfred Mirek, having received the profession of an electrician, got a job in construction. In the evenings after work, he works as an accompanist.

Arrest

In 1942, Alfred and his father Martin were accused of counter-revolutionary agitation. Both were arrested. Alfred was sentenced to 7 years in prison. He was sent to Unjlag to a logging base. While in prison, Alfred was seriously ill and became disabled. Taking into account mitigating circumstances, the court released him early in 1944, and rehabilitated him in 1956.

Pedagogical activity

In 1945, Alfred Mirek began to teach himself to play the accordion. Having mastered the game, he gives solo concerts, works as an accompanist, and accompanies productions in the theater. Chernyshevsky in Borisoglebsk.

In the fall of 1946, Mirek returned to Moscow. Here he enters a pedagogical school, which he successfully graduates in 4 years. While still a student, in 1947 Alfred worked as a music school teacher and director of an accordion orchestra. In 1967, Mirek graduated from the capital's Institute of Culture. Here he studied at the button accordion department, simultaneously teaching accordion and button accordion.

Scientific work

In 1975, Mirek passed a competition to fill the position of senior researcher at the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography. During his career, he prepared a fundamental work on the history of accordion and button accordion culture in Russia from 1800 to 1941. This work was approved by the Academic Council and became Mirek's doctoral dissertation. The defense was carried out in 1983. The dissertation was unanimously highly appreciated by the academic council.

New arrest

Despite the high appreciation of his scientific work, Mirek was not awarded an academic degree, because he was arrested on a fabricated case. He was accused of selling a collection of harmonicas to the Leningrad Theater at an allegedly high price. As a result, Mirek was sentenced to a year in Kresty prison.

At the end of 1986, however, the RSFSR Prosecutor's Office, by its resolution, closed the case due to the lack of corpus delicti. The damage caused to Mirek was compensated, and those responsible for his illegal arrest were severely punished. In 1987, the award of an academic degree for his doctoral dissertation finally took place.

Literary activity

Alfred Mirek is the author of twelve books, including teaching aids on music and the history of instrumentation. One of his main works is considered to be the world's first encyclopedia on reed instruments, "Harmonica. Past and Present."

For many years, Adolf Mirek worked in libraries and archives in different cities of the country. It was thanks to this that he was able to create socio-political and historical works. Thus, Mirek is the author of the popular books “Prison Requiem” and “Notes of a Prisoner.” In them he talks about his time in Kresty, Butyrka, and in the Lubyanka prison.

The book "Red Mirage. Executioners of Great Russia" brought wide fame to the author. Alfred Mirek wrote it shortly before his death. It must be said that in recent years he took an anti-communist position. In the book “The Executioners of Great Russia,” Alfred Mirek describes the process of formation of Soviet power. The main task of the author is to consider and analyze the period of the birth and formation of Bolshevism in moral, human rights, economic and political aspects. Mirek talks a lot about outstanding people of that era: Trotsky, Lenin, Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky, Frunze, Gorky, Mayakovsky, etc.

This book is written in a free, lively manner, with the humor inherent in the author. Thanks to this, the text is easily perceived by readers of any age. The focus is on the analysis of the biographies of people who lived in the Soviet era, the processes that took place during the formation of Bolshevism, the mechanisms of the formation of socialist consciousness, the strengthening and development of the repressive system, its goals, objectives, role, and the introduction of a new economic model. Mirek talks about the fates of scientists (both famous and forgotten), artists and cultural figures, diplomats, and military leaders.

Conclusion

Alfred Mirek and Alfred the Great are people of different eras. They lived in different countries and played different roles in the government system. Assessing their fate, however, we can say with confidence that both of them strived for freedom of thought and action. The King of Wessex was allowed to do this due to his position. As for Mirek, his freedom of expression was the result of severe life turmoil.

Municipal educational institution

Lyceum No. 102 of the city of Chelyabinsk

Alfred the Great and his

contribution to the development of the English language.

Tikhonova Anastasia, 6th grade

Municipal educational institution lyceum No. 102 of Chelyabinsk

Scientific adviser:

Shamgunova Ekaterina Evgenievna,

Municipal Educational Institution Lyceum No. 102

Chelyabinsk, 2010

1. Introduction

2. Main part

2.1. Chapter I The Acts of Alfred the Great.

2.2. Chapter II Alfred the Great - “disseminator of enlightenment.”

2.3. Chapter III The influence of Alfred the Great on the history of the English language.

3. Conclusion

4. References

Introduction

Alfred the Great (849 - 899) played a truly unique role in the history of England. His personality was so unusual for his time that not only the British paid tribute to him. In particular, N.V. Gogol wrote the play “Alfred the Great” in his youth. Alfred the Great lived at a turning point for England, when the country, torn apart by internecine strife, was overrun by Viking invaders. In a life-and-death battle, Alfred led his compatriots and won a landslide victory. He reorganized the English army, created a fleet, an administration, and subjugated the small British kings to his power, founding the first royal dynasty that ruled all of England. He laid the foundations of what would later be called feudalism, issued laws, so they are called “Alfred’s Laws,” which were already on the verge of barbaric legal codes and nascent state laws. And the most amazing thing is that he continued the path of the early, first wave of enlightenment and education. A man of extraordinary cruelty, he never hesitated to use force and mercilessly punished everyone who stood in his way. But this is only one side of Alfred's life.

The king appreciated literary works and Latin culture, and he himself translated Boethius’s treatise “On the Consolation of Philosophy” and “The Ecclesiastical History of the Angles” by the Venerable Bede into Old English. In addition, Alfred also translated Orosius's History and supplemented it with a geographical description of Northern Europe. And in the last years of his life he translated part of it into Old English « Monologues" of Augustine, combining the translation with his own reasoning in an essay he called Blostman ( Flowers). Finally, Alfred laid the foundation for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the oldest vernacular chronicle in Western Europe.

Alfred went down in English history as the “Christian King.” He was not only known for his piety and virtuous life, but also contributed to the spread and strengthening of Christianity (including by founding monasteries). The reign of Alfred the Great, whom N. G. Chernyshevsky called “the spreader of enlightenment,” left a significant mark on the history of English culture and education. Why is the personality of Alfred the Great interesting for us? Not only with his biography, government reforms, but also with his contribution to the history of the development of the English language.

Goal of the work:

1. Characterize the activities of Alfred the Great as a historical figure;

2. Reveal his contribution to the development of the English language;

3. Get acquainted with Old English written sources, the translation of which belongs to Alfred the Great.

Chapter 1 The Acts of Alfred the Great.

Alfred the Great is the king of England, the youngest son of King Aethelwulf and Osburgh, born in 849 in Berkshire. We learn about this from the works of Asser. The family is large, numbering six children. His grandfather Egbert, king of Wessex, at the beginning of the 9th century united all the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one state - England. Already a 5-year-old boy, Alfred was sent to Rome to be anointed by Pope Leo IV. A few years later, he took a second trip to Rome with his pious and generous father towards the church. On the way back, they both spent quite a long time at the court of Charles the Bald, where young Alfred became acquainted with a higher civilization. In 871 he was proclaimed king, he was 22 years old. Alfred already had quite a lot of experience in wars with the Danes, and he noticed some features of their military operations: the active use of the fleet and avoidance of battles in open areas. Alfred, in great secrecy, began building a large number of ships on the rivers, and by 875 he already had a significant fleet. Alfred is credited with military reform. He was the first to abandon the idea of ​​a people's militia and began to form a military class.
Alfred began to restore old and build new fortresses, which could contain significant garrisons that could repel attacks by small enemy detachments, or withstand a siege until the main forces of the kingdom arrived. By the end of the king's life, chroniclers counted about thirty fortresses restored and built. He managed to rebuild the army, create a fleet for coastal defense and inflict serious defeats on the enemy, as a result of which a compromise was reached in the late 80s of the 9th century: the southwestern part of the country remained with the Anglo-Saxons, and the northeastern part with the Danes. These areas became known as the "Danish Law Area". During the 10th century. and the first half of the 11th century. wars with the Danes often brought victories to the Wessex dynasty. True, from the end of the 10th century, a new wave of invasions from the Scandinavian Peninsula again changed the balance of power in favor of the Danes, and from 991, the Anglo-Saxon kings, in order to maintain the crown and avoid devastating raids, systematically paid tribute, for which a special tax was introduced - “Danish money” "(Danegeld). By the middle of the 11th century, the unification of all Anglo-Saxon lands under the rule of King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) was achieved. Danish raids accelerated the process of feudalization. It was enough for the Danish squad to pass through this or that area for thousands of Kerls to forever lose the opportunity to restore their economy. Royal levies grew, and when “Danish money” was introduced (from 1 to 4 shillings - a very significant amount at that time), a community member often had to give away the remainder of his property. Finally, in conditions of constant wars, the peasant needed a strong “patron”, a person who could protect him from Danish or Anglo-Saxon gangs roaming the country. A free community member was forced to renounce his independence and freedom, passing along with his land under the “protection” of the earl and obliging himself to perform various duties.

Wars and the unification of the state contributed to the identification of large, medium and small landowners of the feudal type. Now it was not the king who armed and fed the warriors at the expense of war booty, but the warrior himself became a landowner and, through the labor of his peasants, acquired heavy weapons and a horse; contained

squires and servants, surrounded himself and his family with luxury. This is how the military service class of Thegns, which arose even before the Danish raids, became stronger.

Royal power, representing the interests of the emerging class of feudal lords, was not limited to the distribution of land; By law, by the power of the state, it consolidated the dependence of the peasants on the landowners, who were called Glafords (later - lords).

The power of the feudal lord over the peasants was also strengthened as a result of the fact that Glaford was given the right to judge them, i.e. Some government functions were transferred to him. The right of trial, called juice (in other countries - immunity), at that time was received only by the largest and most influential feudal lords.

The process of strengthening feudal relations was accompanied by changes in the organization of management. The hundredth elder, who had previously been elected at the assembly of the hundred, gradually turned into a royal official, subordinate not to the assembly, but to the senior commander on the administrative ladder. For him, such a leader was the skir-gerefa (hence the word “sheriff” subsequently arose) of the county, appointed by the king. The hundreds and county assemblies survived, but they now became assemblies of the largest and most influential landowners. Community elders, priests and the wealthiest peasants also took part in the meeting of hundreds.

The highest state power was concentrated in the hands of the king and the uitenagemot (“Council of the Wise”). The uitenagemot of the united Anglo-Saxon kingdom included the largest land magnates: ealdormen of counties, some thegns, and bishops. Being advisors to the king, they at the same time limited his power, since the king had to coordinate all important state decisions with the uitenagemot.

Alfred divided the entire country into military districts, in which every five farms (guide) had to supply one warrior, supplying him with everything necessary at his own expense. Service in the army still remained the responsibility of every free person, but now he could spend part of his time on his farm. Some of the soldiers now carried out garrison service in cities and villages, while the other part was in the active army. After a while they changed places, so that the warriors were no longer separated from their home for a long time. In addition, every farmer had to take part in the maintenance of bridges and fortifications. Alfred also restored public order, but placed the royal court above all other courts and tribunals. He compiled the first collection of national laws, causing the laws of the various Saxon kings to be set down in English, and selecting the most suitable of them. Now any violation of the laws was considered by the judges as an insult inflicted personally on the king. All these state concerns, coupled with the constant threat from the Vikings, undermined the king’s health. In the Monologues of St. Augustine there is a place where it talks about people living in peace and quiet. So, Alfred, translating this passage, added on his own: “... as I have never been able to do.” The final years of his reign were again marred by renewed Viking raids. But Wessex's positions had become so strong by that time that enemy attacks were easily repulsed. Alfred died on October 26, 899, king of the powerful kingdom of Wessex and overlord of neighboring Mercia. The silver penny was stamped with his title "Rex Anglorum", which meant "King of the English".

Chapter II. Alfred the Great - "spreader of enlightenment" ».

Alfred would not have been Great if he had limited himself only to the military and economic reconstruction of the country. Alfred was very different from many of his contemporaries in his increased interest in issues of education and culture. He shared the accepted view of the time that the Viking raids on Britain were divine punishment for the sins of the people, but believed that the root cause lay in a lack of education, since only through education and culture can a person achieve wisdom and live in accordance with the will of God. There is no doubt that Alfred himself was well aware of the importance of education and knowledge for the correct and fair management of public affairs. As he noted in his insertion into the Old English translation of Pope Gregory I the Great's "Duties of a Pastor," "it is the lot of kings who do not fulfill the duty entrusted to them by God to encourage learning, that the evils of the world befall their people." If the true faith in his kingdom declines, if the clergy are unable to understand Latin, mutilating it in their sermons and liturgies, if the ancient monasteries and other ecclesiastical corporations are neglected due to the negligence of the clergy, the king will be responsible before the Lord as on this, so in the next world. The goal that Alfred pursued by gathering at his court a circle of such outstanding scientists of his time: Asser, Grimbald, was twofold. On the one hand, they should have constituted, and indeed constituted, the immediate spiritual and intellectual environment of the king himself. Their duties, in addition to purely religious activities, included reading and commenting on sacred and secular books for him. According to Asser, Alfred always had with him something like a notebook, in which he collected various notes that he considered important: the schedule of church services, some psalms, prayers remembered from childhood, as well as excerpts from those books that he was interested. In other words, Grimbald, Asser and others became Alfred's teachers, instructing him in Latin wisdom. The Wessex king, however, became less and less content with such a passive role in the learning process over time. The second, perhaps more important, prospect for the use of invited scientists was the spread of education and knowledge, primarily among the clergy, and the increase in the cultural level of his kingdom as a whole, which, in turn, would make it possible to overcome the decline that Alfred spoke about in his Preface to the Duties of a Pastor: “There were few people this side of the Humber who could understand the service in English or translate what was written from Latin into English. And I think that beyond the Humber there were not too many of them. And there were so few of them that I cannot remember a single person south of the Thames when I began to rule this kingdom.” The way out, according to the king, was to translate into the vernacular (Old English) language “several books that are most necessary for all people.” At the same time, Alfred ordered that “all young people who are now in England, born of free people who have the necessary means, should be sent to education ... until they can read well what

written in English." Those who intended to devote themselves to spiritual service were required to continue their studies in Latin. When all this is realized in the country, according to the king, peace and prosperity, disrupted by Scandinavian aggression, will reign again. Alfred himself mastered Latin literacy only at the age of about forty, but since then he always had some books with him and constantly made extracts from them. He immediately began to take a great interest in translating the most important works from Latin into English. Feathers began to creak again in the monasteries, and the voices of students began to be heard in schools. Alfred commanded that every freeborn and able-bodied young man

"did not dare to part with the book until he was able to understand English writing." He himself founded a school for the children of the courtiers and supervised the teaching there. Alfred himself did a lot of literary translation, but he tried not to make literal translations of texts, but to truly capture the spirit of the original. Among his faithful assistants in these matters are the Celt or Welsh Asser, the Saxon John and the Frank Grimbald. With their help, Alfred translated the general history of Paul Orosius, the English history of Bade the Venerable, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, and Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule. On Alfred's initiative, the work that we now know as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun. He also took care to create a new set of laws called King Alfred's Truth. This collection included many provisions from the old Anglo-Saxon codes compiled in individual kingdoms at various times.
At the end of his life, Alfred could modestly write: “I have often thought that in former times there were many wise people in England, both spiritual and secular; it was a blessed time for England. The kings of that time obeyed God and his commandments. They maintained peace, morality and power within the state, and expanded their country from the outside. They were successful both in war and in education. The clergy were zealously engaged in teaching, teaching, and everything that churches should do for the sake of God. Foreigners sought wisdom and guidance in our country, and now we ourselves are forced to turn to foreigners. All this fell into such disrepair that few priests understood the liturgical books or could translate a letter from Latin into English. When I came to the throne, I knew of none like him south of the Thames. Thanks to Almighty God, we now have at least a few teachers.”

Chapter III. The influence of Alfred the Great on the history of the English language.

An English language museum will open in Winchester in 2012, The Times newspaper reports. The British Library and the BBC, among others, will take part in organizing the museum. The exhibition will demonstrate the process of transforming the language of the Anglo-Saxon tribes into a modern means of international communication and the influence that other languages ​​have on it. The museum will be opened in the homeland of the ruler of the English kingdom of Wessex, Alfred the Great (871 - 899), who established English as the main literary language in which education was carried out and laws were written. King Alfred defended English Wessex from the Danes, who captured a number of English territories. Under him, the first set of laws was compiled in English, and the writing of the oldest English chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, began. Let's turn to the history of the English language. From the end of the 8th century, England was subject to Scandinavian (Danish) raids. At the end of the 9th century. The Scandinavians established themselves in the territory north of the Thames. In 878, King Alfred the Great of Wessex concluded the Peace of Wedmore with the Scandinavians, according to which the entire territory occupied by the Scandinavians was ceded to them subject to recognition of the supreme power of the English king and the adoption of Christianity. This territory was called the "Danish Law Area". The rapprochement of the Scandinavians with the Anglo-Saxons led to the mutual influence of the English and Scandinavian languages. The Scandinavian dialects spoken by the conquerors belonged to the group of North Germanic languages ​​and, in their phonetic and grammatical structure, were quite close to the Old English language. The kinship of the English dialects with the Scandinavian dialects made mutual understanding possible without translation. Since Scandinavian and English were related languages, the penetration of Scandinavian words into the English language was very intense. These words quickly assimilated and became commonly used. Everyday words have penetrated from the Scandinavian language into English: pronouns, verbs, nouns, adjectives.

Since nouns retained case endings, many relationships could be expressed without the aid of prepositions, unlike modern English. For example, the simple dative could be used in Old English to indicate comparison (in Modern English: better than I), joint action (cf. with a troop of friends), instrument of action (cf. he slew the dragon with a sword 'he slew the dragon with a sword'), as well as a simple recipient of the action (cf. the book you gave (to) me 'the book you gave to me'). In the nominal declension there were at least 25 plural forms with a reversal, of which only seven have survived to this day: feet 'legs', geese 'geese', teeth 'teeth', men 'men', women 'women', lice 'lice' ' and mice 'mice'. The so-called "weak declension" (with a plural stem of -n) was common, like the modern English words brethren 'brothers', children 'children' and oxen 'oxen'. Such a weak plural became even more widespread in

the southern dialect of Middle English, where forms like treen instead of trees and even housen instead of houses were quite common. If this dialect, rather than the East Central (i.e., London) dialect, had become the basis of standard English, then -en forms might be the regular plural forms today. However, in reality, the most common forms of the strong masculine declension with -s in Old English such as stan - stanas 'stone - stones' (cf. modern English stone - stones) prevailed. While a noun was inflected in a "weak" or "strong" pattern depending on the type of its original stem, an adjective could appear in both forms - strong and weak - depending on its function and position in the phrase (as in modern German language); weak forms, very common even in Chaucer, were not preserved after the 15th century, with rare exceptions. Since that time, adjectives have lost all their inflections, except for the demonstrative pronouns this, these and that, those, as well as the endings -er, -est , denoting the middle and highest degrees of comparison, as, for example, in greater 'bigger/ee/ee', greatest 'greatest/ee/ee'. In addition, only nouns, pronouns and verbs have inflections. In this respect, that is, on the path from a synthetic to an analytical system, the English language has gone further than any other Indo-European language. It follows from this that among the languages ​​related to English there is not a single one in which it would be equally difficult to recognize its syntactic function from the external form of an arbitrarily taken word. So, for example, the word like can now be used as an adjective (as like as two peas 'similar, like two drops of water [literally: like two peas]'), a verb (I like this "I like it"), an adverb (as like as not 'not excluded [lit.: as likely as not]') and preposition (to swim like a duck 'swim like a duck'), noun (We shall not see his like again "A person like him, We'll never see you again"). It is worth remembering, however, that the predecessors of this general form in Old English were different words, namely adjective, verb, prepositional adverb and noun. At the same time, throughout its long history, the English language has also demonstrated a tendency towards the formation of new compounds and derivatives. This tendency is already visible in Old English: for example, in the words waestmberendnes 'fruit + birth', 'bishop + possession.

Thus, Alfred the Great contributed to the development of English into a literary language in which laws were written and teaching took place during his reign.

Conclusion.

Alfred the Great was the only Anglo-Saxon king to have his name and deeds immortalized in a full-scale biography, compiled in 893 by the scholar Asser. This work contains valuable information about events in and around Britain at the time. King Alfred left a noticeable mark on history: his memory survived almost the entire Middle Ages and gave rise to numerous legends about the brave and wise king, who not only knew how to win in almost hopeless circumstances, but was also the author of fair laws that protected the poor and desperate, who first laid down basics of the English language.

Bibliography.

I have anointed My King over Zion, My holy mountain.
(Ps. 2:6)

Behold, You have loved the truth in your heart and have shown me wisdom within me.
(Ps. 50:8)

Alfred saw learning dead - and revived it.
Education was neglected - he restored it.
The laws were powerless - he gave them power.
The church was in decline - he raised it.
The earth was devastated by an ominous enemy - he delivered it from him.
Alfred's name will live as long as humanity respects the past.

Inscription on the statue of St Alfred the Great at Wantage

As a nine-year-old boy, I discovered King Alfred the Great and the stories surrounding him. And he immediately won me over. Later Providence led me to study at a university college in the city that Alfred founded. While studying at this college, which housed a 17th-century portrait of King Alfred, I read a lot about his merits. Yes, legends, but they contain spiritual truth. Having served as an Orthodox cleric for almost 20 years, I realized that Alfred was not only a righteous man, but also a holy man. King Alfred the Great has been a constant presence in my entire life. And over the past two decades, a growing number of English Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians have recognized King Alfred the Great (849-899) as a saint. In 1992, an Orthodox Christian wrote a short life of St. Alfred, and the king's name was added to the Orthodox calendar. Many Roman Catholics also see Alfred as a saint. And therefore we offer the life of the king, simultaneously answering questions that arise in connection with the spread of his veneration.

It is no coincidence that the question of Alfred's holiness is being raised now, when more than 1000 years have passed since the time when this king lived. It seems that today in Alfred's England there is a process of a new return to paganism. It is as if history is moving in the opposite direction, and we are again coming to the position in which English Christianity found itself in its first centuries. Alfred worked to create, and today we are witnessing the destruction of England. We see again what happened in Alfred's time, when the pagan Danes tormented England. And we see something similar today. Of course, we are not attacked by external enemies, but we all see the decay of England from within. Today you can meet people who quite openly and fashionably call themselves pagans, have their own rituals and are proud of the fact that they are pagans. This is very similar to what happened in England in the 9th century, when it was conquered by the pagans.

The current attacks on Christian values ​​threaten English national identity. We have no right to forget that England and the English exist as a nation only thanks to the Church, which brought the light of Christ to our ancestors, the English, in 597, thanks to the Church, which united the people under a single national structure, and then under a single government. In the second half of the 9th century, Christianity was threatened by pagan Vikings - and England almost disappeared. But the same thing happens today: . But paganism is always the same and unchanged - in the old form or in the new.

We believe we really need Alfred right now. He was the first king of all England and our only "defender of the faith." So those who dare to call today are right: “Holy and righteous Alfred, pray to God for your land and your people!”

Chapter 1. England before King Alfred

Deliver us, Lord, from the rage of the northern people.

By 800, the most powerful state in England was undoubtedly Mercia, which occupied what is now the Midlands. Her rise occurred during the reign of King Offa († 796). However, under King Egbert of Wessex (802-839), this kingdom, located in the west of England, gradually came to dominate other parts of it, especially those south of the Thames. In 825, Sussex, Surrey and, and later East Anglia, came under Wessex control. In 829, even Mercia came under his rule. The first raids of pagan Vikings from Denmark date back to this time, and although the kingdom of Wessex had to repel them, it was able to subjugate Northumbria, Wales, and in 838 Cornwall. King Egbert died in 839 and was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf, less warlike and more inclined to settle the church. And just in 839, the new king decided to go on a pilgrimage to Rome. Aethelwulf was inspired by this terrible vision of an English priest. The angel who appeared to this shepherd said: the sins and iniquities of Christians cry out to heaven so much that even the prayers of the saints can no longer restrain the heavenly judgment, and if the people do not immediately repent and begin to worthily serve God, keeping the day of the Lord, then the pagans will appear as heavenly punishment. many ships, bringing death from fire and sword to England and its inhabitants. And only repentance, fasting and almsgiving can save the island from misfortune.

The prophetic prediction came true too quickly. Over the course of three years - from 840 to 843 - the pagan Vikings made terrible raids on Christian England many times. And they always won: in Dorset, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, Kent, Canterbury, London, Hampshire and Somerset. This was the beginning of disasters that worried and disturbed the youngest son of King Aethelwulf Alfred all his life - from childhood until his death. And Ethelwulf’s pilgrimage had to be postponed for 16 years.

The world into which Saint Alfred the Great came sang the litany: “From the wrath of the northern people, deliver us, O Lord!” The prayer intensified when the Danes spent the first winter of 850-851 in England, and this did not bode well.

Chapter 2. Childhood and youth of St. Alfred the Great
849-871

Now he was very loved.

According to the Life of King Alfred, which is attributed to Bishop Asser, Alfred was born in 849 in the town of Wantage, today a very small town. It is located a few miles south of the Thames, in central southern England. Situated midway between Bristol and London, the 9th-century royal estate of Wantage occupied a strategic position on the Wessex-Mercia border.

The birthplace of St. Alfred is believed to have been in the immediate vicinity of the parish church, near which a monument to him stands today. Saint Alfred was the youngest of five children - four sons and one daughter - of King Aethelwulf of Wessex and his wife Osburga. They were both famous for their piety; it was even said that King Aethelwulf in his youth dreamed of becoming a monk in Winchester. They wrote about Osburgh as “the most pious woman, who adorned the nobility of her birth with nobility of manners.” Alfred was the youngest of six children of King Æthelwulf, who had another son from his first marriage, Æthelstan, who died relatively young.

Alfred was very loved by his parents and everyone around him. He was brought up at the royal court; he was "distinguished by a more beautiful appearance than his brothers, and more pleasant manners, speech and behavior." From childhood, his noble mind strove for wisdom more than anything else. He listened carefully to the books that were read to him and tried to remember what he heard. One day his mother, showing him and his other brothers a book of English poems, said: “I will give this book to the one of you who learns it all faster than others.” Alfred, who was then 5 or 6 years old, was struck by the very first initial with which it was decorated. He took this book, went to his teacher and learned all the poems contained in it. Then he returned to his mother and, giving her the book, read them by heart. So he won the book from his brothers, who, although older than him, did not show such abilities as Alfred.

In 853, when Alfred was 4 years old, he, accompanied by nobles and servants, was sent on a pilgrimage to Rome. His father, who had long wanted this, was unable to go with them due to the threat of pagan raids. In Rome, Pope Leo, later canonized, accepted Alfred as a spiritual son. He made him consul of Rome, presented him with a sword and clothed him in a mantle of white and purple colors - such a great honor was awarded to Alfred, who was awarded the ecclesiastical dignity befitting his royal origin.

In 855, King Aethelwulf, who had recently become a widower, nevertheless risked taking a trip to Rome. He took Alfred with him. Here, at the relics of the martyrs, the king undoubtedly prayed for the salvation of his country. Alfred, then 6 years old and already half an orphan, was left in Rome for a year. As usual, his father brought generous and luxurious gifts to the pope, then Benedict III, and the entire Roman Church. All this probably made a lasting impression on the boy.

Returning to England, Alfred's 60-year-old father remarried for political reasons to 13-year-old Judith, daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald. Both kings wanted in this way to cement their alliance against the pagans, who, like the Saracens in Italy, posed a threat to all of Europe. But Aethelwulf died just two years after this marriage, which, as it turned out in January 858, he entered into very imprudently.

Young Alfred showed great skill in all types of hunting, and good luck accompanied him. There he comprehended not only the beauty of nature, but also its secrets, being a spiritually gifted nature. While waiting for his 12th birthday, when he could begin to learn to read and write, he memorized the daily services of the hours and many prayers and psalms. He collected them in a separate book, which he kept with him all the time until his mature years. Perhaps he would have liked to devote more time to the sciences, but there were no scientists at the Wessex court at that time. Later, Alfred did not regret at all that he had not devoted himself to the sciences; and although he did not have enough time to receive an education, yet in childhood and adolescence he was able to learn quite a lot.

It was said that Alfred had a great love and reverence for saints, such as St. Cuthbert. And no doubt he knew about many contemporary church figures, such as Bishop Elstan of Sherborne and, of course, St. Swithin of Winchester, who was his father's spiritual mentor. Bishop of the Wessex city of Winchester from 852, Saint Swithin was Alfred's father's teacher when he was a child. It was said that the simple and gentle Bishop Swithin persuaded King Aethelwulf on his deathbed to give one tenth of his lands to the Church.

Since childhood, Alfred loved to visit holy places and venerate the relics of saints; he devoted a lot of time to prayer and almsgiving. They also said that a certain illness caused him a lot of suffering - perhaps blindness or leprosy.

One legend - it may or may not be considered reliable - says that one day, while hunting in Cornwall, in a place now known as St. Neot, Alfred stopped near the church of St. Gwiner. At this place he prayed for healing from his serious illness, which caused him so much torment. He prayed to God that his illness would be replaced by another - less destructive and noticeable in appearance, so that because of it he would not become useless for his kingdom. His prayer was rewarded with healing, but later, as we will see, Alfred was struck down by another illness.

England is in danger

As Alfred grew up, life around him changed. As we have already said, in the 830-840s, various areas of England began to suffer from attacks by the pagan Danes, especially in the east - in Kent, Essex and the Kingdom of the East Angles, as well as in Devon. In 853, the kingdom of Wessex, having added the entire southeast to its center in southwest England, entered into an alliance with Mercia to repel the increasing expansion of the pagan Vikings.

In the spring of 853, Alfred's sister married the King of Mercia. Then the pagan landing arrived in 350 ships, and, repelling it, the two historical kingdoms acted as one, but with the primacy of Wessex. The raids continued into the 850s, and at the same time huge hordes of Vikings, mostly Danes, began to settle in England, creating new problems.

Alfred's father Ethelwulf was succeeded on the throne in 858 (after much controversy and disagreement) by his son with a very warlike disposition, named Ethelbald. His reign was very turbulent; however, he died in 860. Æthelbald was succeeded by Æthelwulf's next son, Æthelbert, who brought some peace to the kingdom of Wessex after the follies of his elder brother. That year was marked by the victory of the people of Wessex over the pagan Vikings who devastated their capital, the city of Winchester. And the pagans then rushed to Kent, the eastern part of which they managed to destroy in 864. Unfortunately, after only five years of peaceful and dignified reign, King Ethelbert died. In 866 he was succeeded by his next brother, Ethelred. Then the pagans were more daring than ever. Having conquered Northumbria in 867, they were already planning to enter the kingdom of East Anglia with their “great army” and profit from its monasteries there. It was at that time that Alfred, the heir to the throne, skillfully helped his brother King Ethelred and supported him in his military exploits. In 868, when Alfred was 19 years old, he married Elswitha, the daughter of a noble Mercian. But unfortunately, as they write, Alfred was struck down by a mysterious and serious illness on the very day of the wedding. Some speculate that it could be a bladder infection or kidney stones. In any case, from that day until the very end of his life he had to endure excruciating pain. Alfred's wife Elsvita gave birth to several children, five of whom lived to adulthood.

That same year, the Vikings left Northumbria and marched on Mercia and Nottingham. Here young Alfred defended the city side by side with the future saint - King Edmund of East Anglia, whom the pagans killed in November 869. In December 870 and January 871, the pagans headed from their conquered East Anglia to Berkshire - part of the kingdom of Wessex. Here the English Christians were victorious in a small skirmish at Englefield, but were defeated by a Danish attack at Reading. On 8 January the main Battle of Ashdown took place in the Berkshire Hills, and here Alfred proved himself an excellent military leader, showing himself to be more enterprising and courageous than his brother Æthelred. At Ashdown, English Christians defeated the pagans. However, two weeks later, in January 871, the British were defeated at Basing. Towards the end of March another battle near Marlborough in Wiltshire proved unsuccessful for the English, and in April another pagan "summer army" arrived from Europe to reinforce the army that was marching victoriously across the island. A new - heroic - period of English history was beginning with a new - heroic - leader.

Chapter 3. King Alfred and the salvation of England
871-878

True nobility is in the mind.

Alfred the Great. Comments on "The Consolation of Philosophy"

Shortly after Easter 871, the pious King Æthelred died and Alfred inherited the throne. He ascended the throne as “King of Wessex”, but later reigned as “King of all England” - from 871 to 899. This was an unexpected and highly unusual turn in the fate of the youngest and weakest of all five brothers. Just a few years earlier, no one could have imagined that Alfred would one day ascend the throne. But even fewer people could have imagined that young Alfred would take part in the great war against the pagans, which would continue for many years. And few could have imagined that the time would come when Alfred would become the winner in this war. Alfred himself was by no means delighted that he had to rule a country that was in such terrible danger. He himself would later write in his version of “The Consolation of Philosophy”: “Greed and the greatness of earthly power will never please me; I myself have not earned so much by bearing the burden of this power.”

Surpassing all his brothers in wisdom, useful skills and warrior valor, the new king, being only 22 years old, was very popular. And although he continued his determined opposition to the pagans, he knew that his army was weakened by previous losses; and being humble, he understood that only the Lord could help him. It was said that no less than nine battles with the pagans took place in 871 years alone.

Alfred was always with his army - both in its victories and in its defeats. One of the most serious happened a month after his accession to the throne - in Wilton, Wiltshire. Alfred's army was exhausted; he paid the pagans a ransom - "Danish money" - to leave Wessex, and between 872 and 875 the Danes did not bother his country. Alfred used these years to strengthen the army and organize the navy.

In 872 the Vikings occupied London. From that time on, they began to pinch off pieces of Mercia and Northumbria (Midlands and northern England), gradually conquering them. Having taken all of East Anglia and the rest of the east and north of Britain, they began to devastate southern Scotland. In England, only Wessex remained under Christian rule.

In 875, Alfred, having restored the strength of his kingdom to some extent, entered into a naval battle with six pagan ships - and won. But already in the fall of 875, the pagans left their camp in Cambridge and moved to conquer Wessex. They arrived in Wareham, Dorset, and then headed to Exeter, Devon. There they assembled a fleet of 120 ships to finish off Wessex, but their ships were shipwrecked in a storm near Swanage. Then they abandoned the idea of ​​​​conquering Wessex, going home, ruining and devastating everything in their path. They turned to Gloucester in southern Mercia in 877, but only 12 nights later - in January 878 - they launched a surprise attack on the royal estate of Chippinham in Wiltshire. As usual, they plundered churches and suppressed any resistance from the inhabitants, who were forced to submit to their authority. But Wessex did not give up.

Conscription from Athelney and victory at Edington

The third attempt to conquer Wessex began. This was the most sorrowful period in the life of St. Alfred. He himself and a small group of his most capable and devoted people had to lead a wandering life, in torment and anxiety, among the forests and marshes of Somerset. Alfred and his comrades had nothing; they even had to feed from local peasants. Legends of this period, such as the story of the “burnt pies,” entered folklore. It seemed that everything was lost. In fact, Alfred was alone - the king of the last Christian kingdom of England.

After Easter, at the end of March 878, Alfred and his companions walked through alder forests and reedy marshes to the strategically important island of Athelney, whose name means “Island of Princes.” It was probably the hunting lodge of the princes of Wessex; it is possible that the island was called so from the time when Alfred made it the family fortress of the princes of the royal house: on this island, which was a low hill of about 30 acres, surrounded by swamps and thickets, with a well-defended causeway, Alfred built a fortress. She was to become the ark of salvation for Christian England. For seven weeks, from his island surrounded by floods, Alfred prepared to defeat the pagans. He sent out messengers, planning to wage a concerted campaign against the Danes. They say that his spiritual father, the holy hermit Neot, who died shortly before these events, appeared to Alfred in a vision and assured him of victory. Lindisfarne, whom Alfred always especially revered, also appeared to him in the guise of a pilgrim asking for food. Alfred gave half of what he had, but as soon as the servant served the food, the mysterious guest suddenly disappeared. Touched by the king's generosity, Saint Cuthbert later performed a miracle: he appeared to him in a vision, giving advice on how to defeat the pagans, promising victory and future prosperity. Saint Cuthbert told the king: “All Albion will be given to you and your children.”

Shortly before Easter, a fleet of 23 Viking ships attacked north Devon off Countisbury and met organized resistance - the Danes then suffered a terrible defeat, losing more than 800 people. When the danger from the pagans from the west had passed, Alfred was ready to attack the east.

After the Feast of the Ascension, in early May 878, at Egbert's Stone, near Stourton, on the Somerset-Wiltshire border, Alfred and his men met with allied forces from three counties. It was recorded that thousands gathered and “when they saw the king, they received him as one raised from the dead. After much sorrow, everyone was now filled with great joy.” This memorable scene, when spring was in full swing, became a sign that gave strength and hope to Christians.

The next morning at Edington, then called Ethandun - actually on the high ground above Edington - Alfred fought staunchly against the entire pagan "great army". There he won victory “by God’s will.” It is believed that approximately 8,000 people fought each other. This battle of 878 was a turning point not only in English history, but in the early history of all of Western Europe. It was a victory of truth over untruth; The White Christ overcame the Norwegian Odin - cynical, ruthless and treacherous. Alfred saved the kingdom of England and gave new hope for the life of the entire Christian civilization in Western Europe. Alfred was alone, and yet, deprived of help, he drove away those who were taken elsewhere as invincible. He saved Wessex and therefore all of England; and by saving England, he saved all of Western Europe from becoming a pagan colossus. A small island gave birth to a great man.

Alfred pursued the pagans to the fortress of Chippenham and captured everything they had - horses and cattle, and then took the fortress by storm. After two weeks, the pagans, destitute, hungry and filled with fear, agreed to peace. They vowed to leave the kingdom immediately. In this victory, Alfred showed himself in all his noble greatness: he did not finish off his former enemy, like the cruel Charlemagne, but fed the pagans. Wisdom replaced the sword; Alfred smashed his enemies, but he did not make enemies for himself. He overcame barbarism without becoming a barbarian himself. Alfred, who showed the dignity of a true Christian and a wise ruler, knew that the only true conquest could only be the conquest of the heart. Churchill, as if competing with Alfred, said a thousand years later: “In war there is determination; in defeat - resistance; in victory - generosity; there is good will in the world."

Three weeks later, in Oller, Somerset County, the Danish king Guthrum, along with 30 close people, received holy baptism, receiving the noble English name Æthelstan - Alfred became his godfather. Eight days later, according to tradition, he was anointed and then departed for the nearby royal estate of Wedmore, where King Alfred, his conqueror and godfather, celebrated with him and honored him with gifts.

Alfred's victory prevented the plans of another pagan fleet from coming to fruition, which arrived on the Thames in search of fortune. He turned back to Europe. In 878 the Danes abandoned Chippenham and moved north into Mercia. The following year they went to East Anglia, which they began to populate. This was the beginning of the time of transition from war to peace, the restoration of the spiritual and moral health of the English, the re-establishment of civilization and the smooth government of Christian England after the pagan devastation.

(To be continued.)

King Alfred restored public order in his kingdom. He placed the royal court above all other courts. During the war years, the old law fell into decay. The nobles arbitrarily constrained the people, the judges did not respect the jury. Alfred compiled the first collection of national laws (“King Alfred’s Truth”), ordering the laws of various Saxon kings to be presented in Anglo-Saxon, selecting the most suitable ones. Now any violation of the laws was considered by judges as lese majeste. He streamlined the administration, restoring the ancient division into counties and communities, and appointed worthy people as counts and judges. The people's court began to administer the same procedure with the same trust of the population, so that the royal court no longer needed to sort out all disputes.

Restoration of economy and education

The king put a lot of effort into restoring the destroyed economy. To develop agriculture, he distributed empty lands and carried out a new delimitation of them. The king took care of trade and industry. Roads were built, ships were built with the help of skilled Frisian craftsmen invited by Alfred. On his instructions, the stories of two travelers about their expeditions were recorded - the Norman Ottar, who visited the White Sea, and Wulfstan of Hedeby, who penetrated the Gulf of Finland. In his houses and rural residences, he built buildings stronger and better than those that the Anglo-Saxons had previously, relying on knowledge and memories of a trip to Rome in his youth. Wanting to rely on the church, he cared about the religious and mental education of the people. During the war years, many monasteries were destroyed, the cultural level in the country fell very low. Alfred rebuilt dozens of monasteries at the royal expense and established schools with them. The king ordered, as Asser writes, that every free-born and wealthy young man “should not dare to part with a book until he is able to understand English writing.” He himself founded a school for the children of the nobility and supervised the teaching there. King Alfred ordered that government officials should not dare take up their positions unless they were educated. Frightened by this, judges, counts, ministers and other leaders, almost entirely illiterate, were forced to take up their education.

Caring for Science

He brought those few scientists who remained in his state closer to himself, gave them honorary positions and encouraged them to do literary work. He filled the lack of such people by inviting scientists from other lands. Among his associates in this matter are the Welshman Asser, the Saxon John and Frank Grimbald. Among many government affairs, he himself found time for literary works. Thus, he translated from Latin, which he learned only in the 36th year of his life, into the Anglo-Saxon language the work of Boethius “On the Consolation of Philosophy”; The “History” of the Venerable Bede, in his treatment, became the favorite reading of educated people for centuries; he translated Orosius’s “History against the Pagans” and inserted into it a description of the Germanic and northern lands according to the stories of two sailors who visited these places, the Saxon Wulfstan and the Norwegian Ottar. Ottar's story about his expedition to the mysterious “land of the Beorms” in the northern Urals became the first reliable report about Biarmia in European literature. He translated and revised the work of Pope Gregory I, “The Care of the Soul.” They also write[who?][where?] that he translated some chapters from the Bible and the works of St. Augustine, Aesop’s fables and some other books. On Alfred's initiative, in 891, the work that we now know as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun.

Despite the constant weakness of his health, Alfred worked until his death. He managed to do quite a lot. His day was divided into three equal parts: one of them was devoted to food and rest, the other to state affairs, the third to prayer and academic studies. In his expenses he observed strict economy, as well as in government expenditures.

Last years

In the early 890s, England was again invaded by a large army of Vikings who tried to take possession of the fertile lands of the southern part of the kingdom, just as their fellow tribesmen took possession of East Anglia and Northumbria. In 889 or 890, the Danish king of East Anglia, Guthrum, died. Hasting, who was not inclined to maintain peace, was elected as the new leader of the Danes. In 893, Danish forces led by Hasting invaded Wessex, one part across the Thames from Essex, the other from the south and south-west from ships. For almost a whole year the Danes tried to gain a foothold in Wessex, but they never succeeded. In 894 they crossed the Thames back and began to call on the Welsh to revolt. However, now the Anglo-Saxons themselves went on the offensive: Alfred’s son Edward and the Mercian ealdorman Ethelred II with a detachment of Londoners defeated the Danish camp in Essex and set off in pursuit of the detachment moving along the Thames. They overtook him near the River Severn, defeated him and forced him to return to Essex.

At this time, Alfred defeated the Danish fleet that attacked Exeter and repelled the Welsh attack on the city. When Hasting managed to capture Chester in 897, Ethelred drove him out of there and forced the Danes to return to the camp on the River Lee, and Alfred blocked the Danish fleet from the sea and captured it. Some of the Vikings fled on ships across the English Channel and began to plunder the kingdom of the Franks, and Alfred's fleet then completely cleared the strait of sea robbers. Alfred devoted the last years of his life to plans for a union of Christian states against the predatory invasions of the pagan Normans.

King Alfred, nicknamed "The Great", died in Winchester, according to some sources[which?] on October 26, 899, according to others[which?] - on October 28, 901. He was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder.

Family

In 868 Alfred married Ealswitha (Ælswitha).

Children from this marriage:

• Ethelward
• Etelgifa
• Æthelflæd of Mercia - married to King Æthelred II of Mercia since 888
• Efrida
• Elfrida
• Edward the Elder (c. 874/877-924) - King of England (899/901-)