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King Alfred, or Alfred the Great, was one of the earliest and most important English kings. He was a pillar of light in the Dark Ages. As a boy, he went to Rome with his father and learnt much of Roman civilization. In 871 A.D. he became king and took his duties very earnestly.
When the Danes from North Europe began to invade the ancient England, Afred, as the king, led his people to fight against their invasion. It's he who built a naval force and later became known as "the Father of the British Navy". He also reorganized the land army, marching one half of the men against the enemy and bidding the other half to till the land. In the end, after many battles with defeating and being defeated, King Alfred defeated the Danes in the battle of Wedmore(Wet moor).
In fact, King Alfred was even greater in peace than he was in war. He established schools and brought in learned churchmen from Rome to teach Latin culture. He himself learned Latin hard. He was also active in religious affairs. His contribution to literature was also notable. His writings and translations have been long regarded as the beginning of prose literature in England.
This good man died in 901 and now lies buried in Winchester Cathedral, Southern England.
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There is an interesting story about King Alfred during his wars.
At one time the enemy was winning, Alfred's soldiers had all run away. And the king was alone in a forest. It was late and Alfred was tired and hungry. After walking for some time he came to a little cattage. He knocked at the door and asked for food and shelter for night. There was a poor woman in the cottage. She did not know that Alfred was the king as his clothes were torn and dirty. She let him in, and tald him to watch her cakes which were baking while she went to the well to fetch water.
Poor Alfred had more important things to think about than the cakes, which he soon forgot. When the woman came back her cakes were all burnt. She was very angry.
"You good-for-nothing, worthless man," she said, "you want to eat but you can not even watch some cakes for a quarter of an hour." She began beating the poor king with a stick.
Just then some of the enemy's soldiers came to the cottage. They were looking for King Alfred to make him prisoner. When they saw the woman beating him they never dreamt that he was the king, they thought he was her husband. So they laughed and passed on.
Later, when the poor woman learnt that it was the king whom she had beaten, she was very much afraid.
"Do not be afraid, my good old woman." said the king laughing,"Your strong stick saved my life."
