Meanwhile, Bjorn succeeds in wooing her in secrecy in Wessex. But the glories afforded him in popular imagination as the architect of “fortress Wessex” no longer, it seems, stand.Elsewith is accompanied by Wilfred to Wessex to meet her future husband. His first steps towards a reliable and more constant system of military service ensured the continuous availability of troops. Indeed, the little closely datable evidence that can be gleaned from the major burhs, all points to a long chronology of stronghold construction.Īlfred’s defensive genius lay not in the creation of burhs, then, but in the way he adapted earlier strategies to suit the drastically altered military demands of the Viking age. Alfred built on existing structures, at first using what was already in place, such as hilltop defences and mustering sites of the eighth and early ninth centuries, but many of the most innovative developments in defensive organisation clearly occurred in the reign of his son, Edward the Elder (899–924). Putting all this evidence together makes it likely that Alfred the Great’s military innovations were part of a continuing development, that started in the eight century in Mercia and continued long after his death. Image courtesy of the Environmental Agency, Author provided Outline of the Saxon ramparts and ‘Alfredian’ streetplan is clear. Landscape analysis is also helping to identify the important mustering sites, crucial to mobilisation, without which the military system would not have worked.Īerial view of the Burghal Hidage site of Wallingford with the Thames in partial flood.
Written sources and archaeological excavation confirm that beacons were in use in the early 11th century. But place-names also suggest the existence of elaborate systems of beacons and lookouts, often spaced at regular intervals, visible to each other and to known strongholds, and providing control over important route-ways.
Place-names containing such compounds as Old English here-pæð or fyrd-weg, both meaning “army road”, are especially important. The major strongholds listed in the Burghal Hidage have received much attention, but landscape research is also now helping to provide a fuller picture, allowing us to identify important early route-ways and river crossing-points. Late Anglo-Saxon Winchester showing the characteristic arrangement of streets and town defences often accredited to Alfred the Great. While the general development of early emergency measures – where defence policy was determined by inaccessibility and expediency – are testimony to Alfred’s civil defence strategy, the more long-term development of purpose-built towns, around which England’s economy and administration became organised, only took place during the reigns of Alfred’s successors. Sometimes this occurred at the same location, but in the case of strongholds at Iron Age hill forts, such as Burpham (Sussex), Chisbury (Wiltshire), and Pilton (Devon), more suitable locations for defended towns were sought nearby. Excavations in Worcester, by contrast, show that the distinctive “Alfredian” street plan there only came into use in the late tenth or early 11th century, around 100 years after Alfred’s death.Īrchaeological evidence shows that many Bughal Hidage strongholds started as defensive sites which only later developed into towns. For example, in Winchester radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating suggests the new urban plan was probably built around 840–80, almost certainly, therefore, before Alfred’s victory of 878 and probably before he even became king. But the evidence doesn’t entirely bear this out. It has been argued that the latter represent an “Alfredian” vision of urban planning. Others were new burhs raised with an innovative design that imitated the regular Roman plan. Over the past 40 years, much archaeological evidence has been gathered about the Burghal Hidage strongholds, many of which were former Roman towns or Iron Age hill forts that were reused or refurbished as Anglo-Saxon military sites. Strongholds listed in the Burghal Hidage.
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