Alfred, King of Wessex

King Alfred is shown on an Anglo-Saxon silver penny.

He was the first king of “all the English” and the only English king to be called “the Great.” When Alfred died at the age of 50, after a remarkable reign, he was laid to rest at Winchester’s Old Minster. Just two years later, Alfred’s son Edward began construction of a new minster next to the old one, and his father’s remains were moved to a new mausoleum there in 903. The king was only to rest there for two centuries. In 111