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Somerset: In the winter of 877 the fate of England rested on the shoulders of one man: Alfred. Michael Wood, King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons I: Alfred of Wessex, BBC 2013
Much of the evidence has been destroyed by time and war. ibid.
Alfred: In 853, when Alfred was about five, his father King AEthelwolf of Wessex sent him to Rome. ibid.
The Viking army attacked them on Ashdown – January 871. The site of the Battle of Ashdown has never been found. ibid.
Then Alfred, his brother, became King of the West Saxons. ibid.
Edington, Wiltshire, May 878: at first light he attacked them ... Brutal stuff: toe to toe eyeball to eyeball stabbing and slashing. ibid.
He hoped to rebuild English culture. Or as he would say – restore wisdom. ibid.
AEthelflaed: The Lady of the Mercians ... Power and high education and intelligence. Michael Wood, King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxons II: The Lady of the Mercians
A history of women as a whole has been erased everywhere. ibid.
The key to her warfare was fortress building. ibid.
AEthelstan: There was peace everywhere and abundance of all things. He was a mighty king worthy of high honour. Michael Wood, King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons III: Aethelstan: The First King of England, BBC 2013
AEthelstan will turn the dream of Alfred the Great into a reality: a kingdom of all the English. ibid.
A kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons … Winchester 899: the last days of Alfred’s life. ibid.
A longstanding mystery about this – unmarked grave in a local parish church. Neil Oliver, The Search for Alfred the Great, BBC 2014
Alfred the Great was born in 849 in the town of Wantage, now in Oxfordshire. ibid.
A new England was emerging under his rule. ibid.
I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works. Alfred the Great, cited Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
There was one kingdom in the south of the country that refused to crumble: it was ruled by a resourceful and resilient warrior king whose name was Alfred the Great. The Dark Ages