Alfred: timeline

  • c849 Born in Wantage, Berkshire, the youngest son of King Ethelwulf
  • 871 Succeeds to the throne aged about 21
  • 871 Led the army that defeated the Danes at Ashdown
  • 872 London falls to the invaders
  • 876 The Danes advance and Alfred hides in the Somerset marshes where he reputedly burns the cakes of a peasant woman
  • 878 decisive victory over the Danes at Edington in Wiltshire
  • 870s Established fortified towns including Winchester
  • 884 Alfred defeats Danes at Rochester
  • 886 Peace made with the Danes; Alfred takes over London
  • 890 Permanent army and navy founded
  • 891 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle started
  • 896 Naval victory over the Danes in the Solent n 899 October 26, Alfred dies, aged 50. He is initially buried in the old minster before relocation to Hyde Abbey in 1100.
  • 1780s Alfred's bones dug up from under Hyde Abbey
  • 1867 Archaeologist John Mellor claims to have re-found Alfred's bones. Bones reinterred 200 yards away by St Bartholomew's church
  • Early 1990s BT workmen accidentally find the foundations of Hyde Abbey near River Park Leisure Centre
  • 1997-99 Excavations discover extent of church, but no Alfred
  • 2003 Hyde Abbey Garden, designed by landscape architect Kim Wilkie, opened marking the site of Alfred's grave
  • 2007 The lighting, the final phase of the garden, is opened by Alan Titchmarsh
  • 2010 Hyde 900 hold festival to mark the anniversary of Alfred's burial at Hyde Abbey in 1100. It includes hundreds of people in a procession from cathedral to Hyde Abbey
  • 2012 Preparations start to secure permission for the exhumation