He had scarcely time to attend the funeral of his brother, before he was called to the field to defend his country against the Danes.

After a reign of more than twenty-eight years, rendered singularly glorious by great achievements under difficult circumstances, he died universally lamented, on the 28th of October, A.D.900.

By this prince the university of Oxford was founded, and provided with able teachers from the continent.

His own great proficiency in learning, and his earnest efforts for its promotion, form a striking contrast with the ignorance which prevailed before.

"In the ninth century, throughout the whole kingdom of the West Saxons, no man could be found who was scholar enough to instruct the young king Alfred, then a child, even in the first elements of reading: so that he was in his twelfth year before he could name the letters of the alphabet.