For There Was No One To Teach Even A King's Son

"I know nothing worse of a man than that he should not know."

Alfred the Great (AD 849-899)

Alfred, of the Kingdom of Wessex, was the first ever English King to defeat the invading Vikings and prevented them from occupying the entire Anglo-Saxon England. In doing so, he also defended the Christian civilization from dying out in England. Alfred revived education during his reign, which had become non-existent in England as four decades of repeated attacks by the Vikings resulted in the destruction of the monasteries and killing of the monks, which was the institution that carried out the tradition of teaching and learning at that time. Alfred himself did not learn to read until age 12 and then only by his own efforts because there were no monks left to teach even a king's son.

Alfred's defense of English civilization earned him the soubriquet the Great.

From "The Story of Britain" by Rebecca Fraser.