KING Alfred, dubbed Alfred the Great, was one of Britain's outstanding monarchs.
He was a brave warrior who drove the Viking invaders out of England as well as a kind and literate man who encouraged education among his people. Saxon Alfred was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, in 849 and came to the throne at 22 when the Vikings were rampaging through England.
Alfred bought them off with a levy called the Danegeld but within five years they were invading further territories and forcing out the Saxon people. Alfred used ships against the invaders in 875 — the origins of the Royal Navy.