In January 878, Guthrum led the Danish army in a midwinter surprise attack on the royal vill at Chippenham where Alfred was celebrating Christmas. Alfred barely escaped with a small retinue and fled to the Somerset marshes at Athelney. The attack shattered West Saxon military organisation: many nobles submitted to the Danes or fled overseas. Alfred spent months at Athelney as an outlaw king, the nadir of English resistance to the Great Heathen Army.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Wiltshire