Alfred succeeded, however, by means of the influence of his personal character, and by the very active and efficient exertions that he made, in concentrating what forces remained, and in preparing for a renewal of the contest.  The first great battle that was fought was at Wilton.  This was within a month of his accession to the throne.  The battle was very obstinately fought; at the first onset Alfred’s troops carried all before them, and there was every prospect that he would win the day.  In the end, however, the tide of victory turned in favor of the Danes, and Alfred and his troops were driven from the field.  There was an immense loss on both sides.  In fact, both armies were, for the time, pretty effectually disabled, and each seems to have shrunk from a renewal of the contest.  Instead, therefore, of fighting again, the two commanders entered into negotiations.  Hubba was the name of the Danish chieftain.  In the end, he made a treaty with Alfred, by which he agreed to retire from Alfred’s dominions, and leave him in peace, provided that Alfred would not interfere with him in his wars in any other part of England.  Alfred’s kingdom was Wessex.  Besides Wessex, there was Essex, Mercia, and Northumberland.  Hubba and his Danes, finding that Alfred was likely to prove too formidable an antagonist for them easily to subdue, thought it would be most prudent to give up one kingdom out of the four, on condition of not having Alfred to contend against in their depredations upon the other three.  They accordingly made the treaty, and the Danes withdrew.  They evacuated their posts and strong-holds in Wessex, and went down the Thames to London, which was in Mercia, and there commenced a new course of conquest and plunder, where they had no such powerful foe to oppose them.

Buthred was the king of Mercia.  He could not resist Hubba and his Danes alone, and he could not now have Alfred’s assistance.  Alfred was censured very much at the time, and has been condemned often since, for having thus made a separate peace for himself and his own immediate dominions, and abandoned his natural allies and friends, the people of the other Saxon kingdoms.  To make a peace with savage and relentless pagans, on the express condition of leaving his fellow-Christian neighbors at their mercy, has been considered ungenerous, at least, if it was not unjust.  On the other hand, those who vindicate his conduct maintain that it was his duty to secure the peace and welfare of his own realm, leaving other sovereigns to take care of theirs; and that he would have done very wrong to sacrifice the property and lives of his own immediate subjects to a mere point of honor, when it was utterly out of his power to protect them and his neighbors too.