THE TIMES AND COINS OF ALFRED THE GREAT

William Shakespeare might have had Alfred the Great in mind when he wrote that ‘some have greatness thrust upon them.’ During his early years Alfred seemed destined for an obscure monastic life of bookish learning rather than the sort of greatness brought on by success in bloody combat and glory on a battlefield. While his three elder brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelbert, and Æthelred, flung themselves with Germanic zeal into swordsmanship and other martial arts, Alfred read poetry.

At the age of five he already outshone his siblings in scholarship, coming first of the four in a competition to memorise a book of poems. His mother, queen Osburga,