Battle of the Holme Battle of the Holme The Battle of the Holme took place in East Anglia on 13 December 902 between the Anglo-Saxon men of Kent and the East Anglian Danes. Its location is unknown but may have been Holme in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire). Following the death of Alfred the Great in 899, his son Edward the Elder became king, but his cousin Æthelwold, the son of Alfred's elder brother, King Æthelred, claimed the throne. His bid was unsuccessful, and he fled to the Northumbrian Danes, who, according to one version of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", accepted him as king. In
Alfred the Great in the following year, with varying outcomes; the places and dates of two of these battles have not been recorded. A successful skirmish at the Battle of Englefield in Berkshire on 31 December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and Battle of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 871. Four days later, the Anglo-Saxons won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth. Alfred is particularly credited with the success of this last battle. The Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing on