Battle of Ashdown Battle of Ashdown The Battle of Ashdown, in Berkshire (possibly the part now in Oxfordshire), took place on 8 January 871. Alfred the Great, then a prince of only 22, led the army of his brother, King Ethelred of Wessex, in a victorious battle against the invading Danes. Accounts of the battle are based to a large extent on Asser's "Life of Alfred", however there is some dispute about whether this is an authentic account. By the year 871 AD, most of England was no longer ruled by the English (that is Anglo-Saxons), and for years, Danish Viking invaders had
Bagsecg Bagsecg Bagsecg (died 8 January 871), also known as Bacgsecg, was a ninth-century Viking, and one of the first to be recorded by the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". Both he and Healfdene were the two commanding Viking kings of the Great Army that set up camp at Reading, and invaded the Kingdom of Wessex in the winter of 870/871. The Great Army is recorded to have combated the West Saxons in several engagements in 871. One of these was the Battle of Ashdown, in which Bagsecg and five Viking earls were slain against the forces Æthelred, King of Wessex. After Bagsecg's death,