administrative purposes as well, in royal “writs” that kings and queens directed to
their officials. England was not alone in its esteem for the vernacular: in Ireland, too,
the vernacular language was a written one. But the British Isles were unusual by the
standards of Continental Europe, where Latin alone was the language of scholarship
and writing.
As Alfred harried the Danes who were pushing south and westward, he gained
recognition as king of all the English not under Viking rule. His law code, issued in
the late 880s or early 890s, was the first by an English king since 695. Unlike earlier
codes, which had been drawn up for each separate kingdom, Alfred’s contained laws
from and for all the English kingdoms in common. The king’s inspiration was the
Mosaic law of the Bible. Alfred believed that God had made a new covenant with the
victors over the Vikings; as leader of his people, Alfred, like the Old Testament
patriarch Moses, issued a law for all.
His successors, beneficiaries of that covenant, rolled back the Viking rule in
England. (See Genealogy 4.1: Alfred and His Progeny.) “Then the Norsemen made
off in their nailed boats, / Saddened survivors shamed in battle,” wrote one poet
about a battle lost by the Vikings in 937.^11 But, as we have seen, many Vikings
remained. Converted to Christianity, their great men joined Anglo-Saxons to attend
the English king at court. The whole kingdom was divided into districts called
“shires” and “hundreds,” and in each shire, the king’s reeve—the sheriff—oversaw
royal administration.
Alfred’s grandson Æthelstan (r.924–939) commanded all the possibilities early
medieval kingship offered. The first king of all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, he was
crowned in a new ritual created by the archbishop of Canterbury to emphasize
harmony and unity. When Æthelstan toured his realm (as he did constantly), he was
accompanied by a varied and impressive retinue: bishops, nobles, thegns (the English
equivalent of high-status vassals), scholars, foreign dignitaries, and servants. Well
known as an effective military leader who extended his realm northwards, he
received oaths of loyalty from the rulers of other parts of Britain. Churchmen
attended him at court, and he in turn chose bishops and other churchmen, often
drawing on the priests in his household. Like Alfred, he issued laws and expected
local authorities—the ealdormen and sheriffs—to carry them out. Above all he was
concerned about theft.
