Alfred the Great
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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. This family descends from him by both of his children who left recorded lines: by his son Edward the Elder, whose daughter Eadgifu married Charles the Simple of France, the shortest road in the whole tree; and by his daughter Aelfthryth, who married the Count of Flanders and whose blood came back to England with Matilda, the Conqueror's queen. Above him the wired line continues two more documented generations, to his father Aethelwulf and his grandfather Egbert, and it is at Egbert that the evidence stops.
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 BOTH recorded children (CORRECTED 14 Sep 2026 per the 12 Sep chokepoint survey - 78 paths total): (1) EDWARD THE ELDER - the SHORTEST road, 35 generations: Edward > Eadgifu of Wessex (m. Charles the Simple) > Louis IV d'Outremer > Charles Duke of Lower Lorraine > Gerberga > counts of Louvain > Josceline de Louvain > Percys > FitzWalter > de Veres > Jane Vere > Hunts; (2) AELFTHRYTH (I99601) - 36 generations via Flanders: Arnulf I > Baldwins > Matilda of Flanders > Henry I > Robert of Gloucester > de Clares > Margaret de Clare > Maud de Badlesmere > de Veres. The old note wrongly named Aelfthryth alone and said the line 'stops here' - the WIRED data in fact continues to AETHELWULF (I99940) and EGBERT (I99941), and EGBERT is the frontier (see his record). ||RESEARCH-FLAG|| see I99941 for the FRONTIER. Added 23 Jul 2026; corrected 14 Sep 2026.