In 868, when he was in his twentieth year, while his brother Aethelred was King, Alfred married.  His wife’s name was Ealhswyth; she was the daughter of Aethelred called the Mickle or Big, Alderman of the Gainas in Lincolnshire, and her mother Eadburh was of the royal house of the Mercians.  It is said that on the very day of his marriage he was smitten with a strange disease, which for twenty years never quite left him, and fits of which might come on at any time.  If this be true, it makes all the great things that he did even more wonderful.

Meanwhile the great Danish invasion had begun in the northern parts of England.  There are many stories told in the old Northern Songs as to the cause of it.  Some tell how Ragnar Lodbrog, a great hero of these Northern tales, was seized by Aella, King of the Northumbrians, and was thrown into a dungeon full of serpents, and how, while he was dying of the bites of the serpents, he sang a wonderful death-song, telling of all his old fights, and calling on his sons to come and avenge him.  The year 871 the Danes for the first time entered Wessex.  Nine great battles, besides smaller skirmishes, were fought this year, in some of which the English won and in others the Danes.  One famous battle was at Ashdown, in Berkshire.  We are told that the heathen men were in two divisions; one was commanded by their two Kings Bagsecg and Halfdene, and the other by five Earls, Sidroc the Old, Sidroc the Young, Osbeorn, Fraena, and Harold.  And King Aethelred was set against the Kings and Alfred the Aetheling against the Earls.  And the heathen men came on against them.  But King Aethelred heard mass in his tent.  And men said, “Come forth, O King, to the fight, for the heathen men press hard upon us.”  And King Aethelred said, “I will serve God first and man after, so I will not come forth till all the words of the mass be ended.”  So King Aethelred abode praying, and the heathen men fought against Alfred the Aetheling.  And Alfred said, “I cannot abide till the King my brother comes forth; I must either flee, or fight alone with the heathen men.”  So Alfred the Aetheling and his men fought against the five Earls.  Now the heathen men stood on the higher ground and the Christians on the lower.  Yet did Alfred go forth trusting in God, and he made his men hold close together with their shields, and they went forth like a wild boar against the hounds.  And they fought against the heathen men and smote them, and slew the five Earls, Sidroc the Old, Sidroc the Young, Osbeorn, Fraena, and Harold.  Then the mass was over, and King Aethelred came forth and fought against the two Kings, and slew Bagsecg the King with his own hand and smote the heathen men with a great slaughter and chased them even unto Reading.

In 871, on Aethelred’s death, Alfred became King of the West-Saxons and Over-lord of all England, as his father had appointed so long before with the consent of his Wise Men.