Guthrum's surprise attack at Twelfth Night (January 6) 878 on Alfred's royal residence at Chippenham was the lowest point of Alfred's reign. Alfred, caught completely off-guard, fled with a small retinue into the Somerset marshes. Much of the West Saxon nobility submitted to Guthrum. The attack on the Christmas feasting period — a sacred truce time — was a deliberate violation designed to maximise shock. It almost succeeded in permanently destroying Wessex.
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.
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