Athelney - Athelney Athelney in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. A small village near North Petherton, once isolated in the marshes of the Somerset Levels, best known for once being the hiding place of King Alfred the Great, from where he went on to defeat the Danes at the Battle of Eddington. Alfred later founded a monastery at Athelney that lasted until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, under King Henry VIII of England. Also see Museum.
878 - Events The Danes force king Alfred the Great of Wessex to retreat to a fort in Athelney, Somerset. Battle of Ethandun (Edington), King Alfred the Great of Wessex defeats the Danes of the Danelaw under Guthrum. Treaty of Wedmore- signed by Alfred the Great and Guthrum- divides England between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes . After a siege, 2 centuries of Muslim rule start in Syracuse. End of the excommunication of the later pope Formosus. Births Deaths Aedh MacRunn, King of the Scots and Picts; succeeded jointly by Eochu MacRunn and Girig MacDungal.\n.
Alfred the Great - of 870 the storm burst; and the year which followed has been rightly called "Alfred's year of battles." Nine general engagements were fought with varying fortune, though the place and date of two of them have not been recorded. A successful skirmish at Englefield, Berkshire (December 31, 870), was followed by a severe defeat at Reading (January 4, 871), and this, four days later, by the brilliant victory of Ashdown, near Compton Beauchamp in Shrivenham Hundred. On January 22 the English were again defeated at Basing, and on March 22 at Marton, Wiltshire, the two unidentified battles having perhaps occurred in the interval. Accession In April Ethelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the whole burden of the contest. While he was busied with the burial and associated ceremonies for his brother,.
