activities of kings and bishops. Many entries consist of only one line. The longest entry runs more than 100 lines and deals with the death of William the Conqueror in 1087. Many years have no entries. The earliest important entry in the Chronicle refers to events in A.D. 449. The final entry was made in 1154. If it were not for King Alfred, we would not have any knowledge of any events in Anglo-Saxon history (Appletoft 7). King Alfred the Great's reign ended in the year 899 when he passed away. The last year of Alfred's life show him in council at Chelsea, discussing with his son-in-law, Ethelred, and his archbishop, Plegmund, plans for the restoration of London (Duckett 196). He died on the twenty-sixth of October, 899, when he was not far from his fiftieth birthday. The History of Saint Cuthbert, found in a manuscript of the twelfth century, tells among its stories that in Alfred's last hours he "called to his side his son Edward, intrusted to his care gifts for Saint Cuthbert's honoring, two circlets for the arm and a golden censer, and earnestly bade him to love God and this Saint and to place in them his hope, as he himself ever had done and still most zealously was doing" (Duckett 198). He was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester, where, its clergy soon declared, "in insane imaginings, that his ghost in human form was roaming amid its buildings at night" (Duckett 199). We may still read the king's last will and testament, drawn up sometime between 873 and 888, in its Old English original. In a preface Alfred writes of disagreements arising out of the inheritance of lands once owned by his brother, King Ethelred. Alfred resolves any problems that may arise by dividing his land fairly. The king divided out his lands and money among his family, his sons, his daughters, his nephews, and his wife. Gifts of money, also, were left to each of his ealdormen; to his archbishop and his bishops; to the officials and perso...
