Subject of “The Last Kingdom” miniseries, which I think is now streaming on Netflix IIRC:
ThinkingWest
@thinkingwest4h • 20 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
Alfred the Great believed he was given divine authority to rule his kingdom.
This was not an excuse to abuse his power though. Rather, he saw it as a responsibility to care for his people…🧵
Few kings were as universally loved as Alfred.
Historian Edward Freeman called him “the most perfect character in history.”
King of the Anglo-Saxons in the late 9th-century, he oversaw the complete revitalization of his realm—militarily, economically, and culturally.
Before his rule, England had been plagued by viking invasions going back a century.
Danish raids destabilized Wessex and the surrounding kingdoms. Monasteries were razed, learning and literature diminished, and lawlessness abounded in the absence of adequate defenses.
Alfred lamented:
"learning had declined so thoroughly in England that there were very few men…who could understand their divine services in English or even translate a single letter from Latin…”
Manuscript production had all but stopped and existing literature was lost in fires as churches and monasteries fell prey to vicious Viking attacks.
The Danes had decimated cultural development in England.
Alfred developed a plan to reverse course.
But his motivation for defending his people and revitalizing their culture went far deeper than mere ambition or love of country…
The king believed in a divine hierarchy, where all authority flowed from God. His throne, lands, and people had all been placed under his care by the Creator.
At the same time, he owed God obedience and owed his people protection in exchange for their loyalty.
He understood his relationship to his subjects as Christ did His flock. He expected complete loyalty but was also willing to give everything for their sake.
Alfred viewed his lordship as a sacred bond instituted by God for the good governance of man.
In this context, Alfred fashioned his defense of England as a kind of holy war for the protection of his own flock.
On a strategic level, he implemented the burghal system—a series of fortifications, or burhs, in key locations throughout his realm.
33 burhs placed roughly 20 miles apart allowed his forces to respond to viking attacks anywhere in the kingdom at a given time.
They were largely effective in mitigated Viking raids, and over time stability ensued.
Legal, cultural, and educational reforms were instituted amidst the relative peace.
Alfred’s new legal code drew from his religious worldview and was based on Mosaic law.
Called the Doom Book (“doom” meant “law”), it was 120 chapters long because 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in medieval biblical number-symbolism, 120 stood for law.
One court scholar described Alfred’s dedication to law as “Solomonic.” He was painstakingly careful in his judicial inquiries and critical of officials who rendered unwise judgments.
Most of all he was described as “merciful, gracious and level-headed” in judgment.
On the educational front, Alfred was inspired by Charlemagne’s example a century before—he revived learning by surrounding himself with eminent scholars in hopes of establishing schools and reforming the clergy.
Ensuring an educated clergy and pious populace were of utmost importance to Alfred.
He believed that he would incur God’s wrath if his clergy were too ignorant to perform their duties or if monasteries and churches lay empty out of indifference.
Alfred reformed the clergy in two ways.
The first was by simply appointing pious and learned bishops and abbots.
The second was by distributing literature, particularly Gregory the Great’s “Pastoral Care,” to bishops so they might better train and supervise new priests.
Alfred accomplished many of the reforms he intended, resulting in him being “greatly loved…with a universal and profound love” by his people.
He remains the only English monarch to be given the epithet “the Great.”
Alfred revitalized his realm because he believed deeply in the concept of divine authority.
He provided the perfect example of Christian kingship, working toward the common good of his subjects because he had God-given duties to uphold.
One wonders how modern leaders might behave differently if they believed they also had God-given duties to uphold.
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