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 Alfred _____ the Great, son of Æthelwulf _____ King of Wessex and Osburga _____.Born 849, died 26 OctOBER 899, age 49 or 50 years
Alfred the Great (between 847 and 849 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to c.? 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c.? 886 to 899. He was the youngest son of King Aethelwulf of Wessex. His father died when he was young and three of Alfred's brothers, Awthelbald, Aethelberht and Aethelred, reigned in turn.After acceding to the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, creating what was known as Danelaw in the North of England. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, becoming the dominant ruler in England. Details of his life are described in a work by 9th-century 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, proposing that primary education be conducted in English rather than Latin and improving the legal system, military structure and his people's quality of life. He was given the epithet "the Great" during and after the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The only other king of England given this epithet is Cnut the Great.
Married 868 Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, age 18 or 19 years (married 30 or 31 years) to:  Ealswith De Gaini, daughter of Æthelred Mucil and Eadburga _____.Died 5 DecEMBER 902, buried DecEMBER 902
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Edward "The Elder"matilda _____Born 871, died 17 Jul 924 Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire, England, age 52 or 53 years, buried JulY 924 Cathedral, Winchester, Hampshire, England Edward the Elder (c. 874 – 17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æ thelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred's elder brother and predecessor, Æ thelred. Alfred had succeeded Æ thelred as king of Wessex in 871, and almost faced defeat against the Danish Vikings until his decisive victory at the Battle of Edington in 878. After the battle, the Vikings still ruled Northumbria, East Anglia and eastern Mercia, leaving only Wessex and western Mercia under Anglo-Saxon control. In the early 880s Æ thelred, Lord of the Mercians, the ruler of western Mercia, accepted Alfred's lordship and married his daughter Æ thelflæ d, and around 886 Alfred adopted the new title King of the Anglo-Saxons as the ruler of all Anglo-Saxons not subject to Danish rule. In 910 a Mercian and West Saxon army inflicted a decisive defeat on an invading Northumbrian army, ending the threat from the northern Vikings. In the 910s, Edward conquered Viking-ruled southern England in partnership with his sister Æ thelflæ d, who had succeeded as Lady of the Mercians following the death of her husband in 911. Historians dispute how far Mercia was dominated by Wessex during this period, and after Æ thelflæ d's death in June 918, her daughter Æ lfwynn, briefly became second Lady of the Mercians, but in December Edward took her into Wessex and imposed direct rule on Mercia. By the end of the 910s he ruled Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia, and only Northumbria remained under Viking rule. In 924 he faced a Mercian and Welsh revolt at Chester, and after putting it down he died at Farndon in Cheshire on 17 July 924. He was succeeded by his eldest son Æ thelstan. Edward was admired by medieval chroniclers, and in the view of William of Malmesbury, he was "much inferior to his father in the cultivation of letters" but "incomparably more glorious in the power of his rule". He was largely ignored by modern historians until the 1990s, and Nick Higham described him as "perhaps the most neglected of English kings", partly because few primary sources for his reign survive. His reputation rose in the late twentieth century and he is now seen as destroying the power of the Vikings in southern England while laying the foundations for a south-centred | |||
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