As Alfred is laid to rest, we can look back at his endeavours outside the theatre of war and the legend they have gen- erated. The troubled times in which Alfred ruled meant that he was always preparing for or fighting wars, but this doesn't mean that he only thought about violence. Alfred's love of learning is one of the most important aspects of the king's personality that Asser's biography presents to us. However, Asser was not writing for us, but to impress upon his Welsh contemporaries the qualities of the Saxon king to whom they had submitted. Undoubtedly such a man should also be schooled in the arts of peace.

Alfred's love of wisdom has become inseparable over the past eleven hundred years from a belief not only in the king's learning, but his authorship of translations from Latin into Old English. During the past century Alfred has lost some books once attributed to him, and recently the question has been asked whether the king made any trans - la tions at all. Alfred's education was neglected, but the story that Asser tells presents superficial incon sis tencies complicated by later preconceptions concerning the king's supposed literary achievements. Alfred's approach to his children's education in the 880s offers insights into the progress of his own learning. Five of Alfred and Ealh-swith's children survived beyond infancy. The eldest was Æthelflæd, who became the Lady of the Mercians; Edward succeeded his father; the next daughter Æthelgifu became a nun at Shaftesbury; her younger sister, Ælfthryth, married Baldwin II of Flanders; the youngest son, Æthelweard (d. ca. 922), was chosen to receive a full education from about age five, which implicitly his siblings didn't have. Asser describes Æthelweard's schooling (chap. 75):