The Father of England - King Alfred the Great burns some cakes and defeats the Vikings (Danes) at the Battle of Ethandun (878): For years, the kingdom of Wessex in Britain, ruled by Alfred, had been under attack from Viking forces. Alfred had maintained a tenuous hold on his throne, but in the beginning of 878, he was forced to flee into the marshes of Somerset to hide from yet another Viking invasion. His time there marked a significant turning point in the history of England and the medieval world. Alfred could have chosen to stay in the swamp and eke out a peasant’s existence, but instead, he emerged to battle the Vikings and, in doing so, shaped the England we know today. . . . Alfred was a scion of the kingdom of the West Saxons, the most powerful and long-lived of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. But at the end of the 8th century, the Viking diaspora had suddenly changed all that, and in 878, after bearing the indignity of multiple military defeats and the deaths of all the adult males ...