The Anglo-Saxons were being squeezed from Wessex despite Alfred�s improbable victory at Ashdown.Ī battle veteran at 21, Alfred had no choice but to withdraw to the trying landscape of the Somerset Levels, where he continued guerrilla warfare against his foes.
In the next year, he succeeded his brother as king, who after subsequent crushing defeats at the hands of the Danes, perished from fatal wounds. This pre-emptive strike failed and the brothers were forced back to defend their homeland against the seemingly unstoppable Great Heathen Army.Īfter a grueling series of bloody battles, it was Alfred who led Wessex to victory in the Battle of Ashdown in 871, routing the Vikings in a fierce hillside assault and laying the first foundations for his reputation as a decisive leader. You know what? He looks like he could make a GREAT King.Īlfred undertook his first key military challenge in 868 AD when he supported his brother Æthelred, the reigning King of Wessex (West Seaxe), in an attempt to repel invading Danish Vikings from the neighboring Kingdom of Mercia (Mierce).
