Its recommendations are periodically presented to the player as a series of proposals. The Witan is an assembly of governors which meets to discuss the future prospects of West Seaxe. This unexpected triumph will surely be pivotal in Wessex’s campaign, not only for survival but for uniting the realm.Īlfred has reconsolidated his army in heavily entrenched settlements across southern England and is ready to stand firm against the onslaught of hungry and ambitious raiders and pretenders who continue to harass and divide the fractured kingdom of Britannia. Building a fortified base, using mobile armies in the style of the Danes themselves, and using his knowledge of the difficult terrain, he again defeated the Danes in the Battle of Edington.Īlfred pursued them to their fortress in Chippenham and after fourteen long days the Danes were brought to their knees, starving and crippled with fear. The Anglo-Saxons were being squeezed from Wessex despite Alfred’s improbable victory at Ashdown.Ī battle veteran at 21, Alfred had no choice but to withdraw to the trying landscape of the Somerset Levels, where he continued guerrilla warfare against his foes. In the next year, he succeeded his brother as king, who after subsequent crushing defeats at the hands of the Danes, perished from fatal wounds. This pre-emptive strike failed and the brothers were forced back to defend their homeland against the seemingly unstoppable Great Heathen Army.Īfter a grueling series of bloody battles, it was Alfred who led Wessex to victory in the Battle of Ashdown in 871, routing the Vikings in a fierce hillside assault and laying the first foundations for his reputation as a decisive leader. The youngest son of King Æthelwulf, Alfred of Wessex is more famously known as ‘Alfred the Great’ for his legendary will to survive and unite the isles under one banner.Īlfred undertook his first key military challenge in 868 AD when he supported his brother Æthelred, the reigning King of Wessex, in an attempt to repel invading Danish Vikings from the neighboring Kingdom of Mierce. Alfred’s dogged defense of the Danish invasion laid the foundations for Wessex to unite England under one ruler for the first time in 927 AD. From the capital city of Winchester, Wessex conquered lands in Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex and even Mercia. Over-reliance on levy troops carries penalties however – if too many are fielded, the populace will rail against excessive conscription and public order issues will arise.Īs the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom of southern England, the forces of West Seaxe – or Wessex in modern English – provided the isle’s primary resistance against the incursions of the Great Heathen Army. To reflect the Fyrd system, the English Kingdoms in Thrones of Britannia may recruit additional levy units based upon the number of settlements they own. One of Alfred the Great’s many reforms was to better formalise the system, ensuring wealthy landowners contributed men and materiel. In Anglo Saxon times, the Fyrd was a form of conscripted army composed of self-armed and armoured freemen, called upon to defend their lands when the need arose. Thrones of Britannia depicts the sweep of the British Isles from 878 AD onwards, when the Anglo Saxons were at their height. The peoples of these regions came collectively to be known as the Anglo Saxons – a term which came into common usage in the 8 th century in order to distinguish the English Saxons from the Old Saxons, or Ealdseaxe, of the European continent.īroadly speaking, the Anglo Saxons existed between the collapse of Roman rule in the 5 th century until the Norman invasion in the 11 th century the early Medieval period. When Roman rule in England concluded, new kingdoms of Germanic stock coalesced in the counties now known as Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex, East Anglia and Kent.
0 kommentar(er)
