Alfred the Great
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About
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, is the only English king to carry that title, and he earned it by surviving: he held the last free corner of England against the Danes, bought time, rebuilt, and turned a defeat into a kingdom. He translated books himself and thought literacy a matter of state. His daughter Aelfthryth married the Count of Flanders, and that is the marriage through which this family descends from him. Above him the West Saxon pedigree runs on toward Cerdic and eventually Woden, and this book stops here.
Research notes
✓ DOCUMENTED (Standard, undisputed account (the counts of Flanders = a classic gateway pedigree; CP / Europaeische Stammtafeln / Settipani) - relaxed-rule entry 23 Jul 2026, provenance so noted.): **ALFRED THE GREAT, KING OF WESSEX / KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS** (r. 871-899) - the only English king called 'the Great'; defeated the Danes at Edington 878, rebuilt learning and law, translated Boethius. Direct ancestor VIA his daughter AElfthryth (I99601). THE WEST-SAXON ROYAL LINE ABOVE HIM (AEthelwulf, Egbert, back through Cerdic toward Woden) is documented a few generations then dissolves into legend - kept NOTE-ONLY, the honest frontier (as Aubrey de Vere I's 1086 rung, so here Cerdic/Woden). Added 23 Jul 2026.