A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

KINGSHIPS IN AN AGE OF FRAGMENTATION

In such a world, what did kings do? At the least, they stood for tradition, serving as

symbols of legitimacy. At the most, they united kingdoms and maintained a measure

of law and order. (See Map 4.6.)

Northern Kingdoms

King Alfred of England was a king of the second sort. In the face of the Viking

invasions, he developed new mechanisms of royal government, creating institutions

that became the foundation of strong English kingship. We have already seen his

military reforms: the system of burhs and the creation of a navy. Alfred was

interested in religious and intellectual reforms as well. These were closely linked in

his mind: the causes of England’s troubles (in his view) were the sins of its people,

brought on by their ignorance. Alfred intended to educate “all free-born men.” He

brought scholars to his court and embarked on an ambitious program to translate key

religious works from Latin into Anglo-Saxon (or Old English). This was the

vernacular, the spoken language of the people. As Alfred wrote in his prose preface

to the Anglo-Saxon translation of The Pastoral Care of Gregory the Great,

I would have it known that very often it has come to my mind what men

of learning there were formerly throughout England, both in religious and

secular orders; and how there were happy times then throughout

England; and how the kings, who had authority over this people, obeyed

God and his messengers; and how they not only maintained their peace,

morality and authority at home but also extended their territory outside;

and how they succeeded both in warfare and in wisdom.... I recalled

how the Law was first composed in the Hebrew language, and

thereafter, when the Greeks learned it, they translated it all into their own

language, and all other books as well. And so too the Romans, after they

had mastered them, translated them all through learned interpreters into

their own language.... Therefore it seems better to me... that we too

should turn into the language that we can all understand certain books

which are the most necessary for all men to know.^10