7 page paper (due in 18 hours)

Alfred’s “Modest Foundation”: The Birth of the Anglo-Saxon Identity through Propaganda

Peter Damian HST 414 English History

Professor Humbert April 25, 2013

Class papers often include a title page. The title should be centered a third of the way down the page, and your name and class information should follow several lines later. When subtitles apply, end the title with a colon and place the subtitle on the line below the title. The cover page is single spaced.

Always check with your professor, though, as some may not want a cover page or will have different instructions / preferences.

The paper should have one inch margins, be doubled spaced, and typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.

King Alfred the Great is credited with many “great” accomplishments: he held the Viking

forces at bay, he promoted learning as one of the highest importances, and he was notably pious.

While his work in each of these areas was significant, arguably his most important contribution

came from the combination of his more specified achievements. Historians have argued over the

influence of Alfred on the growing Anglo-Saxon identity during his reign and those of his

successors. A distinct shift can be seen during Alfred’s reign in kingship: before Alfred, there was

a plethora of “kings” and independent houses, whereas after Alfred, his is the only royal house

and all others become subordinate.1 While Alfred did not entirely achieve unification of all the

people of England, it is not to be denied that he laid the groundwork for later generations.

Through the Annals of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle during the years of his reign and Asser’s Life

of King Alfred, it is clear that Alfred sought to advocate for the “English” identity, and was

instrumental in the formation of such an identity by unifying the separate kingdoms of England

militarily, religiously, and linguistically.

During the course of Alfred’s life, the many kingdoms of England were under the

constant threat of Viking armies. His father, as well as his brothers who were the kings of Wessex

before him, spent their reigns fighting off Viking attacks.2 Alfred, when he was old enough to

join his brothers, fought in many battles—and was victorious in most of them, according to

Asser.3 This state of affairs—the constant plague of Vikings—presented Alfred with a unique

opportunity: to unite the kingdoms against a common enemy. As a proven warrior, Alfred stood

Damien 1

1 Kemp Malone, "The Rise of English Nationalism," Journal of the History of Ideas 1, no. 4 (October 1940): 504, accessed April 24, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2707127.

2 Asser, "Life of King Alfred," in Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983), 68-80.

3 Ibid., 80-81.

Arabic page numbers begin in the header of the first page of text, with your last name before it.

Note numbers should begin with “1” and follow consecutively throughout a given paper, article, or chapter.

In the text, note numbers are superscripted. In the notes themselves, note numbers are can be done one of two ways: superscripted, or full sized and followed by a period.

A thesis statement is (typically) one sentence that clarifies the point of the paper, controlling the direction and focus. The thesis is found toward the end of the introduction.

Note numbers should be placed at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and should be placed after all punctuation except the dash.

The first time you cite a source, use the full citation. Subsequent citations use the author’s last name followed by the title of the work and page number(s).

“Ibid.” is an abbreviation meaning “in the same place.” Use it when the present note repeats the information of the immediately preceding note. For example, “Ibid., ##” indicates the same source but different page number(s).

to gain a great deal by helping the neighboring kingdoms of Mercia, Kent, and Northumbria

defend against the invading Vikings; he would protect the kingdoms and people that did not

strictly fall under his law, and by doing so, would prove himself to be a more apt leader than

those in place.

While it is questionable whether his original intentions were to adopt these municipalities

through joint conquest against the Vikings, it is undeniable that his military leadership in these

battles garnered him great respect from his neighbors as well as fostering the “English” identity

among the combined military forces. Asser often references “combined forces” when referring to

the armies fighting the Vikings, suggesting that by the time Alfred took control of Wessex it was

a common practice of battle.4

What Alfred did differently than his predecessors was to take advantage of such

commonality. Asser notes that, “Many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, Vikings, Welshmen, Irishmen,

and Bretons subjected themselves willingly to his lordship, nobles and commoners alike.”5 Many

municipalities “petitioned King Alfred of their own accord, in order to obtain lordship and

protection from him in the face of their enemies.”6 Asser later states that, “All the Angles and

Saxons—those who had been formerly scattered everywhere… turned willingly to King Alfred

and submitted themselves to his lordship.”7 Whether or not all of Alfred’s alliances were made

with consent, it is clear that Asser sought to portray Alfred’s relationship with other kingdoms as

that of a savior or father figure to these struggling kingdoms. The Annals of The Anglo-Saxon

Damien 2

4 Ibid., 76, 78.

5 Ibid., 91.

6 Ibid., 96.

7 Ibid., 98.

Footnotes should be in 10 point Times New Roman font, rather than 12 point (like the rest of your paper).

Double-space all text in the paper, except for block quotes. A prose quotation of five or more lines should be “blocked.” The block quotation is singled-spaced and takes no quotation marks, but you should leave an extra line space immediately before and after. Indent the entire quotation . 5” (the same as you would the start of a new paragraph) and include a footnote at the end.

Chronicle reference such oaths as well, citing the kingdoms of the East Angles and the

Northumbrians as submitting to King Alfred in 893.8 Some of these alliances, as Sarah Foot

notes, might have been pre-existing; the presence of the stories of their origin in Asser’s work

and the Annals suggests the importance of broadcasting these ties as propaganda for the

unification of England.9 These kingdoms viewed Alfred as the ultimate leader, especially in

matters of battle, and so sought his protection in return for their subservience. In this way, Alfred

built himself as the King of not only Wessex, but of the Anglo-Saxons in an official capacity.

Through the alliances he made, in the words of Foot, “King Alfred might be credited with the

invention of the English as a political community.”10

Asser often references the “Christian army” when discussing Alfred’s campaigns against

the Vikings.11 The Annals call the army the “English army,” which serves the similar purpose of

unifying the armies under one name.12 However, Asser’s term also unites them under one

religion. This distinction is important because of the social implications. The unification of the

kingdoms under Alfred was an official, political unification, whereas the commonality of religion

provided a basis for a truly united group—not only by formal alliance, but by similarity of ideas

and intentions.

Damien 3

8 “The Anglo Saxon Chronicle 888-900,” trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, in Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983), 114.

9 Sarah Foot, "The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 6 (1996): 26, accessed April 24, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3679228.

10 Ibid., 25.

11 Asser, “Life of King Alfred,” 78-79

12 “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” 115.

The first time you reference an author in text, use their full name. All subsequent references should be only their last name.

Chicago style uses either footnotes or endnotes. Either is acceptable, but ask your professors for their particular preference. This essay uses footnote style. Endnotes would look very similar in-text, but instead of notes at the bottom of the page, they would go at the end of the paper right before the bibliography.

If a source does not have an author, use only the title of the work and page numbers in subsequent footnotes.

Alfred took great care to cultivate a Christian identity outside of his own kingdom. He

made sizeable donations to churches all over England and even went so far as to convert the

Viking leader, Guthrum, from which the ensuing peace lasted only a short time.13 He also

brought “monks of various nationalities” to his kingdom, diversifying the native religious

population.14 This inclusion by Asser suggests that this might have pleased some of the

foreigners—or simply English people not from Wessex—who might have read Asser’s work.

Asser cites Alfred’s generosity to both his native people and foreigners, showing him to be

nondiscriminatory toward visitors as well as charitable.15 Alfred also collected church lands as he

pushed the Vikings out of England. As Janet Nelson discusses, Alfred’s military tactics combined

with his religious tactics gave him more religious control over areas that were not strictly his.16

Additionally, Alfred received many gifts from foreigners from as far as Jerusalem, which held

certain biblical significance, which likely served as strong propaganda for Alfred’s worldliness,

showing readers of Asser’s work that Alfred was not stuck in a Wessex dictated mindset.17

The laws of Alfred the Great relied heavily on The Old Testament tradition. As Foot

states, his laws were a combination of laws from many kingdoms, legislated “overtly in the

tradition of a Christian king, against an historical background of Old Testament law-giving.”18

By doing this, Alfred was attempting to draw a parallel between his own laws and those of the

Damien 4

13 Asser, “Life of King Alfred,” 85.

14 Ibid., 103.

15 Ibid., 91.

16 Janet L. Nelson, "'A King across the Sea': Alfred in Continental Perspective," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 36 (1986): 67, accessed April 24, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3679059.

17 Asser, “Life of King Alfred,” 101.

18 Foot, "The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest," 32.

Chosen People of Israel.19 This comparison was likely modeled to be inclusive to all English

Christians, so as to appeal to the variety of people he had under his rule. Through the spread of a

unifying religion and laws that echoed it, Alfred was more capable of creating a wholly Christian

identity for the Anglo-Saxons.

Perhaps Alfred’s most notable achievements as king were in his scholarly pursuits. In

many ways, Alfred’s thirst for knowledge and his promotion of learning throughout England is

comparable to that of the Carolingian Renaissance in France. While his efforts did much to

educate the Anglo-Saxons and change the course of literacy, he also achieved a great deal in his

goal toward unifying his kingdom through the standardization of language. Like his monks,

Alfred summoned scholars from all over Europe, desiring the most accurate, but also the most

diversified advisors, Asser among them.20 These scholars, and Asser in particular, helped him to

translate many religious works from Latin into English so that the common people might be able

to understand them.21 In one episode described by Asser, Alfred learns to read Latin and then to

translate it into English in a single day.22 He is said to have done this out of “divine inspiration,”

stressing the religious aspect of his scholarship.23 Alfred’s translations made religion more

accessible to the people of Alfred’s various kingdoms, as well as exposing them all to a shared

language.

Damien 5

19 Ibid.

20 Asser, “Life of King Alfred,” 93.

21 Ibid., 92-93.

22 Ibid., 99.

23 Ibid.

If you cite the same source two or more times in a row and you are referencing the same page number(s), use “Ibid.” on its own.

The dialect of English which Alfred used in his translations has been called “The King’s

English,” a standardized dialect created by Alfred, which made way for English Literature, and

promoted reading and writing prose as well as religious texts in English rather than Latin.24 The

standardization of English brought the Anglo-Saxons together in terms of communication. This

helped to streamline the identification of English people, as they were often, as Bede had done in

his work, identified by the languages which they spoke.25 This enabled the introduction of the

Anglo-Saxon, or Angelcynn, identity to form more rapidly. Both Asser and the Annals refer to

Alfred’s people as the “Anglo-Saxons,” a term essentially coined during Alfred’s reign. Before

Alfred became king, the term was uncommon, but during the later years of Alfred’s reign the

term grew in prominence. Foot argues that this was done purposefully in order to promote the

English identity as that of one people.26

Alfred’s reign was significant in many ways. He was remarkable in his military prowess,

his religious fervor, and his scholarship, but it was his promotion of an English identity, largely

through the works of Asser and the Annals of The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, that was truly great.

As his obituary in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, by the end of his life, “he was king over the

whole English people, except for the part which was under Danish rule.”27 However, he did not

succeed in uniting all of the English; that was for his successors to do. But, as Asser quotes, “The

just man builds on a modest foundation and gradually proceeds to greater things.”28

Damien 6

24 Malone, “The Rise of English Nationalism," 504.

25 Foot, "The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest," 29.

26 Ibid., 30.

27 “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” 120.

28 Asser, “Life of King Alfred,” 100.

If you mention words in another language (e.g., old English, French, Gaelic, German, Elvish, Klingon, Parseltongue, etc.), use italics.

When referencing source titles in text, use italics for a monograph or primary source. If referencing a journal article, put the title of the article in quotation marks.

Bibliography

Asser, John. "Life of King Alfred." In Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, 65-110. Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983.

Foot, Sarah. "The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 6 (1996): 25-49. Accessed April 24, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3679228.

Malone, Kemp. "The Rise of English Nationalism." Journal of the History of Ideas 1, no. 4 (October 1940): 504-05. Accessed April 24, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2707127.

Nelson, Janet L. "'A King across the Sea': Alfred in Continental Perspective." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 36 (1986): 45-68. Accessed April 24, 2013. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/3679059.

"The Anglo Saxon Chronicle 888-900." Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. In Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, 111-20. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983.

Damien 7

Label the first page of your back matter, your comprehensive list of sources cited, “Bibliography.” Two blank lines should be left between “Bibliography” and your first entry.

For electronic journal articles and other web sources, DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) are preferred to URLs (Uniform resource Locators). DOIs are to be prefaced with the letters “doi” and a colon. While DOIs are assigned to journal articles in any medium, you only need include a DOI when you accessed the electronic version of the source. If you must use a URL, look for the “stable” version assigned by the journal.

One blank line should be left between entries, which should be listed in letter-by-letter alphabetical order according to the first word in each entry. Sources you consulted but did not directly cite may or may not be included (consult your instructor).

Note that no access date is required to be reported for electronic sources. They can’t be verified; therefore, only resort to using access dates when date of publication is unavailable. If you cannot ascertain the publication date of a printed work, use the abbreviation “n.d.”