What is Alfred the Great?
{{Infobox royalty | name =Alfred the Great | title =[[list of monarchs of Wessex|King of Wessex]] |image = Alfred the Great - Samuel Woodforde.jpg | caption = Alfred by [[Samuel Woodforde]], eighteenth century | reign =871 – October 26, 899 | coronation =April 871 | full name =Alfred | predecessor =[[Ethelbert]] | successor =[[Edward the Elder]] | suc-type = | regent =Edward the Elder |reg-type = Heir | consort = | spouse = [[Ealhswith]] (Alswitha) of Mercia | issue =5 including [[Edward the Elder]] | royal house =House of Wessex | royal anthem = | father =[[Athelwulf of Wessex|Athelwulf]] | mother =Osburga | birth_date =849 | birth_place =Wantage | death_date =25–28 October 899<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nZ90l1_IzAC&pg=PA38 | title=Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy | isbn=9781446449110 | last1=Weir | first1=Alison | date=18 April 2011 }}</ref> (aged 49/50) | death_place= Winchester | burial_date = | burial_place =[[Hyde Abbey]] (Now Lost) |}} [[File:Statue d'Alfred le Grand à Winchester.jpg|thumb|150px|Statue of Alfred the Great in [[Winchester]]]] '''Alfred the Great''' ([[Old English]] Ælfræd; c. 849 — 26 October 899) was [[List of monarchs of Wessex|King of Wessex]] from 871 to 899. He was the first [[king]] from the [[British Isles]] to call himself the 'King of the [[Anglo-Saxons]]' and so he is sometimes said to be the first [[English monarchs|English king]]. Alfred started the [[Royal Navy]] in the 9th century. == Early childhood == Alfred was the youngest son of King [[Æthelwulf of Wessex]] and Osburga. She was the daughter of Osburga, Athelwulf's butler.{{efn|The office of chief butler in an Anglo-Saxon royal household is most likely his title here. He would be a nobleman who held the honorary office of butler.<ref>Laurence Marcellus Larson, ''The King's Household in England Before the Norman Conquest'', Thesis (Ph. D.), Universi