Alfred the Great — The King Who Made England

The story of Alfred the Great -- the only English monarch ever called "the Great." Born the fifth son of a Wessex king in 849, Alfred should have been irrelevant. Instead, he saved England. This is the story of the man who lost his kingdom to the Vikings on a January night in 878, fled into the Somerset marshes with nothing but his faith and a handful of loyal men, and came back to defeat them, baptize their warlord, and build the institutions that would become medieval England. Burhs, the Doom Book, the palace school, the translations of Boethius and Bede -- all of it Alfred's work, all of it done while governing in chronic pain. He carried the light out of the marsh himself.0:00 Prologue: The Ashes of Chippenham2:30 Chapter One: The Boy Who Was Sent to Rome6:42 Chapter Two: The Wars Before the War11:38 Chapter Three: Athelney - The Island in the Marsh16:39 Chapter Four: Egbert's Stone - The Gathering19:33 Chapter Five: The Baptism of Guthrum22:27 Chapter Six: The Burghal System26:14 Chapter Seven: The Palace School30:00 Chapter Eight: The Illness31:41 Chapter Nine: The Second Viking Age34:37 Chapter Ten: The Law36:49 Chapter Eleven: The Faith38:57 Chapter Twelve: The Family41:12 Chapter Thirteen: The Death of the King43:58 Epilogue: What Alfred Left Behind