The apocryphal story, which originated from 12th century chroniclers and was portrayed in the penultimate episode of the first season of The Last Kingdom, begins with the king taking refuge in the home of a peasant woman. So dire was the situation that Alfred was forced to flee with his remaining bedraggled forces into the swamps of Somerset, the scene of one of the enduring legends of his reign. He was already a veteran of multiple campaigns against the Vikings, and the early years of his reign were characterised by further ongoing conflict with ever-strengthening Norse armies.īy 878, Wessex was the only English kingdom still resisting the “Great Heathen Army” after one by one Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia fell to the invaders.
The Last Kingdom is as much a story about Alfred the Great as Uhtred of Bebbanburg, with the king’s turbulent relationship with the show’s protagonist taking centre stage.īorn in 849, Alfred took the throne of Wessex in 871 after the death of King Aethelred, the third of his older brothers to rule the kingdom. The Last Kingdom is set against the backdrop of the VIking invasions of Anglo-Saxon England (Netflix) Alfred the Great While Uhtred’s character is therefore a work of fiction, the majority of major events in which he plays an often defining role were very real, as were many of the figures that he encounters. But most historical novels have a big story, and a little story – you flip them and put the little story in the foreground.”
“We know sod all about him: we have his signature on the charter.
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