Classroom Notes: By Carol Rae Moon

There is perhaps no King of greater importance as far as the establishment of freedom and the Christian faith than that of Alfred and the English themselves called Alfred, “The Great”.

Christianity had been introduced into the British Isles certainly by the 6th Century A.D. Although it is probably the case that it made it’s way to the British Isles within the 1st Century after the Apostles. It was already having great influence by the 2nd Century A.D. The documents are scarce but there is evidence to that effect. However, Christianity was well planted, well established, by the 6th Century A.D. and its laws were to some extent affected by. You have to understand that the people were divided among a number of people.

Before we deal with King Alfred, a little background is needed. After the battle of 577 A.D. the combined influence and power conquest of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, established their presence in England. The 3 of those peoples, who had settled in England, met, with only minor resistance, and soon they divided the country amongst themselves, making 7 little Kingdoms and a few even smaller ones. These in essence made up the history of England; Until King Egbert of Wessex unified these Kingdoms to some degree under his rule by 829 A.D.

However by this time the infamous Viking Raids were threatening all of Europe, and England was a primary target. All throughout the British Isles waves of Vikings of Scandinavia, descended upon the people, who would later be known as the English, and had lived there for several centuries. The Danish evasion in particular racked the island all throughout the British Isles. We’re told by the Angle Saxon Chronicle that in the year 787 there came 3 ships to the West Saxon shores, and they slew the folk there. These were the first ships of Danish men who sought land from Angles folk.

We know of another Danish expedition in 793 that invaded. In particular these raids would target the Christian Faith. They sacked famous Monasteries and murdered its Monks. In 794 the Danes entered other area’s and reduced them to utter devastation. In 835 the Dames attacked again. In 839 a Pirate Fleet of over 350 Vessels sailed up the Thames and moored right there in London. The city was sacked for days. In 867 land was conquered by Danes and Swedes, thousands of those who were called English were slain, men, women and children. Monasteries were sacked. Great Libraries that had been developed over the centuries to that point were scattered or burned.

By 871 most of England, north of the Thanes River, was under the authority of the Danish invaders. In fact it was in that year that a Danish Army marched south so as to attack the Wessex, Capital. It was there that they were met by King Ethelred and his younger brother Alfred. They met the Danes and won the battle, but in the 2nd engagement Ethelred was mortally wounded, and the English fled.

Alfred mounted the throne at West Saxon at the age of 22 years old. This background which was supplied to us from the great work of AGE OF FAITH; THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION, gives us a thumbnail sketch of the trying circumstances that were faced by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Angleland or England as it was later to be called was suffering terribly as a result of the Viking Raids. The Danes were dominant, until young King Alfred came to the throne.

King Alfred’s father was King Ethelwulf. He had ruled over the Southwestern portion of England for some time. He traced his genealogy all the way back to Noah. The Christian influence in his life and upon his son’s was enormous. Alfred himself incidentally took great pains to trace his genealogy all the way back to Japheth; the third and youngest son of Noah; and from there; back in the genealogy of Genesis; to Adam.

During this period of time, the Vikings were constantly raiding the Christian British Isles targeting Monasteries, Churches and destroying Christian Works. It was left for a young and powerful King to handle them and that is precisely what Alfred the Great became.

This particular King was a great Warrior but he’s less known to history ironically as a great Warrior then he is a great Scholar. King Alfred was one of those rare individuals who mastered, despite many obstacles, many different areas of life.

As a Warrior he dealt handily with the Danes and then mercifully with them, after he had conquered them. He’d be responsible for the establishment of the codification of the Christian Laws of England. It is important that we understand why this point is often avoided by historians. They’ll stress his Law Code but not one in a hundred will emphasize where he got his laws. They might say he got them from 3 earlier Kingdoms and although that’s true, there is a bit of an omission. It’ carefully avoided by historians. That omission is simple. King Alfred and his Law Code brought freedom and stability to the English people because he drew heavily from the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament. You have to understand that in the Churches today, very often the Law of God is neglected, but there’s a history in the use of portion’s of scripture such as Ex. 20-23 which is where much of the legislation is found in scripture concerning the ordering of the Kingdom.

It’s interesting that in New England our Pilgrim and Puritan Forefathers of Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, to some extent Rhode Island, and even the Dutch and later the English of New York and New Jersey used many of these same laws and from this established an order that became so prosperous and so free, that the other colonies emulated it.

England used many of these same laws. Its stability brought power, prosperity and fame to the English speaking peoples during that era of the English Reformation during the 1600s. When the Laws of God that are found in the Old Testament are used, as they are in fact to be used, as St. Paul in Romans 13 – those Laws bring freedom to a people. Of course with freedom comes the compensity towards productivity and its consequence - prosperity.

Freedom is the natural outgrowth of these sections of laws of the Pentateuch. We’ll emphasize Ex. 20-23, because that’s what Alfred the Great emphasized, although he drew from all sorts of areas of scripture, heavily from the Pentateuch, but that was a concentrated effort. Those 4 Chapters provided the foundation what would later become English Liberty. They were recast during the time of Magna Carter. Alfred drew from many of the Laws of the former Kingdoms in earlier centuries, no doubt, but he edited them, and he injected the Laws of God, in essence rewrote them. Magna Carter simply reformulated the laws that Alfred had given them nearly 400 years later.

Out of that comes THE COMMON LAW. England would again use those same laws in the 1600s. We wonder why the English should have been a free people. Their Laws were different from the Laws of other countries. They had many of the same traditions of a former people but now their Laws enabled them to codify and structure a society. They would become free.

So often you think of the Law and the Pharisee’s. The Pharisee’s were not keepers of the Law of God, any more than many of the Churches today are. The Pharisee’s in fact changed the laws and were noted for their emphasis on their own traditions.

Christ, taking the title of Rabi, which meant the Master of the Law, time and time again challenged them. You have to remember that St, Paul instructs us that the Law of the Lord is designed not for death, but according to Romans 7, designed for life. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in Romans, the Law of God was not designed for saving us, it is designed for teaching us, how to build a whole new civilization.

Its interesting that King Alfred understood that and in fact commented on that very issue. He knew that the laws that were homologated in earlier centuries, time and again were throated internal contradictions, leading to infractions in society. What he wished to do was give his own people stability, lawful stability and more important justice. Justice, stability and add to that equity, meaning the fair and even merciful application of the Law, as the Bible enjoins. You’ll find that England became a Powerful Nation.

King Alfred would be responsible for its laws but he did far, far, more than that. He was a Walking Culture Carrier as we are about to see… ALFRED THE GREAT: CHRISTIANITY AND THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH LIBERTY

You will want this history to be yours, to teach your children with and to share with others…

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