5OO

GREATEST
WORLD
RULERS
A
ABD AL KADER (6 September 1808 near Mascara - 26 May 1883 Damascus)
- Algerian Islamic scholar, Sufi, political and military leader

ABD AL MALIK (646–705) - the 5th Umayyad Caliph

ABD EL KRIM (1882-3, Ajdir –February 6, 1963, Cairo) – Berber Guerrilla leader

ABDUL HAMID II (21/22 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) - the 34th sultan of
the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 31 August 1876 and 27 April 1909

AHMOSE I (uncertain date born – 1525 BC) - pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the

founder of the Eighteenth dynasty reigned between 1550 BC and 1525 BC

AKHENATEN (1372 BC – 1336 BC) - Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt,

ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC

ALARIC I (370 – 410) - King of the Visigoths from 395–410

ALFONSO VI (before June, 1040 – June 29/July 1, 1109) - nicknamed the Brave (El

Bravo) or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, King of Castile and de facto King of
Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain" 

ALFRED THE GREAT (849 – 899) - King of Wessex from 871 to 899

ALDFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA (uncertain date born – 705) - King of

Northumbria from 685 until his death.

ALEXANDER III OF MACEDONIA (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC),

commonly known as ALEXANDER THE GREAT - King of Macedon or Macedonia

ALEXANDER I of RUSSIA (23 December 1777 – 1 December 1825)-Emperor of

Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of
Poland from 1815 to 1825.
ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA (29 April 1818, Moscow – 13 March 1881, Saint
Petersburg)-Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in
1881

ALEXANDER I OF YUGOSLAVIA (16 December 1888 - 9 October 1934) - king

of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–34) as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes (1921–29)

ALEXANDER NEVSKY (30 May 1220 – 14 November 1263) - Prince of

Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir 

ALEXIOS I KOMNENOS (1056–1118) - Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and

the founder of the Komnenian dynasty

ALEXIS OF RUSSIA Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov (9 March 1629 – 29 January 1676) -

Tsar of Russia reigned from 1645 to 1676

ALLENDE SALVADOR (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) - President of the

Senate of the Republic of Chile

ALKIBIADES (450–404 BC) - prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general

AL MANSUR (714-775) - second Abbasid Caliph from 754 - 775

AL MAMUN (13 September 786 – 9 August 833) - Abbasid caliph who reigned

from 813 until his death in 833

ALMOS (820 – 895) - the first Grand Prince of the Magyars reigned from 854 to 895

AMENEMHAT I (uncertain date born - 1962 BC) the first ruler of the Twelfth
-
Dynasty (the dynasty considered to be the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt),
He ruled from 1991 BC to 1962 BC.

AMDA SEYON (1270–1344) - Emperor of Ethiopia , and a member of the Solomonic

dynasty.

AMENHOTEP I (uncertain date born- 1506 BC) - the second Pharaoh of the 18th

dynasty of Egypt, his reign is generally dated from 1526 to 1506 BC.
ANTIGONUS II GONATAS (319 BC – 239 BC) was a powerful ruler who firmly
established the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia

ANTIOCHIUS III THE GREAT (241–187 BC) - the 6th ruler of the Seleucid
Empire ruled 222–187 BC

ARAFAT YASSER (24 August 1929 – 11 November2004) - was a Palestinian leader

ARISTIDES (550 BC-467 BC) was an Athenian general and politician. It was the most
important public figures of his time and the leading political opponent of Themistocles

ARTAXERXES I (483 BC – 424 BC) - King of the Persian Empire from 465 BC to 424
BC

ARTAXERXES II (435 BC – 358 BC) - was king of Persia from 404 BC until his death

ASHOKA (304–232 BC) - popularly known as ASHOKA THE GREAT, was an

Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all the Indian subcontinent
from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC.

ASKIA THE GREAT (1442 – 1538) - was a Soninke emperor of the Songhai Empire
in the late 15th century reigned between 1498 to 1528

ASPARUH (640 – 701) - was ruler of a Bulgar tribe in the second half of the 7th
century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680/681.

ASURBANIPAL (685 BCE – c. 627 BCE) - was an Assyrian king, the son of
Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BCE – c. 627 BCE)

AUGUSTUS Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD

14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27
BC until his death in AD 14.

AURELIAN Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (9 September 214 or 215 – September or

October 275), commonly known as Aurelian, was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275

ABD AL KADER
Abdul Qadir Mohiuddin I'm known as the Prince Abdul Kader or Abdul Qadir
(September 6, 1808 Camp - May 26, 1883 in Damascus), the founder of the
modern Algerian state, Scholar, poet, philosopher, politician and a warrior at
the same time. Known up against it for the French occupation of Algeria. `Abd
al-Qādir is often referred to only as `El Amir Abdelkader, since al-Jazā'iri simply
means "the Algerian". His name can be variously transliterated from its Arabic
spelling as Abd al-Kadir, Abdel Kader, Abdelkader, and other variant spellings.
He is also often given the titles amir, prince, and shaykh or sheik.

Early years

Abd al-Qādir was born near the

town of Mascara near Oran, in
1807 or 1808. His father, Muhyi
al-Din al-Hasani, was a shaykh
in the Qadiri sufi order of Islam.
He was a Banu Ifran Berber
and claimed descendance from
Muhammad. In his childhood
he memorized the Qur'an and
was trained in horsemanship,
theology and linguistics, and
received an education far better
than that of his peers. In 1825,
he set out for the Muslim
pilgrimage, hajj, with his father.
While in Mecca, he encountered
Imam Shamil; the two spoke at
length on different topics. He
also traveled to Damascus and
Baghdad, and visited the graves
of noted Muslims, such as
Abd al-Qadir in Damascus Shaykh Ibn Arabi and Sidi Abd-
el-Kader El Jilani named also
El-Jilali in Algeria. This
experience cemented his religious enthusiasm. On his way back to Algeria, he
was impressed by the reforms carried out by Muhammad `Ali in Egypt. He
returned to his homeland a few
months before the arrival of the
French.
Prior to the Algerian novelist and
Asceni that gave a historical novel
entitled «pathways iron doors»
About Emir Abdelkader and
biography of Algeria's struggle against French colonialism. This interest is
striking Prince, whether in Syria or in Algeria, see sculptor Asif Shaheen, editor
of the magazine Oballdor Damascus: This concern, although belated but
necessary to a man's worth, that is, any Prince, his biography of a bus to the
struggle spread from the Maghreb to Orient, though Europeans share this
concern, it was Prince Abdul Qadir man of dialogue and liberation. Although it
struggled European colonialism, has known some of the characters distinct
European hubs and one of the flags of Islam in that era. See Engineer huge
crescent that Prince Abdul Qadir has not been given the right of equity, and
rarely mentioned only Kmujahd old, came from Algeria to Syria to rest in Ovia
Gottha singing while in fact, "says Hilal: The man was one of the largest flags
that point, and that he and his grandchildren later, they entered the door of
Syrian history at large. Born on 23 Rajab 1222 AH / May 1807, in the village
of "Agaytunp" Valley of the bathroom area of the camp, "East Morocco" Algeria,
and then his father moved to the city of Oran. Not Mohiuddin (father of Prince
Abdul Kader) deadlines among the people, even those who does not remain
silent over injustice, it was natural that collides with the Ottoman governor of
the city, "Oran", and this led to identify a parent at home, he chose to come out
of Algeria are all in a long journey. Had permission to leave for the Hajj 1241
AH / 1825, went out the father and His son, Abdel Kader with him, was a trip
Abdelkader to Tunisia and Egypt and the Hijaz, and the country's maize and
then Baghdad, then return to the Hijaz, and then return to Algeria Mara Egypt
and Cyrenaica, Tripoli and Tunisia , and finally to Algeria again in 1828, was
the journey of learning and watching and experience of the Arab nation in this
period of history, and soon father and son that settled in their village "Kitunp,"
It was not long until Algeria was to drive a French military fierce, and managed
to France the occupation of the capital already in the July 5, 1830, and
surrendered to the Ottoman governor quickly, but the Algerian people have a
differentopinion, discord between the leaders of the word people, search people
and scientists, "Grace" for a leader to take the brigade and graduate of the
Jihad under his command, and settled opinion on the "Mohi-Din al-Hasani,"
and offered him a command, but the man apologized for the emirate and by the
leadership of the jihad, they sent to the owner Morocco maximum to be under
the emirate, before the Sultan, "Abdul Rahman bin Hisham," The Sultan of
Morocco, and sent his cousin, "Ali bin Suleiman" to be a prince to Oran, and
before things settle intervened France threatened the Sultan by the war,
withdrew the sultan and called his cousin to return the situation to the point of
zero again, and what was Muhyiddin may be pleased with the responsibility of
the military leadership, have turned around the crowd again, and especially
that he has achieved several victories against the enemy, was Abdul Qadir on
the head of the army in many of these victories, he suggested parent may make
an "Abdel Kader" for this position, before the audience, before the young man
take on this responsibility, and was a pledge, and title of his father to "Nasir al-
Din," and suggested that he be "Sultan," but he chose the title of "Prince", and
thus came to exist, "Prince Abdul Qadir Nasir al-Din bin Mohieddin Hassani" ,
and that was on 13 Rajab 1248 AH corresponding to November 27, 1832.
To complete the image of Prince Abdul Qadir, has received a young group of
science he studied philosophy (Letters of the Brethren of Purity - Aristotle -
Pythagoras) and studied literature and modern he studied Sahih Al-Bukhari
and Muslim, and the Ptdrishma, also received a Millennium in the way, and
Senussi, and beliefs Alnsfip in the union, and Aisagoji in logic, and proficiency
in the science of the Koran, and this was completed for Prince of forensic
science, science, mental, and the journey and seen, and military experience in
the field of battle, so the young prince integrated has the qualifications to make
it efficient for this position, was brought to his first speech to all the thrones,
saying:

"... has been accepted Biathm (ie the people of Oran and its environs) and obedience, and I accepted this position
with no milliseconds to him, hoping to be the mode for the collection of the Muslims, and raise the conflict and strife
among them, and secure ways, and the prevention of acts contrary to the law of the disinfectant, and protect the
country from the enemy, and make truth and justice about the forces and the weak, and know that my purpose
maximum Federation Milli Muhammadiyah…

French invasion and resistance

In 1830, Algeria was invaded by France; French colonial domination over
Algeria supplanted what had been domination in name only by the Ottoman
Empire. Within two years, `Abd al-Qādir was made an amir and with the loyalty
of a number of tribes began a rebellion against the French. He was effective at
using guerrilla warfare and for a decade, up until 1842, scored many victories.
He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His
power base was in the western part of Algeria, where he was successful in
uniting the tribes against the French. He was noted for his chivalry; on one
occasion he released his French captives simply because he had insufficient
food to feed them. Throughout this period `Abd al-Qādir demonstrated political
and military leadership, and acted as a capable administrator and a persuasive
orator. His fervent faith in the doctrines of Islam was unquestioned, and his
ultimate failure was due in considerable measure to the refusal of the Kabyles,
Berber mountain tribes, to make common cause with the Arabs against the
French. Until the beginning of 1842 the struggle went in his favor; however, the
resistance was put down by Marshal Bugeaud. In 1837, `Abd al-Qādir signed
the Treaty of Tafna with Bugeaud, in which he recognized France's sovereignty
in Oran and Algiers, while France recognized his control over the remaining
two-thirds of the country, mainly the interior. When French troops marched
through a mountain pass in territory Abd al-Qādir claimed as his in open
defiance of that claim, he renewed the resistance on October 15, 1839.
`Abd Al-Qādir was ultimately forced to surrender. The French armies grew
large, and brutally suppressed the native population and practiced a scorched-
earth policy. `Abd Al-Qādir's failure to get support from eastern tribes, apart
from the Berbers of western Kabylie, also contributed to the quelling of the
rebellion. On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco
(strangely parallelling Jugurtha's career two thousand years earlier) because of
French diplomatic and military pressure on its leaders, `Abd al-Qādir
surrendered to General Louis de Lamoricière in exchange for the promise that
he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre. Two days later, his surrender
was made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orléans,
duc d'Aumale. The French government refused to honour Lamoricière's promise
and `Abd Al-Qādir was exiled to France.

An artist's depiction of a scene after the 1860 events in Lebanon, Abd al-Qader in the center

Exile in Damascus
Emir Abd el Kader in Damishqastqr Prince Abdul Qadir in Damascus from
1856 to the year of his death in 1883, or 27 years old. Since coming to Istanbul
from the assumed position worthy of him as a political leader and religious
writer and poet .. The fame has preceded him to Damascus, took its place
among the scholars and dignitaries, was his outstanding participation in
political life and scientific. He has taught at the Umayyad Mosque, and after
four years of stability in Damascus, there was some trouble in the Levant in
1860 and broke out the events of sectarian bloodshed, and played a leader of
Africa's role Fireman deservedly, has opened his homes for the refugees to him
by the Christians in Damascus as a symbolic gesture and the process to
embrace them. A feat still remember him today as well as their struggle against
French colonialism in his country Algeria. Emir Abdelkader during the
protection of Christians in addition to its status as Damishqoho Alujahip in
Damascus, March mystic poet's life, almost found especially in coming from
Morocco roving in the Levant and Turkey, and then chose to Damascus is home
to death. And perhaps it is no coincidence that he be buried next to Prince
Abdul Qadir Sheikh biggest shrine in the bosom of Mount Qassioun.

Legacy
Abd al-Qādir is recognized and venerated as the first hero of Algerian
independence. However, there is some controversy around his devotion to his
people after his capture. A letter he wrote to Napoleon reveals his loyalty to the
French leader.[5] Not without cause, his green and white standard was adopted
by the Algerian liberation movement during the War of Independence and
became the national flag of independent Algeria. He was buried in Damascus in
the same mausoleum as Ibn Arabi, until the Algerian government brought his
remains back to Algeria to be interred with much ceremony on 5 July 1966, the
fourth anniversary of independence and the 136th anniversary of the French
conquest. The Emir Abdel Kader University and a mosque bearing his name
were constructed as a national shrine in Constantine, Algeria.
An indication of the international fame of al-Qādir's struggle is given by the way
that the town of Elkader, Iowa in the United States came to be named after
him. When the new community was being officially planned, on what was then
the American frontier, founders Timothy Davis, John Thompson and Chester
Sage—none of them Arabs or Muslims—were so impressed with what they
heard of the Algerian leader's valiant struggle that they decided to name the
new town for him. The American town has retained its Algerian connection by
establishing a sister city connection with Mascara, Algeria.
His notable children and grandchildren:

1. Prince Muhammad ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi

2. Prince Said al-Jazairi, who took over government affairs of Syria when the
Ottomans evacuated on 28 September 1918 and stayed in office until the Arab
Army entered Damascus on 1 October 1918.
Emir Abd al-Qadir place in Algiers City

ABD AL MALIK 
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (646–705) (Arabic: ‫ )عبد الملك بن م روان‬was the
5th Umayyad Caliph. He was born in Mecca and grew up in Medinah ( both are
cities in modern day Saudi Arabia ). Abd al-Malik was a well-educated man and
capable ruler, despite the many political problems that impeded his rule. Ibn
Khaldun states: “Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan is one of the greatest Arab and
Muslim Caliphs. He followed in the footsteps of `Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, the
Commander of the Believers, in regulating state affairs.”

In his reign, all important records were

Gravires Abd Al Malik
organized a regular postal service.
translated into Arabic, and for the first
time a special currency for the Muslim
world was minted, which led to war with
the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II.
The Byzantines were led by Leontios at
the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia
Minor and were decisively defeated by the
Caliph after the defection of a large
contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency
was then made the only currency exchange
in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms
happened in his time as regards
agriculture and commerce. Abd al-Malik
consolidated Muslim rule and extended it,
made Arabic the state language, and

Campaigns in Iraq and

Hejaz
Abd al-Malik became caliph after the death of his father Marwan I in 685.
Within a few years, he dispatched armies, on a campaign to reassert Umayyad
control over the Islamic empire. He first defeated the governor of Basra Mosaab
Ibn al-Zubair. Abd al-Malik then appointed one of his most able generals and
administrators who would later change the face of the Umayyad Empire, al-
Hajjaj bin Yousef to march against Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the governor
of Hejaz. He besieged Makkah in 692 C.E. with almost 12,000 Syrian troops.
He advanced unopposed as far as his native Taif, which he took without any
fighting and used as a base. The caliph had charged him first to negotiate with
Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he
capitulated, but, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on
no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in the Holy City. Since the
negotiations failed and al-Hajjaj lost patience, he sent a courier to ask Abd al-
Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take Makkah by force. He
received both, and thereupon bombarded the Holy City using catapults from
the mountain of Abu Qubays. The bombardment continued during the month of
the Pilgrimage or Hajj. After the siege had lasted for seven months and 10,000
men, among them two of Abdullah Ibn al-Zubair's sons, had gone over to al-
Hajjaj, Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr with a few loyal followers, including his
youngest son, were killed in the fighting around the Kaaba (Jumadah I
73/October 692). Hajjaj's success led Abd al-Malik to assign him the role of
governor of Iraq and give him free rein in the territories he controlled. Hajjaj
arrived when there were many deserters in Basraand Kufa. He promptly and
forcefully impelled them to return to combat. Hajjaj, after years of serious
fighting, quelled religious disturbances, including the rebellion launched by
Salih ibn Musarrih and continued after Salih's death by Shabib. These rebels
repeatedly defeated more numerous forces and at their height entered Kufah.
However, Abd al-Malik's Syrian reinforcements enabled Hajjaj to turn the tide.
Under Hajjaj, Arab armies put down the revolt of Abd al-Rahman ibn
Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in Iraq from 699 to 701 CE, and also took most
of Turkestan. Abd al-Rahman rebelled following Hajjaj's repeated orders to
push further into the lands of Zundil. After his defeat in Iraq, again achieved
through Abd al-Malik's dispatch of Syrian reinforcements to Hajjaj, Abd ar
Rahman returned east. There one city closed its gates to him and in another he
was seized. However, Zundil's army arrived and secured his release. Later, Abd
ar Rahman died and Zundil sent his head to Hajjaj who sent it to Abd al-Malik.
These victories paved the way for greater expansions under Abd al-Malik's son
Al-Marwan.

Campaigns in North Africa

Caliph Abd al-Malik was effective in increasing the size of the empire.
In Maghreb (western North Africa) in 686 CE a force led by Zuhayr ibn
Qais won the Battle of Mamma overByzantines and Berbers led by Kusaila, on
the Qairawan plain, and re-took Ifriqiya and its capital Kairouan. In 695 Hasan
ibn al-Nu'man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains.
A Byzantine fleet arrived, retook Carthage but in 698 Hasan ibn al-
Nu'man returned and defeatedTiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The
Byzantines withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta. Hasan met trouble from
the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina. They inflicted a serious defeat on
him and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702 Abd al-Malik strongly
reinforced him.Now with a large army and the support of the settled population
of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated the Zenata in a
battle at Tabarka, 85 miles west of Carthage. He then developed the village
of Tunis ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705 Musa ibn
Nusayr replaced Hasan. He pacified much of North Africa, though he failed to
take Ceuta.

Reforms
Abd al-Malik instituted many reforms such as: making Arabic the official
language of government across the entire empire, instituting a mint that
produced a uniform set of aniconic currency, expansion and reorganization of
postal service, repairing the damaged Kaaba and beginning the tradition of
weaving a silk cover for the Kaaba in Damascus.

Art and Architecture

He also built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, but parts of that city were
also destroyed when Abd al-Malik's armies put down an uprising there. The
Muslim scholar al-Wasiti reports this influence:

“ When Abd al-Malik intended to construct the Dome of the Rock, he came ”
from Damascus to Jerusalem. He wrote, "Abd al-Malik intends to build a dome (qubba) over
the Rock  to house the Muslims from cold and heat, and to construct the masjid. But before he starts
he wants to know his subjects' opinion." With their approval, the deputies wrote back, "May Allah
permit the completion of this enterprise, and may He count the building of the dome and the masjid a
good deed for Abd al-Malik and his predecessors." He then gathered craftsmen from all his dominions
and asked them to provide him with the description and form of the planned dome before he engaged in
its construction. So, it was marked for him in the sahn of the masjid. He then ordered the building of
the treasury (bayt al-mal) to the east of the Rock, which is on the edge of the Rock, and filled it with
money. He then appointed Raja' ibn Hayweh and Yazid ibn Salam to supervise the construction and
ordered them to spend generously on its construction. He then returned to Damascus. When the two
men satisfactorily completed the house, they wrote to Abd al-Malik to inform him that they had
 completed the construction of the dome and al-Masjid al-Aqsa. They said to him "There is nothing in
the building that leaves room for criticism." They wrote him that a hundred thousand dinars was left
from the budget he allocated. He offered the money to them as a reward, but they declined, indicating
that they had already been generously compensated. Abd al-Malik orders the gold coins to be melted
and cast on the Dome's exterior, which at the time had a strong glitter that no eye could look straight
at it.

The two engineers Yazid ibn Salam, a Jerusalemite, and Raja' ibn Hayweh, from
Baysan, were ordered to spend generously on the construction. In his Book of
the Geography, Al-Muqaddasi reported that seven times the revenue
of Egypt was used to build the Dome. During a discussion with his uncle on
why the Caliph spent lavishly on building the mosques
inJerusalem and Damascus, al-Maqdisi writes:

“ O my little son, thou has no understanding. Verily he was right, and he was prompted to a worthy work.
For he beheld  Syria to be a country that had long been occupied by the Christians, and he noted
there are beautiful churches still belonging to them, so enchantingly fair, and so renowned for their
splendour, as are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the churches of Lydda and Edessa. So he
sought to build for the Muslims a mosque that should be unique and a wonder to the world. And in like
manner is it not evident that Caliph Abd al-Malik, seeing the greatness of the martyrium of the Holy
Sepulchre and its magnificence was moved lest it should dazzle the minds of Muslims and hence
erected above the Rock the dome which is now seen there.[4][5] ”
Dome of the Rock, Constructed by Abd al-Malik

Death
The last years of his reign were generally peaceful. Abd al-Malik wanted his
son al-Walid I to succeed him, ignoring his father's decree that Abd al-Malik
should be succeeded by his brother, Abd al-Aziz. However, Abd al-Malik
accepted advice not to create disturbances by carrying out this design. In the
event, Abd al-Aziz died before Abd al-Malik. Abd al-Malik then had his sons al-
Walid and Sulayman, in that order, accepted as heirs to the throne. To history,
Abd al-Malik is known as the "Father of Kings": his four sons succeeded him as
the caliph one after another. Abd al-Malik died at al-Sinnabra in 705.
 ABD EL KRIM
Abd el-Krim (1882-3, Ajdir[1] –February 6, 1963, Cairo) (full name: Muhammad
Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, Arabic: ‫ )محمد بن عبد الكريم الخطابي‬became the leader
of a large-scale armed resistance movement in the Rif, a Berber area of
northern Morocco. Together with his brother M'Hammad, he led a coalition
of Rifian tribes against French and Spanish colonial rule. His guerrillatactics
are known to have influenced Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara.

Early life
Abd el-Krim was born
in Ajdir, Morocco, the son of 'Abd al-
Karim al-Khattabi, a qadi (Islamic
judge) of the Aith Yusuf clan of
theAith Uriaghel  (or Waryaghar)
tribe. Abd el-Krim received a
traditional education at a mosque
school in Ajdir, followed by a period
at a religious institute at Tetouan. At
the age of twenty, it appears he
studied for two years in Fez at the
Attarine and Seffarine medersas, in
order to prepare to enter the
famous Qaraouiyine university. His
brother, M'Hammad received a
Spanish education, studying mine
Abd El Krim
engineering in Malaga and
Madrid. Both spoke fluent
Spanish. After his studies, in 1906, Abd el-Krim was sent to Melilla by his
father. He worked there as a teacher and translator (until 1913), working for
the OCTAI - the Spanish 'native affairs' office - and became a journalist for the
Spanish newspaper Telegrama del Rif (1906–1915).
First world war
Abd el-Krim entered the Spanish governmental structure, and was appointed
chief qadi for Melilla in 1914. During the war Abd el-Krim was punished by the
Spanish government foranticolonial activities including a conspiracy with the
German consul Dr. Walter Zechlin (1879–1962). He was imprisoned
in Chefchaouen from 1916 to 1917. At the end of the war, Abd el-Krim briefly
resumed his duties at the newspaper, but soon, fearful of extradition to the
French for punishment, he returned to his home at Ajdir in January 1919. He
was alarmed by the appearance of Spanish agents in Beni Waryaghil territory
and was determined to fight for tribal independence. The following year, Abd el-
Krim, together with his father and brother, began a war of rebellion against the
Spanish.[7][8] His goal was now to unite the tribes of the Rif into an
independent Republic of the Rif.

Guerrilla leadership
In 1921, as a by-product of their efforts to destroy the power of a local
brigand, Raisuli, Spanish troops approached the unoccupied areas of the Rif.
Abd-el-Krim sent their General,Manuel Fernández Silvestre, a warning that if
they crossed the Amekran River he would consider it an act of war. Silvestre is
said to have laughed, and shortly afterwards set up a military post across the
river to establish an outpost at the hills of Abarán. In June 1921 a sizable
Riffian force attacked this post killing 179 Spanish troops of the estimated 250.
Soon afterwards, Abd el-Krim directed his forces to attack the Spanish lines
at Annual (Morocco) with great success — in three weeks 8,000 Spanish troops
were killed, and the Spanish Army of 13,000 was forced to retreat to the coast
by only 3,000 Rifains.[9] During the attack on Annual, General Silvestre either
committed suicide or was killed defending the post. This colossal victory
established Abd el-Krim as a genius of guerrilla warfare. The embarrassing
defeat of Spanish forces at Annual created a political crisis that subsequently
led to General Miguel Primo de Rivera's coup d'état of September 13, 1923, the
installation of a military dictatorship (1923–1930), and the eventual collapse of
the Spanish Monarchy in April 1931. By 1924, the Spanish had been forced to
retreat to their possessions along the Moroccan coast. France, which in any
case laid claim to territory in the southern Rif, realized that allowing another
North African colonial power to be defeated by natives would set a dangerous
precedent for their own territories, and after Abd el-Krim invaded French
Morocco in April 1925, entered the fray. In 1925, a French force under Marshal
Henri Philippe Pétain and a Spanish army, with a combined total of 250,000
soldiers, began operations against the Rif Republic. Intense combat persisted
for ten months, but eventually the combined French and Spanish armies —
using, among other weapons, mustard gas against the population — defeated
the forces of Abd el-Krim. On May 26, 1926 Abd el-Krim surrendered to the
French at his then headquarters of Targuist.

Abd el-Krim with the spanish entrepreneur Horacio Echevarrieta

Exile
As a consequence, he was exiled to the island of Réunion (a French territory in
the Indian Ocean) from 1926 to 1947, where he was "given a comfortable estate
and generous annual subsidiary." Abd el-Krim was later given permission to
live in the south of France, after being released for health concerns, he however
succeeded in gaining asylum in Egypt instead, where he presided over the
Liberation Committee for the Maghreb, and where he died in 1963, just after
seeing his hopes of a Maghreb independent of colonial powers completed by the
independence of Algeria.
 ABDUL HAMID II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans,
Caliph of the Faithful (also known as Abdul Hamid II orAbd Al-Hamid II
Khan Ghazi) (Ottoman Turkish: ‫انی‬ ‫عبد الحميد ث‬ `Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-
i sânî, Turkish: İkinci Abdülhamit) (21/22 September 1842 – 10 February
1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He oversaw a period of
decline in the power and extent of the Empire, ruling from 31 August 1876
until he was deposed on 27 April 1909. Abdülhamid II was the last Ottoman
Sultan to rule with absolute power, and was succeeded by Mehmed V. His
deposition following the Young Turk Revolution was hailed by most Ottoman
citizens, who welcomed the return to constitutional rule.

Politics
Abdülhamid II was born
in Topkapı Palace, both
in Istanbul(Constantinople), the
son of Sultan Abdülmecid I and
one of his many wives,
theValide Sultan Tirimüjgan,
(Yerevan, 16 August 1819 –
Constantinople, Feriye Palace,
3 October 1852), originally
named Virjin, anArmenian. He
later also became the adoptive
son of another of his father's
wives, Valide Sultan Rahime
Perestu. He was a skilled
carpenter and personally
Abdulhamid II crafted most of his own
furniture, which can be seen
today at the Yıldız Palace and Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul. Abdülhamid II was
also interested in opera and personally wrote the first-ever Turkish translations
of many opera classics. He also composed several opera pieces for the Mızıka-ı
Hümayun which he established, and hosted the famous performers of Europe
at the Opera House of Yıldız Palace which was recently restored and featured in
the film Harem Suare (1999) of the Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek,
which begins with the scene of Abdülhamid II watching a performance. Unlike
many other Ottoman sultans, Abdülhamid II traveled to distant countries. Nine
years before he took the throne, he accompanied his uncle Sultan Abdülaziz on
his visit to Austria, France and England in 1867.

Accession to throne, 1876

He succeeded to the throne following the deposition of his brother Murad on
August 31, 1876. He himself was deposed in favor of his brotherMehmed in
1909. His brother had no real powers and continued as a figurehead only. At
his accession, some commentators were impressed by the fact that he rode
practically unattended to the Eyüp Sultan Mosque where he was given
the Sword of Osman. Most people expected Abdülhamid II to have liberal ideas,
and some conservatives were inclined to regard him with suspicion as a
dangerous reformer.

He took over default in the public

funds, and an empty treasury. He
was made the 1,058th Knight of
the Order of the Golden
Fleece in Spain in 1880 and the
202nd Grand Cross of the
Portuguese Order of the Tower
and Sword in 1882.
First Constitutional Era,
1876–1877
He did not plan and express any
goal in his accession speech,
however he worked with
the Young Ottomans to realize
some form of constitutional
arrangements[4] This new form in
Young Abdulhamid
its theoretical space could help to
realize a liberal transition with
Islamic arguments, which could balance theTanzimat's imitation of western
norms. The political structure of western norms did not work with the
centuries-old Ottoman political culture, even if the pressure from the Western
world was enormous to adapt western ways of political decision. On 23
December 1876, under the shadow of the1875 insurrection in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, the war with Serbia and Montenegro and the feeling aroused
throughout Europe by the cruelty used in stamping out the Bulgarian rebellion,
he declared the constitution and its parliament. The
international Constantinople Conference which met
at Istanbul(Constantinople) towards the end of 1876 was surprised by the
promulgation of a constitution, but European powers at the conference rejected
the constitution as a significant change; they preferred the 1856 constitution,
the Hatt-ı Hümayun and 1839 Hatt-ı Şerifof Gülhane, but questioned whether
there was need for a parliament to act as an official voice of the people. In any
event, like many other would-be reforms of the Ottoman Empire change proved
to be nearly impossible. Russia continued to mobilize for war. However,
everything changed when the British fleet approached the capital from the Sea
of Marmara. The Sultan suspended (but did not abolish) the constitution
and Midhat Pasha, its author, was exiled soon afterwards. Early in 1877 the
Ottoman Empire went to war with the Russian Empire.

Disintegration
Abdul Hamid's biggest fear, near dissolution, was coming to effect by the
Russians declaration of war on 24 April 1877 and following Russian victory by
February 1878. Abdul Hamid did not find any help. The chancellor Prince
Gorchakov had effectively purchased Austrian neutrality with the Reichstadt
Agreement, and the British Empire, though still fearing the Russian threat to
British dominance in Southern Asia, did not involve itself in the conflict
because of public opinion following the reports of Ottoman brutality in putting
down the Bulgarian uprising. The Treaty of San Stefano imposed harsh terms:
the Ottoman Empire gave independence to Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro;
to grant autonomy to Bulgaria; to institute reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
and to cede the Dobruja and parts of Armenia to Russia, which would also be
paid an enormous indemnity. As Russia could dominate the newly independent
states, her influence in Southeastern Europe was greatly increased by the
Treaty of San Stefano. Due to the insistence of the Great Powers (especially the
United Kingdom), the treaty was later revised at the Congress of Berlin so as to
reduce the great advantages acquired by Russia. In exchange of these
favors, Cyprus was "rented" to Britain in 1878 while the British forces
occupied Egypt and Sudan in 1882 with the pretext of "bringing order" to those
provinces. Cyprus, Egypt and Sudan remained as Ottoman provinces "on
paper" until 1914, when Britain officially annexed those territories in response
to the Ottoman participation in World War I at the side of the Central Powers.

 There was also trouble in Egypt, where a discredited khedive had to be

deposed. Abdülhamid mishandled relations with Urabi Pasha, and as a
result Great Britain gained virtual control over Egypt by sending its troops
with the pretext of "bringing order".
 There were problems on the Greek frontier and in Montenegro, where the
European powers were determined that the decisions of the Berlin
Congress should be carried into effect.
 The union in 1885 of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia was another blow.
The creation of an independent and powerful Bulgaria was viewed as a
serious threat to the Ottoman Empire. For many years Abdülhamid had to
deal with Bulgaria in a way that did not antagonize either Russian or
German wishes.
Crete was granted extended privileges, but these did not satisfy the population,
which sought unification with Greece. In early 1897 a Greek expedition sailed
to Crete to overthrow Ottoman rule in the island. This act was followed by war,
in which the Ottoman Empire defeated Greece (see the Greco-Turkish War
(1897)). But a few months later Crete was taken overen depot by England,
France, and Russia. Prince George of Greece was appointed as ruler and Crete
was also lost to the Ottoman Empire.

Securing Germany's support

The Triple Entente – that is, the United Kingdom, France and Russia –
maintained strained relations with the Ottoman Empire. Abdülhamid and his
close advisors believed the empire should be treated as an equal player by these
great powers. In the Sultan's view, the Ottoman Empire was a European
empire, distinct for having more Muslims than Christians. Abul Hamid and his
divan viewed themselves as modern, however their actions were often construed
by Europeans as exotic or uncivilized. Abdülhamid now viewed the new German
Empire as a possible friend of the empire. Kaiser Wilhelm II was twice hosted
by Abdülhamid in Constantinople; first on October 21, 1889, and nine years
later, on October 5, 1898 (Wilhelm II later visited Constantinople for a third
time, on October 15, 1917, as a guest of Mehmed V). German officers
(like Baron von der Goltz and von Ditfurth) were employed to oversee the
reorganization of the Ottoman army. German government officials were brought
in to reorganize the Ottoman government's finances. Abdülhamid tried to take
more of the reins of power into his own hands, for he distrusted his ministers.
Germany's friendship was not disinterested, and had to be fostered with railway
and loan concessions. In 1899 a significant German desire, the Baghdad
Railway, was given to them. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany also requested the
Sultan's help when having trouble with Muslims. During the Boxer Rebellion,
the Chinese MuslimKansu Braves fought against the German Army repeatedly,
routing them along with the other 8 nation alliance forces at the First
intervention, Seymour Expedition, China 1900. It was only on the second
attempt in the Gasalee Expedition did the Alliance manage to get through to
battle the Chinese Muslim troops at the Battle of Peking. Kaiser Wilhelm was so
alarmed by the Chinese Muslim troops that he requested the CaliphAbdul
Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire to find a way to stop the Muslim troops from
fighting. Abdul Hamid II agreed to the Kaiser's demands and sent Enver Pasha
to China in 1901, but the rebellion was over by that time. [8]

2nd Constitutional Era, 1908

The national humiliation of the situation in Macedonia, together with the
resentment in the army against the palace spies and informers, at last brought
matters to a crisis. In the summer of 1908 the Young Turk revolution broke out
and Abdülhamid, upon learning that the troops in Salonica were marching on
Constantinople (July 23), at once capitulated. Onthe 24th an irade announced
the restoration of the suspended constitution of 1876; the next day,
further irades abolished espionage and censorship, and ordered the release
of political prisoners. On December 17, Abdülhamid opened the Turkish
parliament with a speech from the throne in which he said that the
first parliament had been "temporarily dissolved until the education of the
people had been brought to a sufficiently high level by the extension of
instruction throughout the empire."
Countercoup, 1909
The new attitude of the sultan did not save him from the suspicion of intriguing
with the powerful reactionary elements in the state, a suspicion confirmed by
his attitude towards the counter-revolution of April 13, 1909 known as 31 Mart
Vakası, when an insurrection of the soldiers backed by a conservative public
upheaval in the capital overthrew the cabinet. The government, restored by
soldiers from Salonica, decided on Abdülhamid's deposition, and on April 27
his brother Reshad Efendi was proclaimed as Sultan Mehmed V. The Sultan's
countercoup, which had appealed to conservative Islamists in the context of the
Young Turks' liberal reforms, resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of
Christian Armenians in the Adana province.

Ideology and Progress

Reforms
Most people expected Abdülhamid II to have liberal ideas, and some
conservatives were inclined to regard him with suspicion as a dangerous
reformer. In the event, like many other would-be reformers of the Ottoman
Empire, change proved to be nearly impossible. Default in the public funds, an
empty treasury, the 1875 insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the war
with Serbia and Montenegro and the feeling aroused throughout Europe by the
cruelty used in stamping out the Bulgarian rebellion all proved good reasons
not to undertake any significant changes. There were many setbacks:

 Financial embarrassments forced him to consent to a foreign control over

the national debt. In a decree issued in December 1881, a large portion of
the empire's revenues were handed over to the Public Debt
Administration for the benefit of (mostly foreign) bondholders.
Over the years Abdülhamid succeeded in reducing his ministers to the position
of secretaries, and he concentrated much of the administration of the Empire
into his own hands at Yıldız Palace. But internal dissension was not
reduced. Crete was constantly in turmoil. The Greeks living within the Ottoman
Empire's borders were dissatisfied, as were the Armenians. His distrust for the
reformist admirals of the Ottoman navy (whom he suspected of plotting against
him and trying to bring back the 1876 constitution) and his subsequent
decision to lock the Ottoman fleet (which ranked as the 3rd largest fleet in the
world during the reign of his predecessor Abdülaziz) inside the Golden
Horn caused the loss of Ottoman overseas territories and islands in North
Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea during and after his reign.[10]

Question of Islam
Abdülhamid recognized that the ideas Tanzimat could not bring the disparate
peoples of the empire to common identity, such as Ottomanism. The Russia's
pan-Slavism, pan-Hellennism, was stronger than Ottomanism, in the Ottoman
Empire. Abdülhamid tried to hold on formulation of a new and more relevant
ideological principle. Ottoman sultans beginning with 1517 were also Caliphs.
He wanted to put forward that fact, so he emphasized the Ottoman Caliphate.
The Caliph of Islam, Ghazi Sultan Abd Al-Ḥamīd-i sânî II Khan

Abdülhamid always resisted the pressure of the European powers to the last
moment, in order to seem to yield only to overwhelming force, while posing as
the champion of Islam against aggressive Christendom. Panislamic propaganda
was encouraged; the privileges of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire, which were
often seen as an obstacle to government, were curtailed. Along with the
strategically important Istanbul-Baghdad Railway, the Istanbul-Medina
Railway was also completed -making the Hajj somewhat easier- though there
was still a 160-mile (260 km) camel ride to get to Mecca. Emissaries were sent
to distant countries preaching Islam and the Caliph's supremacy. During his
rule, Abdülhamid refusedTheodor Herzl's offers to pay down a substantial
portion of the Ottoman debt in exchange for a charter allowing
the Zionists access to Palestine. Abdülhamid's appeals to Muslim sentiment
were powerless against widespread disaffection within his Empire due to
perennial misgovernment. InMesopotamia and Yemen disturbance was
endemic; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained in the army and
among the Muslimpopulation only by a system of delation and espionage, and
by wholesale arrests. After his rule began, Abdülhamid became obsessed with
the paranoia of being assassinated and withdrew himself into the fortified
seclusion of the Yıldız Palace.

Armenian Question
Starting around 1890 the Armenians began demanding the implementation the
reforms which were promised to them at the Berlin conference. [11]Unrest
occurred in 1892 and 1893 at Merzifon and Tokat. Armenian groups staged
protests and were met by violence. Sultan Abdülhamid did not hesitate to put
down these revolts with harsh methods, possibly to show the unshakable power
of the monarch, and often used the local Muslims (in most cases the Kurds)
against the Armenians. According to Turkish scholar Taner Akçam, Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany claimed that eighty thousand Armenians had been
killed, and French reports claimed that two hundred thousand had been
killed. In 1907, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation attempted
to assassinate him with a car bombing during a public appearance, but the
Sultan delayed for a minute and the bomb went off early, killing 26, wounding
58 (of which 4 died at hospital) and demolishing 17 cars in the process.
Surviving the assassination, he pardoned the assassin.

Deposition and aftermath

The ex-sultan was conveyed into dignified captivity at Salonica. In 1912, when
Salonica fell to Greece, he was returned to captivity in . He spent his last days
studying, carpentering and writing his memoirs in custody at Beylerbeyi
Palace in the Bosphorus, where he died on 10 February 1918, just a few
months before his brother, the Sultan. He was buried in Constantinople.
Abdülhamid was the last relatively authoritative Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
He presided over thirty three years of decline. The Ottoman Empire had long
been acknowledged as the Sick Man of Europe.
Pictures from Empire
Abdülhamid commissioned thousands of photographs of his empire. Fearful of
assassination, he did not travel often (though still more than many previous
rulers) and photographs provided visual evidence of what was taking place in
his realm. The Sultan presented large gift albums of photographs to various
governments and heads of state, including the United States (William Allen,
"The Abdul Hamid II Collection," History of Photography eight (1984): 119–45.)
and Great Britain (M. I. Waley and British Library, "Sultan Abdulhamid II Early
Turkish Photographs in 51 Albums from the British Library on Microfiche"
(Zug, Switzerland: IDC, 1987). The American collection is housed in the Library
of Congress and has been digitized. *Ottoman Empire photographs at the
Library of Congress

Personal life
Abdülhamid II was born at Çırağan Palace, Ortaköy, or at Topkapı Palace, both
in Constantinople, the son of Sultan Abdülmecid I and one of his many
wives, Tîr-î-Müjgan Sultan, (Yerevan, 16 August 1819 – Constantinople, Feriye
Palace, 2 November 1853), originally named Virjin, anArmenian. He later also
became the adoptive son of another of his father's wives, Valide Sultan Rahime
Perestu. He was a skilled carpenter and personally crafted most of his own
furniture, which can be seen today at the Yıldız Palace and Beylerbeyi Palace in
Constantinople. Abdülhamid II was also interested in opera and personally
wrote the first-ever Turkish translations of many opera classics. He also
composed several opera pieces for the Mızıka-ı Hümayun which he established,
and hosted the famous performers of Europe at the Opera House of Yıldız
Palace which was recently restored and featured in the film Harem Suare
(1999) of the Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek, which begins with the
scene of Abdülhamid II watching a performance. In the opinion of F. A. K.
Yasamee:

He was a striking amalgam of determination and timidity, of insight and fantasy, held together by immense practical
caution and an instinct for the fundamentals of power. He was frequently underestimated. Judged on his record, he
was a formidable domestic politician and an effective diplomat

He was also a good wrestler of Yağlı güreş and a 'patron saint' of the wrestlers.
He organised wrestling tournaments in the empire and selected wrestlers were
invited to the palace. Abdülhamid personally tried the sportsmen and good ones
remained in the palace.

Poetry
Abdülhamid was also a poet just like many other Ottoman sultans. One of the
sultan's poems translates thus:
My Lord I know you are the Dear One (Al-Aziz)

... And no one but you are the Dear One

You are the One, and nothing else
My God take my hand in these hard times
My God be my helper in this critical hour

He was extremely fond of Sherlock Holmes novels.

Ahmose I
Ahmose I (sometimes written Amosis I, "Amenes" and "Aahmes" and meaning Born of
the Moon) was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Eighteenth dynasty.
He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of pharaoh Tao II Seqenenre and
brother of the last pharaoh of the Seventeenth dynasty, King Kamose. During the reign
of his father or grandfather, Thebes rebelled against theHyksos, the rulers of Lower
Egypt. When he was seven his father was killed, and he was about ten when his
brother died of unknown causes, after reigning only three years.
 Ahmose I assumed the throne after the death of
his brother,[6] and upon coronation became
known as Neb-Pehty-Re (The Lord of Strength
is Re). During his reign, he completed the
conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from
the delta region, restored Theban rule over the
whole of Egypt and successfully reasserted
Egyptian power in its formerly subject
[6]
territories of Nubia and Canaan.  He then
reorganized the administration of the country,
reopened quarries, mines and trade routes and
began massive construction projects of a type
that had not been undertaken since the time of
the Middle Kingdom. This building program
culminated in the construction of the
last pyramid built by native Egyptian rulers.
Ahmose's reign laid the foundations for the New
A fragmentary statue of Ahmose I, Metropolitan Kingdom, under which Egyptian power reached
Museum of Art
its peak. His reign is usually dated to about
1550–1525 BC.

Family
Ahmose descended from the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. His grandfather and
grandmother, Tao I and Tetisheri, had at least twelve children, including Tao
II and Ahhotep. The brother and sister, according to the tradition of Egyptian queens,
married; their children wereKamose, Ahmose I and several daughters. [7] Ahmose I
followed in the tradition of his father and married several of his sisters,
makingAhmose-Nefertari his chief wife. They had several children including
daughters Meritamun B, Sitamun A and sons Siamun A, Ahmose-ankh, Amenhotep
I and Ramose A[10] (the "A" and "B" designations after the names are a convention used
by Egyptologists to distinguish between royal children and wives that otherwise have
the same name). They may also have been the parents of Mutnofret, who would
become the wife of later successor Thutmose I. Ahmose-ankh was Ahmose's heir
apparent, but he preceded his father in death sometime between Ahmose's 17th and
22nd  regnal year. Ahmose was succeeded instead by his eldest surviving
son, Amenhotep I, with whom he might have shared a short coregency. There was no
distinct break in the line of the royal family between the 17th and 18th dynasties. The
historian Manetho, writing much later during the Ptolemaic dynasty, considered the
final expulsion of the Hyksos after nearly a century and the restoration of native
Egyptian rule over the whole country a significant enough event to warrant the start of
a new dynasty.

Dates and length of reign

Ahmose's reign can be fairly 'precisely' dated using the Heliacal rise of Sirius in
his successor's reign, but because of disputes over from where the observation was
made, he has been assigned a reign from 1570–1546, 1560–1537 and 1551–1527 by
various sources. Manetho gives Ahmose a reign of 25 years and 4 months; this figure
is supported by a ‘Year 22’ inscription from his reign at the stone quarries of Tura. A
medical examination of his mummy indicates that he died when he was about thirty-
five, supporting a 25-year reign if he came to the throne at the age of 10. The
radiocarbon date range for the start of his reign is 1570-1544 BCE, the mean point of
which is 1557 BC. Alternative dates for his reign (1194 to 1170 BC) were suggested
by David Rohl, but these were rejected by the majority of Egyptologists even before the
radiocarbon date was published in 2010.

Campaigns
The conflict between the local kings of Thebes and the Hyksos king Apepi
Awoserre had started during the reign of Tao II Seqenenre and would be concluded,
after almost 30 years of intermittent conflict and war, under the reign of Ahmose I. Tao
II was possibly killed in a battle against the Hyksos, as his much-wounded mummy
gruesomely suggests, and his successor Kamose (likely Ahmose's elder brother) is
known to have attacked and raided the lands around the Hyksos
capital, Avaris (modern Tell el-Dab'a). Kamose evidently had a short reign, as his
highest attested regnal year is year 3, and was succeeded by Ahmose I. Apepi may
have died near the same time. There is disagreement as to whether two names for
Apepi found in the historical record are of different monarchs or multiple names for the
same king. If, indeed, they were of different kings, Apepi Awoserre is thought to have
died at around the same time as Kamose and was succeeded by Apepi II Aqenienre.
Ahmose ascended the throne when he was still a child, so his mother, Ahhotep,
reigned as regent until he was of age. Judging by some of the descriptions of her regal
roles while in power, including the general honorific "carer for Egypt", she effectively
consolidated the Theban power base in the years prior to Ahmose assuming full
control. If in fact Apepi Aqenienre was a successor to Apepi Awoserre, then he is
thought to have remained bottled up in the delta during Ahhotep's regency, because
his name does not appear on any monuments or objects south of Bubastis.

Dagger bearing the name Ahmose I on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Conquest of the Hyksos

Ahmose began the conquest of Lower Egypt held by the Hyksos starting around the
11th year of Khamudi's reign, but the sequence of events is not universally agreed
upon. Analyzing the events of the conquest prior to the siege of the Hyksos capital of
Avaris is extremely difficult. Almost everything known comes from a brief but
invaluable military commentary on the back of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus,
consisting of brief diary entries,[19] one of which reads

“ ”
Regnal year 11, second month of shomu, Heliopolis was entered. First month of akhet,
day 23, this southern prince broke into Tjaru.

While in the past this regnal year date was assumed to refer to Ahmose, it is today
believed instead to refer to Ahmose's Hyksos opponent Khamudi since the Rhind
papyrus document refers to Ahmose by the inferior title of 'Prince of the South' rather
than king or pharaoh, as a Theban supporter of Ahmose surely would have called him.
Anthony Spalinger, in a JNES 60 (2001) book review of Kim Ryholt's 1997 book, The
Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800-1550 BC,
notes that Ryholt's translation of the middle portion of the Rhind text chronicling
Ahmose's invasion of the Delta reads instead as the "1st month of Akhet, 23rd day. He-
of-the-South (i.e. Ahmose) strikes against Sile." Spalinger stresses in his review that he
does not question Ryholt's translation of the Rhind text but instead asks whether:

“
"it is reasonable to expect a Theban-oriented text to describe its Pharaoh in this manner? For if
the date refers to Ahmose, then the scribe must have been an adherent of that ruler. To me, the
very indirect reference to Ahmose--it must be Ahmose--ought to indicate a supporter of the
Hyksos dynasty; hence, the regnal years should refer to this monarch and not the Theban
[king]." ”
The Rhind Papyrus illustrates some of Ahmose's military strategy when attacking the
Delta. Entering Heliopolis in July, he moved down the eastern delta to take  Tjaru, the
major border fortification on the Horus Road, the road from Egypt to Canaan, in
October, totally avoiding Avaris. In taking Tjaru[20] he cut off all traffic
between Canaan and Avaris. This indicates he was planning a blockade of Avaris,
isolating the Hyksos capital from help or supplies coming from Canaan. Records of the
latter part of the campaign were discovered on the tomb walls of a participating
soldier, Ahmose, son of Ebana. These records indicate that Ahmose I led three attacks
against Avaris, the Hyksos capital, but also had to quell a small rebellion further south
in Egypt. After this, in the fourth attack, he conquered the city. [25] He completed his
victory over the Hyksos by conquering their stronghold Sharuhen near Gaza after a
three year siege.[13][26] Ahmose would have conquered Avaris by the 18th or 19th year of
his reign at the very latest. This is suggested by "a graffito in the quarry at Tura
whereby 'oxen from Canaan' were used at the opening of the quarry in Ahmose's regnal
year 22." Since the cattle would probably have been imported after Ahmose's siege of
the town of Sharuhen which followed the fall of Avaris, this means that the reign of
Khamudi must have terminated by Year 18 or 19 of Ahmose's 25 year reign at the very
latest.

Foreign campaigns
After defeating the Hyksos, Ahmose began campaigning in Syria and Nubia. A
campaign during his 22nd year reached Djahy in the Levant and perhaps as far as
the Euphrates, although the later Pharaoh Thutmose I is usually credited with being
the first to campaign that far. Ahmose did, however, reach at least as far as Kedem
(thought to be near Byblos), according to an ostracon in the tomb of his wife, Ahmose-
Nefertari.[28] Details on this particular campaign are scarce, as the source of most of the
information, Ahmose son of Ebana, served in the Egyptian navy and did not take part
in this land expedition. However, it can be inferred from archaeological surveys of
southern Canaan that during the late 16th century BC Ahmose and his immediate
successors intended only to break the power of the Hyksos by destroying their cities
and not to conquer Canaan. Many sites there were completely laid waste and not
rebuilt during this period — something a Pharaoh bent on conquest and tribute would
not be likely to do. Ahmose I's campaigns in Nubia are better documented. Soon after
the first Nubian campaign, a Nubian named Aata rebelled against Ahmose, but was
crushed. After this attempt, an anti-Theban Egyptian named Tetian gathered many
rebels in Nubia, but he too was defeated. Ahmose restored Egyptian rule over Nubia,
which was controlled from a new administrative center established at Buhen.[8] When
re-establishing the national government, Ahmose appears to have rewarded various
local princes who supported his cause and that of his dynastic predecessors. [30]

Art and monumental constructions

With the re-unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Ahmose, a renewal of royal
support for the arts and monumental construction occurred. Ahmose reportedly
devoted a tenth of all the productive output towards the service of the traditional gods,
[31]
 reviving massive monumental constructions as well as the arts. However, as the
defeat of the Hyksos occurred relatively late in Ahmose's reign, his subsequent
building program likely lasted no more than seven years, and much of what was
started was probably finished by his son and successor Amenhotep I. Work from
Ahmose's reign is made of much finer material than anything from the Second
Intermediate Period, though the craftsmanship from his reign does not always match
the best work from either the Old or Middle Kingdoms. With the Delta and Nubia under
Egyptian control once more, access was gained to resources not available in Upper
Egypt. Gold andsilver were received from Nubia, Lapis Lazuli from distant parts of
central Asia, cedar  from  Byblos, and in the Sinai the were reopened. Although the
exact nature of the relationship between Egypt and Crete is uncertain, at least
some Minoan designs have been found on objects from this period, and Egypt
considered the  Aegeanto be part of its empire. Ahmose reopened
the Tura limestone quarries to provide stone for monuments and used
Asiatic cattle from Phoenicia to haul the stone, according to his quarry inscription. The
art during Ahmose I's reign was similar to the Middle Kingdom royal Theban style,
and stelae from this period were once more of the same quality. This reflects a possibly
natural conservative tendency to revive fashions from the pre-Hyksos era. Despite this,
only three positively identified statuary images of Ahmose I survive: a
single shabti kept at the British Museum, presumably from his tomb (which has never
been positively located), and two life-size statues; one of which resides in the New
York Metropolitan Museum, the other in the Khartoum Museum. All display slightly
bulging eyes, a feature also present on selected stelae depicting the pharaoh. Based on
style, a small limestone sphinx that resides at theNational Museum of Scotland,
Edinburgh, has also been tentatively identified as representing Ahmose I. The art
of glass making is thought to have developed during Ahmose's reign. The oldest
samples of glass appear to have been defective pieces of faience, but intentional
crafting of glass did not occur until the beginning of the 18th dynasty. [40] One of the
earliest glass beads found contains the names of both Ahmose and Amenhotep I,
written in a style dated to about the time of their reigns. [41] If glassmaking was
developed no earlier than Ahmose's reign and the first objects are dated to no later
than his successor’s reign, it is quite likely that it was one of his subjects who
developed the craft. Ahmose resumed large construction projects like those before
the second intermediate period. In the south of the country he began constructing
temples mostly built of brick, one of them in the Nubian town of Buhen. In Upper
Egypt he made additions to the existing temple of Amun at Karnak and to the temple
of Montu at Armant. According to an inscription at Tura, he used white limestone to
build a temple to Ptah and the southern harem of Amun, but did not finish either
project. He built a cenotaph for his grandmother,Queen Tetisheri, at Abydos.
Excavations at the site of Avaris by Manfred Bietak have shown that Ahmose had a
palace constructed on the site of the former Hyksos capital city's fortifications. Bietak
found fragmentary Minoan-style remains of the frescoes that once covered the walls of
the palace; there has subsequently been much speculation as to what role this Aegean
civilization may have played in terms of trade and in the arts. Under Ahmose's reign,
the city of Thebes became the capital for the whole of Egypt, as it had been in the
previous Middle Kingdom. It also became the center for a newly established
professional civil service, where there was a greater demand for scribes and the literate
as the royal archives began to fill with accounts and reports.
The jewels and ceremonial weaponry found in the burial of Queen  Ahhotep, including an axe whose blade
depicts Ahmose I striking down a Hyksos soldier, and the golden flies awarded to the Queen for her
supportive role against the Hyksos

Having Thebes as the capital was probably a strategic choice as it was located at the
center of the country, the logical conclusion from having had to fight the Hyksos in the
north as well as the Nubians to the south. Any future opposition at either border could
be met easily. Perhaps the most important shift was a religious one: Thebes effectively
became the religious as well as the political center of the country, its local god Amun
credited with inspiring Ahmose in his victories over the Hyksos. The importance of the
temple complex at Karnak (on the east bank of the Nile north of Thebes) grew and the
importance of the previous cult of Ra based in Heliopolisdiminished. Several stelae
detailing the work done by Ahmose were found at Karnak, two of which depict him as a
benefactor to the temple. In one of these stelae, known as the "Tempest Stele", he
claims to have rebuilt the pyramids of his predecessors at Thebes that had been
destroyed by a major storm. The Thera eruption in the Aegean has been implicated by
some scholars as the source of this damage, but similar claims are common in the
propagandistic writings of other pharaohs, showing them overcoming the powers of
darkness. Due to a lack of evidence, no definitive conclusion can be reached.

Pyramid
The remains of his pyramid in Abydos were discovered in 1899 and identified as his in
1902.[46] This pyramid and the related structures became the object of renewed
research as of 1993 by an expedition sponsored by the Pennsylvania-Yale Institute of
Fine Arts, New York University under the direction of Stephen Harvey. [47] Most of its
outer casing stones had been robbed for use in other building projects over the years,
and the mound of rubble upon which it was built has collapsed. However, two rows of
intact casing stones were found by Arthur Mace, who estimated its steep slope as
about 60 degrees, based on the evidence of the limestone casing (compare to the less
acute 51 degrees of the Great Pyramid of Giza). Although the pyramid interior has not
been explored since 1902, work in 2006 uncovered portions of a massive mudbrick
construction ramp built against its face. At the foot of the pyramid lay a complex of
stone temples surrounded by mud brick enclosure walls. Research by Harvey has
revealed three structures to date in addition to the "Ahmose Pyramid Temple" first
located by Arthur Mace. This structure, the closest to the base of the pyramid, was
most likely intended as its chief cult center. Among thousands of carved and painted
fragments uncovered since 1993, several depict aspects of a complex battle narrative
against an Asiatic enemy. In all likelihood, these reliefs, featuring archers, ships,
dead Asiatics and the first known representation of horses in Egypt, form the only
representation of Ahmose's Hyksos battles. Adjacent to the main pyramid temple and
to its east, Harvey has identified two temples constructed by Ahmose's queen, Ahmose-
Nefertary. One of these structures also bears bricks stamped with the name of Chief
Treasurer Neferperet, the official responsible for re-opening the stone quarries at el-
Ma'asara (Tura) in Ahmose's year 22. A third, larger temple (Temple C) is similar to the
pyramid temple in form and scale, but its stamped bricks and details of decoration
reinforce that it was a cult place for Ahmose-Nefertary. The axis of the pyramid
complex may be associated with a series of monuments strung out along a kilometer of
desert. Along this axis are several key structures: 1) a large pyramid dedicated to his
grandmother Tetisheri which contained a stele depicting Ahmose providing offerings to
her; 2) a rockcut underground complex which may either have served as a token
representation of an Osirian underworld or as an actual royal tomb; [49] and 3) a
terraced temple built against the high cliffs, featuring massive stone and brick
terraces. These elements reflect in general a similar plan undertaken for the cenotaph
of Senwosret III and in general its construction contains elements which reflect the
style of both Old and Middle Kingdompyramid complexes. There is some dispute as to
if this pyramid was Ahmose's burial place, or if it was a cenotaph. Although earlier
explorers Mace and Currelly were unable to locate any internal chambers, it is unlikely
that a burial chamber would have been located in the midst of the pyramid's rubble
core. In the absence of any mention of a tomb of King Ahmose in the tomb robbery
accounts of the Abbott Papyrus, and in the absence of any likely candidate for the
king's tomb at Thebes, it is possible that the king was interred at Abydos, as suggested
by Harvey. Certainly the great number of cult structures located at the base of the
pyramid located in recent years, as well as the presence at the base of the pyramid of a
cemetery used by priests of Ahmose's cult, argue for the importance of the king's
Abydos cult. However, other Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was constructed
(like Tetisheri's pyramid at Abydos) as a cenotaph and that Ahmose may have
originally been buried in the southern part of Dra' Abu el-Naga' with the rest of the late
17th and early 18th Dynasties. This pyramid was the last pyramid ever built as part of
a mortuary complex in Egypt. The pyramid form would be abandoned by subsequent
pharaohs of the New Kingdom, for both practical and religious reasons.
The Giza plateau offered plenty of room for building pyramids; but this was not the
case with the confined, cliff-bound geography of Thebes and any burials in the
surrounding desert were vulnerable to flooding. The pyramid form was associated with
the sun god Re, who had been overshadowed by Amun in importance. One of the
meanings of Amun's name was the hidden one, which meant that it was now
theologically permissible to hide the Pharaoh's tomb by fully separating the mortuary
template from the actual burial place. This provided the added advantage that the
resting place of the pharaoh could be kept hidden from necropolis robbers. All
subsequent pharaohs of the New Kingdom would be buried in rock-cut shaft tombs in
the Valley of the Kings.

Mummy
Ahmose I's mummy was discovered in 1881 within the Deir el-Bahri Cache, located in
the hills directly above the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. He was interred along with
the mummies of other 18th and 19th dynasty leaders Amenhotep I, Thutmose
I, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Ramesses I,Seti I, Ramesses II and Ramesses IX, as well
as the 21st dynasty pharaohs Pinedjem I, Pinedjem II and Siamun. Ahmose I's
mummy was unwrapped by Gaston Maspero on June 9, 1886. It was found within a
coffin that bore his name in hieroglyphs, and on his bandages his name was again
written in hieratic script. While the cedarwood coffin's style dates it squarely to the
time of the 18th dynasty, it was neither of royal style nor craftsmanship, and
any gilding or inlays may have been stripped in antiquity. [51] He had evidently been
moved from his original burial place, re-wrapped and placed within the cache at Deir
el-Bahri during the reign of the 21st dynasty priest-king Pinedjum II, whose name also
appeared on the mummy's wrappings. Around his neck a garland
of delphinium flowers had been placed. The body bore signs of having been plundered
by ancient grave-robbers, his head having been broken off from his body and his nose
smashed. The body was 1.63 m in height. The mummy had a small face with no
defining features, though he had slightly prominent front teeth; this may have been an
inherited family trait, as this feature can be seen in some female mummies of the same
family, as well as the mummy of his descendant, Thutmose II. A short description of
the mummy by Gaston Maspero sheds further light on familial resemblances:

“
…he was of medium height, as his body when mummified measured only 5 feet 6 inches
(1.68 m) in length, but the development of the neck and chest indicates extraordinary strength.
The head is small in proportion to the bust, the forehead low and narrow, the cheek-bones
project and the hair is thick and wavy. The face exactly resembles that of Tiûâcrai [Tao II
Seqenenre] and the likeness alone would proclaim the affinity, even if we were ignorant of the
close relationship which united these two Pharaohs. ”
Initial studies of the mummy were first thought to reveal a man in his 50s, but
subsequent examinations have shown that he was instead likely to have been in his
mid-30s when he died.[30] The identity of this mummy (Cairo Museum catalog n°
61057) was called into question in 1980 by the published results of Dr. James Harris,
a professor of orthodontics, and Egyptologist Edward Wente. Harris had been allowed
to take x-rays of all of the supposed royal mummies at the Cairo Museum. While
history records Ahmose I as being the son or possibly the grandson of Sekenenra Tao
II, the craniofacial morphology of the two mummies are quite different. It is also
different from that of the female mummy identified as Ahmes-Nefertari, thought to be
his sister. These inconsistencies, and the fact that this mummy was not posed with
arms crossed over chest, as was the fashion of the period for male royal mummies, led
them to conclude that this was likely not a royal mummy, leaving the identity of
Ahmose I unknown. The mummy is now in the Luxor Museum alongside the
purported one of Ramesses I, as part of a permanent exhibition called "The Golden Age
of the Egyptian Military".

Succession
Ahmose I was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep I. A minority of scholars have argued
that Ahmose had a short co-regency with Amenhotep, potentially lasting up to six
years. If there was a co-regency, Amenhotep could not have been made king before
Ahmose's 18th regnal year, the earliest year in which Ahmose-ankh, the heir apparent,
could have died. There is circumstantial evidence indicating a co-regency may have
occurred, although definitive evidence is lacking. The first piece of evidence consists of
three small objects which contain both of their praenomen next to one another: the
aforementioned small glass bead, a small feldspar amulet and a broken stele, all of
which are written in the proper style for the early 18th dynasty. The last stele said that
Amenhotep was "given life eternally", which is an Egyptian idiom meaning that a king
is alive, but the name of Ahmose does not have the usual epithet "true of voice" which
is given to dead kings.[41] Since praenomen are only assumed upon taking the throne,
and assuming that both were in fact alive at the same time, it is indicated that both
were reigning at the same time. There is, however, the possibility that Amenhotep I
merely wished to associate himself with his beloved father, who reunited Egypt.
Second, Amenhotep I appears to have nearly finished preparations for a sed festival, or
even begun celebrating it; but Amenhotep I's reign is usually given only 21 years and a
sed festival traditionally cannot be celebrated any earlier than a ruler's 30th year. If
Amenhotep I had a significant co-regency with his father, some have argued that he
planned to celebrate his Sed Festival on the date he was first crowned instead of the
date that he began ruling alone. This would better explain the degree of completion of
his Sed Festival preparations at Karnak. [55]There are two contemporary New Kingdom
examples of the breaking of this tradition; Hatshepsut celebrated her Heb Sed Festival
in her 16th year and Akhenaten celebrated a Sed Festival near the beginning of his 17-
year reign. Third, Ahmose's wife, Ahmose Nefertari, was called both "King's Great Wife"
and "King's Mother" in two stelae which were set up at the limestone quarries of
Ma`sara in Ahmose's 22nd year. For her to literally be a "King's Mother," Amenhotep
would already have to be a king. It is possible that the title was only honorific,
as Ahhotep II assumed the title without being the mother of any known king; though
there is a possibility that her son Amenemhat was made Amenhotep I's co-regent, but
preceded him in death. Because of this uncertainty, a co-regency is currently
impossible to prove or disprove. Both Redford's and Murnane's works on the subject
are undecided on the grounds that there is too little conclusive evidence either for or
against a coregency. Even if there was one, it would have made no difference to the
chronology of the period because in this kind of institution Amenhotep would have
begun counting his regnal dates from his first year as sole ruler. [58][59] However, co-
regency supporters note that since at least one rebellion had been led against Ahmose
during his reign, it would certainly have been logical to crown a successor before one's
death to prevent a struggle for the crown.

Akhenaten

Akhenaten (pronounced /ˌɑːkəˈnɑːtən/;[1] often also spelled Echnaton, Akhnaton, or

rarely Ikhnaton; meaning Living spirit of Aten) was known before the fifth year of his
reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and
meaning Amun is Satisfied), a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, ruled for
17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for
abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on
the Aten, which is sometimes described asmonotheistic or henotheistic. An early
inscription likens him to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language
avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.

Akhenaten tried to bring about a

departure from traditional religion, yet
in the end it would not be accepted.
After his death, traditional religious
practice was gradually restored, and
when some dozen years later rulers
without clear rights of succession from
the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new
dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten
and his immediate successors,
referring to Akhenaten himself as "the
enemy" in archival records. He was all
but lost from history until the
discovery, in the 19th century,
of Amarna, the site of Akhetaten, the
city he built for the Aten. Early
excavations at Amarna by Flinders
Petrie sparked interest in the enigmatic
Statue of Akhenaten in the early Amarna style.
pharaoh, which increased with the
discovery in theValley of the Kings,
at Luxor, of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, who has been proved to be Akhenaten's
son according to DNA testing in 2010 by Zahi Hawass of Cairo.[6] Akhenaten remains
an interesting figure, as does his Queen, Nefertiti. Their modern interest comes partly
from his connection with Tutankhamun, partly from the unique style and high quality
of the pictorial arts he patronized, and partly from ongoing interest in the religion he
attempted to establish.

Early life
The future Akhenaten was a younger son of Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye,
his elder brother Crown Prince Thutmose having died when both were children. Thus,
Akhenaten's early education might have prepared him for the priesthood like his
maternal uncle Anen; at any rate, in an inscription dating to his early reign he
emphasized his familiarity with ancient temple documents. Amenhotep IV succeeded
his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, or possibly after
a coregency lasting one to two years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to
the debates surrounding Egyptian chronology) are from 1353 BC-1336 BC or 1351
BC–1334 BC. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, made famous to the modern world
by the exquisitely sculpted and paintedNefertiti Bust, now displayed in the Neues
Museum of Berlin, and among the most recognized works of art surviving from the
ancient world. After four years of reign, Akhenaten began building a new city to serve
as the seat of the Aten and a governmental capital of Egypt. Its buildings were
decorated in a startling new style which was intended to express the tenets of the new
worship.

Religious policies
Some recent debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious
reforms on his people. Certainly, as time drew on, he revised the names of the Aten,
and other religious language, to increasingly exclude references to other gods; at some
point, also, he embarked on the wide-scale erasure of traditional gods' names,
especially those of Amun. Some of his court changed their names to remove them from
the patronage of other gods and place them under that of Aten (or Ra, with whom
Akhenaten equated the Aten). Yet, even at Amarna itself, some courtiers kept such
names as Ahmose ("child of the moon god", the owner of tomb 3), and the sculptor's
workshop where the famous Nefertiti bust, and other works of royal portraiture, were
found, is associated with an artist known to have been called Thutmose ("child of
Thoth"). An overwhelmingly large number of faience amulets at Amarna also show that
talismans of the household-and-childbirth gods Bes and Taweret, the eye of Horus,
and amulets of other traditional deities, were openly worn by its citizens. Indeed, a
cache of royal jewelry found buried near the Amarna royal tombs (now in the National
Museum of Scotland) includes a finger ring referring to Mut, the wife of Amun. Such
evidence suggests that though Akhenaten shifted funding away from traditional
temples, his policies were fairly tolerant until some point, perhaps a particular event as
yet unknown, toward the end of the reign. Following Akhenaten's death, change was
gradual at first. Within a decade a comprehensive political, religious and artistic
reformation began promoting a return of Egyptian life to the norms it had followed
during his father's reign. Much of the art and building infrastructure created during
Akhenaten's reign was defaced or destroyed in the period following his death,
particularly during the reigns of Horemheb and the early Nineteenth Dynasty kings.
Stone building blocks from Akhenaten's construction projects were later used as
foundation stones for subsequent rulers' temples and tombs.

Pharaoh and family depictions

Styles of art that flourished during this short period are markedly different from other
Egyptian art. In some cases, representations are more naturalistic, especially in
depictions of animals and plants, of commoners, and in a sense of action and
movement—for both nonroyal and royal people. However, depictions of members of the
court, especially members of the royal family, are extremely stylized, with elongated
heads protruding stomachs, heavy hips, thin arms and legs, and exaggerated facial
features. Questions also remain whether the beauty of Nefertiti is portraiture or
idealism. Significantly, and for the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art,
Akhenaten's family are shown taking part in decidedly naturalistic activities, showing
affection for each other, and being caught in mid-action (in traditional art, a pharaoh's
divine nature was expressed by repose, even immobility). The depictions of action may
correspond to the emphasis on the active creative and nurturing emphasized of the
Aten in the "Great Hymn to the Aten" and elsewhere. Nefertiti also appears, both beside
the king and alone (or with her daughters), in actions usually reserved for a Pharaoh,
suggesting that she enjoyed unusual status for a queen. Early artistic representations
of her tend to be indistinguishable from her husband's except by her regalia, but soon
after the move to the new capital, Nefertiti begins to be depicted with features specific
to her. Why Akhenaten had himself represented in the bizarre, strikingly androgynous
way he did, remains a vigorously debated question. Religious reasons have been
suggested, such as to emulate the creative nature of the Aten, who is called in Amarna
tomb texts, "mother and father" of all that is. Or, it has been suggested, Akhenaten's
(and his family's) portraiture exaggerates his distinctive physical traits. Until
Akhenaten's mummy is positively identified, such theories remain speculative. Some
scholars do identify Mummy 61074, found in KV55, an unfinished tomb in the Valley
of the Kings, as Akhenaten's. If so—or if the KV 55 mummy is that of his close
relative, Smenkhkare—its measurements tend to support the theory that Akhenaten's
depictions exaggerate his actual appearance. Though the "mummy" consists only in
disarticulated bones, the skull is long and has a prominent chin and the limbs are
light and long. However, in 2007, Zahi Hawass and a team of researchers made CT
Scan images of the KV 55 mummy. They have concluded that the elongated skull,
cheek bones, cleft palate, and impacted wisdom tooth suggest that the mummy is the
father of Tutankhamun, also commonly known as Akhenaten.

Talatat blocks from Akhenaten's Aten temple in Karnak

Family and relations

As Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his
reign, and six daughters were identified from inscriptions. Recent DNA analysis has
revealed he also fathered Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamen) with his biological sister,
whose mummy remains unidentified. [9] The parentage of Smenkhkare, his successor, is
unknown, and Akhenaten and an unknown wife have been proposed to be his parents.
A secondary wife of Akhenaten named Kiya is known from inscriptions. Some have
theorized that she gained her importance as the mother of Tutankhamen,
Smenkhkare, or both. This is a list of Akhenaten's children (known and theoretical)
with suggested years of birth:

 Smenkhkare?– year 35 or 36 of Amenhotep III's reign

 Meritaten – year 1.
 Meketaten – year 3, possibly earlier.
 Ankhesenpaaten, later Queen of Tutankhamun – year 4.
 Neferneferuaten Tasherit – year 8.
 Neferneferure – year 9.
 Setepenre – year 9.
 Tutankhaten–year 8 or 9 – renamed Tutankhamun later.[10]

His known consorts were:

 Nefertiti, his Great Royal Wife.

 Kiya, a lesser Royal Wife.
 A daughter of Šatiya, ruler of Enišasi 
 A daughter of Burna-Buriash, King of Babylon 

It has also been suggested that, like his father Amenhotep III, Akhenaten may have
taken some of his daughters as consorts:

 Meritaten, recorded as Great Royal Wife late in his reign, though it is more likely
that she got this title due to her marriage to Smenkhkare, Akhenaten's co-regent.
 Meketaten, Akhenaten's second daughter. The reason for this suggestion is
Meketaten's death due to childbirth in, or after, the fourteenth year of Akhenaten's
reign, though nowhere does she have the title or cartouche of a queen.
 Ankhesenpaaten, his third daughter, also on tenuous evidence. In his final year
or after his death, Ankhesenpaaten married her brother Tutankhamun.

Inscriptions refer to a daughter of Meritaten, Meritaten-ta-sherit and may record a

daughter for Ankhesenpaaten, Ankhesenpaaten-ta-sherit, though the latter depends
on a questionable reading of a single fragmentary inscription. The texts in question all
once belonged to Kiya and were re-inscribed for the princesses later. The daughter (or,
perhaps, hoped-for future daughter) might have replaced Kiya's daughter in those
scenes.

Two other lovers have been suggested, but are not widely accepted:

 Smenkhkare, Akhenaten's successor and/or co-ruler for the last years of his
reign. Rather than a lover, however, Smenkhkare is likely to have been a half-
brother or a son to Akhenaten. Some have even suggested that Smenkhkare was
actually an alias of Nefertiti or Kiya, and therefore one of Akhenaten's wives (see
below).
 Tiye, his mother. Twelve years after the death of Amenhotep III, she is still
mentioned in inscriptions as Queen and beloved of the King, but kings' mothers
often were. The few supporters of this theory (notably Immanuel Velikovsky)
consider Akhenaten to be the historical model of legendary King Oedipus of Thebes,
Greece and Tiye the model for his mother/wife Jocasta.

International relations
Important evidence about Akhenaten's reign and foreign policy has been provided by
the discovery of the Amarna Letters, a cache of diplomatic correspondence discovered
in modern times at el-Amarna, the modern designation of the Akhetaten site. This
correspondence comprises a priceless collection of incoming messages on clay tablets,
sent to Akhetaten from various subject rulers through Egyptian military outposts, and
from the foreign rulers (recognized as "Great Kings") of the kingdom of Mitanni,
Babylon, Assyria and Hatti. The governors and kings of Egypt's subject domains also
wrote frequently to plead for gold from Pharaoh, and also complained of being snubbed
and cheated by him. Early on in his reign, Akhenaten fell out with the king
of Mitanni, Tushratta, who had been courting favor with his father against the Hittites.
Tushratta complains in numerous letters that Akhenaten had sent him gold plated
statues rather than statues made of solid gold; the statues formed part of the bride
price which Tushratta received for letting his daughter Tadukhepabe married to
Amenhotep III and then Akhenaten. Amarna letter EA 27 preserves a complaint by
Tushratta to Akhenaten about the situation:

"I...asked your father, Mimmureya, for statues of solid cast gold, one of myself and a second statue, a statue of
Tadu-Heba (Tadukhepa), my daughter, and your father said, "Don't talk of giving statues just of solid cast gold. I
will give you ones made also of lapis lazuli. I will give you, too, along with the statues, much additional gold and
(other) goods beyond measure." Every one of my messengers that were staying in Egypt saw the gold for the statues
with their own eyes. Your father himself recast the statues [i]n the presence of my messengers, and he made them
entirely of pure gold....He showed much additional gold, which was beyond measure and which he was sending to
me. He said to my messengers, "See with your own eyes, here the statues, there much gold and goods beyond
measure, which I am sending to my brother." And my messengers did see with their own eyes! But my brother (ie:
Akhenaten) has not sent the solid (gold) statues that your father was going to send. You have sent plated ones of
wood. Nor have you sent me the goods that your father was going to send me, but you have reduced (them) greatly.
Yet there is nothing I know of in which I have failed my brother. Any day that I hear the greetings of my brother, that
day I make a festive occasion...May my brother send me much gold. [At] the kim[ru fe]ast...[...with] many goods
[may my] brother honor me. In my brother's country gold is as plentiful as dust. May my brother cause me no
distress. May he send me much gold in order that my brother [with the gold and m]any [good]s, may honor me".

While Akhenaten was certainly not a close friend of Tushratta, he was evidently
concerned at the expanding power of the Hittite Empire under its powerful
ruler Suppiluliuma I. A successful Hittite attack on Mitanni and its ruler Tushratta
would have disrupted the entire international balance of power in the Ancient Middle
East at a time when Egypt had made peace with Mitanni; this would cause some of
Egypt's vassals to switch their allegiances to the Hittites, as time would prove. A group
of Egypt's allies who attempted to rebel against the Hittites were captured, and wrote
letters begging Akhenaten for troops, but he did not respond to most of their pleas.
Evidence suggests that the troubles on the northern frontier led to difficulties
in Canaan, particularly in a struggle for power between Labaya of Shechem and Abdi-
Heba of Jerusalem, which required the Pharaoh to intervene in the area by
dispatchingMedjay troops northwards. Akhenaten pointedly refused to save his
vassal Rib-Hadda of Byblos whose kingdom was being besieged by the expanding state
of Amurru under Abdi-Ashirtaand later Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, despite Rib-Hadda's
numerous pleas for help from the pharaoh. Rib-Hadda wrote a total of 60 letters to
Akhenaten pleading for aid from the pharaoh. Akhenaten wearied of Rib-Hadda's
constant correspondences and once told Rib-Hadda: "You are the one that writes to me
more than all the (other) mayors" or Egyptian vassals in EA 124. What Rib-Hadda did
not comprehend was that the Egyptian king would not organize and dispatch an entire
army north just to preserve the political status quo of several minor city states on the
fringes of Egypt's Asiatic Empire. [15] Rib-Hadda would pay the ultimate price; his exile
from Byblos due to a coup led by his brother Ilirabih is mentioned in one letter. When
Rib-Hadda appealed in vain for aid to Akhenaten and then turned to Aziru, his sworn
enemy to place him back on the throne of his city, Aziru promptly had him dispatched
to the king of Sidon where Rib-Hadda was almost certainly executed.

William L. Moran notes that the

Amarna corpus of 380+ letters
counters the conventional view
that Akhenaten neglected Egypt's
foreign territories in favour of his
internal reforms. There are several
 letters from Egyptian vassals notifying Pharaoh that the king's instructions have been
followed:

To the king, my lord, my god, my Sun, the Sun from the sky: Message of Yapahu, the ruler of   Gazru, your servant,
the dirt at your feet. I indeed prostrate myself at the feet of the king, my lord, my god, my Sun...7 times and 7 times,
on the stomach and on the back. I am indeed guarding the place of the king, my lord, the Sun of the sky, where I am,
and all the things the king, my lord, has written me, I am indeed carrying out--everything! Who am I, a dog, and
what is my house...and what is anything I have, that the orders of the king, my lord, the Sun from the sky, should not
obey constantly? 

When the loyal but unfortunate Rib-Hadda was killed at the instigation of
Aziru, Akhenaten sent an angry letter to Aziru containing a barely veiled accusation of
Small statue of Akhenaten wearing the Egyptian Blue
Crown of War outright treachery on the latter's part. Akhenaten
wrote:

Say to Aziru, ruler of Amurru: Thus the king, your lord (ie: Akhenaten), saying: The ruler of Gubla (ie: Byblos),
whose brother had cast him away at the gate, said to you, "Take me and get me into the city. There is much silver,
and I will give it to you. Indeed there is an abundance of everything, but not with me [here]." Thus did the ruler
(Rib-Hadda) speak to you. Did you not write to the king, my lord saying, "I am your servant like all the previous
mayors (ie: vassals) in his city"? Yet you acted delinquently by taking the mayor whose brother had cast him away at
the gate, from his city. He (Rib-Hadda) was residing in Sidon and, following your own judgment, you gave him to
(some) mayors. Were you ignorant of the treacherousness of the men? If you really are the king's servant, why did
you not denounce him before the king, your lord, saying, "This mayor has written to me saying, 'Take me to yourself
and get me into my city'"? And if you did act loyally, still all the things you wrote were not true. In fact, the king has
reflected on them as follows, "Everything you have said is not friendly." Now the king has heard as follows, "You are
at peace with the ruler of Qidsa. (Kadesh) The two of you take food and strong drink together." And it is true. Why
do you act so? Why are you at peace with a ruler whom the king is fighting? And even if you did act loyally, you
considered your own judgment, and his judgment did not count. You have paid no attention to the things that you did
earlier. What happened to you among them that you are not on the side of the king, your lord? Consider the people
that are training you for their own advantage. They want to throw you into the fire....If for any reason whatsoever
you prefer to do evil, and if you plot evil, treacherous things, then you, together with your entire family, shall die by
the axe of the king. So perform your service for the king, your lord, and you will live. You yourself know that the king
does not fail when he rages against all of Canaan. And when you wrote saying, 'May the king, my Lord, give me
leave this year, and then I will go next year to the king, my Lord. (ie: to Egypt) If this is impossible, I will send my
son in my place'--the king, your Lord, let you off this year in accordance with what you said. Come yourself, or send
your son [now], and you will see the king at whose sight all lands live."
This letter shows that Akhenaten paid close attention to the affairs of his vassals in
Canaan and Syria. Akhenaten commanded Aziru to come to Egypt and proceeded to
detain him there for at least one year. In the end, Akhenaten was forced to release
Aziru back to his homeland when the Hittites advanced southwards into Amki thereby
threatening Egypt's series of Asiatic vassal states including Amurru. Sometime after
his return to Amurru, Aziru defected to the Hittite side with his kingdom. While it is
known from an Amarna letter by Rib-Hadda that the Hittites "seized all the countries
that were vassals of the king of Mitanni"(EA 75) Akhenaten managed to preserve
Egypt's control over the core of her Near Eastern Empire which consisted of present
day Palestine as well as the Phoenician coast while avoiding conflict with the
increasingly powerful Hittite Empire of Suppiluliuma I. Only the Egyptian border
province of Amurru in Syria around the Orontes river was permanently lost to the
Hittites when its ruler Aziru defected to the Hittites. Finally, contrary to the
conventional view of a ruler who neglected Egypt's international relations, Akhenaten
is known to have initiated at least one campaign into Nubia in his regnal Year 12,
where his campaign is mentioned in Amada stela CG 41806 and on a separate
companion stela at Buhen.

Death, burial and succession

The last dated appearance of Akhenaten and the Amarna family is in the tomb of
Meryra II, and dates from second month, year 12 of his reign. [25] After this the
historical record is unclear, and only with the succession of Tutankhamun is
somewhat clarified. Akhenaten planned to relocate Egyptian burials on the East side of
the Nile (sunrise) rather than on the West side (sunset), in the Royal Wadi in
Akhetaten. His body was removed after the court returned to Thebes, and recent
genetic tests have confirmed that the body found buried in tomb KV55 was the father
of Tutankhamun, and is therefore "most probably" Akhenaten, although this is
disputed. The tomb contained numerous Amarna era objects including a royal
funerary mask which had been deliberately destroyed. His sarcophagus was destroyed
but has since been reconstructed and now sits outside in the Cairo Museum. There is
much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death
of his father, Amenhotep III, or whether there was a coregency (lasting as long as 12
years according to some Egyptologists). Current literature by Eric Cline, Nicholas
Reeves, Peter Dorman and other scholars comes out strongly against the
establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favour of either no
coregency or a brief one lasting one to two years, at the most. [28] Other literature
by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner and more recently by Lawrence
Berman in 1998 contests the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten
and his father. Similarly, although it is accepted that Akhenaten himself died in Year
17 of his reign, the question of whether Smenkhkare became co-regent perhaps two or
three years earlier or enjoyed a brief independent reign is unclear. If Smenkhkare
outlived Akhenaten, and became sole Pharaoh, he likely ruled Egypt for less than a
year. The next successor was Neferneferuaten, a female Pharaoh who reigned in Egypt
for two years and one month.[31]She was, in turn, probably succeeded by Tutankhaten
(later, Tutankhamun), with the country being administered by the chief vizier, and
future Pharaoh,Ay. Tutankhamun was believed to be a younger brother of Smenkhkare
and a son of Akhenaten, and possibly Kiya although one scholar has suggested that
Tutankhamun may have been a son of Smenkhkare instead. DNA tests in 2010
indicated Tutankhamun was indeed the son of Akhenaten.[6] It has been suggested that
after the death of Akhenaten, Nefertiti reigned with the name of Neferneferuaten but
other scholars believe this female ruler was rather Meritaten. The so-calledCoregency
Stela, found in a tomb in Amarna possibly shows his queen Nefertiti as his coregent,
ruling alongside him[citation needed], but this is not certain as the names have been removed
and recarved to show Ankhesenpaaten and Neferneferuaten. With Akhenaten's death,
the Aten cult he had founded gradually fell out of favor. Tutankhaten changed his
name to Tutankhamun in Year 2 of his reign (1332 BC) and abandoned the city of
Akhetaten, which eventually fell into ruin. His successors Ay
and Horemheb disassembled temples Akhenaten had built, including the temple at
Thebes, using them as a source of easily available building materials and decorations
for their own temples. Finally, Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten, Smenkhkare,
Tutankhamun, and Ay were excised from the official lists of Pharaohs, which instead
reported that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb. This is thought
to be part of an attempt by Horemheb to delete all trace of Atenism and the pharaohs
associated with it from the historical record. [citation needed]
Akhenaten's name never
appeared on any of the king lists compiled by later Pharaohs and it was not until the
late 19th century that his identity was re-discovered and the surviving traces of his
reign were unearthed by archaeologists.

Plague and pandemic

This Amarna Period is also associated with a serious outbreak of a pandemic, possibly
the plague, or polio, or perhaps the world's first recorded outbreak of influenza,
[34]
 which came from Egypt and spread throughout the Middle East, killing
Suppiluliuma I, the Hittite King. Influenza is a disease associated with the close
proximity of water fowl, pigs and humans, and its origin as a pandemic disease may be
due to the development of agricultural systems that allow the mixing of these animals
and their wastes.[35] Some of the first archaeological evidence for this agricultural
system is during the Amarna period of Ancient Egypt, and the pandemic that followed
this period throughout the Ancient Near East may have been the earliest recorded
outbreak of influenza.[36] However, the precise nature of this Egyptian plague remains
unknown and Asia has also been suggested as a possible site of origin of pandemic
influenza in humans.[37][38][39] The prevalence of disease may help explain the rapidity
with which the site of Akhetaten was subsequently abandoned. It may also explain why
later generations considered the gods to have turned against the Amarna monarchs.
Arielle Kozloff discusses the evidence, arguing that the epidemic was caused by
Bubonic plague over polio. However, her argument that "polio is only fractionally as
virulent as some other diseases" ignores the evidence that diseases become less
virulent the longer they are present in the human population, as demonstrated
with syphilis and tuberculosis.

Implementation of Atenism
In the early years of his reign, Amenhotep IV lived at Thebes with Nefertiti and his 6
daughters. Initially, he permitted worship of Egypt's traditional deities to continue but
near the Temple of Karnak (Amun-Ra's great cult center), he erected several massive
buildings including temples to the Aten. Aten was usually depicted as a sun disc.
These buildings at Thebes were later dismantled by his successors and used as infill
for new constructions in the Temple of Karnak; when they were later dismantled by
archaeologists, some 36,000 decorated blocks from the original Aton building here
were revealed which preserve many elements of the original relief scenes and
inscriptions.
 Akhenaten depicted as a sphinx at Amarna.

The relationship between Amenhotep IV and the priests of Amun-Re gradually

deteriorated. In Year 5 of his reign, Amenhotep IV took decisive steps to establish the
Aten as the exclusive, monotheistic god of Egypt: the pharaoh "disbanded the
priesthoods of all the other gods...and diverted the income from these [other] cults to
support the Aten. To emphasize his complete allegiance to the Aten, the king officially
changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten or 'Living Spirit of
Aten.'[41] Akhenaten's fifth year also marked the beginning of construction on his new
capital, Akhetaten or 'Horizon of Aten', at the site known today as Amarna. Very soon
afterwards, he centralized Egyptian religious practices in Akhetaten, though
construction of the city seems to have continued for several more years. In honor of
Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple
complexes in ancient Egypt. In these new temples, Aten was worshipped in the open
sunlight, rather than in dark temple enclosures, as had been the previous custom.
Akhenaten is also believed to have composed theGreat Hymn to the Aten. Initially,
Akhenaten presented Aten as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Amun-Re (itself
the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun, resulting in Amun
becoming merged with the sun god Ra), in an attempt to put his ideas in a familiar
Egyptian religious context. However, by Year 9 of his reign, Akhenaten declared that
Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god, and that he, Akhenaten, was
the only intermediary between Aten and his people. He ordered the defacing of Amun's
temples throughout Egypt and, in a number of instances, inscriptions of the plural
'gods' were also removed. Aten's name is also written differently after Year 9, to
emphasize the radicalism of the new regime, which included a ban on images, with the
exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands)
appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten, who by then was evidently considered
not merely a sun god, but rather a universal deity. Representations of the Aten were
always accompanied with a sort of "hieroglyphic footnote", stating that the
representation of the sun as All-encompassing Creator was to be taken as just that: a
representation of something that, by its very nature as some time transcending
creation, cannot be fully or adequately represented by any one part of that creation.

Speculative theories
Akhenaten's status as a religious revolutionary has led to much speculation, ranging
from bona fide scholarly hypotheses to the non-academic fringe theories. Although
many believe that he introduced monotheism, others see Akhenaten as a practitioner
of an Aten monolatry,[42] as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he
simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten while expecting the people to
worship not Aten but him.

Akhenaten and Judeo-Christian monotheism

The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became
Judaism has been considered by various scholars. One of the first to mention this
was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his book Moses and
[49]
Monotheism.  Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave
Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Freud argued that Akhenaten was
striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to
achieve. Following his book, the concept entered popular consciousness and serious
research. Other scholars and mainstream Egyptologists point out that there are direct
connections between early Judaism and other Semitic religious traditions. They also
state that two of the three principal Judaic terms for
God, Yahweh, Elohim (morphologically plural), and Adonai (meaning "our lord", also
morphologically plural) have no connection to Aten. Freud commented on the
connection between Adonai, the Egyptian Aten and the Syrian divine name of Adonis
as a primeval unity of language between the factions; in this he was following the
argument of Egyptologist Arthur Weigall, but the argument was groundless as 'Aten'
and 'Adonai' are not, in fact, linguistically related. Akhenaten appears in history
almost two-centuries prior to the first archaeological and written evidence for Judaism
and Israelite culture is found in the Levant. Abundant visual imagery of the Aten disk
was central to Atenism, which celebrated the natural world, while such imagery is not
a feature of early Israelite culture. [52] However, pottery found throughout Judea dated
to the end of the 8th century BC has seals resembling a winged sun disk burned on
their handles. These are argued to be the royal seal of the Judean Kingdom.
Uffington supports the view of the origin of Judaism, but also points out a Celtic link
through the symbols. The Aten sun disc is frequently represented with its long rays
ending in human hands. This symbol was also a representation of the Celtic Sun
God Lugh. Ahmed Osman has claimed that Akhenaten's maternal
grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph. Yuya held the title
"Overseer of the Cattle of Min at Akhmin" during his life. He likely belonged to the
local nobility of Akhmim. Egyptologists hold this view because Yuya had strong
connections to the city of Akhmin in Upper Egypt. This makes it unlikely that he was a
foreigner since most Asiatic settlers tended to cloister around the Nile Delta region
of Lower Egypt[56][57] Some Egyptologists, however, give him a Mitannian origin. It is
widely accepted that there are strong similarities between Akhenaten's Great Hymn to
the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104, though this form is found widespread in ancient
Near Easternhymnology both before and after the period and whether this implies a
direct influence or a common literary convention remains in dispute. Others have
likened some aspects of Akhenaten's relationship with the Aten to the relationship, in
Christian tradition, of Jesus Christ with God - particularly in interpretations that
emphasise a more monotheistic interpretation of Atenism than henotheistic. Donald B.
Redford has noted that some have viewed Akhenaten as a harbinger of Jesus. "After
all, Akhenaten did call himself the son of the sole god: "'Thine only son that came forth
from thy body.'"James Henry Breasted likened him to Jesus Arthur Weigall saw him as
a failed precursor of Christ and Thomas Mann saw him "as right on the way and yet
not the right one for the way". Redford argued that while Akhenaten called himself the
son of the Sun-Disc and acted as the chief mediator between god and creation, it must
be noted that kings for thousands of years before Akhenaten's time had claimed the
same relationship and priestly role. However Akhenaton's case may be different
through the emphasis placed on the heavenly father and son relationship. Akhenaten
described himself as "thy son who came forth from thy limbs", "thy child", "the eternal
son that came forth from the Sun-Disc", and "thine only son that came forth from thy
body". The close relationship between father and son is such that only the king truly
knows the heart of "his father", and in return his father listens to his son's prayers. He
is his father's image on earth and as Akhenaten is king on earth his father is king in
heaven. As high priest, prophet, king and divine he claimed the central position in the
new religious system. Since only he knew his father's mind and will, Akhenaten alone
could interpret that will for all mankind with true teaching coming only from him.

Redford concluded:

Before much of the archaeological evidence from Thebes and from Tell el-Amarna became available, wishful
thinking sometimes turned Akhenaten into a humane teacher of the true God, a mentor of Moses, a Christlike figure,
a philosopher before his time. But these imaginary creatures are now fading away one by one as the historical
reality gradually emerges. There is little or no evidence to support the notion that Akhenaten was a progenitor of the
full-blown monotheism that we find in the Bible. The monotheism of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament had
its own separate development—one that began more than half a millenium after the pharaoh's death.

Possible illness
The rather strange and eccentric portrayals of Akhenaten, with a sagging stomach,
thick thighs, larger breasts, and long, thin face — so different from the athletic norm in
the portrayal of Pharaohs — has led certain Egyptologists to suppose that Akhenaten
suffered some kind of genetic abnormality. Various illnesses have been put forward.
On the basis of his longer jaw and his feminine appearance, Cyril Aldred[63] suggested
he may have suffered from Froelich's Syndrome. However, this is unlikely because this
disorder results in sterility and Akhenaten is believed to have fathered numerous
children — at least six daughters by Nefertiti, and his successor Tutankhamen by a
minor wife. Another suggestion by Burridge [64] is that Akhenaten may have suffered
from Marfan's Syndrome. Marfan's syndrome, unlike Froelich's, does not result in any
lack of intelligence or sterility.
Head of Akhenaten

It is associated with a sunken chest, long curved spider-like fingers (arachnodactyly),

occasional congenital heart difficulties, a high curved or slightly cleft palate, and a
highly curved cornea or dislocated lens of the eye, with the requirement for bright light
to see well. Marfan's sufferers tend towards being taller than average, with a long, thin
face, and elongated skull, overgrown ribs, a funnel or pigeon chest, and larger pelvis,
with enlarged thighs and spindly calves. Marfan's syndrome is a dominant
characteristic, and sufferers have a 50% chance of passing it on to their children. All of
these symptoms appear in depictions of Akhenaten and of his children. Recent CT
scans of Tutankhamun report a cleft palate and a fairly long head, as well as an
abnormal curvature of the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, a condition
associated with scoliosis, all conditions associated with Marfan's syndrome. Marfan
Syndrome was ruled out following DNA tests on Tutankhamun in 2010.
However, Dominic Montserrat in Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient
Egypt argues that "there is now a broad consensus among Egyptologists that the
exaggerated forms of Akhenaten's physical portrayal... are not to be read
[47] [69]
literally"  Montserrat and others  argue that the body-shape relates to some form of
religious symbolism. Because the god Aten was referred to as "the mother and father of
all humankind" it has been suggested that Akhenaten was made to
look androgynous in artwork as a symbol of the androgyny of the god. This required "a
symbolic gathering of all the attributes of the creator god into the physical body of the
king himself", which will "display on earth the Aten's multiple life-giving functions".
[47]
 Akhenaten did refer to himself as "The Unique One of Re", and he may have used
his control of artistic expression to distance himself from the common people, though
such a radical departure from the idealised traditional representation of the image of
the Pharaoh would be truly extraordinary. Uffinton too supports this view [70]and
claims that Akhenaten's asexual appearance is explained in the Gnostic Book of
Enoch when Enoch meets the Elohim. Representations of other persons than
Akhenaten in the 'Amarna style' are equally unflattering — for example, a carving of
his father Amenhotep III as an overweight figure; Nefertiti is shown in some statues as
well past her prime, with a severe face and a stomach swollen by repeated pregnancies.
Another claim was made by Immanuel Velikovsky, who hypothesized an incestuous
relationship with his mother, Tiye. Velikovsky also posited that Akhenaten
had elephantiasis, producing enlarged legs. Based on this, he identified Akhenaten as
the history behind the Oedipus myth, Oedipus being Greek for "swollen feet", and
moved the setting from the Greek Thebes to the Egyptian Thebes. As part of his
argument, Velikovsky uses the fact that Akhenaten viciously carried out a campaign to
erase the name of his father, which he argues could have developed into Oedipus
killing his father. This point seems to be disproved, however, in that Akhenaten in fact
mummified and buried his father in the honorable traditional Egyptian fashion prior to
beginning his monotheistic revolution. In the same 1960 work, Oedipus and
Akhnaton, Velikovsky not only saw Akhenaten as the origin of Oedipus, but also
identified him with a Pharaoh mentioned only in Herodotus, "Anysis of the city of the
same name" — Akhenaten of Akhetaten. Like Oedipus, Anysis was blinded, deposed
and exiled. Some scholars have argued that Akhenaten went blind at the end of his life
and was supported by his wife Nefertiti.
First "individual"
Akhenaten has been called by historian James Henry Breasted "the first individual in
history",[47] as well as the first monotheist, first scientist, and first romantic. As early as
1899Flinders Petrie declared that, If this were a new religion, invented to satisfy
our modern scientific conceptions, we could not find a flaw in the correctness of
this view of the energy of the solar system. How much Akhenaten understood,
we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to
a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag
of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved
out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, the sole Lord of the universe. H.R. Hall even
claimed that the pharaoh was the "first example of the scientific mind". Nicholas
Reeves, in his book Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet, portrays a totally different
image of Pharaoh, seeing his religious reformations simply as attempts to centralize
power and solidify his role as "divine monarch".

Smenkhkare
There has also been interest in the identity of the Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who was the
immediate successor to Akhenaten. In particular, descriptions on a small box seemed
to refer to "Smenkhkare beloved of Akhenaten". This gave rise to the idea that
Akhenaten might have been bisexual. This theory seems to originate from objects
found in the tomb of Tutankhamen in the 1920s. The Egyptologist Percy
Newberry[47] then linked this to one of the stele exhibited in the Berlin Museum which
pictured two rulers, naked and seated together – the older caressing the younger and
the shoulder offering support. He identified these as the rulers Akhenaten and
Smenkhkare. In the 1970s John Harris identified the figure pictured alongside
Akhenaten as Nefertiti, arguing that she may have actually been elevated to co-regent
and perhaps even succeeded temporarily as an independent ruler, changing her name
to Smenkhkare. Nicholas Reeves and other Egyptologists contend that Smenkhkare
was the same person as Neferneferuaten, who ruled together with Akhenaten as co-
regent for the final one or two years of Akhenaten's reign. On several monuments, the
two are shown seated side by side. Some others believe Smenkhkare was likely to have
been a half-brother or a son to Akhenaten.
In the arts
Plays

 Savitri Devi: play Akhnaton: A Play (Philosophical Publishing House [London],

1948)
 Agatha Christie: play, Akhnaton (written in 1937, published by Dodd, Mead and
Company [New York], 1973, ISBN 0-396-06822-7; Collins [London],
1973, ISBN 0-00-211038-5)
 Ka'ramuu Kush with poetry by Jasiri Kafele: play kA': A Solo Drama (written in
1997, performed in 1997 at The New School in New York City, 2000 at the Hip
Hop Theatre Festival in New York City, 2005 at The Complex Theatre in Los
Angeles)
Novels

 Thomas Mann, in his fictional biblical tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (1933–

1943), makes Akhenaten the "dreaming pharaoh" of Joseph's story.
 Tom Holland: The Sleeper in the Sands (Little, Brown & Company, 1998, ISBN
0-316-64480-3)
 Mika Waltari: The Egyptian, first published in Finnish (Sinuhe egyptiläinen) in
1945, translated by Naomi Walford (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1949, ISBN 0-399-
10234-5; Chicago Review Press, 2002, paperback, ISBN 1-55652-441-2)
 David Stacton: On a Balcony, London House & Maxwell, 1958
 Gwendolyn MacEwen: King of Egypt, King of Dreams (1971, ISBN 1-894663-60-
8)
 Allen Drury: A God Against the Gods (Doubleday, 1976) and Return to
Thebes (Doubleday, 1976)
 Philip K. Dick: Valis (1981) under the name Ikhnathon.
 Naguib Mahfouz: Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (‫( )العائش فى الحقيقة‬1985)
 Andree Chedid: " Akhenaten and Nefertiti's dream"
 Wolfgang Hohlbein: Die Prophezeihung (The Prophecy), in which Echnaton is
killed by Ay and curses him into eternal life until a prophecy is fulfilled.
 Moyra Caldecott: Akhenaten: Son of the Sun (1989; eBook, 2000, ISBN 1-
899142-86-X; 2003, ISBN 1-899142-25-8)
  P.B. Kerr: The Akhenaten Adventure Akhenaten is said to be the holder of 70
lost Djinn
 Pauline Gedge: The Twelfth Transforming (1984), set in the reign of Akhenaten,
details the construction of Akhetaten and fictionalized accounts of his sexual
relationships with Nefertiti, Tiye and successor Smenkhkare.
 Dorothy Porter: verse novel, Akhenaten (1991)
 Judith Tarr: Pillar of Fire (1995)
 Lynda Robinson: mystery, Drinker of Blood (2001, ISBN 0-446-67751-5)
 Gilbert Sinoue: Akhenaton, Le Dieu Maudit (Akhenaten, the Cursed
God) (2005, ISBN 2070300331)
 Spelled 'Akenhaten', he appears as a major character in the first of a trilogy of
historical novels by P. C. Doherty, "An Evil Spirit out of the West".
 Michelle Moran: Nefertiti (2007)
 Barbara Wood: Watch of Gods

Music

 Ikhnaton is referenced in the title of a section of the epic progressive

rock song Supper's Ready by the English rock band Genesis on their
album Foxtrot (1972). The section is named "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and their
band of Merry Men".
 Philip Glass: opera, Akhnaten: An Opera in Three Acts (1983; CBS Records,
1987)
 'Akhenaten', track on Julian Cope's 1992 album Jehovahkill
 The song 'Son Of The Sun' by Swedish Symphonic Metal band Therion on the
album Sirius B (2004).
 The song 'Cast Down the Heretic' by the death metal band Nile on the
album Annihilation of the Wicked (2005).
 The piece 'Sadness of Echnaton Losing the World Child' by Tangerine Dream,
appearing first on the album One Times One (2007).
 The song 'Cursing Akhenaten' by the metalcore band After The Burial on the
album Rareform (2008).
 Roy Campbell, Jr., The Akhnaten Suite - A Modern Jazz Epic: read the review.
Released in 2008 by AUM Fidelity.
  Nefertiti: The Musical (2009), a stage musical based on the Amarna period in the
life of Akhenaten. Book by Christopher Gore and Rick Gore, music by David
Spangler.
 Akhenaten is featured on the album cover of Those Whom the Gods Detest by
the band Nile (2009).
 The song 'Night Enchanted' by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the 2009
album Night Castle.

Other

 Edgar P. Jacobs: comic book, Blake et Mortimer: La Mystère de la Grande

Pyramide vol. 1+2 (1950), adventure story in which the mystery of Akhenaten
provides much of the background.
 The Egyptian, motion picture (1954, directed by Michael Curtiz, Twentieth
Century-Fox Film Corporation), based on the novel by Mika Waltari.
 Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile, motion picture (1961, directed by Fernando
Cherchio, starring Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price). Akhenaten, played
by Amedeo Nazzari), is called "Amonophis" in the film.
 Joshua Norton, artist: Die! Akhnaten Die! series of sequential woodcut prints
and book recreates the story of Akhenaten as a Wild West tale.
 La Reine Soleil (2007 animated film by Philippe Leclerc), features Akhenaten,
Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamun), Akhesa (Ankhesenepaten, later
Ankhesenamun), Nefertiti, and Horemheb in a complex struggle pitting the
priests of Amun against Akhenaten's intolerant monotheism.
 Alaric I

Alaric I (Alareiks in the original Gothic) was likely born about 370 on an island
named Peuce (the Fir) at the mouth of the Danube in present day Romania.
King of the Visigoths from 395–410, Alaric was the first Germanic leader to
take the city of Rome. Having originally desired to settle his people in the
Roman Empire, he finally sacked the city, marking the decline of imperial
power in the west. Alaric, whose name means "king of all" was well-born, his
father kindred to the Balti, a tribe competing with the Amali among Gothic
fighters.
He belonged to the western Gothic
branch, the Visigoths. At the time of his
birth, the Visigoths dwelt in Bulgaria,
having fled beyond the wide estuary
marshes of the Danube to its southern
shore so as not to be followed by their
foes from the steppe, the Huns. There is
evidence, however, as suggested by
Peter Heather, that the Huns were not
near the Danube until closer to the 5th
century. What is certain is that the
Visigoths' westward migration occurred
in response to the threat posed by the
Huns. Heather asserts, "Mysterious as
the Huns' origins and animating forces
may remain, there is no doubt at all
that they were behind the strategic
revolution that brought the Goths to the
Alarich engraving
Danube in the summer of 376."
Moreover, concerning the Huns
displacement of the Goths, ancient historian Ammianus Marcellinus concluded,
"The seed-bed and origin of all this destruction and of the various calamities
inflicted by the wrath of Mars, which raged everywhere with extraordinary fury,
I find to be this: the people of the Huns." Ammianus Marcellinus was right - the
Huns were behind the military revolution that had brought the Tervingi and
Greuthungi to the Danube sometime in the late summer or autumn of 376. It
now presented EmperorValens with a huge dilemma- tens of thousands of
displaced Goths had suddenly arrived on his borders requesting asylum.
In Roman service
During the fourth century, the Roman emperors commonly employed foederati:
Germanic irregular troops under Roman command, but organized by tribal
structures. To spare the provincial populations from excessive taxation and to
save money, emperors began to employ units recruited from Germanic tribes.
The rich balked at furnishing recruits from their own estates in the numbers
needed for the empire's defense and ordinary folk were reluctant to serve.
Instead, the rich paid a special tax to fund the hiring of mercenaries. Moreover,
the emperors—ever fearful that a brilliantly successful general of Roman
extraction might be proclaimed Augustus by his followers—preferred that high
military command should be in the hands of one to whom such an accession of
dignity was impossible. The largest of these contingents was that of the Goths,
who in 382, had been allowed to settle within the imperial boundaries, keeping
a large degree of autonomy. In 394, Alaric served as a leader
of foederati under Theodosius I in the campaign which crushed the
usurper Eugenius. As theBattle of the Frigidus, which terminated this
campaign, was fought at the passes of the Julian Alps, Alaric probably learned
the weakness of Italy's natural defences on its northeastern frontier at the head
of the Adriatic. Theodosius died in 395, leaving the empire to be divided
between his two sons Arcadius and Honorius, the former taking the eastern
and the latter, the western portion of the empire. Arcadius showed little interest
in ruling, leaving most of the actual power to his Praetorian Prefect Rufinus.
Honorius was still a minor; as his guardian, Theodosius had appointed
the magister militum Stilicho. Stilicho also claimed to be the guardian of
Arcadius, causing much rivalry between the western and eastern courts.
According to Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, during the shifting of offices that took place at the beginning of
the new reigns, Alaric apparently hoped he would be promoted from a mere
commander to the rank of general in one of the regular armies. He was denied
the promotion, however. Among the Visigoths settled in LowerMoesia, the
situation was ripe for rebellion. They had suffered disproportionately great
losses at Frigidus. And according to rumour, exposing the Visigoths in battle
was a convenient way of weakening the Gothic tribes. This, combined with their
post-battle rewards, prompted them to raise Alaric "on a shield" and proclaim
him king; according to Jordanes (a Gothic historian of varying importance,
depending upon who is asked), both the new king and his people decided
"rather to seek new kingdoms by their own work, than to slumber in peaceful
subjection to the rule of others."

In Greece
Alaric struck first at the eastern empire. He marched to the neighborhood
of Constantinople but, finding himself unable to undertake a siege, retraced his
steps westward and then marched southward through Thessaly and the
unguarded pass of Thermopylae into Greece. The armies of the eastern empire
were occupied with Hunnic incursions in Asia Minor and Syria. Instead,
Rufinus attempted to negotiate with Alaric in person, which only aroused
suspicions in Constantinople that Rufinius was in league with the Goths.
Stilicho now marched east against Alaric. According to Claudian, Stilicho was
in a position to destroy the Goths when he was ordered by Arcadius to
leave Illyricum. Soon after, Rufinus' own soldiers hacked him to death. Power in
Constantinople now passed to the eunuch Chamberlain Eutropius. Rufinus'
death and Stilicho's departure gave free rein to Alaric's movements; he ravaged
Attica but spared Athens, which capitulated at once to the conqueror. In 396,
he wiped out the last remnants of the Mysteries at Eleusis in Attica, ending a
tradition of esoteric religious ceremonies that had lasted since the Bronze Age.
Then he penetrated into the Peloponnesusand captured its most famous cities
—Corinth, Argos, and Sparta—selling many of their inhabitants into slavery.
Here, however, his victorious career suffered a serious setback. In 397, Stilicho
crossed the sea to Greece and succeeded in trapping the Goths in the
mountains of Pholoe, on the borders of Elis and Arcadia in the peninsula. From
there Alaric escaped with difficulty, and not without some suspicion of
connivance by Stilicho, who supposedly had again received orders to depart.
Alaric then crossed the Gulf of Corinth and marched with the plunder
of Greece northward to Epirus. Here his rampage continued until the eastern
government appointed him magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman
command he had desired, as well as the authority to resupply his men from the
imperial arsenals.
First invasion of Italy
It was probably in 401 that Alaric made his first invasion of Italy, Supernatural
influences were not lacking to urge him to this great enterprise. Some lines of
the Roman poet Claudianinform us that he heard a voice proceeding from
a sacred grove, "Break off all delays, Alaric. This very year thou shalt force the
Alpine barrier of Italy; thou shalt penetrate to the city." But the prophecy was
not to be fulfilled at this time. After spreading desolation through
North Italy and striking terror into the citizens of Rome, Alaric was met
by Stilicho at Pollentia, today in Piedmont. The battle which followed on April 6,
402 (coinciding with Easter), was a victory for Rome, though a costly one. But it
effectively halted the Goths' progress. Stilicho's enemies later reproached him
for having gained his victory by taking impious advantage of the great Christian
festival. Alaric, too, was a Christian, though an Arian, notOrthodox. He had
trusted to the sanctity of Easter for immunity from attack. Alaric's wife was
reportedly taken prisoner after this battle; it is not unreasonable to suppose
that he and his troops were hampered by the presence of large numbers of
women and children, which gave his invasion of Italy the character of a human
migration. After another defeat before Verona, Alaric left Italy, probably in 403.
He had not "penetrated to the city" but his invasion of Italy had produced
important results. It caused the imperial residence to be transferred
from Milan to Ravenna, and necessitated the withdrawal of Legio XX Valeria
Victrix from Britain.

Second invasion of Italy

Alaric became the friend and ally of his late opponent, Stilicho. By 407, the
estrangement between the eastern and western courts had become so bitter
that it threatened civil war. Stilicho actually proposed using Alaric's troops to
enforce Honorius' claim to the prefecture of Illyricum. The death of Arcadius in
May 408 caused milder counsel to prevail in the western court, but Alaric, who
had actually entered Epirus, demanded in a somewhat threatening manner
that if he were thus suddenly requested to desist from war, he should be paid
handsomely for what modern language would call the "expenses
of mobilization". The sum which he named was a large one, 4,000 pounds of
gold. Under strong pressure from Stilicho, the Roman senate consented to
promise its payment.
But three months later, Stilicho and the chief ministers of his party were
treacherously slain on Honorius' orders. In the unrest that followed throughout
Italy, the wives and children of the foederati were slain. Consequently, these
30,000 men flocked to Alaric's camp, clamouring to be led against their
cowardly enemies. He accordingly led them across the Julian Alps and, in
September 408, stood before the walls of Rome (now with no capable general
like Stilicho as a defender) and began a strict blockade. No blood was shed this
time; Alaric relied on hunger as his most powerful weapon. When the
ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with
hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave
his celebrated answer: "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much
bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000
pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed
scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper.[2] Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome.

An 1894 photogravure of Alaric I taken from a painting by Ludwig Thiersch

Second siege of Rome
Throughout his career, Alaric's primary goal was not to undermine the empire,
but to secure for himself a regular and recognized position within the empire's
borders. His demands were certainly grand— the concession of a block of
territory 200 miles long by 150 wide between the Danube and the Gulf of
Venice (to be held probably on some terms of nominal dependence on the
empire) and the title of commander-in-chief of the imperial army—. Immense as
his terms were, the emperor would have been well advised to grant them.
Honorius, however, refused to see beyond his own safety, guaranteed by the
dikes and marshes of Ravenna. As all attempts to conduct a satisfactory
negotiation with this emperor failed, Alaric, after instituting a second siege and
blockade of Rome in 409, came to terms with the senate. With their consent, he
set up a rival emperor, the prefect of the city, a Greek namedPriscus Attalus.

Third siege of Rome

Alaric cashiered his ineffectual puppet emperor after eleven months and again
tried to reopen negotiations with Honorius. These negotiations might have
succeeded had it not been for the malignant influence of another Goth, Sarus,
an Amali, and therefore hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. Alaric, again
outwitted by an enemy's machinations, marched southward and in deadly
earnest, began his third siege of Rome. Apparently, defence was impossible;
there are hints, not well substantiated, of treachery; surprise is a more likely
explanation. However, this may be—for our information at this point of the
story is meagre—on August 24 410, Alaric and his Visigoths burst in by
the Porta Salaria on the northeast of the city. Rome, for so long victorious
against its enemies, was now at the mercy of its foreign conquerors. The
contemporary ecclesiastics recorded with wonder many instances of the
Visigoths' clemency: Christian churches saved from ravage; protection granted
to vast multitudes both of pagans and Christians who took refuge therein;
vessels of gold and silver which were found in a private dwelling, spared
because they "belonged to St. Peter"; at least one case in which a beautiful
Roman matron appealed, not in vain, to the better feelings of the Gothic soldier
who attempted her dishonor. But even these exceptional instances show that
Rome was not entirely spared the horrors which usually accompany the
storming of a besieged city. Nonetheless, the written sources do not mention
damages wrought by fire, save the Gardens of Sallust, which were situated
close to the gate by which the Goths had made their entrance; nor is there any
reason to attribute any extensive destruction of the buildings of the city to
Alaric and his followers. The Basilica Aemilia in the Roman Forum did burn
down, which perhaps can be attributed to Alaric: the archaeological evidence
was provided by coins dating from 410 found melted in the floor. The pagan
emperors' tombs of the Mausoleum of Augustus and Castel Sant'Angelo were
rifled and the ashes scattered.

Death and funeral

Alaric, having penetrated the city, marched southwards into Calabria. He
desired to invade Africa, which, thanks to its grain, had become the key to
holding Italy.

The burial of Alaric in the bed of the Busento River, 1895 lithograph

But a storm battered his ships into pieces and many of his soldiers drowned.
Alaric died soon after in Cosenza, probably of fever, at the early age of about
forty (assuming again, a birth around 370 AD), and his body was, according to
legend, buried under the riverbed of the Busento. The stream was temporarily
turned aside from its course while the grave was dug wherein the Gothic chief
and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was
finished, the river was turned back into its usual channel and the captives by
whose hands the labor had been accomplished were put to death that none
might learn their secret. Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic
army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who married Honorius' sister Galla
Placidia three years later. The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the
historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither
disinterested; Zosimus, a pagan historian who lived probably about half a
century after Alaric's death; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his
nation in 551, basing his work on The Trojan War. The legend of Alaric's burial
in the Buzita River comes from Jordanes.
 Alfonso VI of León
Alfonso VI of León (10 471 - Toledo, July 1, 1109), called the Brave, was king of
León (1065-1109) of Galicia (1071-1072, 1072-1109) and Castile (1072-
1109). During his reign he conquered the city of Toledo, in 1085, and battles
took place and Sagrajas Uclés, which formed to the retinues defeats Leon and
Castile, died in the first the king's heir, Prince Sancho Alfónsez. 
Son of King Ferdinand I of León and his wife, Queen Sancha of Leon. It was the
paternal grandson of Sancho III the Great, King of Pamplona, and his wife,
Queen of Castile Muniadona. By maternal grandparents were Alfonso V of León,
King of Leon, and his wife, Queen Elvira Menéndez. 

He was a brother of Sancho II

the Strong, King of Castile and
Leon Garcia of Galicia, and the
princesses Elvira and Urraca
of Zamora Toro. As second son
of King of Leon and Count de
Castilla, 2 Fernando I and
Queen Sancha of León, Alfonso
would not have matched
inherit. However, in 1063,
Ferdinand I summoned a
Regia Curia to present his
testamentary dispositions in
which, following the law of
Navarre, decided to divide their
assets among their children. 
Alfonso was assigned the
Kingdom of León, bearing the
imperial title and rights to the
Taifa kingdom of Toledo. His
brother, the eldest son
Sancho, accounted for the
Alfonso VI, King of Leon-Castile. XII century, Cathedral Kingdom of Castile, created by
of Santiago his father to him, and the
outcasts of the Taifa kingdom of
Zaragoza.  A younger brother, García, accounted for the Kingdom of Galicia
created for this purpose and the rights of the Taifa Kingdom of Seville and the
Taifa kingdom of Badajoz. To his sister Urraca was responsible for the city of
Zamora. 

Reign 
Stage1(1065-1072)consolidation of the throne Alfonso was confronted very early
with the expansionist desires of his brother Sancho, who, as eldest son, was
considered the only legitimate heir of all the kingdoms of his father. The conflict
began in 1067 when Queen Sancha died, an event which opens a seven-year
war between the three brothers, whose first event will take place on July 19,
1068 when Alfonso and Sancho meet in Wheeler, in a trial of God in which both
brothers agreed between that which is the prevailing party obtained the
kingdom of the defeated. Although due Sancho, Alfonso does not comply with
the agreement in spite of which the relations between them remain as
evidenced by the fact that Alfonso attended the May 26, 1069, Sancho's
wedding with an English nobleman called Alberta and where they decided
together to split the kingdom of Galicia that had accrued to Garcia, the
youngest son of Ferdinand I. With the complicity of Alfonso, his brother Sancho
enters Galicia in 1071 and, after defeating his brother García, he was arrested
in Santarém Burgos jailed in until it is banished to the Taifa of Seville ruled by
Al-Mutamid. After eliminating his brother, Alfonso and Sancho kings of Galicia
are titled and signed a truce that is maintained for three years. 
Canvas representing the Jura de Santa Gadea. Giráldez Marcos Acosta. Senate
Building 1864. the truce is broken by the battle of Golpejera in 1072. Sancho
troops triumph, but he decides not to chase his brother. Alfonso was captured
and imprisoned in Burgos.Later he was transferred to the monastery of
Sahagun, where he shaved his head and forces him to take the chasuble, but
with the help of Abbot managed to escape by taking refuge in the Taifa of Toled
under the protection of his vassal king Al-Mamun.  Alfonso, from exile in
Toledo, achieved the support of both his sister Urraca of Leon and the nobility
to become strong in the city of Zamora forcing Sancho, in 1072, to besiege the
city to submission. During the siege the King Sancho was death.Tradition
recounts the episode with the detail that during the siege, a nobleman named
Vellido Dolfos Zamora appeared before the king as a deserter and, with the
excuse to show weaknesses in the walls, separated him from his guard and got
away with life of a lance, although there is no record whatsoever of Sancho's
death was due to a betrayal, could be due to a war launched itself in the
situation of siege.  The murder of his brother Sancho, that left no descendants,
Alfonso allowed to regain his throne and claim to Castile and Galicia. 
At this time, the legend about the Cid Cardeña (thirteenth century) gives the
oath exculpatory Alfonso's possible participation in the murder of his brother,
who took El Cid in the church of Santa Gadea de Burgos (Jura de Santa
Gadea) and that would create a relationship of mutual distrust between the
two, but Alfonso tried an approach to give in marriage to his niece Jimena Diaz
with immunity for the property.These events and their consequences would, in
time to be considered historic by many writers and historians, but today most
of the serejected the historicity of the episode. Sancho's death also was used by
Garcia to regain his own throne, but the following year, in 1073, was called by
Alfonso to a meeting, being arrested and jailed for life in the castle of Luna,
where he died finally in 1090.  Stage2 (1072-1086): territorial expansion 
Established on the throne of León, Alfonso VI spent the next fourteen years of
his reign to enlarge their territories by conquest like Uclés and territories of the
BanuDi-l-Nun. 
 Overview of the city of Toledo,
conquered by Alfonso VI the Brave
in 1085.  His first movement was
made in 1076, when the death of
the monarch Garcés Sancho IV of
Navarre, Navarre nobility decided
that the throne does not pass to
his minor child, but one of the
grandchildren of Sancho III of
Navarre and Sancho Alfonso
VI Ramírez of Aragon invaded the
kingdom of Navarre. After reaching
an agreement, Sancho Ramirez is
recognized as king of Navarre and
Alfonso annexing the territories of
Álava, Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa and the
Bureba, adopting in 1077 the title
of Emperor.  But its great
territorial expansion will make at
the expense of Muslim Taifa
kingdoms, for which Alfonso
continued the practice of economic
exploitation by rogue system
Statue of Alfonso VI  of  León  and  Castile at the Sabatini getting most of the Taifa kingdoms
Gardens in Madrid (Spain). Sculpted in white stone by Felipe del
Corral between 1750 and 1753. of Islamic Spain were its
tributaries, practice which joined
the military pressure. One of the
initiatives of those years, which has gone down in history as the betrayal of
Rueda, end in failure. Took place in 1083 in the castle of Rueda de Jalón, when
Alfonso receives news that the governor of the fortress, which belonged to the
Taifa kingdom of Zaragoza, attempts to King Leonidas. Alfonso sending troops
are ambushed as they enter the castle and killed several of his top tycoons. 
Died in 1074 in Cordoba poisoned his vassal and friend, the king of the Taifa of
Toledo Al-Mamun who was succeeded by his grandson Al-Qadir who, in 1084,
asked for the second time the help of Alfonso to an uprising that sought to
overthrow him.Alfonso took the call for assistance from the Taifa king to lay
siege to Toledo city would fall on May 25, 1085 and al-Qadir was sent as king
under the protection of Valencia Alvarfanez. Following this major breakthrough,
the monarch was titled Emperor of the two religions as a gesture to the
substantial Muslim population of the city also undertakes to respect the
properties of these, with reservations, the main mosque for worship.This
decision will be overturned by the newly appointed archbishop of Toledo,
Bernardo de Cluny Sedirac, taking advantage of the absence of the king of
Toledo and using for it the support of Queen Constance of Burgundy. 
The occupation of Toledo, allowing Alfonso VI include the title of king of Toledo,
which already held, leading to the seizure of cities such as Talavera and
strengths as the castle of Aledo. Then also took the city without resistance
Mayrit in 1085, probably by capitulation. The incorporation of the territory
between the central and the Tagus River, will serve as a base for the crown of
Leon, where he could take further harassment of the Taifa of Cordoba, Seville,
Badajoz and Granada. Stage3 (1086-1109): the invasion Almoravid. The
military and economic pressure on the Taifa kingdoms makes the kings of the
Taifa of Seville, Granada, Almería Badajoz and decide to seek help from the
Almoravids, in 1086, under the command of Amir ibn Yusuf Tasufin cross the
Strait of Gibraltar and landed in Algeciras.  In Seville, the Almoravids army
troops joined the Taifa kingdoms and address Extremadura where, on October
23, 1086, clash in the battle of Zalaca the troops of Alfonso VI who had been
forced to leave subjecting the site to the city of Zaragoza.The battle ended with
the defeat of the troops returning to Toledo to defend himself, but failed to
capitalize emir victory, therefore hastened back to Africa because of the death of
his son. Alfonso asked the Christian kingdoms of Europe to organize a crusade
against the Almoravids who had recovered almost all the territories it had
conquered Alfonso, with the exception of Toledo, a city in which Alfonso was
strong.  Although the crusade finally comes to organizing, it does cause the
entry in the peninsula of a large number of cross among them Raymond of
Burgundy and Henry of Burgundy to be married with two daughters of Alfonso,
Urraca (1090) and Teresa (1094 ) which will cause the entry of the Burgundian
dynasty in the peninsular kingdoms.  In 1088 Yusuf ibn Tasufin crosses the
narrow second time, but is defeated in the siege of the fortress of Aledo and the
defection of many of the kings of the Muslim Taifa, which led, in the next
coming, the Emir came to the decision to dismiss all and keep him as sole king
of all al-Andalus.  In 1090 the Almoravids make a third landing, was
overthrown by the king of Granada, defeat al-Mamun, the governor of Cordoba,
and after the battle of Almodóvar del Río, Sevilla go into exile to his sending-
Mutamid king.  In 1097 landing occurs Almoravid quarter. The news was
received Alfonso VI on his way to Zaragoza to assist its vassal king Al-Musta'in
II in its confrontation with the newly crowned Pedro I of Aragon. The objective is
again Almoravid Toledo, in whose way is the castle of Consuegra and where, on
August 15, will meet again Christian troops were defeated at the Battle of
Consuegra which will mean the confirmation of the reign period of
decline Alfonso VI had already been initiated in 1086 with the defeat of Zalaca. 
In 1102, Alfonso sent troops in support of Valencia from the threat
Almoravid. The city was conquered in 1094 by El Cid and since his death in
1099, was ruled by his widow Jimena. The battle took place in Cullera no clear
winner, though Valencia fell Almoravids to how costly it was for Alfonso defend
this place.  In 1108 the troops of Almoravid Tamim, governor of Cordoba, the
son of Yusuf ibn Tasufin again directed against the Christian territories, but
the city is not chosen but Uclés Toledo. Alfonso was in Sahagun, newly
married, older and with an old injury that prevents him from riding. Army
command sets Fáñez Alvar, governor of the land of the Banu Di-l-Nun, and
accompanies the infant heir Sancho Alfónsez with seven counts and municipal
councils of Alcalá troops and Catalañazor [citation needed].The armies met at
the Battle of Uclés, where Christian forces suffer another heavy defeat and
which also died on the infant heir to the throne, which will result in a break of
30 years in the conquest and independence of the county Portucalense. 
In 1067 was negotiated his marriage to Agatha of Normandy, daughter of King
William I of England and Matilda of Flanders. In 1069 agreement was signed
engagement to Agnes of Aquitaine, daughter of Guido Duke William VIII of
Aquitaine and Matilde de la Marche. Agnes was barely ten years old and had to
wait until age 14 to celebrate the marriage which took place in late 1073 or
early1074. He died on June 6,1078.  He married a second time in 1079 with
Constance of Burgundy, widow, no children, the Count Hugo III of Chalon-sur-
Saone, and daughter of Robert the Old Duke of Burgundy and granddaughter
of Hugh Capet, King of France. The result of this marriage, which lasted until
the death of the queen in1093,wasborn:  I Urraca de León (1081-1126), who
succeeded his father on the throne. Two separate marriages contracted with
Raymond of Burgundy and Alfonso I the Battler, King of Aragón.Fue succeeded
by his son Raymond of Burgundy, Alfonso VII the Emperor. 
In 1094 he contracted a third marriage to Bertha of Tuscany, daughter of
Amadeus II, Count of Savoy. He died at the end of 1099 without issue. 
It is unclear in the sources if the king Zaida married or not. In the chronicle De
rebus Hispaniae, the archbishop of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, was
among the wives of Alfonso VI. But the Chronicle and the Chronicon mundi
najerense indicate that Zaida was a concubine and wife of Alfonso VI.3 not is
not known whether the king and Zaida started their relationship before or after
the death of Queen Constance.According to Gonzalo Martínez Diez, married
after 1100, being legitimized their son who became heir to his crown prince
cristiano.From this relationship had three children: Alfónsez Sancho (1093-
1108), his only son and heir to the throne. His untimely death at the Battle of
Uclés has tened the end of his father. Elvira (1100-1135), married in 1117 to
Roger II of Sicily,King of Sicily. Alfónsez Sancha (1101-c. 1125), first wife of
Rodrigo González de Lara, Conde de Liebana with whom she had Elvira
Rodriguez de Lara,the wife of Count Ermengo VI of Urgel. Contracted fifth
marriage to Beatrice d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Este. This link held in
1108, lasted only one year, until the king's death. After his death, Queen
Beatrix returned home and married again, being buried in the Cathedral of
Pavía. The result of his affair with Jimena Muñoz born two daughters: 
Teresa de Leon (1083/1085-1130). Countess of Portugal as part of their
marriage dowry, she married Henry of Burgundy. Their son, Alfonso I Enriquez,
wasthefirstkingofPortugal. 
Death
Alfonso VI died in the city of Toledo on July 1, 1109, at sixty-two years of
edad.6 His body was taken to the town of Leon de Sahagún, was buried at the
Monasterio de San Benito de Sahagun, fulfilling monarca.6 the will of the king's
remains were deposited in a stone tomb, which was placed at the foot of the
church of the monastery of San Benito, until, during the reign of Sancho IV, it
unseemly to this kinghis predecessor was buried at the foot of the temple, he
ordered the grave to move into the temple, and placed in the transept of the
church, where was the tomb containing the remains of Beatrice Frederic, infant
daughter of Frederic de Castilla, who had been executed by order of his brother,
Alfonso X the Wise,in1277.  Facade of the Benedictine Monastery of Sahagun,
where lie there main so Alfonso VI the Brave.  The tomb which contained the
remains of King, who died today, was based on alabaster lions, and was a large
chest of white marble, eight feet long and four wide and high, with the lid that
covered smooth black slate, and being uncovered the tomb of ordinary silk
tapestry woven in Flanders, in which appeared the king crowned and armed,
being on the side representing the arms of Castile and León, and part of the
head of a grave crucifijo. The grave contained the remains of Alfonso VI was
destroyed in 1810 during the fire that suffered the Monastery of San
Benito. The remains of the king and several of his wives, were collected and
kept in the abbot's chamber until 1821, when they were expelled the monks of
the monastery, being then deposited by Abbot Ramon Joys in a box, which was
placed on the south wall of the Chapel of the Crucifix, until, in January 1835,
the remains were collected and introduced again in another case, being brought
to the archive, where they were at the time the remains of the wives of the
sovereign. The purpose was to place all the remains real in a new sanctuary
being built entonces.7 However, when the monastery of San Benito was sold off
in 1835, the monks gave the two boxes containing the actual remains a relative
of a religious that concealed, until the year 1902 were found by the professor of
the Institute of Zamora Rodrigo Fernández Núñez. Today, the remains of
Alfonso VI the Brave rest in the Benedictine monastery of Sahagun, at the foot
of the temple, on a smooth stone chest with marble and modern, and in a
nearby tomb, also smooth, lie the remains of several of the wives of rey.
Facade of the Benedictine Monastery of Sahagun, where lie the remains of Alfonso VI the Brave.
Legacy 
In the cultural field, Alfonso VI promoted the safety of the Camino de Santiago,
and spurred the introduction of the Cluniac reform of monasteries in Galicia,
León and Castilla. The king replaced the Mozarabic liturgy of the Roman or
Toledo. In this respect popular tradition that Alfonso took a Mozarabic Breviary
and Roman and threw a fire.To burn only the Roman breviary, the king
returned to incinerate the Mozarabic, thus imposing the Roman rite. It is
possible that this legend is the origin of the saying that says "There are laws, do
want the kings." Alfonso VI, the conqueror of Toledo, the great monarch
Europeanized, see, in the last years of his reign, how the great political work
done before the pressure cracks Almoravid and weaknesses. Alfonso VI had
fully assumed the imperial idea of Leon and openness to European influences
had made known feudal political practices in the France of his time, reached
their fullest expression. In the conjunction of these two elements, see Claudio
Sánchez-Albornoz's explanation for granting de jure hereditary (allocation to the
two daughters and son of the kingdom instead of bequeathing the kingdom to
one son)-more typical of the tradition navarroaragonesa - the county
governments of Galicia and Portugal to their two sons Burgundians, Raymond,
first husband of Urraca, and Henry, married to Teresa. That decision started,
around a few years, Portugal's independence and the prospect of an
independent under Alfonso Raimundez Galicia, which was certainly not turning
this into reality by Alfonso VII of León
 Alfred the Great 
Alfred the Great (Old English: Ælfrēd, Ælfrǣd, "elf counsel"; 849 – 26 October
899) was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming
the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred
was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-
Saxons". Details of his life are described in a work by the 10th
century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. Alfred was a learned man who
encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system
and military structure. He is regarded as a saint by some Catholics, but has
never been officially canonized. The Anglican Communion venerates him as
a Christian hero, with a feast day of 26 October, and he may often be found
depicted in stained glass in Church of England parish churches.

Childhood
Alfred was born in the village of Wanating,
now Wantage, Oxfordshire. He was the
youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex,
by his first wife, Osburga. In 868 Alfred
married Ealhswith, daughter of Æthelred
Mucil. At the age of five years, Alfred is said
to have been sent to Rome where,
according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he
was confirmed by Pope Leo IV who
"anointed him as king". Victorianwriters
interpreted this as an
anticipatory coronation in preparation for
19th century depiction of Alfred the Great
his ultimate succession to the throne of
Wessex. However, his succession could not
have been foreseen at the time, as Alfred
had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a
"consul"; a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could
explain later confusion. It may also be based on Alfred's later having
accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at
the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854–855. On their
return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald. With
civil war looming, themagnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a
compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires (i.e., traditional
Wessex), and Æthelwulf would rule in the east. King Æthelwulf died in 858;
meanwhile Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession.
Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won a prize of a volume of
poetry in English, offered by his mother to the first of her children able to
memorize it. This story may be true, [says who?] or it may be a myth intended to
illustrate the young Alfred's love of learning. [original research?] Legend also has it that
the young Alfred spent time in Ireland seeking healing. Alfred was troubled by
health problems throughout his life. It is thought that he may have suffered
from Crohn's disease. Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him
as a great warrior. Evidence suggests he was not physically strong, and though
not lacking in courage, he was more noted for his intellect than a warlike
character.

Under Æthelred
During the short reigns of the older two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald
of Wessex andÆthelbert of Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. However, his
public life began with the accession of his third brother, Æthelred of Wessex, in
866. It is during this period that Bishop Asser applied to him the unique title of
"secundarius", which may indicate a position akin to that of the Celtic tanist, a
recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch. It is
possible that this arrangement was sanctioned by Alfred's father, or by
the Witan, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should
Æthelred fall in battle. The arrangement of crowning a successor as royal
prince and military commander is well known among other Germanic tribes,
such as the Swedes and Franks, to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely
related. In 868, Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in an
unsuccessful attempt to keep the invading Danes out of the adjoining Kingdom
of Mercia. For nearly two years, Wessex was spared attacks because Alfred paid
the Vikings to leave him alone. However, at the end of 870, the Danes arrived in
his homeland. The year which followed has been called "Alfred's year of battles".
Nine engagements were fought with varying outcomes, though the place and
date of two of these battles have not been recorded. In Berkshire, a successful
skirmish at the Battle of Englefield on 31 December 870 was followed by a
severe defeat at the siege and Battle of Reading on 5 January 871; then, four
days later, Alfred won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Ashdown on
the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth. Alfred is particularly
credited with the success of this latter battle. However, later that month, on 22
January, the English were defeated at the Battle of Basing and, on the 22
March at the Battle of Merton (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin
in Dorset), in which Æthelred was killed. The two unidentified battles may have
occurred in between.

Early struggles, defeat and flight

In April 871, King Æthelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex
and the burden of its defence, despite the fact that Æthelred left two under-age
sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the agreement
that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly
at Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the
other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf in his will had
left jointly to his sons. The deceased's sons would receive only whatever
property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional
lands their uncle had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving
brother would be king. Given the ongoing Danish invasion and the youth of his
nephews, Alfred's succession probably went uncontested. Tensions between
Alfred and his nephews, however, would arise later in his reign. [citation needed] While
he was busy with the burial ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the
English in his absence at an unnamed spot, and then again in his presence
at Wilton in May.[9] The defeat at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that
Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. He was forced, instead, to
‘make peace’ with them. The sources do not tell what the terms of the peace
were. Bishop Asser claimed that the 'pagans' agreed to vacate the realm and
made good their promise; and, indeed, the Viking army did withdraw from
Reading in the autumn of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian London.
Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred
probably also paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do
in the following year.[10] Hoards dating to the Viking occupation of London in
871/2 have been excavated at Croydon, Gravesend, and Waterloo Bridge; these
finds hint at the cost involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next
five years, the Danes occupied other parts of England. However, in 876 under
their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes slipped past the English army and
attacked and occupied Wareham in Dorset.

Alfred the Great plots the capture of the Danish fleet, 1864 engraving

Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault.

Accordingly, he negotiated a peace which involved an exchange of hostages and
oaths, which the Danes swore on a "holy ring" associated with the worship of
Thor.[6] The Danes, however, broke their word and, after killing all the hostages,
slipped away under cover of night to Exeter in Devon. There, Alfred blockaded
them, and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were
forced to submit. They withdrew to Mercia, but, in January 878, made a
sudden attack on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been
staying over Christmas, "and most of the people they killed, except the King
Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and swamp, and after
Easter he made a fort at Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, and from that
fort kept fighting against the foe".[6] From his fort at Athelney, an island in the
marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was able to mount an effective resistance
movement, rallying the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.
A popular legend, originating from 12th century chronicles, [12] tells how when
he first fled to the Somerset Levels, Alfred was given shelter by a peasant
woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left
cooking on the fire. Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred
accidentally let the cakes burn, 870 was the low-water mark in the history of
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. With all the other kingdoms having fallen to the
Vikings, Wessex alone was still resisting.

Coin of Alfred, king of Wessex, London, 880 (based upon a Roman model).

Counterattack and victory

In the seventh week after Easter [4–10 May 878], around Whitsuntide, Alfred
rode to ‘Egbert's Stone’ east of Selwood, where he was met by "all the people of
Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which is on this side of
the sea [that is, west of Southampton Water], and they rejoiced to see
him". Alfred’s emergence from his marshland stronghold was part of a carefully
planned offensive that entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This meant not
only that the king had retained the loyalty of ealdormen, royal reeves and
king’s thegns (who were charged with levying and leading these forces), but that
they had maintained their positions of authority in these localities well enough
to answer Alfred’s summons to war. Alfred’s actions also suggest a finely honed
system of scouts and messengers. [citation needed] Alfred won a decisive victory in the
ensuing Battle of Ethandun, which may have been fought near Westbury,
Wiltshire. He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and
starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that
Guthrum convert to Christianity; and three weeks later the Danish king and 29
of his chief men were baptised at Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with
Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son. The "unbinding of the chrism"
took place with great ceremony eight days later at the royal estate at Wedmore
in Somerset, after which Guthrum fulfilled his promise to leave Wessex. There
is no contemporary evidence that Alfred and Guthrum agreed upon a formal
treaty at this time; the so-calledTreaty of Wedmore is an invention of modern
historians. The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, preserved in Old English
in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Manuscript 383), and in a Latin
compilation known as Quadripartitus, was negotiated later, perhaps in 879 or
880, when King Ceolwulf II of Mercia was deposed. That treaty divided up the
kingdom of Mercia. By its terms the boundary between Alfred’s and Guthrum’s
kingdoms was to run up the River Thames, to the River Lea; follow the Lea to
its source (near Luton); from there extend in a straight line toBedford; and from
Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street. In other words, Alfred
succeeded to Ceolwulf’s kingdom, consisting of western Mercia; and Guthrum
incorporated the eastern part of Mercia into an enlarged kingdom of East
Anglia (henceforward known as the Danelaw). By terms of the treaty, moreover,
Alfred was to have control over the Mercian city of London and its mints — at
least for the time being. The disposition of Essex, held by West Saxon kings
since the days of Egbert, is unclear from the treaty, though, given Alfred’s
political and military superiority, it would have been surprising if he had
conceded any disputed territory to his new godson.
The Quiet Years, Restoration of London
With the signing of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most commonly
held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum’s people began settling
East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralized as a threat. In conjunction with this
agreement an army of Danish left the island and sailed to Ghent. Alfred
however was still forced to contend with a number of Danish threats. A year
later in 881 Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish ships “On the
high seas”.[18] Two of the ships were destroyed and the others surrendered to
Alfred’s forces.[19] Similar small skirmishes with independent Viking raiders
would have occurred for much of the period as they had for decades.

In the year 883, though there is

Alfred the Great's bronze statue at Winchester,
some debate over the year, King
Alfred because of his support and
his donation of alms to Rome
received a number of gifts from
the Pope Marinus.[20] Among these
gifts was reputed to be a piece of
the true cross, a true treasure for
the devout Saxon king. According
to Asser because of Pope Marinus’
friendship with King Alfred the
pope granted an exemption to any
Anglo-Saxons residing within
Rome from tax or tribute. After
the signing of the treaty with
Guthrum, Alfred was spared any
large scale conflicts for some time.
Despite this relative peace the
king was still forced to deal with a
number of Danish raids and
incursions. Among these was a
raid taking place in Kent, an
allied country in Southeast
England during the year 885, quite possibly the largest raid since the battles
with Guthrum. Asser’s account of the raid places the Danish raiders at the
Saxon city of Rochester, [22] where they built a temporary fortress in order to
besiege the city. In response to incursion Alfred led an Anglo-Saxon force
against the Danes who, instead of engaging the army of Wessex, fled to their
beached ships and sailed to another part of Britain. The retreating Danish force
supposedly left Britain the following summer. Not long after the failed Danish
raid in Kent Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this
expedition is debated, though Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.
[23]
 After travelling up the River Stour, the fleet was met by Danish vessels that
numbered between 13 or 16 (sources vary on the number) and a battle ensued.
[23]
 The Anglo-Saxon Fleet emerged victorious and as Huntingdon
accounts,“laden with spoils.” [24] The victorious fleet was then caught unaware
when attempting to leave the River Stour and was attacked by a Danish force at
the mouth of the river. The Danish fleet was able to defeat Alfred's fleet which
may have been weakened in the previous engagement. A year later in 886
Alfred reoccupied the city of London and set out to make it habitable again.
[26]
 Alfred entrusted the city to the care of his son-in
law Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia. The restoration of London progressed
through the later half of the 880’s and is believed to have revolved around a
new street plan, added fortifications in addition to the existing Roman walls,
and some believe the construction of matching fortifications on the South bank
of the River Thames.[27] This is also the time period almost all chroniclers agree
the Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred. [28] This was
not, however, the point in which Alfred came to be known as King of England;
in fact he would never adopt the title for himself. In truth the power which
Alfred wielded over the English peoples at this time seemed to stem largely from
the military might of the West Saxons, Alfred’s political connections having the
ruler of Mercia as his son-in-law, and Alfred’s keen administration talents.
Between the restoration of London and the resumption of large scale Danish
attacks in the early 890’s Alfred’s reign was rather uneventful. The relative
peace of the late 880’s was marred by the death of Alfred's sister, Æthelswith,
who died en route to Rome in 888. In the same year the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Æthelred also passed away. One year later Guthrum, or Athelstan
by his baptized name, Alfred’s former enemy and king of East Anglia died and
was buried in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Guthrum’s passing marked a change in the
political sphere Alfred dealt with. Guthrum’s death created a power vacuum
which would stir up other power–hungry warlords eager to take his place in the
following years. The quiet years of Alfred’s life were coming to a close, and war
was on the horizon.

Further Viking attacks repelled

After another lull, in the autumn of 892 or 893, the Danes attacked again.
Finding their position in mainland Europe precarious, they crossed to England
in 330 ships in two divisions. They entrenched themselves, the larger body
at Appledore, Kent, and the lesser, under Hastein, at Milton, also in Kent. The
invaders brought their wives and children with them, indicating a meaningful
attempt at conquest and colonisation. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up a position
from which he could observe both forces. While he was in talks with Hastein,
the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck northwestwards. They were
overtaken by Alfred's oldest son, Edward, and were defeated in a general
engagement at Farnham in Surrey. They took refuge on an island in
the Hertfordshire Colne, where they were blockaded and were ultimately forced
to submit. The force fell back on Essex and, after suffering another defeat
atBenfleet, coalesced with Hastein's force at Shoebury. Alfred had been on his
way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that
the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an
unnamed stronghold on the North Devon shore. Alfred at once hurried
westward and raised the Siege of Exeter. The fate of the other place is not
recorded. Meanwhile, the force under Hastein set out to march up theThames
Valley, possibly with the idea of assisting their friends in the west. But they
were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen
of Mercia, Wiltshire and Somerset, and forced to head off to the northwest,
being finally overtaken and blockaded at Buttington. Some identify this with
Buttington Tump at the mouth of the River Wye, others with Buttington
near Welshpool. An attempt to break through the English lines was defeated.
Those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. Then, after collecting
reinforcements, they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the
ruined Roman walls of Chester. The English did not attempt a winter blockade,
but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the
neighbourhood. Early in 894 (or 895), want of food obliged the Danes to retire
once more to Essex. At the end of this year and early in 895 (or 896), the Danes
drew their ships up theRiver Thames and River Lea and fortified themselves
twenty miles (32 km) north of London. A direct attack on the Danish lines failed
but, later in the year, Alfred saw a means of obstructing the river so as to
prevent the egress of the Danish ships. The Danes realised that they were
outmanoeuvred. They struck off north-westwards and wintered
at Cwatbridge nearBridgnorth. The next year, 896 (or 897), they gave up the
struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia. Those who had no
connections in England withdrew back to the continent.

Reconstituted fyrd
The near-disaster of the winter of 878, even more than the victory in the spring,
left its mark on the king and shaped his subsequent policies. [citation needed] Over the
last two decades of his reign, Alfred undertook a radical reorganisation of the
military institutions of his kingdom, strengthened the West Saxon economy
through a policy of monetary reform and urban planning and strove to win
divine favour by resurrecting the literary glories of earlier generations of Anglo-
Saxons. Alfred pursued these ambitious programmes to fulfil, as he saw it, his
responsibility as king. This justified the heavy demands he made upon his
subjects' labour and finances. It even excused the expropriation of strategically
located Church lands. Recreating the fyrd into a standing army,
ringing Wessex with some thirty garrisoned fortified towns, and constructing
new and larger ships for the royal fleet were costly endeavours that provoked
resistance from noble and peasant alike. But they paid off. When
the Vikings returned in force in 892 they found a kingdom defended by a
standing, mobile field army and a network of garrisoned fortresses that
commanded its navigable rivers and Roman roads. Alfred analysed the defects
of the military system that he had inherited and implemented changes to
remedy them. Alfred's military reorganisation of Wessex consisted of three
elements: the building of thirty fortified and garrisoned towns (burhs) along the
rivers and Roman roads of Wessex; the creation of a mobile (horsed) field force,
consisting of his nobles and their warrior retainers, which was divided into two
contingents, one of which was always in the field; and the enhancement of
Wessex's seapower through the addition of larger ships to the existing royal
fleet.[9] Each element of the system was meant to remedy defects in the West
Saxon military establishment exposed by the Viking invasions. If under the
existing system he could not assemble forces quickly enough to intercept
mobile Viking raiders, the obvious answer was to have a standing field force. If
this entailed transforming the West Saxon fyrd from a sporadic levy of king's
men and their retinues into a mounted standing army, so be it. If his kingdom
lacked strongpoints to impede the progress of an enemy army, he would build
them. If the enemy struck from the sea, he would counter them with his own
naval power. Characteristically, all of Alfred's innovations were firmly rooted in
traditional West Saxon practice, drawing as they did upon the three so-called
‘common burdens' of bridge work, fortress repair and service on the king's
campaigns that all holders of bookland and royal loanland owed the Crown.
Where Alfred revealed his genius was in designing the field force and burhs to
be parts of a coherent military system. Neither Alfred's reformed fyrd nor his
burhs alone would have afforded a sufficient defence against the Vikings;
together, however, they robbed the Vikings of their major strategic advantages:
surprise and mobility.

Burghal system; defence in depth

Alfred, in effect, had created what modern strategists call a defence-in-
depth system, and one that worked. [32] Alfred's burhs, or boroughs, were not
grand affairs like the massive stone late Roman shore forts that still dot the
southern coast of England (e.g. Pevensey and Richborough 'Castle'). Rather, the
borough defences consisted mainly of massive earthworks, large earthen walls
surrounded by wide ditches. The earthen walls probably were surmounted with
wooden palisades, which by the tenth century were giving way to stone walls.
(The Alfredian defences are well preserved at Wareham, a town on the southern
coast of England.) The size of the boroughs varied greatly, from tiny
fortifications such as Pilton to large towns likeWinchester. Many of the
boroughs were, in fact, twin towns built on either side of a river and connected
by a fortified bridge—much like Charles the Bald's fortifications a generation
before. Such a double-borough would block passage on the river; the Vikings
would have to row under a garrisoned bridge, risking being pelted with stones,
spears, or shot with arrows, in order to go upstream. Alfred's thirty boroughs
were distributed widely throughout the West Saxon kingdom and situated in
such a manner that no part of the kingdom was more than twenty miles, a
day's march, from a fortified centre. They were also sited near fortified royal
villas, to permit the king better control over his strongholds. What has not been
recognised sufficiently is how these boroughs dominated the kingdom's lines of
communication, the navigable rivers, Roman roads, and major trackways.
Alfred seems to have had "highways" (hereweges – "army roads") linking the
boroughs to one another. An extensive beacon system to warn of approaching
Viking fleets and armies was probably also instituted at this time. In short, the
thirty boroughs formed an integrated system of fortification. The presence of
well-garrisoned boroughs along the major travel routes of Wessex presented an
obstacle for Viking invaders, especially those laden with booty. They also served
as places of refuge for the populations of the surrounding countryside. But
these fortresses were not mere static points of defence. They were designed to
operate in conjunction with Alfred's mobile standing army. The army and the
boroughs together deprived the Vikings of their major strategic advantages:
surprise and mobility. It was dangerous for the Vikings to leave a borough
intact astride their lines of communication, but it was equally dangerous to
attempt to take one. Lacking siege equipment or a developed doctrine
of siegecraft, the Vikings could not take these fortresses by storm. Rather, they
reduced to the expedient of starving them into submission, which gave the king
time to come to their relief with his mobile field army, or for the garrisons of
neighbouring boroughs to come to the aid of the besieged town. In a number of
instances, the hunter became the hunted, as borough garrison and field force
joined together to pursue the would-be raiders. In fact, the only recorded
success Viking forces had against boroughs in the ninth century occurred in
892, when a Viking stormed a half-made, poorly garrisoned fortress up the
Lympne estuary in Kent. Alfred's burghal system was revolutionary in its
strategic conception and potentially expensive in its execution. As Alfred’s
biographer Asser makes clear, many nobles were reluctant to comply with what
must have seemed to them outrageous and unheard of demands—even if they
were for ‘the common needs of the kingdom’, as Asser reminded them. The cost
of building the burhs was great in itself, but this paled before the cost of
upkeep for these fortresses and the maintenance of their standing garrisons. A
remarkable early tenth-century document, known as the Burghal Hidage,
provides a formula for determining how many men were needed to garrison a
borough, based on one man for every 5.5 yards (5 meters) of wall. This provided
a theoretical total of 27,071 soldiers, which is unlikely to have ever been
achieved in practice. Even if we assume that the mobile forces of Alfred were
small, perhaps 3,000 or so horsemen, the manpower costs of his military
establishment were considerable.
Administration and taxation
To obtain the needed garrison troops and workers to build and maintain the
burhs' defences, Alfred regularised and vastly expanded the existing (and, one
might add, quite recent) obligation of landowners to provide ‘fortress work’ on
the basis of the hidage assessed upon their lands. [33] The allotments of the
Burghal Hidage represent the creation of administrative districts for the
support of the burhs. The landowners attached to Wallingford, for example,
were responsible for producing and feeding 2,400 men, the number sufficient
for maintaining 9,900 feet (3 km) of wall. Each of the larger burhs became the
centre of a territorial district of considerable size, carved out of the
neighbouring countryside in order to support the town. In one sense, Alfred
conceived nothing truly new here. The shires of Wessex went back at least to
the reign of King Ine, who probably also imposed a hidage assessment upon
each for food rents and other services owed the Crown. But, it is equally clear
that Alfred did not allow the past to bind him. With the advice of his witan, he
freely reorganised and modified what he had inherited. The result was nothing
short of an administrative revolution, a reorganisation of the West Saxon shire
system to accommodate Alfred’s military needs. Even if one rejects the thesis
crediting the "Burghal Hidage" to Alfred, what is undeniable is that, in the parts
of Mercia acquired by Alfred from the Vikings, the shire system seems now to
have been introduced for the first time. This is probably what prompted the
legend that Alfred was the inventor of shires, hundreds and tithings.

English navy
Alfred also tried his hand at naval design. In 896, [6][34] he ordered the
construction of a small fleet, perhaps a dozen or so longships, that, at 60 oars,
were twice the size of Viking warships. This was not, as the Victorians asserted,
the birth of the English Navy. Wessex possessed a royal fleet before this. King
Athelstan of Kent and Ealdorman Ealhhere had defeated a Viking fleet in 851,
capturing nine ships, and Alfred himself had conducted naval actions in 882.
But, clearly, the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and probably Alfred
himself regarded 897 as marking an important development in the naval power
of Wessex. The chronicler flattered his royal patron by boasting that Alfred's
ships were not only larger, but swifter, steadier and rode higher in the water
than either Danish or Frisian ships. (It is probable that, under the classical
tutelage of Asser, Alfred utilised the design of Greek and Roman warships, with
high sides, designed for fighting rather than for navigation.) Alfred had
seapower in mind: if he could intercept raiding fleets before they landed, he
could spare his kingdom from ravaging. Alfred's ships may have been superior
in conception, however in practice they proved to be too large to manoeuvre well
in the close waters of estuaries and rivers, the only places in which a 'naval'
battle could occur. The warships of the time were not designed to be ship killers
but troop carriers. A naval battle entailed a ship's coming alongside an enemy
vessel, at which point the crew would lash the two ships together and board the
enemy. The result was effectively a land battle involving hand-to-hand fighting
on board the two lashed vessels. In the one recorded naval engagement in the
year 896,[6][34] Alfred's new fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking ships in the
mouth of an unidentified river along the south of England. The Danes had
beached half their ships, and gone inland, either to rest their rowers or to
forage for food. Alfred's ships immediately moved to block their escape to the
sea. The three Viking ships afloat attempted to break through the English lines.
[34]
 Only one made it, Alfred's ships intercepted the other two. [34] Lashing the
Viking boats to their own, the English crew boarded the enemy's vessels and
proceeded to kill everyone on board. The one ship that escaped managed to do
so only because all of Alfred's heavy ships became mired when the tide went
out. What ensued was a land battle between the crews of the grounded ships.
The Danes, heavily outnumbered, would have been wiped out if the tide had not
risen. When that occurred, the Danes rushed back to their boats, which being
lighter, with shallower drafts, were freed before Alfred's ships. Helplessly, the
English watched as the Vikings rowed past them. [citation needed] But the pirates had
suffered so many casualties (120 Danes dead against 62 Frisians and
English[34]), that they had difficulties putting out to sea.  All were too damaged
to row around Sussex and two were driven against the Sussex coast. The
shipwrecked sailors were brought before Alfred at Winchester and hanged.

Legal reform
In the late 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a long domboc or law code,
consisting of his "own" laws followed by a code issued by his late seventh-
century predecessor King Ine of Wessex. Together these laws are arranged into
120 chapters. In his introduction, Alfred explains that he gathered together the
laws he found in many 'synod-books' and "ordered to be written many of the
ones that our forefathers observed--those that pleased me; and many of the
ones that did not please me, I rejected with the advice of my councillors, and
commanded them to be observed in a different way." Alfred singled out in
particular the laws that he "found in the days of Ine, my kinsman, or  Offa, king
of the Mercians, or King Æthelbert of Kent, who first among the English people
received baptism." It is difficult to know exactly what Alfred meant by this. He
appended rather than integrated the laws of Ine into his code, and although he
included, as had Æthelbert, a scale of payments in compensation for injuries to
various body parts, the two injury tariffs are not aligned. And, Offa is not
known to have issued a law code, leading historian Patrick Wormald to
speculate that Alfred had in mind the legatine capitulary of 786 that was
presented to Offa by two papal legates.

About a fifth of the law code is

taken up by Alfred's introduction,
which includes translations into
English of the Decalogue, a few
chapters from the Book of Exodus,
and the so-called 'Apostolic Letter'
from Acts of the Apostles (15:23-
29). The Introduction may best be
understood as Alfred's meditation
upon the meaning of Christian
law. It traces the continuity
between God's gift of Law to Moses
to Alfred's own issuance of law to
the West Saxon people. By doing
so, it links the holy past to the
historical present and represents
Alfred's law-giving as a type of
divine legislation. This is the
reason that Alfred divided his code
into precisely 120 chapters: 120
was the age at which Moses died
Historical Mixed Media Figure of Alfred the and, in the number-symbolism of
Great produced by artist/historian George S.
Stuart and photographed by Peter d'Aprix.
early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law.[42] The link between the
Mosaic Law and Alfred's code is the 'Apostolic Letter,' which explained that
Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill
them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ
infused into Mosaic Law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently
in barbarian law codes, since Christian synods "established, through that
mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence
secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary
compensation, which they then fixed." The only crime that could not be
compensated with a payment of money is treachery to a lord, "since Almighty
God adjudged none for those who despised Him, nor did Christ, the Son of God,
adjudge any for the one who betrayed Him to death; and He commanded
everyone to love his lord as Himself." Alfred's transformation of Christ's
commandment from "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matt. 22:39-40) to love
your secular lord as you would love the Lord Christ himself underscores the
importance that Alfred placed upon lordship, which he understood as a sacred
bond instituted by God for the governance of man. When one turns from
the domboc's introduction to the laws themselves, it is difficult to uncover any
logical arrangement. The impression one receives is of a hodgepodge of
miscellaneous laws. The law code, as it has been preserved, is singularly
unsuitable for use in lawsuits. In fact, several of Alfred's laws contradict the
laws of Ine that form an integral part of the code. Patrick Wormald's
explanation is that Alfred's law code should be understood not as a legal
manual, but as an ideological manifesto of kingship, "designed more for
symbolic impact than for practical direction." In practical terms, the most
important law in the code may well be the very first: "We enjoin, what is most
necessary, that each man keep carefully his oath and his pledge," which
expresses a fundamental tenet of Anglo-Saxon law. Alfred devoted considerable
attention and thought to judicial matters. Asser underscores his concern for
judicial fairness. Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested
judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves, and "would carefully look into
nearly all the judgements which were passed [issued] in his absence anywhere
in the realm, to see whether they were just or unjust." A charter from the reign
of his son Edward the Elder depicts Alfred as hearing one such appeal in his
chamber, while washing his hands. [48] Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic
judge, painstaking in his own judicial investigations and critical of royal
officials who rendered unjust or unwise judgments. Although Asser never
mentions Alfred's law code, he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be
literate, so that they could apply themselves "to the pursuit of wisdom." The
failure to comply with this royal order was to be punished by loss of office. It is
uncertain how seriously this should be taken; Asser was more concerned to
represent Alfred as a wise ruler than to report actual royal policy.

Foreign relations
Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers, but little
definite information is available. His interest in foreign countries is shown by
the insertions which he made in his translation of Orosius. He certainly
corresponded with Elias III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,[9] and possibly sent a
mission to India in honour of Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose tomb was
believed to lie in that country. Contact was also made with
the Caliph in Baghdad.[51] Embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to
the Pope were fairly frequent.[52] Around 890, Wulfstan of Haithabu undertook a
journey from Haithabu on Jutland along the Baltic Sea to the Prussian trading
town of Truso. Alfred ensured he reported to him details of his trip. Alfred's
relations with the Celtic princes in the western half of Britain are clearer.
Comparatively early in his reign, according to Asser, the southern
Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and Mercia,
commended themselves to Alfred. Later in the reign the North Welsh followed
their example, and the latter cooperated with the English in the campaign of
893 (or 894). That Alfred sent alms to Irish and Continental monasteries may
be taken on Asser's authority. The visit of the three pilgrim "Scots" (i.e. Irish) to
Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The story that he himself in his
childhood was sent to Ireland to be healed by Saint Modwenna, though
mythical, may show Alfred's interest in that island.

Religion and culture

In the 880s, at the same time that he was "cajoling and threatening" his nobles
to build and man the burhs, Alfred, perhaps inspired by the example
of Charlemagne almost a century before, undertook an equally ambitious effort
to revive learning. It entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia,
Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the court and of the episcopacy; the
establishment of a court school to educate his own children, the sons of his
nobles, and intellectually promising boys of lesser birth; an attempt to require
literacy in those who held offices of authority; a series of translations into the
vernacular of Latin works the king deemed "most necessary for all men to
know";[citation needed] the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's
kingdom and house; and the issuance of a law code that presented the West
Saxons as a new people of Israel and their king as a just and divinely inspired
law-giver. Very little is known of the church under Alfred. The Danish attacks
had been particularly damaging to the monasteries, and though Alfred founded
monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, the first new monastic houses in
Wessex since the beginning of the eighth century, and enticed foreign monks to
England, monasticism did not revive significantly during his reign. Alfred
undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious
practices in Wessex. For him the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to
appoint pious, learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots. As king he saw
himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his
subjects. Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred.
He was equally comfortable distributing his translation ofGregory the
Great's Pastoral Care to his bishops so that they might better train and
supervise priests, and using those same bishops as royal officials and judges.
Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church
lands, especially estates along the border with the Danelaw, and transferring
them to royal thegns and officials who could better defend them against Viking
attacks. The Danish raids had also a devastating impact on learning in
England. Alfred lamented in the preface to his translation of Gregory's Pastoral
Care that "learning had declined so thoroughly in England that there were very
few men on this side of the Humber who could understand their divine services
in English, or even translate a single letter from Latin into English: and I
suppose that there were not many beyond the Humber either". [55] Alfred
undoubtedly exaggerated for dramatic effect the abysmal state of learning in
England during his youth. That Latin learning had not been obliterated is
evidenced by the presence in his court of learned Mercian and West Saxon
clerics such as Plegmund, Wæferth, and Wulfsige, but Alfred's account should
not be entirely discounted.[citation needed] Manuscript production in England
dropped off precipitously around the 860s when the Viking invasions began in
earnest, not to be revived until the end of the century. Numerous Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts burnt up along with the churches that housed them. And a
solemn diploma from Christ Church, Canterbury dated 873 is so poorly
constructed and written that historian Nicholas Brooks posited a scribe who
was either so blind he could not read what he wrote or who knew little or no
Latin. "It is clear," Brooks concludes, "that the metropolitan church [of
Canterbury] must have been quite unable to provide any effective training in
the scriptures or in Christian worship." Following the example of Charlemagne,
Alfred established a court school for the education of his own children, those of
the nobility, and "a good many of lesser birth". [citation needed]There they studied
books in both English and Latin and "devoted themselves to writing, to such an
extent .... they were seen to be devoted and intelligent students of the liberal
arts." He recruited scholars from the Continent and from Britain to aid in the
revival of Christian learning in Wessex and to provide the king personal
instruction. Grimbald and John the Saxon came from Francia; Plegmund
(whom Alfred appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 890), Bishop Werferth of
Worcester, Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia; and
Asser, from St. David's in south-western Wales. Alfred's educational ambitions
seem to have extended beyond the establishment of a court school. Believing
that without Christian wisdom there can be neither prosperity nor success in
war, Alfred aimed "to set to learning (as long as they are not useful for some
other employment) all the free-born young men now in England who have the
means to apply themselves to it." Conscious of the decay of Latin literacy in his
realm, Alfred proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those
wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin. The
problem, however, was that there were few "books of wisdom" written in
English. Alfred sought to remedy this through an ambitious court-centred
programme of translating into English the books he deemed "most necessary
for all men to know." It is unknown when Alfred launched this programme, but
it may have been during the 880s when Wessex was enjoying a respite from
Viking attacks. Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridion, which seems to
have been a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be
translated was the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in
the Middle Ages. The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command
by Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface.
Remarkably, Alfred, undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars,
translated four works himself: Gregory the Great's Pastoral
Care, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, St. Augustine's Soliloquies, and the
first fifty psalms of the Psalter. One might add to this list Alfred's translation, in
his law code, of excerpts from the Vulgate Book of Exodus. The Old English
versions of Orosius's Histories against the Pagans and Bede's Ecclesiastical
History of the English People are no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own
translations because of lexical and stylistic differences. Nonetheless, the
consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of
translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this also for
Bald's Leechbook and the anonymous Old English Martyrology. Alfred's first
translation was of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, which he prefaced
with an introduction explaining why he thought it necessary to translate works
such as this one from Latin into English. Although he described his method as
translating "sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense," Alfred's
translation actually keeps very close to his original, although through his
choice of language he blurred throughout the distinction between spiritual and
secular authority. Alfred meant his translation to be used and circulated it to
all his bishops. Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy was the most popular
philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike his translation of
the Pastoral Care, Alfred here deals very freely with his original and though the
late Dr. G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are to be
traced not to Alfred himself, but to the glosses and commentaries which he
used, still there is much in the work which is solely Alfred's and highly
characteristic of his style. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence
occurs: "My will was to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave
to them that should come after, my memory in good works." The book has come
down to us in two manuscripts only. In one of these  the writing is prose, in the
other[64] a combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript
was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the authorship of
the verse has been much disputed; but likely it also is by Alfred. In fact, he
writes in the prelude that he first created a prose work and then used it as the
basis for his poem Metres of Boethius, his crowning literary achievement. He
spent a great deal of time working on these books, which he tells us he
gradually wrote through the many stressful times of his reign to refresh his
mind. Of the authenticity of the work as a whole there has never been any
doubt.
The last of Alfred's works is one to which he gave the name Blostman, i.e.,
"Blooms" or Anthology. The first half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of
St Augustine of Hippo, the remainder is drawn from various sources, and
contains much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. The last
words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English
kings. "Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man, and truly wretched, who
will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and
long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear." Alfred appears as
a character in the twelfth- or thirteenth-century poem The Owl and the
Nightingale, where his wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised. The Proverbs
of Alfred, a thirteenth-century work, contains sayings that are not likely to have
originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval reputation for
wisdom. The Alfred jewel, discovered in Somerset in 1693, has long been
associated with King Alfred because of its Old English inscription "AELFRED
MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" (Alfred ordered me to be made). The jewel is about 2½
inches (6.1 cm) long, made of filigreed gold, enclosing a highly polished piece of
quartz crystal beneath which is set a cloisonné enamel plaque, with an
enamelled image of a man holding floriate sceptres, perhaps personifying Sight
or the Wisdom of God.[66] It was at one time attached to a thin rod or stick based
on the hollow socket at its base. The jewel certainly dates from Alfred's reign.
Although its function is unknown, it has been often suggested that the jewel
was one of the æstels—pointers for reading—that Alfred ordered sent to every
bishopric accompanying a copy of his translation of the Pastoral Care.
Each æstel was worth the princely sum of 50 mancuses, which fits in well with
the quality workmanship and expensive materials of the Alfred jewel. Historian
Richard Abels sees Alfred's educational and military reforms as complementary.
Restoring religion and learning in Wessex, Abels contends, was to Alfred's mind
as essential to the defence of his realm as the building of the burhs. [67] As Alfred
observed in the preface to his English translation of Gregory the
Great's Pastoral Care, kings who fail to obey their divine duty to promote
learning can expect earthly punishments to befall their people. The pursuit of
wisdom, he assured his readers of the Boethius, was the surest path to power:
"Study Wisdom, then, and, when you have learned it, condemn it not, for I tell
you that by its means you may without fail attain to power, yea, even though
not desiring it".[69] The portrayal of the West-Saxon resistance to the Vikings by
Asser and the chronicler as a Christian holy war was more than mere rhetoric
or 'propaganda'. It reflected Alfred's own belief in a doctrine of divine rewards
and punishments rooted in a vision of a hierarchical Christian world order in
which God is the Lord to whom kings owe obedience and through whom they
derive their authority over their followers. The need to persuade his nobles to
undertake work for the 'common good' led Alfred and his court scholars to
strengthen and deepen the conception of Christian kingship that he had
inherited by building upon the legacy of earlier kings such as Offa as well as
clerical writers such as Bede, Alcuin and the other luminaries of the
Carolingian renaissance. This was not a cynical use of religion to manipulate
his subjects into obedience, but an intrinsic element in Alfred's worldview. He
believed, as did other kings in ninth-century England and Francia, that God
had entrusted him with the spiritual as well as physical welfare of his people. If
the Christian faith fell into ruin in his kingdom, if the clergy were too ignorant
to understand the Latin words they butchered in their offices and liturgies, if
the ancient monasteries and collegiate churches lay deserted out of
indifference, he was answerable before God, as Josiah had been. Alfred's
ultimate responsibility was the pastoral care of his people.

Family
In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of Ealdorman of the Gaini (who is
also known as Aethelred Mucil), who was from the Gainsborough region
of Lincolnshire. She appears to have been the maternal granddaughter of
a King of Mercia. They had five or six children together, including Edward the
Elder, who succeeded his father as king, Æthelflæd, who would
becomeQueen of Mercia in her own right, and Ælfthryth who married Baldwin
II the Count of Flanders. His mother was Osburga daughter of Oslac of the Isle
of Wight, Chief Butler of England.Asser, in his Vita Ælfredi asserts that this
shows his lineage from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight. This is unlikely
as Bede tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxons underCædwalla.
In 2008 the skeleton of Queen Eadgyth, granddaughter of Alfred the Great was
found in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany. It was confirmed in 2010 that
these remains belong to her — one of the earliest members of the English royal
family.

Name Birth Death Notes

 Married 889, Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia d
Æthelflæd 918
910; had issue.

17 July Married (1) Ecgwynn, (2) Ælfflæd, (3)

Edward 870
924 919 Eadgifu

Æthelgifu Abbess of Shaftesbury

Ælfthryth 929 Married Baldwin, Count of Flanders; had issue

16 October
Æthelweard Married and had issue
922(?)

Death, burial and legacy

Alfred died on 26 October. The actual year is not certain, but it was not
necessarily 901 as stated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[6] How he died is
unknown, although he suffered throughout his life with a painful and
unpleasant illness - possibly Crohn's disease,[71] which seems to have been
inherited by his grandson King Edred. He was originally buried temporarily in
the Old Minster in Winchester, then moved to the New Minster (perhaps built
especially to receive his body). When the New Minster moved to Hyde, a little
north of the city, in 1110, the monks transferred to Hyde Abbey along with
Alfred's body and those of his wife and children. Soon after the dissolution of
the abbey in 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII, the church was demolished,
leaving the graves intact.[72] The royal graves and many others were probably
rediscovered by chance in 1788 when a prison was being constructed by
convicts on the site. Coffins were stripped of lead, bones were scattered and
lost, and no identifiable remains of Alfred have subsequently been found.
Further excavations in 1866 and 1897 were inconclusive. [72][73]

A number of educational establishments are named in Alfred's honour. These

include:

 The University of Winchester was named 'King Alfred's College, Winchester'

between 1928 and 2004, whereupon it was re-named "University College
Winchester".
 Alfred University and Alfred State College located in Alfred, NY, are both named
after the king.
 In honour of Alfred, the University of Liverpool created a King Alfred Chair of
English Literature.
 King Alfred's Community and Sports College, a secondary school in Wantage,
Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Alfred.
 King's Lodge School, in Chippenham, Wiltshire is so named because King
Alfred's hunting lodge is reputed to have stood on or near the site of the school.
 The King Alfred School & Specialist Sports Academy, Burnham Road,
Highbridge is so named due to its rough proximity to Brent Knoll (a Beacon site)
and Athelney.
 The King Alfred School in Barnet, North London, UK.
 King Alfred's Middle School, Shaftesbury, Dorset [Now defunct after
reorganisation]
 King's College, Taunton, Somerset. (The king in question is King Alfred).

The Royal Navy has named one ship and two shore establishments HMS King
Alfred.
 Aldfrith of Northumbria
Aldfrith (died 14 December 704 or 705) sometimes Aldfrid, Aldfridus (Latin),
or Flann Fína mac Ossu (Classical Irish) was king ofNorthumbria from 685
until his death. He is described by early writers such
as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon as a man of great learning, and some of
his works, as well as letters written to him, survive. His reign was relatively
peaceful, marred only by disputes with BishopWilfrid, a major figure in the
early Northumbrian church. Aldfrith was born on an uncertain date to Oswiu of
Northumbria and an Irish princess named Fín. Oswiu later became King of
Northumbria; he died in 670 and was succeeded by his son Ecgfrith. Aldfrith
was educated for a career in the church and became a scholar.

However, in 685, when

Medivial engraving Aldfrith of Northumbria
Ecgfrith was killed at
the battle of Nechtansmere,
Aldfrith was recalled to
Northumbria, reportedly from
the Hebridean island of Iona,
and became king. In his
early-eighth-century account
of Aldfrith's reign, Bede
states that he "ably restored
the shattered fortunes of the
kingdom, though within
smaller boundaries".His reign
saw the creation of works
of Hiberno-Saxon art such as
the Lindisfarne Gospels and
the Codex Amiatinus, and is
often seen as the start
of Northumbria's golden age.
Background and accession
By the year 600, most of what is now England had been conquered by invaders
from the continent, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Bernicia and Deira,
the two Anglo-Saxonkingdoms in the north of England, were first united under
a single ruler in about 605 when Æthelfrith, king of Bernicia, extended his rule
over Deira. Over the course of the seventh century the two kingdoms were
sometimes ruled by a single king, and sometimes separately. The combined
kingdom became known as the kingdom of Northumbria: it stretched from
the River Humber in the south to the River Forth in the north.

Ireland in the time of Aldfrith

In 616, Æthelfrith was succeeded by Edwin of Northumbria, a Deiran. Edwin

banished Æthelfrith's sons, including both Oswald and Oswiu of Northumbria.
Both spent their exile in Dál Riata, a kingdom spanning parts of northeastern
Ireland and southwestern Scotland. Oswiu was a child when he came to Dál
Riata, and grew up in an Irish milieu. He became a fluent speaker of Old Irish,
and may have married a princess of the Uí Néill dynasty, probably Fín the
daughter (or possibly granddaughter) of Colmán Rímid. Aldfrith was a child of
this marriage, but his date of birth is unrecorded. He was probably thus a
cousin or nephew of the noted scholar Cenn Fáelad mac Aillila, and perhaps a
nephew of Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne. Irish law made Fín's kin, the Cenél
nEógain of the northern Uí Néill, responsible for his upbringing.The
relationship between Aldfrith's father and mother was not considered a lawful
marriage by Northumbrian churchmen of his day, and he is described as the
son of a concubine in early sources. Oswald and Oswiu returned to
Northumbria after Edwin's death in 633, and between them they ruled for
much of the middle of the seventh century. The eighth-century monk and
chronicler Bede lists both Oswald and Oswiu as having held imperium, or
overlordship, over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; in Oswiu's case his
dominance extended beyond the Anglo-Saxons to the Picts, the Gaels of Dál
Riata, and the many obscure and nameless native British kingdoms in what are
now North West England and southern Scotland. Oswiu's overlordship was
ended in 658 by the rise of Wulfhere of Mercia, but his reign continued until his
death in 670, when Ecgfrith, one of his sons by his second wife, Eanflæd,
succeeded him. Ecgfrith was unable to recover Oswiu's position in Mercia and
the southern kingdoms, and was defeated by Wulfhere's brother Æthelred in a
battle on the River Trent in 679. Ecgfrith sent an army under his
general, Berht, to Ireland in 684 where he ravaged the plain of Brega,
destroying churches and taking hostages. The raid may have been intended to
discourage support for any claim Aldfrith might have to the throne, though
other motives are possible.
The descent of Aldfrith, Kings in italics reigned over Northumbria, Bernicia or Deira. Date ranges are given
for reigns.

Ecgfrith's two marriages—the first to the saintly virgin Æthelthryth (Saint

Audrey), the second to Eormenburh—produced no children. He had two full
brothers: Alhfrith, who is not mentioned after 664, and Ælfwine, who was
killed at the battle on the Trent in 679. Hence the succession in Northumbria
was unclear for some years before Ecgfrith's death. Bede's Life of
Cuthbert recounts a conversation between Cuthbert and AbbessÆlfflæd of
Whitby, daughter of Oswiu, in which Cuthbert foresaw Ecgfrith's death. When
Ælfflæd asked about his successor, she was told she would love him as a
brother:

"But," said she, "I beseech you to tell me where he may be found." He answered,
"You behold this great and spacious sea, how it aboundeth in islands. It is easy
for God out of some of these to provide a person to reign over England." She
therefore understood him to speak of [Aldfrith], who was said to be the son of
her father, and was then, on account of his love of literature, exiled to the
Scottish islands. Saint Cuthbert was a second cousin of Aldfrith (according to
Irish genealogies), which may have been the reason for his proposal as
monarch. Ecgfrith was killed during a campaign against his cousin, the King of
the Picts Bridei map Beli, at a battle known as Nechtansmere to the
Northumbrians, generally thought to have been fought near Forfar, in Pictish
territory north of the Firth of Forth. Bede recounts that Queen Eormenburh
and Cuthbert were visiting Carlislethat day, and that Cuthbert had a
premonition of the defeat. Ecgfrith's death threatened to break the hold of the
descendants of Æthelfrith on Northumbria, but the scholar Aldfrith became
king and the thrones of Bernicia and Deira remained united. Although rival
claimants of royal descent must have existed, there is no recorded resistance to
Aldfrith's accession. It has also been suggested that Aldfrith's ascent was eased
by support from Dál Riata, the Uí Néill, and the Picts, all of whom might have
preferred the mature, known quantity of Aldfrith to an unknown and more
warlike monarch, such as Ecgfrith or Oswiu had been. The historian Herman
Moisl, for example, wrote that "Aldfrith was in Iona in the year preceding the
battle [of Nechtansmere]; immediately afterwards, he was king of Northumbria.
It is quite obvious that he must have been installed by the Pictish-Dál Riatan
alliance". Subsequently a battle between the Northumbrians and the Picts in
which Berht was killed is recorded by Bede and the Irish annals in 697 or
698. No other battles are recorded in his reign.

Aldfrith's Northumbria
Bede, paraphrasing Virgil, wrote that following Ecgfrith's death, "the hopes and
strengths of the English realm began 'to waver and slip backward ever
lower'".The Northumbrians never regained the dominance of central Britain lost
in 679, or of northern Britain lost in 685. Nonetheless, Northumbria remained
one of the most powerful states of Britain and Ireland well into the Viking Age.
Aldfrith ruled both Bernicia and Deira throughout his reign, but the two parts
remained distinct, and would again be divided by the Vikings in the late ninth
century.[28] The centre of Bernicia lay in the region around the later Anglo-
Scottish border, with Lindisfarne, Hexham, Bamburgh, andYeavering being
important religious and royal centres. Even after Ecgfrith's death, Bernicia
included much of modern southeast Scotland, with a presumed royal centre
at Dunbar, and religious centres at Coldingham and Melrose. The details of the
early Middle Ages in northwest England and southwest Scotland are more
obscure, but a Bishop of Whithorn is known from shortly after Aldfrith's
reign. York, Catterick,Ripon, and Whitby appear to have been important sites
in Deira. Northumbria's southern frontier with Mercia ran across England,
from the Humber in the east, following the River Ouse and the River Don, to
theMersey in the west. Some archaeological evidence, the Roman Rig dyke,
near modern Sheffield, appears to show that it was a defended border, with
large earthworks set back from the frontier. [31] The Nico Ditch, to the south of
modern Manchester, has been cited in this context, though it has also been
argued that it was simply a boundary marker without fortifications. In the far
north, the evidence is less clear, and it appears that authority lay with sub-
kings, perhaps including native British rulers. The family of Ecgfrith's general
Berht may have been one such dynasty of under-kings.

Relations with the Church

Along with the king, royal family, and chief noblemen, the church was a major
force in Northumbria. Churchmen were not only figures of spiritual authority,
they were major landowners, who also controlled trade, centred at major
churches and monasteries in a land without cities and towns. The bishopric
of Lindisfarne was held by Cuthbert at Aldfrith's accession; Cuthbert was
succeeded by the Irish-educated Eadberht, who would later be Abbot of
Iona and bring the Easter controversy to an end, and then by Eadfrith, creator
of the Lindisfarne Gospels. The bishops of Lindisfarne sometimes held the see
of Hexham, but during Aldfrith's reign it was held byJohn of Beverley, a pupil
and protegé of Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The bishopric of York
was held by Bosa in 685. Wilfrid was given the see in 687, but removed in 691
with Bosa returning to York. The short-lived see at Abercorn, created in 681 for
Bishop Trumwine, collapsed in the period after Ecgfrith's death and the first
known Bishop of Whithorn was appointed in the reign of King Ceolwulf.
Important monasteries existed at Whitby, where the known abbesses tended to
be members of the Deiran royal family, at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, where Bede
was a monk, and at Ripon. Aldfrith appears to have had the support of leading
ecclesiastics, most notably his half-sister Ælfflæd and the highly respected
Bishop Cuthbert. He is known to have received confirmation at the hands
of Aldhelm, later the Bishop of Sherborne in the south-western Anglo-
Saxon Kingdom of Wessex. Aldhelm too had received an Irish education, but in
Britain, at Malmesbury. Correspondence between the two survives, and
Aldhelm sent Aldfrith his treatise on the numerology of the number seven,
the Epistola ad Acircium. Aldfrith also owned a manuscript on cosmography,
which (according to Bede) he purchased from Abbot Ceolfrith of
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in exchange for an estate valued at
eight hides. Aldfrith was a close friend of Adomnán, Abbot of Iona from 679,
and may have studied with him. [38] In the 680s Aldfrith twice met with
Adomnán, who came to seek the release of the Irish captives taken in Berht's
expedition of 684. These were released and Adomnán presented Aldfrith with a
copy of his treatise De Locis Sanctis ("On the Holy Places"), a description of the
places of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and at Alexandria and Constantinople.
Bede reports that Aldfrith circulated Adomnán's work for others to read. Bede
described Aldfrith as a scholar, and his interest in learning distinguishes him
from the earlier Anglo-Saxon warrior kings, such as Penda. Irish sources
describe him as a sapiens, a term from the Latin for wise that refers to a
scholar not usually associated with a particular church. It implies a degree of
learning and wisdom that led historian Peter Hunter Blair to compare Aldfrith
to the Platonic ideal of the Philosopher king. Bede also makes it clear that the
church in Aldfrith's day was less subject to lay control of monasteries, a
practice he dated from the time of Aldfrith's death. Aldfrith's relations with the
Church were, however, not always smooth. He inherited from Ecgfrith a
troubled relationship with Wilfrid, a major ecclesiastical figure of the time.
Wilfrid, the bishop of York, had been exiled by Ecgfrith for his role in
persuading Ecgfrith's wife, Æthelthryth, to remain a saintly celibate. In 686, at
the urging of Archbishop Theodore, Aldfrith allowed Wilfrid to return. Aldfrith's
relations with Wilfrid were stormy; the hostility between the two was partly
caused by Aldfrith's allegiances with the Celtic Church, a consequence of his
upbringing in exile. A more significant cause of strife was Wilfrid's opposition to
Theodore's division, in 677, of his huge Northumbrian diocese. When Wilfrid
returned from exile the reconciliation with Aldfrith did not include Aldfrith's
support for Wilfrid's attempts to recover his episcopal authority over the whole
of the north. By 691 or 692 their differences were beyond repair. Wilfrid's
hagiographer writes:
For a while all would be peace between the wise King Aldfrith and our holy bishop, and a happier state of affairs
could hardly be imagined. Then spite would boil up again and the situation would be reversed. And so they
continued for years, in and out of friendship with each other, till finally their quarrels came to a head and the king
banished Wilfrid from Northumbria.

Wilfrid spent his exile in Mercia, where he enjoyed the staunch support of King
Æthelred. In 702 or 703, Aldfrith convened a council at Austerfield, on the
southern border of Northumbria, which was attended by Berhtwald,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and many bishops. The question of Wilfrid's return
to Northumbria was hotly debated and then rejected by the bishops. According
to Stephen of Ripon, King Aldfrith offered to use his army to pressure Wilfred
into accepting the decision, but the bishops reminded him that he had
promised Wilfred safe-conduct.[47] After returning to Mercia, Wilfred
was excommunicated by his enemies among the bishops. He responded by
journeying to Rome, where he appealed in person to Pope John VI. The Pope
provided him with letters to Aldfrith ordering that Wilfrid be restored to his
offices. Aldfrith refused to receive the letters, and Wilfrid remained in disfavour.

Northumbria's Golden Age

Aldfrith's reign is considered the beginning of Northumbria's golden age, which
lasted until the end of the 8th century. The period saw the flowering of Insular
art in Northumbria and produced the Lindisfarne Gospels, perhaps begun in
Aldfrith's time, the scholarship of Bede, and the beginnings of the Anglo-Saxon
missions to the continent. The Lindisfarne Gospels are believed to the be the
work of Eadfrith of Lindisfarne, bishop of Lindisfarne from 698. They are not
the only surviving Northumbrian illuminated manuscripts from Aldfrith's time.
Also active at Lindisfarne in the late 7th century was the scribe known as the
"Durham-Echternach calligrapher", who produced the Durham Gospels and
the EchternachGospels. The Codex Amiatinus was a product of
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, made on the orders of Abbot Ceolfrid, probably in the
decade after Aldfrith's death. Two significant items of jewellery from
Northumbria in this period have survived. The Ripon Jewel, discovered in the
precincts of Ripon Cathedralin 1977, is difficult to date but its grandeur and
the location of the find have suggested a link with Bishop Wilfrid, whose rich
furnishings of the church at Ripon are on record. [53] Bishop Cuthbert's pectoral
cross was buried with him during Aldfrith's reign, either at his death in 687 or
his reburial in 698 and is now at Durham Cathedral.[54] There are few surviving
architectural or monumental remains from the period. The Bewcastle Cross,
the Ruthwell Cross and the Hexham Cross are probably to be dated to one or
two generations after Aldfrith's time. [55] Escomb Churchis the best preserved
Northumbrian church of the period, dated to the late 7th century. The ruined
chapel at Heysham, overlooking Morecambe Bay, may be somewhat later in
date.

Sceat of Aldfrith

The Northumbrian coinage is thought to have begun during Aldfrith's reign.

Early silver coins, known as sceattas, appeared, replacing the impractical
gold thrymsa as a medium of exchange. Exceptionally for the period, Aldfrith's
coins bear his name, rather than that of a moneyer, in an Irishuncial script.
Most show a lion, with upraised tail.

Heirs, death, and succession

Aldfrith was married to Cuthburh, sister of King Ine of Wessex; the marriage
thus allied Aldfrith with one of the most powerful kings in Anglo-Saxon
England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Aldfrith and Cuthburh
separated, and Cuthburh established an abbey at Wimborne Minster where she
was abbess. At least two sons were born to Aldfrith, but whether Cuthburh was
their mother is unrecorded. Osred, born around 696 or 697, succeeded to the
throne after a civil war following Aldfrith's death. Little is known of Offa, who is
presumed to have been killed after being taken from Lindisfarne in 750 on the
orders of King Eadberht of Northumbria.[60] Osric, who was later king, may have
been Aldfrith's son, or alternatively the son of Aldfrith's half-
brother Alhfrith. The 13th-century discovery of a tomb thought to be that of
St Osana has led to the suggestion that Osana was the daughter of Aldfrith,
although this view is not widely held by modern historians. Aldfrith was said to
have been ill for some time before his death, dying on 14 December 704 or
705. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle adds that he died at Driffield in the East Riding
of Yorkshire. The succession was disputed by Eadwulf, supported initially by
Bishop Wilfrid, and supporters of Aldfrith's young son Osred, apparently led by
Berht's kinsman Berhtfrith. The reports of Aldfrith's death in the Irish
annals call him Aldfrith son of Oswiu, but some of these are glossed by later
scribes with the name Flann Fína mac Ossu. A collection ofwisdom
literature attributed to Flann Fína, the Briathra Flainn Fhina Maic Ossu, has
survived, though the text is not contemporary with Aldfrith as it is in Middle
Irish, a form of Irish not in use until the 10th century.

Learning merits respect.

Intelligence overcomes fury.
Truth should be supported.
Falsehood should be rebuked.
Iniquity should be corrected.
A quarrel merits mediation.
Stinginess should be spurned.
Arrogance deserves oblivion.
Good should be exalted.