Alfred the Great his craving for what he desired the most, namely the liberal arts; for, as he used to say, there were no good scholars in the entire kingdom of the West Saxons at that time". In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family. They had five or six children together including: Edward the Elder who succeeded his father as king; Æthelflæd who became Lady (ruler) of the Mercians in her
Invasions of the British Isles time. However, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington in 878. The resultant treaty gave the Danes control of northern and eastern England, with Alfred and his successors controlling Wessex. But the whole of England was unified with Norway and Denmark in the eleventh century, during the reign of the Danish king Cnut. When Cnut died, however, he was succeeded by the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor. Edward managed to reign until his death in 1066, when he was succeeded by the powerful Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson. Harold's accession, however, was not