Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. His father Immanuel Nobel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges and buildings in Stockholm. Playlist Alfred's Basic Adult All-In-One Piano Course level 1 tinymozarts; 94 videos; 113,270 views; Last updated on Nov 16, 2015. Alfred is a non-playable character in Bloodborne. Alfred Abdrafikov, Zlatoust, Russia. Log in or sign up to contact Alfred Abdrafikov or find more of your friends. Statue of Alfred the Great by Hamo Thornycroft in Winchester, unveiled during the millenary commemoration of Alfred's death.
Alfred the Great - Wikipedia. Alfred the Great. King of Wessex. Reign. April 8. 71 . 1. 10. Hyde Abbey, Winchester, Hampshire, now lost. Spouse. Ealhswith.
Issue. He is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet . He was also the first King of the West Saxons to style himself .
Details of Alfred's life are described in a work by the 1. Welsh scholar and bishop Asser.
Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level- headed nature who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system, military structure and his people's quality of life. Childhood. He was the youngest son of King . This is unlikely; his succession could not have been foreseen at the time, as Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a . It may also be based on Alfred's later having accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 8. With civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise.
Alternative Title: Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater. Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Legend also has it that the young Alfred spent time in Ireland seeking healing. Alfred was troubled by health problems throughout his life. It is thought that he may have suffered from Crohn's disease. Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him as a great warrior. Evidence suggests he was not physically strong, and though not lacking in courage, he was noted more for his intellect than as a warlike character. An army of Danes which the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle described as the Great Heathen Army had landed in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms that constituted Anglo- Saxon England in 8. It was with the backdrop of a rampaging Viking army that Alfred's public life began, with the accession of his third brother, .
This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfred's father, or by the Witan, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should . The arrangement of crowning a successor as royal prince and military commander is well known among other Germanictribes, such as the Swedes and Franks, to whom the Anglo- Saxons were closely related. Fighting the Viking invasion. At the end of 8. 70, the Danes arrived in his homeland. The year which followed has been called . Nine engagements were fought, with varying outcomes, though the places and dates of two of these battles have not been recorded. In Berkshire, a successful skirmish at the Battle of Englefield on 3.
December 8. 70 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and Battle of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 8. Four days later, the Anglo- Saxons won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth.
Alfred is particularly credited with the success of this last battle. Later that month, on 2. January, the Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing.
They were defeated again on 2. March at the Battle of Merton (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset). This was in accordance with the agreement that .
The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King . The deceased's sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle had acquired.
The unstated premise was that the surviving brother would be king. Given the ongoing Danish invasion and the youth of his nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested.
While he was busy with the burial ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the Saxon army in his absence at an unnamed spot, and then again in his presence at Wilton in May. The defeat at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom.
He was forced instead to make peace with them, according to sources that do not tell what the terms of the peace were. Bishop Asser claimed that the pagans agreed to vacate the realm and made good their promise. Indeed, the Viking army did withdraw from Reading in the autumn of 8. Mercian London. Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably also paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.
Hoards dating to the Viking occupation of London in 8. Croydon, Gravesend, and Waterloo Bridge. These finds hint at the cost involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next five years, the Danes occupied other parts of England. Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault. Accordingly, he negotiated a peace which involved an exchange of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swore on a .
The Danes broke their word and, after killing all the hostages, slipped away under cover of night to Exeter in Devon. Alfred blockaded the Viking ships in Devon, and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were forced to submit.
The Danes withdrew to Mercia. In January 8. 78, the Danes made a sudden attack on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas, . From his fort at Athelney, an island in the marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was able to mount an effective resistance movement, rallying the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. A legend, originating from 1.
Somerset Levels, Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire. Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred accidentally let the cakes burn, and was roundly scolded by the woman upon her return. Anglo- Saxon kingdoms. With all the other kingdoms having fallen to the Vikings, Wessex alone was still resisting. Counter- attack and victory. 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. Alfred won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Edington which may have been fought near Westbury, Wiltshire.
He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity.
Three weeks later the Danish king and 2. Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son. According to Asser: The unbinding of the Chrisom. Under the terms of the so- called Treaty of Wedmore, the converted Guthrum was required to leave Wessex and return to East Anglia. Consequently, in 8. Viking army left Chippenham and made its way to Cirencester. By its terms the boundary between Alfred's and Guthrum's kingdoms was to run up the River Thames, to the River Lea; follow the Lea to its source (near Luton); from there extend in a straight line to Bedford; and from Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street.
By terms of the treaty, moreover, Alfred was to have control over the Mercian city of London and its mints. The disposition of Essex, held by West Saxon kings since the days of Egbert, is unclear from the treaty, though, given Alfred's political and military superiority, it would have been surprising if he had conceded any disputed territory to his new godson. Quiet years, restoration of London (8. The Viking army, that had stayed at Fulham during the Winter of 8. Ghent and was active on the continent from 8. Alfred was still forced to contend with a number of Danish threats.
A year later, in 8. Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish ships . Two of the ships were destroyed and the others surrendered to Alfred's forces. Similar small skirmishes with independent Viking raiders would have occurred for much of the period as they had for decades. In the year 8. 83, though there is some debate over the year, King Alfred, because of his support and his donation of alms to Rome, received a number of gifts from Pope Marinus. Among these gifts was reputed to be a piece of the true cross, a true treasure for the devout Saxon king. According to Asser, because of Pope Marinus' friendship with King Alfred, the pope granted an exemption to any Anglo- Saxons residing within Rome from tax or tribute.
After the signing of the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred was spared any large- scale conflicts for some time. Despite this relative peace, the king was still forced to deal with a number of Danish raids and incursions. Among these was a raid in Kent, an allied kingdom in South East England, during the year 8. Guthrum. Asser's account of the raid places the Danish raiders at the Saxon city of Rochester, where they built a temporary fortress in order to besiege the city. In response to this incursion, Alfred led an Anglo- Saxon force against the Danes who, instead of engaging the army of Wessex, fled to their beached ships and sailed to another part of Britain. The retreating Danish force supposedly left Britain the following summer.
Not long after the failed Danish raid in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this expedition is debated, though Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.
After travelling up the River Stour, the fleet was met by Danish vessels that numbered 1. The Anglo- Saxon fleet emerged victorious and as Huntingdon accounts, . The victorious fleet was then caught unawares when attempting to leave the River Stour, and was attacked by a Danish force at the mouth of the river. The Danish fleet defeated Alfred's fleet, which may have been weakened in the previous engagement. Alfred entrusted the city to the care of his son- in- law .
The restoration of London progressed through the latter half of the 8.