Who was the Saxon king of Wessex?
Edward the Elder
Edward, byname Edward the Elder, (died July 17, 924, Farndon on Dee, Eng.), Anglo-Saxon king in England, the son of Alfred the Great. As ruler of the West Saxons, or Wessex, from 899 to 924, Edward extended his authority over almost all of England by conquering areas that previously had been held by Danish invaders.
What did the Vikings do in 871?
The Battle of Reading was a victory for a Danish Viking army over a West Saxon force on about 4 January 871 at Reading in Berkshire. At the end of 870 they launched an attempt to conquer Wessex and marched from East Anglia to Reading, arriving on about 28 December.
Who was the greatest Anglo-Saxon king?
Alfred
There were many famous Anglo-Saxon kings, but the most famous of all was Alfred, one of the only kings in British history to be called ‘Great’. His father was king of Wessex, but by the end of Alfred’s reign his coins referred to him as ‘King of the English’.
Who was the first Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex?
Æthelstan
Æthelstan, the first ever King of England, took the Wessex throne in 924 after his elder brother’s death. However, although he was very popular in Mercia, Æthelstan was less well liked in Wessex as he had been raised and schooled outside of the kingdom.
Who was the king of Wessex before Alfred?
Alfred’s next three brothers were successively kings of Wessex. Æthelbald (858-860) and Æthelberht (860-865) were also much older than Alfred, but Æthelred (865-871) was only a year or two older. Alfred’s only known sister, Æthelswith, married Burgred, king of the midland kingdom of Mercia in 853.
What is Wessex now called?
In 927 Edward’s successor Athelstan conquered Northumbria, bringing the whole of England under one ruler for the first time. The Kingdom of Wessex had thus been transformed into the Kingdom of England.
Was reading in Mercia or Wessex?
Asser’s life of Alfred tells us that in AD 870 the Vikings left East Anglia and entered Wessex, where they came to the royal ‘vill’ called Reading, on the south bank of the Thames in the district of Berkshire.
Was King Alfred the best king?
Alfred was a highly successful military leader who, in a battle at Edington in 878, resoundingly defeated the Danish army that had almost conquered Wessex. In the ensuing period of peace he launched a programme of educational reform that transformed the use of English as both a literary and a governmental language.