military reforms initiated by him. These were (1) the division
of the fyrd or national militia into two parts, relieving
each other at fixed intervals, so as to ensure continuity in
military operations; (2) the establishment of fortified posts
(burgs) and garrisons at certain points; (3) the enforcement
of the obligations of thanehood on all owners of five hides
of land, thus giving the king a nucleus of highly equipped
troops. After the final dispersal of the Danish invaders
Alfred turned his attention to the increase of the navy, and
ships were built according to the king's own designs, partly to
repress the ravages of the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes
on the coasts of Wessex, partly to prevent the landing of fresh
hordes. This is not, as often asserted, the beginning of the
English navy. There had been earlier naval operations under
Alfred. One naval engagement was certainly fought under
AEthelwulf (851), and earlier ones, possibly in 833 and 840.
Nor were the new ships a great success, as we hear of them
grounding in action and foundering in a storm. Much, too, was
needed in the way of civil re-organization, especially in the
districts ravaged by the Danes. In the parts of Mercia acquired
by Alfred, the shire system seems now to have been introduced
for the first time. This is the one grain of truth in the
legend that Alfred was the inventor of shires, hundreds and
tithings. The finances also would need careful attention;
but the subject is obscure, and we cannot accept Asser's
description of Alfred's appropriation of his revenue as more
than an ideal sketch. Alfred's care for the administration
of justice is testified both by history and legend; and
the title ``protector of the poor'' was his by unquestioned
right. Of the action of the witenagemot we do not hear very
much under Alfred. That he was anxious to respect its rights
is conclusively proved, but both the circumstances of the
time and the character of the king would tend to throw more
power into his hands. The legislation of Alfred probably
belongs to the later part of the reign, after the pressure of
the Danes had relaxed. The details of it cannot be discussed
here. Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with
foreign powers, but little definite information is available.
He certainly corresponded with Elias III., the patriarch of
Jerusalem, and probably sent a mission to India. Embassies
to Rome conveying the English alms to the pope were fairly
frequent; while Alfred's interest in foreign countries is
shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of
Orosius. His relations to the Celtic princes in the southern
half of the island are clearer. Comparatively early in
his reign the South Welsh princes, owing to the pressure
on them of North Wales and Mercia, commended themselves to
Alfred. Later in the reign the North Welsh followed their
example, and the latter co-operated with the English in the
campaign of 893 (894). The Celtic principality in Cornwall,
which seems to have survived at least till 926, must long
have been practically dependent on Wessex. That Alfred
sent alms to Irish as well as to continental monasteries
may be accepted on Asser's authority; the visit of the
three pilgrim ``Scots'' (i.e. Irish) to Alfred in 891
is undoubtedly authentic; the story that he himself in his
childhood was sent to Ireland to be healed by St Modwenna,
though mythical, may point to Alfred's interest in that
island. The history of the church under Alfred is most
obscure. The Danish inroads had told heavily upon it; the
monasteries had been special points of attack, and though
Alfred founded two or three monasteries and imported foreign
monks, there was no general revival of monasticism under
him. To the ruin of learning and education wrought by
the Danes, and the practical extinction of the knowledge
of Latin even among the clergy, the preface to Alfred's
translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care bears eloquent
testimony. It was to remedy these evils that he established
a court school, after the example of Charles the Great; for
this he imported scholars like Grimbald and John the Saxon
from the continent and Asser from South Wales; for this,
above all, he put himself to school, and made the series of
translations for the instruction of his clergy and people,
most of which still survive. These belong unquestionably
to the later part of his reign, not improbably to the last
four years of it, during which the chronicles are almost
silent. Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridion,
which seems to have been merely a commonplace-book kept by the
king, the earliest work to be translated was the Dialogues
of Gregory, a book enormously popular in the middle
ages. In this case the translation was made by Alfred's
great friend Werferth, bishop of Worcester, the king merely
furnishing a preface. The next work to be undertaken was
Gregory's Pastoral Care, especially for the benefit of the
clergy. In this Alfred keeps very close to his original;
but the introduction which he prefixed to it is one of the
most interesting documents of the reign, or indeed of English
history. The next two works taken in hand were historical,
the Universal History of Orosius and Bede's Ecclesiastical
History of the English People. The priority should probably
be assigned to the Orosius, but the point has been much
debated. In the Orosius, by omissions and additions, Alfred
so remodels his original as to produce an almost new work;
in the Bede the author's text is closely adhered to, no
additions being made, though most of the documents and some
other less interesting matters are omitted. Of late years
doubts have been raised as to Alfred's authorship of the Bede
translation. But the sceptics cannot be regarded as having
proved their point. We come now to what is in many ways
the most interesting of Alfred's works, his translation of
Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, the most popular
philosophical manual of the middle ages. Here again Alfred
deals very freely with his original and though the late Dr
G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are
to be traced not to Alfred himself, but to the glosses and
commentaries which he used, still there is much in the work
which is solely Alfred's and highly characteristic of his
genius. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence
occurs: ``My will was to live worthily as long as I lived,
and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my
memory in good works.'' The book has come down to us in two MSS.
only. In one of these the poems with which the original
is interspersed are rendered into prose, in the other into
alliterating verse. The authorship of the latter has been
much disputed; but probably they also are by Alfred. Of the
authenticity of the work as a whole there has never been any
doubt. The last of Alfred's works is one to which he gave the
title Blostman, i. e. ``Blooms'' or Anthology. The first
half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine,
the remainder is drawn from various sources, and contains
much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of
him. The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting
epitaph for the noblest of English kings. ``Therefore he
seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will
not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and
ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall
be made clear.'' Besides these works of Alfred's, the Saxon
Chronicle almost certainly, and a Saxon Martyrology, of
which fragments only exist, probably owe their inspiration to
him. A prose version of the first fifty Psalms has been
attributed to him; and the attribution, though not proved,
is perfectly possible. How Alfred passed to ``the life where
all things are made clear'' we do not know. The very year is
uncertain. The arguments on the whole are in favour of
900. The day was the 26th of October. Alike for what he
did and for what he was, there is none to equal Alfred
in the whole line of English sovereigns; and no monarch
in history ever deserved more truly the epithet of Great.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The chief original authorities for the reign
of Alfred are the so-called Life by Asser (best edition
by W. H. Stevenson, Clarendon Press, 1904); and the Saxon
Chronicles (text and notes by Earle and Plummer, 2 vols.,
Clar. Press, 1892-1899; parallel texts and translation,
Thorpe, 2 vols., 1861, Rolls Series; translation alone,
Joseph Stevenson in Church Historians of England, vol. ii.,
1853). The above sketch is based mainly on C. Plummer's Life
and Times of Alfred the Great (Clar. Press, 1902). Of earlier
biographies that by Pauli is still of great value: Konig
AElfred (Berlin, 1851); Eng. trans. by Thorpe (Bohn, 1853). Of
recent works mention may be made of Alfred the Great, Chapters
on his Life and Times, by various authors, edited by Alfred
Bowker (1899); Earle, The Alfred Jewel (Clar. Press, 1901).
For the bioliography of Alfred's works in general see Wulker,
Grundriss zur Gesch. der angelsachsischen Litteratur, pp.
386-451 (Leipzig, 1885). Only the more recent and accessible
editions are mentioned here. Laws: The Legal Code ofAElfred
the Great (M. H. Turk, Halle, 1893). (For the Anglo-Saxon laws
as a whole see Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Halle,
1898-1903. Earlier editions, Schmid, 1858; Thorpe, 1840.)
Gregory's Dialogues: Hans Hecht, in Grein's Bibliothek der
angels. Prosa (1900). Gregory's Pastoral Care: H. Sweet,
for Early Eng. Text Society (1871--1872). (Dissertations by
Wack and DeWitz, 1889.) Orosius: Thorpe (in his translation of
Pauli, U. S. 1853); Bosworth (1859); Sweet, E.E.T.S. (1883).
(Dissertation Schelling, Konig AElfred's . . . Orosius,
Halle, 1886.) Bede: T. Miller, for E.E.T.S. (1890); Prof.
Schipper, in Grein's Bibliothek (U.S. 1899). Boethius:
W. J. Sedgfield (Clar. Press, 1899); translation by the same
(1900). (Dissertation: G. Schepss, Archiv fur's Studium
der neueren Sprachen, xciv. 14-160.) Blostman: First printed
by Cockayne in the Shrine (1868-1869); reprinted, Englische
Studien, xviii.; new edition by Hararove, Yale Studies in
English, xiii. (1902); translation by the same, ib. xxii.
(1904). (Dissertation: F. G. Hubbard, Modern Language Notes,
ix. 522 ff.) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: see above. Mortyrology:
Cockayne, in the Shrine, v.s. Psalter: Thorpe (Clar.
Press, 1855). (Dissertations: for Alfred's authorship, Wichmann,
Anglia, xi. 19 ff.; against, J. D. Bruce, The Anglo-Saxon
Version of the Book of Psalms, Baltimore, 1894.) (C. PL.)
1 Where alternative dates are given the later date is that
of the Saxon Chronicle. But the evidence of the Continental
Chronicles makes it probable that the Saxon Chronicle
is a year in advance of the true chronology in this part.
ALFRED ERNEST ALBERT, duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and duke
of Edinburgh (1844-1900), second son and fourth child of Queen
Victoria, was born at Windsor Castle on the 6th of August
1844. In 1856 it was decided that the prince, in accordance
with his own wishes, should enter the navy, and a separate
establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with Lieutenant
Sowell, R. E., as governor. He passed a most creditable
examination for midshipman in August 1858, and being appointed
to the ``Euryalus,'' at once began to work hard at the
practical part of his profession. In July 1860, while on this
ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape, and made a very
favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native
