Asser's Life of King Alfred

by John Asser

69. The Danes in Old Saxony.[152]—In that same year a great army of the heathen came from Germany[153] into the country of the Old Saxons, which is called in Saxon Eald-Seaxum. To oppose them the same Saxons and Frisians joined their forces, and fought bravely twice in that same year.[154] In both these battles the Christians, by God’s merciful aid, gained the victory.

70. Charles, King of the Alemanni.[155]—In that same year also, Charles, King of the Alemanni, received with universal consent the kingdom of the West Franks, and all the kingdoms which lie between the Tyrrhene Sea and that gulf[156] situated between the Old Saxons and the Gauls, with the exception of the kingdom of Armorica.[157] This Charles was the son of King Louis,[158] who was brother of Charles, King of the Franks, father of Judith, the aforesaid queen; these two brothers were sons of Louis,[159] Louis being the son of Charlemagne, son of Pepin.

71. Death of Pope Marinus.[160]—In that same year Pope Marinus, of blessed memory, went the way of all flesh; it was he who, for the love of Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and at his request, generously freed the Saxon Colony in Rome from all tribute and tax. He also sent to the aforesaid king many gifts on that occasion, among which was no small portion of the most holy and venerable cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ hung for the salvation of all mankind.

72. The Danes break their Treaty.[161]—In that same year also the army of heathen which dwelt in East Anglia disgracefully broke the peace which they had concluded with King Alfred.

73. Asser makes a New Beginning.[162]—And now, to return to that from which I digressed, lest I be compelled by my long navigation to abandon the haven of desired rest,[163] I propose, as far as my knowledge will enable me, to speak somewhat concerning the life, character, and just conduct, and in no small degree concerning the deeds, of my lord Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, after he married the said respected wife of noble Mercian race; and, with God’s blessing, I will despatch it concisely and briefly, as I promised, that I may not, by prolixity in relating each new event, offend the minds of those who may be somewhat hard to please.

74. Alfred’s Maladies.[164]—While his nuptials were being honorably celebrated in Mercia, among innumerable multitudes of both sexes, and after long feasts by night and by day, he was suddenly seized, in the presence of all the people, by instant and overwhelming pain, unknown to any physician. No one there knew, nor even those who daily see him up to the present time—and this, sad to say, is the worst of all, that it should have continued uninterruptedly through the revolutions of so many years, from the twentieth to the fortieth year of his life and more—whence such a malady arose. Many thought that it was occasioned by the favor and fascination of the people who surrounded him; others, by some spite of the devil, who is ever jealous of good men; others, from an unusual kind of fever; while still others thought it was the ficus,[165] which species of severe disease he had had from his childhood. On a certain occasion it had come to pass by the divine will that when he had gone to Cornwall on a hunting expedition, and had turned out of the road to pray in a certain church in which rests Saint Gueriir [and now also St. Neot reposes there],[166] he had of his own accord prostrated himself for a long time in silent prayer—since from childhood he had been a frequent visitor of holy places for prayer and the giving of alms—and there he besought the mercy of the Lord that, in his boundless clemency, Almighty God would exchange the torments of the malady which then afflicted him for some other lighter disease, provided that such disease should not show itself outwardly in his body, lest he should be useless and despised—for he had great dread of leprosy or blindness, or any such complaint as instantly makes men useless and despised at its coming. When he had finished his praying, he proceeded on his journey, and not long after felt within himself that he had been divinely healed, according to his request, of that disorder, and that it was entirely eradicated, although he had obtained even this complaint in the first flower of his youth by his devout and frequent prayers and supplications to God. For if I may be allowed to speak concisely, though in a somewhat inverted order, of his zealous piety to God—in his earliest youth, before he married his wife, he wished to establish his mind in God’s commandments, for he perceived that he could not abstain from carnal desires[167]; and because he saw that he should incur the anger of God if he did anything contrary to His will, he used often to rise at cockcrow and at the matin hours, and go to pray in churches and at the relics of the saints. There he would prostrate himself, and pray that Almighty God in His mercy would strengthen his mind still more in the love of His service, converting it fully to Himself by some infirmity such as he might bear, but not such as would render him contemptible and useless in worldly affairs. Now when he had often prayed with much devotion to this effect, after an interval of some time he incurred as a gift from God the before-named disease of the ficus, which he bore long and painfully for many years, even despairing of life, until he entirely got rid of it by prayer. But, sad to say, though it had been removed, a worse one seized him, as I have said, at his marriage, and this incessantly tormented him, night and day, from the twentieth to the forty-fifth year of his life. But if ever, by God’s mercy, he was relieved from this infirmity for a single day or night, or even for the space of one hour, yet the fear and dread of that terrible malady never left him, but rendered him almost useless, as he thought, in every affair, whether human or divine.

75. Alfred’s Children and their Education.[168]—The sons and daughters whom he had by his wife above-mentioned were Æthelflæd, the eldest, after whom came Edward, then Æthelgivu, then Ælfthryth, and finally Æthelward—besides those who died in childhood. The number of ...[169] Æthelflæd, when she arrived at a marriageable age, was united to Æthelred,[170] Ealdorman of Mercia. Æthelgivu, having dedicated her maidenhood to God, entered His service, and submitted to the rules of the monastic life, to which she was consecrate. Æthelward, the youngest, by the divine counsel and by the admirable foresight of the king, was intrusted to the schools of literary training, where, with the children of almost all the nobility of the country, and many also who were not noble, he was under the diligent care of the teachers. Books in both languages, namely, Latin and Saxon, were diligently read in the school.[171] They also learned to write; so that before they were of an age to practise human arts, namely, hunting and other pursuits which befit noblemen, they became studious and clever in the liberal arts. Edward and Ælfthryth were always bred up in the king’s court, and received great attention from their tutors and nurses; nay, they continue to this day, with much love from every one, to show humbleness, affability, and gentleness towards all, both natives and foreigners, while remaining in complete subjection to their father. Nor, among the other pursuits which appertain to this life and are fit for noble youths, are they suffered to pass their time idly and unprofitably without liberal training; for they have carefully learned the Psalms[172] and Saxon books, especially Saxon poems, and are in the habit of making frequent use of books.

76. Alfred’s Varied Pursuits.[173]—In the meantime, the king, during the wars and frequent trammels of this present life, the invasions of the heathen, and his own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the government, and to practise hunting in all its branches; to teach his goldsmiths[174] and all his artificers, his falconers, hawkers, and dog-keepers; to build houses, majestic and rich beyond all custom of his predecessors, after his own new designs; to recite the Saxon books, and especially to learn by heart Saxon poems,[175] and to make others learn them, he alone never ceasing from studying most diligently to the best of his ability. He daily attended mass and the other services of religion; recited certain psalms, together with prayers, and the daily and nightly hour-service; and frequented the churches at night, as I have said, that he might pray in secret, apart from others. He bestowed alms and largesses both on natives and on foreigners of all countries; was most affable and agreeable to all; and was skilful in the investigation of things unknown.[176] Many Franks, Frisians,[177] Gauls, heathen,[178] Welsh, Irish,[179] and Bretons,[180] noble and simple, submitted voluntarily to his dominion; and all of them, according to their worthiness,[181] he ruled, loved, honored, and enriched with money and power, as if they had been his own people.[182] Moreover, he was sedulous and zealous in the habit of hearing the divine Scriptures read by his own countrymen, or if, by any chance it so happened that any one arrived from abroad, to hear prayers in company with foreigners. His bishops, too, and all the clergy, his ealdormen and nobles, his personal attendants and friends, he loved with wonderful affection. Their sons, too, who were bred up in the royal household, were no less dear to him than his own; he never ceased to instruct them in all kinds of good morals, and, among other things, himself to teach them literature night and day. But as if he had no consolation in all these things, and suffered no other annoyance either from within or without, he was so harassed by daily and nightly sadness that he complained and made moan to the Lord, and to all who were admitted to his familiarity and affection, that Almighty God had made him ignorant of divine wisdom and of the liberal arts; in this emulating the pious, famous, and wealthy Solomon, King of the Hebrews, who at the outset, despising all present glory and riches, asked wisdom of God, and yet found both, namely, wisdom and present glory; as it is written, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’[183] But God, who is always the observer of the thoughts of the inward mind, the instigator of meditations and of all good purposes, and a plentiful aider in the formation of good desires—for He would never inspire a man to aim at the good unless He also amply supplied that which the man justly and properly wished to have—stirred up the king’s mind from within, not from without; as it is written, ‘I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me.’[184] He would avail himself of every opportunity to procure assistants in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a prudent bee,[185] which, rising in summer at early morning from her beloved cells, steers her course with rapid flight along the uncertain paths of the air, and descends on the manifold and varied flowers of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which most pleases her, and bearing it home, he directed the eyes of his mind afar, and sought that without which he had not within, that is, in his own kingdom.[186]

77. Alfred’s Scholarly Associates: Werfrith, Plegmund, Æthelstan, and Werwulf.[187]—But God at that time, as some consolation to the king’s benevolence, enduring no longer his kindly and just complaint, sent as it were certain luminaries, namely, Werfrith,[188] Bishop of the church of Worcester, a man well versed in divine Scripture, who, by the king’s command, was the first to interpret with clearness and elegance the books of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory and Peter, his disciple, from Latin into Saxon, sometimes putting sense for sense; then Plegmund,[189] a Mercian by birth, Archbishop of the church of Canterbury, a venerable man, endowed with wisdom; besides Æthelstan[190] and Werwulf, learned priests and clerks,[191] Mercians by birth. These four King Alfred had called to him from Mercia, and he exalted them with many honors and powers in the kingdom of the West Saxons, not to speak of those which Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith had in Mercia. By the teaching and wisdom of all these the king’s desire increased continually, and was gratified. Night and day, whenever he had any leisure, he commanded such men as these to read books to him—for he never suffered himself to be without one of them—so that he came to possess a knowledge of almost every book, though of himself he could not yet understand anything of books, since he had not yet learned to read anything.

78. Grimbald and John, the Old Saxon.[192]—But since the king’s commendable avarice could not be gratified even in this, he sent messengers beyond sea to Gaul, to procure teachers, and invited from thence Grimbald,[193] priest and monk, a venerable man and excellent singer, learned in every kind of ecclesiastical discipline and in holy Scripture, and adorned with all virtues. He also obtained from thence John,[194] both priest and monk, a man of the keenest intellect, learned in all branches of literature, and skilled in many other arts. By the teaching of these men the king’s mind was greatly enlarged, and he enriched and honored them with much power.