May 878 · Wiltshire, England Theater
May 878
In January 878, the Danish king Guthrum launched a surprise winter attack on Alfred's Wessex — the last independent English kingdom — while Alfred was at the Christmas feast at Chippenham. Alfred escaped with a small retinue into the Somerset marshes, from which the legend of his hiding and burning the cakes derives. For months he was a fugitive in his own kingdom, rebuilding his forces from a base at Athelney. In May he emerged, assembled the fyrd (militia) of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, and defeated Guthrum at Edington in a pitched battle that ended with the Danish army besieged at Chippenham for two weeks until they surrendered. Guthrum agreed to convert to Christianity, with Alfred as his godfather. Guthrum's baptism and the settlement after Edington preceded the later, separately preserved treaty between Alfred and Guthrum that helped define their spheres of rule.
Commanders