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Note: ncreased. After a major invasion in 865, the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia were rapidly overrun, and in 871 the Danish army attacked Wessex. The Wessex forces under the command of Alfred (reigned 871-99), then aged 21, defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington in 878. The Danes withdrew to an area north of a frontier running from London to Chester and known as 'Danelaw'. This victory did not finish the Danish threat, and Alfred reorganized the Wessex defenses by organizing his army on a rotating basis, so he could raise a 'rapid reaction force' to deal with raiders whilst still enabling his thegns and peasants to tend their farms. Second, Alfred started a building programmed of well-defended settlements across southern England as a defense in depth against Danish raiders. Alfred also ordered the building of a navy of new fast ships to patrol the coasts and meet invaders before they penetrated inland. Other reforms included establishing a legal code (assembled from the laws of his predecessors and of the kingdoms of Mercia and Kent), and reforming the coinage. Illiterate in Latin until the age of 38, Alfred promoted literacy, religion and education, and directed the translation of works of religious instruction, philosophy and history into the vernacular; this was partly so that people could read his orders and legislation. The energetic royal authority demonstrated in Alfred's policies presaged the Wessex kings' rule of all England during the next century.
Note: Alfred From the late 8th century, attacks by Vikings from Scandinavia i
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