How well Alfred paid his soldiers it is difficult to determine.  His own private means were large, and the Crown lands were very extensive.  One-third of his income was spent upon his army.  But it is not probable that a large force was under pay in time of peace; yet he had always one third of his forces ready to act promptly against an enemy.  The burden of the service was distributed over the whole kingdom.  The main feature of his military reform seems to have been in the division of his forces into three bodies, only one of which was liable to be called upon for service at a time, except in great emergencies.  In regard to tactics, or changes in armor and mode of fighting, we know nothing; for war as an art or science did not exist in any Teutonic kingdom; it was lost with, the fall of the Roman Empire.  How far Alfred was gifted with military genius we are unable to say, beyond courage, fertility of resources, activity of movement, and a marvellous patience.  His greatest qualities were moral, like those of Washington.  It is his reproachless character, and his devotion to duty, and love of his people which impress us from first to last.  As has been said of Marcus Aurelius, Alfred was a Saint Anselm on a throne.  He had none of those turbulent and restless qualities which we associate with mediaeval kings.  What a contrast between him and William the Conqueror!

Alfred also gave his attention to the construction of a navy, as well as to the organization of an army, knowing that it was necessary to resist the Northmen on the ocean and prevent their landing on the coast.  In 875 he had fought a naval battle with success, and had taken one of the ships of the sea-kings, which furnished him with a model to build his own ships,—­doing the same thing that the Romans did in their early naval warfare with the Carthaginians.  In 877 he destroyed a Danish fleet on its way to relieve Exeter.  But he soon made considerable improvement on the ships of his enemies, making them twice as long as those of the Danes, with a larger number of oars.  These were steadier and swifter than the older vessels.  As the West Saxons were not a seafaring people, he employed and munificently rewarded men from other nations more accustomed to the sea,—­whether Frisians, Franks, Britons, Scots, or even Danes.  The result was, he was never badly beaten at sea, and before the end of his reign he had swept the coast clear of pirates.  Within two years from the treaty of Wedmore his fleet was ready for action.  He was prepared to meet the sea-kings on equal terms, and in 882 he had gained an important naval battle over a fleet that was meditating an invasion.