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The History of England

1.15 - 7 Alfred the Great and the fight for survival

The History of England

David Crowther

Europe, Queen, England, Medieval, Politics, Royal, History, Parliament, English, King, Modern, Early Modern, Monarchy

4.86K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2011

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Between 871 and 878, Wessex came close to extinction, as the Great Heathen Army, the Great Summer Army, and Guthrum the Dane came to conquer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:19.7

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1:01.2

That's Better H-E-L-P. dot com slash History-E-N-G. Hello everyone and welcome to the history of England episode 7, Alfred and the Fight for Survival.

1:24.0

As the more experienced listeners among you may have noticed, we are now following broadly the same

1:36.1

topography of the original episodes, written back in the days of my youth in 2011, but adapted and made fuller where I feel the need.

1:46.2

We have arrived gentle listener at the life of the only English monarch to be called

1:49.9

great by his English subjects, noting that I think Knut gets a great, but not from us, the ones he

1:55.6

dumped on but from the Danes who did the dumping, as it were.

1:59.7

But enough of dumping.

2:02.1

I think we should start the story of Alfred the Great by looking at his reputation

2:06.0

through the ages, historiography if you will. Now normally, or at least very often, this

2:12.0

presents the opportunity to talk about the various twists

...

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