Two years after this, Ethelwolf, Alfred’s father, determined to go to Rome himself.  His wife had died, his older sons had grown up, and his own natural aversion to the cares and toils of government seems to have been increased by the alarms and dangers produced by the incursions of the Danes, and by his own advancing years.  Having accordingly arranged the affairs of the kingdom by placing his oldest sons in command, he took the youngest, Alfred, who was now seven years old, with him, and, crossing the Channel, landed on the Continent, on his way to Rome.

All the arrangements for this journey were conducted on a scale of great magnificence and splendor.  It is true that it was a rude and semi-barbarous age, and very little progress had been made in respect to the peaceful and industrial arts of life; but, in respect to the arts connected with war, to every thing that related to the march of armies, the pomp and parade of royal progresses, the caparison of horses, the armor and military dresses of men, and the parade and pageantry of military spectacles, a very considerable degree of advancement had been attained.

King Ethelwolf availed himself of all the resources that he could command to give eclat to his journey.  He had a numerous train of attendants and followers, and he carried with him a number of rich and valuable presents for the pope.  He was received with great distinction by King Charles of France, through whose dominions he had to pass on his way to Italy.  Charles had a daughter, Judith, a young girl with whom Ethelwolf, though now himself quite advanced in life, fell deeply in love.

Ethelwolf, after a short stay in France, went on to Rome.  His arrival and his visit here attracted great attention.  As King of England he was a personage of very considerable consequence, and then he came with a large retinue and in magnificent state.  His religious predilections, too, inspired him with a very strong interest in the ecclesiastical authorities and institutions of Rome, and awakened, reciprocally, in these authorities, a strong interest in him.  He made costly presents to the pope, some of which were peculiarly splendid.  One was a crown of pure gold, which weighed, it is said, four pounds.  Another was a sword, richly mounted in gold.  There were also several utensils and vessels of Saxon form and construction, some of gold and others of silver gilt, and also a considerable number of dresses, all very richly adorned.  King Ethelwolf also made a distribution in money to all the inhabitants of Rome:  gold to the nobles and to the clergy, and silver to the people.  How far his munificence on this occasion may have been exaggerated by the Saxon chroniclers, who, of course, like other early historians, were fond of magnifying all the exploits, and swelling, in every way, the fame of the heroes of their stories, we can not now know.  There is no doubt, however, that all the circumstances of Ethelwolf’s visit to the great capital were such as to attract universal attention to the event, and to make the little Alfred, on whose account the journey was in a great measure performed, an object of very general interest and attention.