Great play is made of the fact that Alfred helped to develop education in England. In the preface to his Pastoral Care he describes how almost no-one in England could translate a letter from Latin to English. This role of Alfred as the educator of the English people, of reviving lost or dying knowledge, is an important one in the Alfred myth.

Of course, it is undeniable that Alfred made great strides in improving the literacy of his people, but perhaps we buy into the royal propaganda a little too eagerly. And there may have been a political purpose in Alfred’s description of an illiterate England. The Mercian tradition of scholarship was, after all, intact enough to provide him with scholars for his programme. Why would Alfred want to praise Mercian scholars, when he could paint himself as single-handedly educating the nation from its previous position of ignorance.

As with many things, it is a matter of degree. How much was Alfred a ‘throwback’ to the old times, and how much was he just helping to rebuild England after the ravages of years of war. With the Viking threat receding, more effort could again put into scholarship and learning. He need not have been reviving the traditions and ideas of the bygone Roman age, but perhaps merely of the England of a generation or two before, which was by no means dead in any case.