How Was Alfred Able To Defeat The

Vikings Essay, Research Paper

Question: Why was Alfred Able To Defeat The Vikings?

In the autumn of 856, Danish Viking ships sailed to England and invaded what is now Norfolk in East Anglia. By Easter of 878, the Danes held control of all of East Anglia, Mercia, most of Wessex (all save Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset) and had set up a puppet ruler in Northumbria. The invaders had destroyed or overrun almost everything that had been of the four great Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. However, by 896 King Alfred of Wessex and his countrymen had driven the Danes from Wessex completely and also from much of Mercia. When England came so close to becoming another Dane-land, how it was able to fight its way back from the very brink so that over 150 years later England was still decidedly Anglo-Saxon remains one of history s abiding mysteries. While one might argue that the chief factor in Wessex withstanding the Danish invasion was the marked resistance and singular stubbornness to accept defeat of its people, what is perhaps more reasonable to argue is that it was Alfred and his various qualities as king (not least of which was his own stubbornness to accept defeat) which were also reflected in the actions, if not the will, of the people of Wessex. Indeed, Alfred would seem to hold the key to the whole puzzle if only because it was he who from 868 to 896, first as secundarius to his elder brother and King, +thelred, then as King himself, led the long, exhausting and at times seemingly futile campaign against the Danish invaders. Therefore one must turn one s attention to the person and deeds of King Alfred.

The first place in the records of Asser, Alfred s biographer and author of most of the contemporary records we have of Alfred, in which one first begins to perceive Alfred s greatness is at only his second engagement of the Danish host at Ashdown on the Downs of Berkshire, probably near Uffington, in 870. At this time, Alfred was still secundarius to his brother +thelred but was forced to lead the attack himself when the Danes began to advance while +thelred was still at Mass in his tent. Despite the fact that the Danes held the high ground, it was Alfred who won the victory and it is to this incident that Asser, among others, ascribes his first winning of the people s confidence and affections. If nothing else, the incident shows Alfred s resourcefulness, leadership skills and courage; the battle was only the second recorded decisive victory won against a Viking force in Europe (the first being won by the Wessex ealdorman +thelwulf in this very same campaign). However, this incident alone cannot vindicate Alfred beyond a doubt as the catalyst that saved England from the Danish host. There were other men who did far more heroic deeds and who faltered at last before the Viking onslaught. Eudes, Comte de Paris, for example, held bravely the city of Paris before a Danish siege throughout the winter of 885 to 886. This is looked upon as another of the great resistances to the Vikings made by Europe. When Charles the Fat was deposed for his incompetence as king and Eudes erected in his place, however, even after several victories against the Danes, Eudes too fell before their swords. Alfred s military prowess was severely tested over the course of his reign and there are several such notable incidents that exemplify it. By far his finest hour was on the field of Ethandune (or Eddington) in 878 when Alfred, now King of Wessex, held the field against the Danes and pursued them from it, besieging them at Chippenham until they surrendered. This is accounted by scholars as one of the three great victories won by Europe against the Vikings. Another good example of Alfred s skill as a military tactician is shown in 895 when the Danes sailed their ships up the Thames and its tributary the Lea, there to set up camp and go raiding thence. Alfred commanded that the river be dammed so as to ground the Viking ships and prevent the Danes from receiving any more supplies or reinforcements. This was done and the Danes fled their camp to regroup elsewhere.

However, Alfred s creative thinking, resourcefulness and military prowess were not the sole saviours of the English way of life in the ninth century. After all, had not Charles the Bald of the Carolingian House defeated another Danish force with a similar tactic to the one Alfred used on the Lea at Angers on the Maine in 873? Alfred s victories were not his only strengths. He also triumphed in his weaknesses. Much has been made of the months that Alfred spent in the marshes of Somerset at the place that came to be known as Athelney. Alfred and the little of his forces that remained retreated there after the Danes led a surprise attack on Chippenham at the beginning of winter of that year and subsequently overran most of Wessex. Between March and May of 878 was the low point in the Anglo-Danish wars for the people of Wessex and indeed of all England. Many even yielded themselves and their possessions to those invaders whom they now believed to hold in their grasp all the English land. But even so, Alfred and his men, beaten to the very brink of annihilation, continued to hold the swampy stronghold of Athelney and to organise raids and guerrilla warfare in the woods upon small Danish forces. Asser writes, Alfred, with his vassals and the nobles of Somerset sallied forth to make frequent attacks upon the pagans. It was from thi