Soldier, statesman and scholar, Alfred the Great is celebrated as one of Britain's most successful and heroic kings. This biography reveals the controversial fact that Asser's "Life of Alfred", hitherto an important source of knowledge about Alfred, may have been a late medieval forgery.

Warrior, law-giver, and scholar, Alfred the Great was an extraordinarily gifted and highly successful king, pushing back the Vikings to preserve what is now thought of as the heart of England. The author provides a detailed examination of the much-disputed medieval biography of King Alfred, attributed to the king's tutor, Asser. Professor Smyth argues that Asser's Life is a medieval forgery; a revelation with profound implications for our understanding of the whole of Anglo-Saxon history. The book also contains major studies on the writings of this gifted king, on the controversial charters of his reign, and on the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Professor Smyth shows the Chronicle to have been much more closely connected with the court of King Alfred than has hitherto been allowed, and suggests a new date for the completion of the earliest Alfredian section of the Chronicle.

There are excellent reconstructions of Alfred's wars with the Vikings, taking into account insights provided by contemporary Frankish annals ... anyone already familiar with the reign of Alfred is going to find many of their preconceptions challenged and that is no bad thing.