1 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,760 In the winter of 877, 2 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:15,520 the fate of England rested on the shoulders of one man... 3 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:23,920 MAN SPEAKS IN OLD ENGLISH 4 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:34,040 ..that time the King wandered in great hardship 5 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,080 through the woods and fen fastnesses. 6 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:39,440 MAN CONTINUES IN OLD ENGLISH 7 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:44,640 There was no food except what they could find. 8 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:46,800 MAN CONTINUES IN OLD ENGLISH 9 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,160 All the King had left were his closest retainers, 10 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:55,640 for most of the English people had submitted to the Vikings. 11 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,280 The old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria 12 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,320 and the East Angles had been destroyed, 13 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:15,240 Mercia overrun, the monasteries plundered. The people lived in fear. 14 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:21,880 And that winter, a Viking army attacked the last English kingdom, 15 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:23,200 Wessex, 16 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,240 and the young King Alfred was forced to take refuge 17 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,720 here in the swamps of Somerset. 18 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,040 All he ruled now, a few acres of marsh. 19 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:41,800 But this is the moment out of which the chain of events will come 20 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:46,200 which will lead to the creation of the Kingdom of England. 21 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,960 The process will go through Alfred, his daughter Aethelflaed, 22 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,840 his son Edward and his grandson Athelstan. 23 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,720 They are among the most gifted of all the rulers in British history. 24 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:05,040 They will shape what we might almost call the deep bone structure 25 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:10,080 of England, the English state and Englishness itself. 26 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:18,240 Towns, shires, the monarchy, English law, 27 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,760 the origins of Parliament, English literature. 28 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:25,280 What an impact they will have on the future 29 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,040 history of the British Isles and of the world. 30 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,880 In their words and in the words of their contemporaries, 31 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:34,760 this is their story. 32 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,320 The tale of Alfred's wars with the Vikings 33 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,200 and the creation of the Kingdom of England by his children 34 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:35,200 and grandchildren is one of the great stories of British history. 35 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,000 But it is also a detective story, 36 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,560 for much of the evidence has been destroyed by time and war. 37 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,560 In telling the tale, we will be helped by experts from the world's 38 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,720 greatest Anglo-Saxon archive, the British Library. 39 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,960 Here is Alfred's will, his writings, 40 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:06,560 his thoughts on life and kingship. 41 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:14,640 Some of his works are only now being restored by cutting-edge science. 42 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:19,160 This is what a manuscript looks like when it's... 43 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:20,800 When it's been through the fire. 44 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,560 It looks like skin that has shrunk up together. 45 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:26,200 They were kind of in balls because of the fire, 46 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:28,480 because they had contracted. 47 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,520 Others are totally lost or known only through later copies. 48 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,200 My heart sinks each time you turn a page. 49 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,400 Alfred's biography, written by the Welsh bishop Asser, was destroyed 50 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:44,480 by fire in the 18th century and only survives in Tudor transcripts. 51 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:51,240 So here is a copy of Asser's chronicle. 52 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:53,560 So to piece Alfred's story together, 53 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,840 we will also need to explore burned fragments and later notebooks. 54 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:00,760 Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons. 55 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:04,400 The precious clues out of which a tale emerges not 56 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:10,520 just of violence and war, but of vision and creativity in dark times. 57 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,560 It faithfully reproduces the original Anglo-Saxon manuscript. 58 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:20,800 And the first key story in Alfred's life, Asser says, took place 59 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,400 not in England at all but in Rome. 60 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,440 In 853, when Alfred was about five, 61 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:35,080 his father, King Aethelwulf of Wessex, sent him to Rome. 62 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,960 IN OLD ENGLISH: 63 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,160 It was to be an inciting incident in his life. 64 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:06,760 Rome, for Alfred, was more than a pilgrimage. 65 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,760 You feel that it somehow gave him a map for his life. 66 00:06:10,840 --> 00:06:14,200 As a man, he would lay the foundations of the English state, 67 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,560 but the England that Alfred dreamed was not insular. 68 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:22,240 It was tied to Europe and, above all, inspired by Rome. 69 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:35,360 By Roman civilisation, Roman Christianity and Latin culture. 70 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,320 In the old English quarter, close to the Vatican, 71 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,560 today's street names hark back to Alfred's day. 72 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,120 Sassia - the Saxons. 73 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,400 Borgo - the burh, the English word for town. 74 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:58,800 For 500 years, this is where English pilgrims stayed 75 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:01,800 and it is where Alfred came as a boy. 76 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,320 The highlight of his trip was an audience with the Pope. 77 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,200 Alfred must have walked open-mouthed. 78 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:22,280 And if you want to get a sense of the splendour that he 79 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:25,360 actually saw, just come and look inside. 80 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:45,880 The old Vatican was swept away in the age of Michelangelo, 81 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,520 but this is what it looked like, 82 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,680 the 5th-century church of Santa Maria Maggiore. 83 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:59,720 Here, in this glittering late-Roman basilica, you can imagine 84 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,520 the pilgrims from faraway Wessex. 85 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,960 Pope Leo blessed Alfred and gave the inquisitive 86 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,720 and impressionable boy the insignia of a Roman consul. 87 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:27,560 You can imagine the Pope embracing the little boy Alfred, 88 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,720 investing him with the belt of a Roman consul and adopting him 89 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:33,680 as his spiritual son. 90 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:36,960 For Alfred, it was an unforgettable moment. 91 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:43,920 Alfred later claimed the Pope had hallowed him as king. 92 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,080 That was just hindsight... 93 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,040 but he came to see it as a mark of destiny. 94 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,960 Alfred's personality, like all personalities, 95 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,920 it was formed in his childhood. 96 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,680 And I think there are two things that I would stress 97 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:05,040 particularly about his childhood 98 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,360 which I think were formative. 99 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:10,920 One was... Not just one, but two visits to Rome, 100 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,440 which he made with his father. 101 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:17,400 The other was on his way back from Rome. 102 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,680 His father remarried, 103 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:25,160 a Frankish princess, a Carolingian princess. 104 00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:32,160 Alfred at this point was eight, and she was 12. 105 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:37,000 The relationship between those two, 106 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,440 although it only lasted for four or five years, 107 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:40,840 must have been a close one... 108 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,680 ..because they were at the court and they both had a very strong 109 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:51,520 sense of belonging to a dynasty, of embodying a dynasty. 110 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,480 She was the great granddaughter of Charlemagne, and he was 111 00:09:55,480 --> 00:10:00,720 the youngest son of a king whose dynasty went back far beyond that 112 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:02,400 of the Carolingians. 113 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,600 The young boy grew up in a world torn by war. 114 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:16,280 The old patchwork of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the Northumbrians 115 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:18,080 and Mercians, West Saxons 116 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,960 and East Angles had already been shaken by Viking attacks 117 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:26,360 and in Alfred's youth, the map of England began to change for ever. 118 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,200 The story of the Viking wars is told in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 119 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:40,680 There are several different versions, but the key one 120 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:44,600 was written in Alfred's reign and maybe under his direction. 121 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:49,480 It is now in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 122 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:51,560 after the British Library, 123 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:54,760 the greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. 124 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,200 Here, saved from the vandalism of the Reformation, are the records 125 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:05,640 of our medieval ancestors' efforts to make a Christian civilisation 126 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:07,040 in savage times. 127 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,080 And among them is the single most important source 128 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,720 for English history. 129 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,480 Compiled in the 890s, early 890s, 130 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:22,640 probably in the court of Alfred the Great, 131 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:24,480 and it takes us through 132 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:28,520 English history, the peoples of Anglo-Saxon England, 133 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:34,680 at first in quite short notes and then much more detailed accounts, 134 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:37,560 coming into the present day and the Viking wars. 135 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,600 This fateful sense of the momentum of events. 136 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,920 Take this, 855... 137 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,240 HE SPEAKS IN OLD ENGLISH 138 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,920 The first time that the heathens, the Viking armies, 139 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:57,640 actually spent the whole winter in England - 140 00:11:57,640 --> 00:11:59,280 that's a landmark - 141 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,080 and very soon, of course, those ancient kingdoms - the Northumbrians 142 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:04,800 and the East Angles - would be destroyed, 143 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,080 their royal families exterminated. 144 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,640 Mercia would be dismembered. 145 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:11,800 Wessex very soon would stand alone. 146 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,440 And that is the theme of the narrative, really. 147 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:16,960 It's almost as if the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 148 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:21,000 this version of it, has been produced to be disseminated to show 149 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,440 the pupils of England that they have 150 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,080 a common history and a common destiny, 151 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,640 and that resistance against the Vikings is the way forward. 152 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,520 And, of course, that the West Saxon kings, Alfred and his line, 153 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:40,560 will be the true inheritors of that history. 154 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:50,280 Late in 870, the King of the East Angles was defeated 155 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:52,400 and killed by the Danes. 156 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:55,800 The scene was set for a full-scale attack on Wessex. 157 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,360 The date the Vikings chose was the middle of the Christmas holidays. 158 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,040 The Vikings studied the Christian calendar. 159 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:24,400 They often make their big attacks on church festivals, 160 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:26,160 and Christmas was a favourite. 161 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,840 They came here late December to construct a typical Viking base 162 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:34,520 between the two rivers, protected on all sides. 163 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,960 Reading will be the centre for their attack on Wessex itself. 164 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,720 It was the beginning of a deadly game of cat and mouse. 165 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:50,280 On January 1st, the English defeated a Viking probe west of Reading. 166 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,920 On January 4th, King Aethelred and his brother Alfred launched 167 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:58,040 a frontal attack on the Reading defences, but were defeated. 168 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:03,800 Driven across the Thames at Twyford, they regrouped to the west. 169 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,680 And there on January 8th, 170 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,960 the Viking army attacked them, 171 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:09,800 on Ashdown. 172 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,880 The site of the Battle of Ashdown has never been found, but it 173 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:19,360 must have been on the main east-west route, the Great Ridgeway. 174 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:22,160 According to Bishop Asser, 175 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:26,480 the heaviest fighting was around a single thorn tree 176 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:30,600 and that must be the local meeting place known later 177 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,120 as the Naked Thorn. 178 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:41,160 Up on the Ridgeway where five tracks met, 179 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,760 Alfred himself later told the tale to Bishop Asser 180 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,400 with a vivid insight into his character. 181 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:53,800 So the English army would have camped in front of us 182 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:56,920 the previous night on these fields. 183 00:14:56,920 --> 00:15:00,480 And early in the morning, the Danish army comes on that ridge, 184 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,840 over the horizon in full battle array, in two great divisions. 185 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,720 But at this moment, Aethelred is still in his tent 186 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,760 performing the morning Mass with his priests 187 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:16,120 and he refuses to come out until the rituals are complete. 188 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:19,560 For Alfred, though, this is a critical moment. 189 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:23,480 "We either retreat or we go forward," and Asser says, 190 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,920 "Then, without any hesitation, 191 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,520 "Alfred gave the order for the attack." 192 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:33,280 And he went for the Viking army like a wild boar. 193 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:46,680 Eventually, the Viking line was broken. 194 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,520 "Their bodies were strewn all over the breadth of Ashdown," 195 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,960 says the Chronicle, "and we chased them back to Reading." 196 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,600 Alfred would remember the dramatic events of this year 197 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,200 as his year of battles. 198 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,400 Nine major battles, countless forays 199 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:23,320 and expeditions, he remembered later, through which the untested 200 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:28,720 young warrior would emerge not only as King but as a born leader. 201 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:34,920 That April, King Aethelred died. 202 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:43,880 All four of Alfred's brothers were gone and at 22, he became King. 203 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,720 There will more battles that year. 204 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,960 The people were worn out by the constant fighting. 205 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:59,000 Wracked by ill-health, it was long odds on Alfred even staying alive. 206 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,840 He could only pay the Vikings off and buy time. 207 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,440 But in Northumbria and the East Midlands, Alfred's world 208 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:22,880 was about to change dramatically. 209 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,880 The Great Heathen Army had divided into three 210 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:32,080 and the main force moved to Repton in Derbyshire. 211 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,560 Great view from up here of the landscape of Repton. 212 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,800 You can see the River Trent over there in the middle distance 213 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:46,680 and the old track of the Trent right down there behind the trees. 214 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,880 It was here that the Viking great army - the mycel here, 215 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:56,360 as the Anglo-Saxons called it - came in the winter of 873 to 874. 216 00:17:56,360 --> 00:18:00,240 And they dug a great defensive earthwork round their camp here, 217 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,160 anchored on the river at both ends, with the church here 218 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,040 in the middle of the defences. 219 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,200 Then the Chronicle says they shared out the land 220 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,520 and began to plough and make a living. 221 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:28,600 And still today, their names - Sloegr the Sly, Blood the Blade - 222 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,160 can be read on our village signs. 223 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,920 Vikings putting down roots, 224 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,000 staking their claim to their part of England. 225 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:43,600 The news of those developments in the Midlands and East Anglia 226 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:48,160 and Northumbria, the idea that the Great Heathen Army were actually 227 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:52,320 taking the land, settling, beginning to plough, 228 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:57,080 forming there own kingdoms, must have been deeply disturbing. 229 00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:00,160 The whole geopolitical map, if I can put it that way, 230 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,880 of Anglo-Saxon England was shifting, maybe permanently, 231 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,840 before their eyes. 232 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:10,720 Then the remaining section of The Great Army turned on Wessex. 233 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:58,000 Caught off guard, Alfred fled into the marshes of Somerset. 234 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:04,560 There, in the freezing New Year of 878, 235 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,240 he survived by hit-and-run raids, 236 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,360 always moving from place to place in a landscape 237 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:13,160 he'd known from his youth. 238 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,760 Here, at least, he would be safe. 239 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:32,720 Our most famous story about him comes from this time, 240 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:37,560 how he stayed with a peasant woman and burned the bread in her oven, 241 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:38,960 her cakes. 242 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:47,600 It's a fable, perhaps, but easy to imagine in a guerrilla war, 243 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:50,880 when the resistance depended for food on the local people. 244 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:58,120 People used to eat all the birds - the ducks, the swans. 245 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,400 So those stories that they didn't have much to eat are probably true? 246 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,600 If you caught a duck, you would be well fed, yes. Yes. 247 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,440 It's catching it as well, really! 248 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,560 Cos they can fly a lot faster than you can walk through this. 249 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,640 Be a harsh life to live out here, I think, 250 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,600 if you didn't have a home to go to. Yeah. 251 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,400 And the water supply? What would the water be like here? 252 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:28,520 It's not pleasant. It's black most of the time. 253 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,400 You'd probably boil it to drink it. 254 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,560 Yes, you don't want to be falling in it, either, 255 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,720 because it's wet and sticky and muddy and deep. 256 00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:44,840 But there is one story about that time that emerged 257 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,400 within living memory. 258 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,720 One day, Alfred, here in the woods, met a wandering hermit, 259 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,680 a poor pilgrim, and Alfred shared with him 260 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,120 the tiny amount of food that he'd got left. 261 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,240 And the pilgrim blessed him and then went on his way. 262 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:03,920 And that afternoon, 263 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:07,360 Alfred and his men made an almost miraculous catch of fish 264 00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:11,680 in one of the lakes here, so for the first time in days, they ate well. 265 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:16,120 # If maidens could sing 266 00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:18,400 # Like lark birds...# 267 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,160 That night, the pilgrim appeared to Alfred in his dreams. 268 00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:29,880 It's St Cuthbert himself. He told Alfred, "Don't lose courage. 269 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:31,800 "You will triumph in the end, 270 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,880 "and your descendants will be rulers of all England." 271 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:41,480 # ..Would hide in the bushes...# 272 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:46,840 In such divinely-sent dreams, medieval people saw the future. 273 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:55,480 And from that moment, Alfred began to create his own myth of destiny. 274 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:16,600 In the spring, Alfred's fight back began. 275 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,960 Around Easter, 23rd of March, 276 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,240 they built a fort on an island in the marshes, 277 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,120 a place called Athelney. 278 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:26,120 From up here on Lyng church, you can 279 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:30,400 really get an idea of the layout of the land in 878. 280 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,800 Surrounded by marshes, of course, and the burh itself, 281 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,080 the fortress over here. 282 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,640 You're looking down on the Alfredian burh of Lyng. 283 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,520 If you just look to the end of the village there, you can see 284 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,320 the causeway snaking out past that last house. 285 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,280 That's where Alfred's fortress of Athelney was, 286 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,160 joined to the fortress of Lyng by a causeway or a bridge. 287 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,360 This is the place from where Alfred launched the salvation of Wessex 288 00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:08,040 and, if it's not too dramatic to say so, of England. 289 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:17,240 According to Asser, Athelney was surrounded by swamp on every side. 290 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,400 "You can't reach it," he said, 291 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:24,040 "except by punts, or along the causeway from Lyng." 292 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,600 Do you see Lyng church over there? 293 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,920 A small hill, Athelney, maybe four or 500 yards long. 294 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,640 Alfred's fort, probably, at that end, 295 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,680 where there were the remains of Iron-Age defences - ditches, mounds 296 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:40,320 and the monastery he built 297 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,440 in thanksgiving for his victory on this spot, 298 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:46,120 where they built the monument a couple of hundred years ago. 299 00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:50,600 But it was from here that Bishop Asser says Alfred was able then, 300 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:55,960 after Easter, to mount his attacks against the pagan army. 301 00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:00,200 Archaeology here has turned up a few details of what was happening then, 302 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,000 especially slag from furnaces. 303 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,680 Alfred and his warriors were, perhaps, 304 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:11,880 day and night forging weapons, ready for the coming climax to the war. 305 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,640 A Saxon sword would have three-twist left hand, 306 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,520 and three-twist right hand. 307 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,600 Sword blades, spears, chain mail. 308 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,720 War gear good enough to take on battle-hardened Vikings. 309 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,080 Come on! Good boy! 310 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,480 Oh, it's rather magical, isn't it? 311 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:05,200 ' "It was as if he'd risen from the dead," said Asser. ' 312 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,720 This is the main track, which we're about to start... 313 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,600 'They made their last camp at Iley Oak near Warminster, 314 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,280 'protected by an old earthwork.' 315 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,680 According to the map, my guess is it's not that much further, 316 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,520 is that right? No, next turn. Next turn left. 317 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,720 'Jenny and Mike Dunford know the site. 318 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:27,360 'And here it is...' 319 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,880 It's so unexpected, isn't it? Really weird. 320 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,840 '..hidden in a plantation of monkey puzzle trees.' 321 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,560 Oh, look. There's a ditch here. This is what we were referring to. 322 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,640 Just look at this. Is this the mound that you were talking...? 323 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,080 It is, exactly, yes. A circular earthwork. Can you see it? 324 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:50,880 It curves round there. 325 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,280 This is exactly where the famous oak tree was. 326 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,920 'Here they prepared themselves for battle...' 327 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,400 That's great. 328 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:06,200 The last survivor of the oaks... Looks like it. ..of Iley Wood. 329 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,840 '..confessing their sins, praying before the holy relics 330 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,920 'carried by Alfred's Mass priests.' 331 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,080 Runs all the way round. 332 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,400 'And then they took their last instructions from the King 333 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,440 'and his marshal, Edgewolf.' 334 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,200 That's brilliant, yeah. 335 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,800 Excellent. The highest point looks over here. 336 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,760 It always pays to go on the ground, doesn't it? 337 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:33,320 'Perhaps they stood to arms all night, ready to move before dawn. 338 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,320 'Maybe 3,000 or 4,000 men with their horses.' 339 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,720 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser both say this was 340 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,200 the place that they spent that last night, 341 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:52,480 and then at dawn, they rose and they went to a place called Edington. 342 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,240 HORSES GALLOP AND WHINNY 343 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,160 Alfred's scouts had reported that the main Viking army 344 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:14,760 under King Guthrum had moved to Edington, under Salisbury Plain. 345 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:18,120 And there, at first light, he attacked them. 346 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,560 There was a royal estate down there, 347 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:27,200 an Anglo-Saxon royal estate, with a great wooden hall, stables, 348 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,120 barns, outbuildings, maybe even flocks of sheep, as there still are. 349 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:35,440 That's why Guthrum and the Danes had made this their 350 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,320 forward base in the campaign. 351 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,480 Alfred brings his forces under the escarpment of the plain there 352 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,120 and makes his attack across these fields, 353 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:50,160 along the line of those telegraph poles running out into the field. 354 00:28:54,880 --> 00:29:01,360 Asser says Alfred fought the battle atrociously, ferociously. 355 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,040 Nothing romantic about these Viking Age battles. 356 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:09,440 It was brutal stuff - toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, 357 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,840 stabbing and slashing. 358 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:16,320 And Asser says Alfred had to hang in there tenaciously, 359 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,640 persevering for a long time before, with God's will, he won the victory, 360 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:25,520 and there destroyed the pagan army with great slaughter. 361 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,800 Alfred pursued the survivors back to Chippenham. 362 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:45,920 And two weeks later, they surrendered. 363 00:29:55,080 --> 00:30:00,000 And then Alfred started what can only be called the peace process. 364 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:06,240 About 15th June, King Guthrum and 30 of the best men of his army 365 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:10,320 came here to meet King Alfred at Aller, 366 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,080 and received Christian baptism. 367 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:17,000 Asser says something very interesting about this. 368 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,840 He says that King Alfred had been moved by fellow feeling, 369 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:26,640 by compassion for his enemies, as he always was. 370 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,360 Guthrum was received from the font by Alfred as his foster son 371 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,680 and, with that moment, the relations between the Vikings 372 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,680 and the English took a whole new path. 373 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,920 What, to me, is interesting about the Vikings, 374 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,720 as they're usually called, is that they're so often portrayed 375 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,440 as violent and aggressive and destructive. 376 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:57,280 All those aspects were true, which isn't to say 377 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,400 that the West Saxons themselves weren't pretty violent 378 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,800 and destructive on occasion, 379 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:08,880 but what the Scandinavians wanted was to buy into European culture. 380 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:15,120 Very soon, they began to settle, and they needed to integrate. 381 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,080 The best way was conversion, 382 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:31,040 adopting all the characteristics of Christian culture, 383 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,360 which is really about organising your life - 384 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:35,760 your personal life and your social life - 385 00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:38,760 about the rules that Christianity preached. 386 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,800 Alfred honours Guthrum. 387 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,920 That's laying a template for how he thinks relations with 388 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,760 the Vikings would go? Yes. 389 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:04,080 The baptism literally integrated the Danish warlord chief 390 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:08,920 Guthrum into the family of Alfred, because Alfred was his godfather. 391 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,040 For 12 nights, the Chronicle says, 392 00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:28,800 the King feasted Guthrum and his 30 worthiest men, 393 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:32,840 and he greatly honoured them and gave them rich gifts. 394 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:39,360 It's an extraordinary way to end what had been a savagely fought war 395 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:43,160 in which the very existence of the Kingdom of Wessex 396 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,200 had hung in the balance, 397 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:50,040 but it's going to be typical of the way Alfred operates. 398 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:54,560 It's his idea of politics, of peacemaking with this enemy, 399 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,240 who he knows by now will not go away in English history. 400 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,080 And in 886, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 401 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:09,560 amid all the detail of the campaigns, has a line that it would 402 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:14,520 be very easy to miss, but which is very significant in the story. 403 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:16,440 And it's this. 404 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,280 "Eal Angelcynn" - 405 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:24,120 all the English people acknowledged Alfred as their king, 406 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,720 except those who were still under the rule of the Danes 407 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,720 in the north and the east. 408 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,360 Angelcynn - the English kin. 409 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,480 Long ago, Bede had given the Anglo-Saxons this idea 410 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,720 that there was one English people, one "gens Anglorum". 411 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:52,680 Here, Alfred is claiming to speak for them. 412 00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:00,560 This alone would make him one of our most remarkable rulers, 413 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:05,480 but it's what follows that raises him to the ranks of true greatness. 414 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:13,080 First, Alfred secured his kingdom with a network of forts - "burhs". 415 00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:16,920 It's the beginning of English towns. 416 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,920 They were much, much more than merely forts, which is what 417 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,280 the written sources would give us to believe. 418 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:27,360 They were really designed to develop, and, within them, 419 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,880 people were doing all sorts of things. 420 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,600 There were merchants, traders, craftspeople. 421 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,600 So they were really complicated places. 422 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,560 So Alfred is setting out to transform society? 423 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,040 It's hard to believe that he didn't have 424 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:43,680 some vision to that effect, 425 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:47,280 that when he established these places, they were not urban, 426 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,160 they wouldn't have looked particularly urban. 427 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:52,440 It took a long time. 428 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,080 That was part of his vision, 429 00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:59,280 to establish a framework within which urbanisation could develop. 430 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,080 Of course, these places were fortified places, but it also 431 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,520 meant that they were safe places within which to transact business. 432 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,040 And, of course, you can see that not only within the burhs themselves, 433 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,880 but in the way in which the countryside around the burhs 434 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,400 is being exploited and organised. 435 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,400 Burhs must have depended on the countryside. 436 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:26,080 They had to be supported in some way. 437 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,920 And the whole burghal system, I think, depended on food producers 438 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:36,160 from outside the burhs sustaining and supporting life in those towns. 439 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,000 That does imply some sort of major reorganisation. 440 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,600 How you plough your fields, how you manure your fields, 441 00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:45,920 all this sort of stuff. 442 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:47,720 It suggests intensification. 443 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:52,680 I don't think we can understand the burhs and what made them work, 444 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:56,280 what made them tick, without thinking about the rural hinterland, 445 00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:01,720 and without thinking about the vision that enabled surplus production 446 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:05,240 in the countryside to sustain the burhs. 447 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:13,160 So when Asser says a lot of people didn't like what Alfred was doing, 448 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:17,480 they resisted these military burdens? 449 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,960 Well, they are military burdens but, clearly, 450 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,640 the implication is also other sorts of burdens. 451 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,040 If you're going to sustain permanent garrisons - 452 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:30,440 men, fighting men, who are not going to be farmers, 453 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,400 who are not going to be producing food - 454 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,120 you need to organise the countryside 455 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,520 in a new way in order to make that work. 456 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:38,680 A very demanding boss, I would imagine! 457 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:41,800 A bit of a control freak, perhaps, and wanting to make sure 458 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,480 that he's everywhere at once and able to oversee what's going on. 459 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,560 A very smart guy, a guy with a vision. 460 00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:56,440 But Alfred's ambitions went beyond Wessex. 461 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,880 His 16-year-old daughter Aethelflaed had married Aethelred, 462 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:01,720 the Lord of Murcia, 463 00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,640 and Alfred was accepted as ruler of both kingdoms - 464 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,080 King of the Anglo-Saxons. 465 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,440 And in 886, with his son-in-law, 466 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:13,280 he embarked on his biggest urban project - 467 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:18,160 the restoration of the Mercian city of Lundenburh. 468 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,480 Alfred occupied, 469 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,560 laid out, 470 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,720 refounded - a difficult word to translate - 471 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:42,560 London. 472 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,800 It's a key moment in the story of the city. 473 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:52,200 It's destined to be the richest city in Britain, 474 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,200 even by the end of the 10th century. 475 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,600 And the amazing thing is, what Alfred actually did on the ground 476 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,640 can still be seen if you go down to the London waterfront today. 477 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:15,800 There, look at that! 478 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:22,720 This 18th-century map here gives you a fantastic idea, much better than 479 00:38:22,720 --> 00:38:25,960 the modern A to Z, of the Anglo-Saxon layout, 480 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:27,960 the replanning of the city. 481 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,560 This is where the Anglo-Saxons created the, well, 482 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:37,320 the original wharves of London that we know today. 483 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:39,760 Billingsgate, there, the old fish market. 484 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,920 "Billing" is an Anglo-Saxon name. Who Billing was, we don't know. 485 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,640 Maybe a 9th-century mover and shaker. 486 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,960 You can see the line of the Anglo-Saxon lanes coming down, 487 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,480 the names of Anglo-Saxon city churches, there, 488 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:58,360 and the Great Fire Monument. 489 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,240 The jetties coming out into the river, 490 00:39:03,240 --> 00:39:05,640 and a host of ships in the Middle Ages, 491 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:10,080 little wooden ships ferrying produce across from the Continent and back. 492 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,920 All these little lanes coming down to the wharves. 493 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:21,320 All Hallows, Steel Yard, Dowgate, it's Anglo-Saxon. 494 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:24,320 And Queen Hith - 495 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,800 the one wharf of the medieval world that still survives. 496 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,320 Can you see the shingly beach running up to the modern buildings? 497 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:57,320 There's Queen Hith from the landward side, 498 00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:01,320 the last Anglo-Saxon wharf of London. 499 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,920 In the 880s, when Alfred replanned the city, 500 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:06,960 as we saw in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 501 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,720 it was called Aethelred's Hith, 502 00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:12,200 presumably Alfred's son-in-law, the Earl of Mercia. 503 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,480 And, er, it's a great place 504 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,200 to actually see what that replanning meant. 505 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:25,720 To build up the trading shore - ripa emptoralis - 506 00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:28,920 they did what the Victorians and later generations did, 507 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,560 which is to drive great wooden piles into the beach, 508 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:35,200 you can see there, on which they erected the jetties. 509 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,960 If you want one place which can stand 510 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,120 for the medieval origins of the city of London, 511 00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:45,960 and indeed the origins of London's pre-eminence in our national life, 512 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,800 from then until now, 513 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:50,240 it's here. 514 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,320 But for towns and trade to flourish... 515 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,400 ..people not only need security... 516 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:06,400 ..they must be able to trust the currency. 517 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:11,720 And the Anglo-Saxon coinage had been debased in the Viking wars. 518 00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:16,320 So Alfred and his advisers not only had to build towns, 519 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,240 they had to plan the economy. 520 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:24,200 Around about the middle of the 870s, when things are looking very bleak 521 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,000 from a military and political point of view, 522 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,360 he changes the coinage quite dramatically. 523 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,920 We go from a very debased coinage, 524 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,240 in which each coin contains only about 10% silver, 525 00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:41,200 to one in which they are extremely pure. 526 00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,080 90% pure or higher. 527 00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,480 He starts off inheriting this system 528 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,480 from his brother and the Mercian kings, 529 00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:53,440 in which Alfred, too, makes lunette pennies 530 00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,760 and these are really a coinage of crisis. 531 00:41:56,760 --> 00:42:00,520 The quality of the silver has dropped dramatically. 532 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:04,440 These coins contain about 10 or 20% silver each, 533 00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:07,760 so they're trying to eke out a smaller amount of silver 534 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,480 and make more and more coins, presumably to pay 535 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,320 more and more men to fight more and more Vikings. 536 00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,240 And what does Alfred do in those first years, then, Rory? 537 00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:19,840 I mean, does he...? Talk about low silver content. 538 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:24,120 Does he work to improve fineness, design, all those sorts of things? 539 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,040 He most certainly does, yes. 540 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,520 This is known as the cross-and-lozenge coinage. 541 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:29,840 Very pure. 542 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:31,800 The design is completely different. 543 00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:37,960 On the obverse, the bust of the King surrounded by his title Aelfred Rex. 544 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:41,760 And then, on the reverse, we have a beautiful cross 545 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,560 surrounded by the name of the man who made the coin. 546 00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:46,480 And this was the standard at this time. 547 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,840 Most all of these coins name the man who was responsible for making it. 548 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,520 METAL TAPS LOUDLY 549 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:54,560 Respect of the coinage is respect of the King's authority, 550 00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,800 so there are very strict regulations against forgery, 551 00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,200 against adulteration of the coinage. 552 00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:04,400 One of the aims of reforming the coinage was to stop that. 553 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:10,160 Oh, gosh, you can actually see the, um... 554 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,240 You can see the silver, almost, in that. Yes. 555 00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:16,480 And this is minted in southern England, is it? 556 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:18,760 It is, almost certainly in London. 557 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:21,960 With a Roman-style monogram that carries London... 558 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,040 That has letters LONDONIA. 559 00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:26,720 Oh, that is absolutely wonderful, isn't it? 560 00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:30,160 It reminds me of those late-Roman coins for Constantinople, 561 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:31,840 when you've got the C-O-N, 562 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,040 and then, this is an L-O-N, isn't it, you know? Precisely, yes. 563 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:39,960 This is entirely intended to show off Alfred's control of London 564 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:42,520 and its importance within the kingdom as a whole. 565 00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:55,880 But Alfred's dream went further still. 566 00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,120 Though he'd only learnt to read and write in middle age, 567 00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,200 he hoped to rebuild English culture 568 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:06,280 or, as he would say, "restore wisdom". 569 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:10,160 DAME JINTY NELSON: Alfred combined a deep spirituality 570 00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:13,480 and a high degree of intellectual curiosity 571 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,280 with great practical wisdom. 572 00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:24,160 And designing his own clock was absolutely symptomatic of that. 573 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,600 He was multitalented and multiskilled, I think so. 574 00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:34,480 That's why he drew so many different talents to his court. 575 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,040 It was a court of many talents. 576 00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:38,440 BIG BEN STRIKES 577 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,480 Alfred knew that there were scholars on the Continent, 578 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:46,640 Carolingian scholars, the world that his stepmother had come from, 579 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:52,120 and that they were well-versed in Christian Latin texts. 580 00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:58,200 And had written commentaries on them to help to explain them 581 00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,000 to new Christians in a different kind of set up. 582 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,680 Alfred embarked on a programme of translations 583 00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:10,520 and contributed very significantly to them himself. 584 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:15,920 His experience of, er, interpolating his own interpretations, 585 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:20,960 his own, um, additions to these texts, 586 00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:22,400 is a way into his mind. 587 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:29,920 "I have often thought about what wisdom there was in England," 588 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,960 he said, "before everything was ravaged and burnt. 589 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:40,360 "When I became King, education had so completely collapsed that 590 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:44,880 "very few people could translate a letter from Latin into English. 591 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,880 "So it seems best to me that we should translate the books 592 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:54,840 "which are most needful for all men to know 593 00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,120 "into the language we can all understand. 594 00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,720 "I began to translate those books 595 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:07,000 "from Latin into English with the help of my Mass priests 596 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,520 "and my bishop Asser, 597 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,120 "sometimes word for word, 598 00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:14,640 "sometimes sense for sense." 599 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:20,120 THE LAST PART OF ALFRED'S QUOTE IS SPOKEN IN LATIN 600 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:24,960 There we go. 601 00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:27,920 There are annotations, 602 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:31,200 which were clearly made in south-western England 603 00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:33,320 or in perhaps in Wales. 604 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:37,360 There are three different hands which have been identified, 605 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:40,640 which are insular hands, meaning they're, er... 606 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,080 I guess you would say British hands. Yeah. 607 00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:48,200 But the one which wrote most of the comments of the three insular hands, 608 00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:52,760 er, clearly belonged to a Welsh scribe, 609 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,840 late 9th or early 10th century, so again about the time of King Alfred. 610 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:03,160 The later scholars specifically says that Asser helped Alfred with 611 00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:08,080 his English version of Boethius' Consolation Of Philosophy. Yes. 612 00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:12,240 So here, you've got a Welsh hand, and Welsh abbreviations... 613 00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:14,800 It's very clearly, yes. They're Welsh, aren't they? 614 00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:19,200 Well, palaeography always proceeds by comparing something that you know, 615 00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:21,480 which is dated and identified clearly, 616 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:25,120 with something that you want to, er, place somewhere. 617 00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:29,920 And in this case, the hand which wrote most of the insular commentary 618 00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:34,480 has been very closely compared with identified and dated hands 619 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,240 which we know belonged to Welsh scribes. 620 00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:44,480 You can wonder what the audience was for such a commentary. 621 00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:49,120 People who were perhaps learning Latin and who clearly needed 622 00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:52,240 this kind of guidance in order to understand the text. 623 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:58,040 But Boethius is a sort of unusual text perhaps to have chosen. 624 00:47:58,040 --> 00:47:59,920 It is rather odd, isn't it? 625 00:47:59,920 --> 00:48:04,600 It's not really an obvious, obviously Christian text for that matter. 626 00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:09,320 The early Middle Ages are often thought of as bad time, a dark time, 627 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,840 and it could be that the, er, the sort of dark worldview, 628 00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:18,080 and the need for consolation that comes out of this, this text 629 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:21,360 and the sort of dark circumstances in which Boethius wrote it, 630 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,160 for personal circumstances, 631 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:28,080 have resonated with people in this time, 632 00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,720 er, which was rather difficult and dark, in fact. 633 00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:39,880 'So here's Asser explaining to Alfred 634 00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,160 'the Greek myth of the Furies.' 635 00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:45,600 "Fearful goddesses... 636 00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:55,120 "..and these goddesses had no respect for any man, for any human, 637 00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:57,880 "but punished each according to their deeds 638 00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:00,400 "and are said to rule men's fate." 639 00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:11,600 In Alfred's life, by now, we've gone beyond matters of war and peace 640 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:14,840 to the mystery of creative imagination itself. 641 00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:24,040 Augustine, Gregory the Great, Boethius, 642 00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,360 key texts of the Latin west 643 00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,680 re-imagined by the descendants of the barbarians. 644 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:35,840 "How our ancestors loved wisdom," he wrote, 645 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:39,400 "and they passed it on to us. 646 00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:42,000 "Now we can still make out their footprints, 647 00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:45,080 "but can we follow their track?" 648 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:54,320 One of the books most needful for people to know, as Alfred put it. 649 00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,280 And it's a world history, literally a world history. 650 00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,840 I mean, the Persian Empire, the Babylonians, 651 00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:06,200 Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. 652 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:09,680 But what they add to this account, what you couldn't have got 653 00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,520 from the classical historians and geographers, 654 00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:14,920 which is an account of the Northern world. 655 00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:17,880 The Viking world. 656 00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:25,720 And he gets these from a Norwegian merchant called Ohthere. 657 00:50:25,720 --> 00:50:29,600 HE BEGINS TO RECITE THE TEXT IN NORWEGIAN 658 00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:33,240 MALE VOICE CONTINUES 659 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,640 He deals in skins and hides. 660 00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:54,960 You can imagine Alfred and his courtiers sitting spellbound 661 00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:59,000 as they heard this story of the northern lights, 662 00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:01,040 the world up to the Arctic Circle. 663 00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:19,640 What Alfred did was to import Continental scholars... 664 00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:22,920 and from Ireland, also from Wales. 665 00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,000 These people rubbed shoulders at court 666 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:33,720 with their secular counterparts from these same places, 667 00:51:33,720 --> 00:51:39,120 so you can imagine quite significant groups of people, 668 00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:43,680 in lay life and in religious life, gathered around Alfred. 669 00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:53,360 From that first visit to Rome, 670 00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:56,600 he'd always had a vision of a wider world. 671 00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:02,000 A kind of European culture, which was a Christian culture, 672 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:07,000 but also a deeply classical culture, um, was being created. 673 00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:11,720 Bishops, ealdormen, 674 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:15,360 and even people below that level, I think, were being encouraged 675 00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:19,640 to read or listen to at least works in Old English. 676 00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:24,960 And with them, Alfred gave other gifts. 677 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:28,600 Small-scale, but precious as badges, 678 00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:34,840 signs of a relationship between them and the giver Alfred. 679 00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:37,720 Hi, Pat. 680 00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:40,840 You've brought the jewel. I have, indeed. Great. 681 00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:44,000 Oh, fantastic! Let's just have a look at this. 682 00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:45,520 Tremendous! 683 00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:50,160 That is gorgeous, isn't it? 684 00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:54,000 Gorgeous! It's got this inscription around it, hasn't it? Yes. 685 00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:57,840 HE READS THE INSCRIPTION IN OLD ENGLISH 686 00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,920 "Alfred ordered me to be made." 687 00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:04,800 And found close to Athelney, so this is as personal a piece 688 00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:08,280 from his time as you could imagine, isn't it? 689 00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:11,480 And anybody know what the figure is? Do you know? 690 00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:15,160 There's lots of speculation. Really? Some people say it's Christ. 691 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:18,360 Right, yeah. And the figure of wisdom, I've heard, 692 00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,280 which would be quite suitable for Alfred, wouldn't it? 693 00:53:21,280 --> 00:53:24,440 Well, yes, he was a scholar. Do we know what it was used for? 694 00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,960 There's a sort of prongy thing for a fitting here, isn't it? 695 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:30,880 Well, I think it was used as a pointer 696 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:36,280 and in that it would have either had, um, a pointer of ivory or ebony 697 00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:41,120 and he would use it to point when he was teaching. 698 00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:45,000 Lovely. But in our window, he's wearing it in his crown. 699 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,320 That's a bit of artistic licence, I think. 700 00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:48,400 THEY LAUGH 701 00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:50,840 So why has the village got this? 702 00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:54,400 HE LAUGHS Well, it was found in Newton Park. 703 00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:57,440 The original was given to the Ashmolean, of course, yes. 704 00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:01,360 Back then, yeah. But lovely that East Lyng has... We've got a copy. 705 00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:04,880 ..has got that, isn't it? But we do guard it very jealously. 706 00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:07,080 Look at this lovely... 707 00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:13,440 ..floral ornament on the back there. I think it's wonderful. Mm-hm. 708 00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:15,640 We think WE'RE clever. HE LAUGHS 709 00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,360 Yes, the workmanship's beautiful, isn't it? Absolutely. Yeah. 710 00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:24,280 He's giving these, these books, 711 00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:27,840 which are of the translations that he does, 712 00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:30,280 and, of course, there's an immense amount of wealth 713 00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:33,080 and effort and skill has gone into the making of the books. 714 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:35,760 So it's a very, very valuable gift, you know. 715 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:39,040 He's giving these to his main monasteries, er, 716 00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,040 and he's giving with them 717 00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:46,720 a beautiful jewelled pointer... Mm-hm. ..which you'd use 718 00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:50,600 for following the lines of the manuscript as you were reading it. 719 00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,600 Um, with this personal note on saying, 720 00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,240 "Alfred ordered me to be made." 721 00:54:56,240 --> 00:55:01,000 And this is always a reminder of who gave this book and its pointer 722 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,760 and surely he would have given one of these - 723 00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:06,240 and there would've been 724 00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:08,880 a few of them made by his goldsmiths at court - 725 00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:11,960 he would have given one of them to Athelney, 726 00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:15,240 which was the monastery that meant most to him, really, 727 00:55:15,240 --> 00:55:21,240 and, by miracle, it was found... Yes. ..and has survived. 728 00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:40,880 Alfred had secured the survival of his kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons 729 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:45,360 and he'd bequeathed his successors a dream of one England. 730 00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:50,400 He was still only in his late forties, 731 00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:52,320 still wracked by illness... 732 00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:56,440 ..and he never stopped fighting. 733 00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,760 In the 890s, he fought his third war. 734 00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:03,760 Four years of campaigning from Devon to Essex 735 00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:06,120 and up to the Welsh borders. 736 00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:09,440 One battle took place under the Heathrow flight path 737 00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:11,040 at Thorney Island. 738 00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:16,760 For the English, war had become a way of life. 739 00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:22,360 "This was the hardest time," says the Chronicle, 740 00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:25,200 "for we were ravaged, too, by plague 741 00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:27,960 "and the best of the King's friends died then. 742 00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:35,480 MALE VOICE RECITES IN OLD ENGLISH "..Swithulf, Bishop of Rochester... 743 00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:40,280 MALE VOICE CONTINUES "..Ceolmund, ealdorman in Kent... 744 00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:44,120 MALE VOICE CONTINUES "..and Edgewolf, the King's marshal. 745 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,800 "And I have only named the most distinguished." 746 00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:58,040 The loss of the wartime generation must have hit Alfred hard. 747 00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:00,960 He wasn't 50 yet, but... 748 00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:05,880 battered, one imagines, by life, war and bad health. 749 00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:09,800 It must have felt time for the next generation to come on. 750 00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:12,480 THEY SING 751 00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:17,880 And at this point, he's still worrying away 752 00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:20,600 on his translation of The Consolation Of Philosophy. 753 00:57:20,600 --> 00:57:23,520 It's obviously a text that meant a great deal to him. 754 00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:26,000 He'd already turned it into prose. 755 00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:28,720 But now he does a version in verse. 756 00:57:28,720 --> 00:57:31,880 CHOIR CONTINUES 757 00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:35,320 'And in working on it, he reflected on his own life.' 758 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:40,360 This is what he said. 759 00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:45,040 "What I set out to do was to virtuously and justly 760 00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:48,280 "administer the authority given to me 761 00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:49,760 "and to do it with wisdom. 762 00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:53,360 "For, without wisdom, nothing is worthwhile. 763 00:57:55,840 --> 00:57:59,320 "It's always been my desire to live honourably 764 00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:03,440 "and to leave my descendants my memory in good works. 765 00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:10,560 "For each man, according to the measure of his intelligence, 766 00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:13,880 "must speak what he can speak 767 00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:16,080 "and do what he can do." 768 00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,880 Next in the story, Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, 769 00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:29,240 and his daughter the Lady of the Mercians. 770 00:58:41,760 --> 00:58:45,960 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd