[269] This was Edward the Elder who succeeded Alfred as king and reigned from 901 to 925. He was Alfred's eldest son.
[270] Ælfthryth was Alfred's fourth child. She became the wife of Baldwin II. of Flanders.
[271] Among other labors in behalf of learning, Alfred made a collection of the ancient epics and lyrics of the Saxon people. Unfortunately, except in the case of the epic Beowulf, only fragments of these have survived. Beowulf was, so far as we know, the earliest of the Saxon poems, having originated before the migration to Britain, though it was probably put in its present form by a Christian monk of the eighth century.
[272] Armorica was the name applied in Alfred's time to the region southward from the mouth of the Seine to Brittany.
[273] There is a good deal of independent evidence that Alfred was peculiarly hospitable to foreigners. He delighted in learning from them about their peoples and experiences.
[274] The word in the original is ministeriales. It is not Saxon but Franco-Latin and is an instance of the Frankish element in Asser's vocabulary. Here, as among the Franks, the ministeriales were the officials of second-rate importance surrounding the king, the highest being known as the ministri.
[275] This comparison of the gathering of learning to the operations of a bee in collecting honey is very common among classical writers and also among those of the Carolingian renaissance. It occurs in Lucretius, Seneca, Macrobius, Alcuin, and the poet Candidus.
[276] Plegmund became archbishop of Canterbury in 890, but it is probable that he was with Alfred some time before his election to the primacy.
[277] This Ethelstan was probably the person of that name who was consecrated bishop of Ramsbury in 909.
[278] From another document it appears that Werwulf was a friend of Bishop Werfrith in Mercia before either took up residence at Alfred's court.