Alfred –Christian King of the English

Alfred the Great

Edited, with Preface by Alfred Bowker

Mayor of Winchester

1897-98

(Published by ADAM & CHARLES BLACK 1899)

To Commemorate the Thousandth Anniversary (1901) of the death of our greatest sovereign –“King Alfred”

The following are extracts from the above book of 257 pages, which cover the Life and Times of a Christian King of the English.

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The purpose of bringing the following details to the public is because of the part that King Alfred took in obtaining the command of the seas over [since our time –August 2004] over 1100 years ago and the forthcoming 200^th Anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar and the death our greatest Naval Commander –Lord Horatio Nelson on the 21^st of October 1805 who died at the moment of Victory.

[It is also an opportunity to further emphasise the great danger we face today from politicians who are intent of ignoring our past history and all that is precious to us - our Nation with such a illustrious past and let the words of the past speak on our behalf for us all.]

The Introduction is by Sir Walter Besant, F.S.A. who has contributed

an extensive outline on the subject to which we will from time to time return. The following are the concluding remarks.

. . . Here [Winchester] lies the dust of the kings his ancestors, and of the kings his successors.  Thirty-five of his line made Winchester their capital: twenty were buried in the Cathedral.  In this city Alfred received instruction from St.Swithin: the city was already old and venerable when Alfred was a boy.  He was buried first in the Cathedral, and afterwards in the Abbey, which he himself founded, hard by.

The name of Alfred’s country, well –nigh forgotten, except by scholars, has been revived of late years by a Wessex man- Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).  But the name of Alfred’s capital continues in the venerable and historic city of Winchester, which yields to none in England for the monuments and the memories of the past.

I venture, lastly, to express my own personal hope that great as were the achievements of Alfred – the keynote to be struck and to be maintained will be that Alfred is, and will always remain, the typical man of our race – call him Anglo-Saxon, call him American, call him Englishman, call him Australian- the typical man of our race at his best and noblest.

I like to think that the face of the Anglo-Saxon at his best and noblest is the face of Alfred I am quite sure and certain that the mind of the Anglo-Saxon at his best and noblest is the mind of Alfred: that the aspirations, the hopes, the standards of the Anglo-Saxon at his best and noblest are the aspirations, the hopes, the standards of Alfred. 

He is truly our Leader, our Founder, and our King.  When our monument takes shape and form let it somehow recognise this great, this cardinal fact.  Let it show somehow by the example of Alfred the Anglo-Saxon at his best and noblest-here within the circle of the narrow seas, or across the ocean; wherever King Alfred’s language is spoken; wherever King Alfred’s laws prevail; into whatever fair lands of the wide world King Alfred’s descendants have penetrated. [Which must include a significant part of the population of the British Isles and other English -speaking peoples worldwide]

In the words of J.R Green the historian:

“ Alfred is the only instance in the history of Christendom of a ruler who put aside every personal aim or ambition in order to devote himself Wholly to the welfare of those he ruled.”

There is next to be observed is the permanence of Alfred’s institutions. They do not perish, but remain. His Witenagemot-the Meeting of the Wise-is our Parliament – it has developed into our many Parliaments.  His order of King, Thane, and Freeman is our order of King, Lords, and Commons.

His theory of Education was carried out in some towns, and in all the monasteries and cathedrals: there are schools still existing, which owe their origin to a period before the Norman Conquest.

His foundation of all law upon the Laws of God remains his own: his liberties are our liberties: his navy is the ancestor of our navy: the literature which he planted has grown into a goodly tree- the Monarch of the Forest: the foreign trade that he began is the forerunner of our foreign trade: it would seem as if there was hardly any point in which in which we have reason to be grateful or proud which was not foreseen by this wise king.