Customer Reviews

Alfred: Warrior King

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This book gives a standard treatment of Alfred the Great's history and the unpleasantness visited upon England by the Danes. It's focus is on the strategy and tactics employed by Alfred in his campaigns, his guerilla war directed from Athelney, organization of a navy, and fortification of the strategically sited burhs.

It's a fast read and written by a veteran of the Burma campaign in World War II so it is chock full of soldierly insights regarding logistics, terrain, and morale. Although focused on Wessex, the Danes, Franks, Mercians, East Anglians, Northumbrians and the Welsh are not ignored as participants in the various Viking raids and eventual settlements occurring in Northwest Europe. There is a great deal of emphasis on the routes by which various forces moved across England and the trackways, Roman roads, and waterways used are given detailed descriptions.

I enjoyed it as a sort of Pop military history of Alfred.

While serving as an insightful working on the history of Afred, strictly from a military stand point, the depth of those chapters far outstrip the human characteristics of Alfred. A good read, but only for the diehard Alfred fans who want to know everything there is to know, even the dry hard facts, about Alfred's military campaigns.

Most books about Alfred see him the way that Asser portrayed him - as a pious Christian. This book is different. John Peddie sees Alfred as a military commander making decisions based on sound military strategy. Consequently he portrays a facet on Alfred's personality that many other biographers have overlooked, and helps to create a much more rounded and realistic view of Alfred.

Peddie also analyses the strategic situation at different times of his battles against the Vikings, and is able to portray strategic imperatives he was facing. He is able to demonstrate the logic behind Alfred's military and diplomatic decisions in a way that is often overlooked in other books.

If you're only going to read one book on Alfred, this probably shouldn't be it (unless you want to focus on his military campaigns and his diplomacy), but it does forms a nice counterbalance to other books written by authors who don't understand the military strategies of the time.