King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons | Alfred of Wessex (Episode 1)

A 2013 BBC History Documentary hosted by Michael Wood.

Series in which Michael Wood examines the careers of three Anglo-Saxon rulers. Michael Wood argues that the most important and influential British kings were a father, son and grandson who lived over a thousand years ago during the age of the Vikings.

Episode 1: Michael Wood tells the story of King Alfred the Great and his children and grandson, arguing that they were the most important rulers in the history of England - shaping the nation itself, founding cities, establishing law and government and reviving the language and literature that still define the English today. And all this was achieved while waging a life and death struggle against the Vikings. In the first episode Alfred fights a desperate guerrilla war in the marshes of Somerset - burning the cakes on the way- before his decisive victory at Edington. Creating towns, trade and coinage, reviving learning and literacy, Alfred then laid the foundations of a single kingdom of 'all the English'.

Filmed on location from Reading to Rome, using original texts read in Old English, and interviews with leading scholars, Michael Wood describes a man who was 'not just the greatest Briton, but one of the greatest rulers of any time or place'.

Episode 2: The Lady of the Mercians
https://www.bitchute.com/video/vmn05H2ONXDQ/