England’s Darling : The Victorian Cult of Alfred the Great

263 Pages·2017·12.028 MB·English

by  Joanne Parker

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‘Meticulously researched using an impressive range of materials, it represents a rrrr
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substantive addition to our empirical knowledge of this period.’ ’
A D A R L I N G
Dr Clare Pettitt, King’s College
ISBNIS B97NII8SS -BB907NN-87 -9910779-8807---10079--30775-116799-30045--677-3345566--44 N
While the Victorian fascination with King Arthur has been much studied, the
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figure of King Alfred, the ‘Saxon king’, has received almost no attention. For
much of the nineteenth century, however, Alfred was as important as Arthur in ’
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the British popular imagination. A pervasive cult9 of7 9t8h07e997 8k1077in9788g100 09d777e1130v99e57l63o004p577e633d455 w6644hich JoJaoJJnaoonnaannne nneP eeaP raPPkraaekrrrekkreerr
T H E V I C TO R I A N C U LT O F A L F R E D T H E G R E AT
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twenty-five paintings, and the publication of over a hundred texts, by authors
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ranging from Wordsworth to minor women writers. By 1852, J.A. Froude could
describe Alfred’s life as ‘the favourite story in English nurseries’, and in 1901, a R
national holiday marked the thousandth anniversary of his death, organised by
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a committee including Edward Burne Jones, Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas
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Hughes. N
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‘England’s Darling’ examines the ways in which Alfred was rewritten by
nineteenth-century authors and artists, and it asks how beliefs about the Saxon ’
king’s reign and achievements related to nineteenth-century ideals about
leadership, law, religion, commerce, education and the Empire. The book
concludes by addressing the most interesting enigma in Alfred’s reception
history: why is the king no longer ‘England’s darling’?
This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the formation of English
national identity, and will be useful to scholars of Victorian cultural history and
literature.
J
Joanne Parker is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus o
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Cover image: Daniel Maclise, Alfred, the Saxon King, Disguised as a Minstrel, in the Tent of Guthram the Dane, P
1852. Courtesy of the Laing Gallery, Tyne and Wear Museums, Newcastle a
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Cover design: www.riverdesign.co.uk k
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ISBN 978-0-7190-7356-4
9 780719 073564 Joanne Parker
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
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‘England’s darling’
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‘England’s darling’
The Victorian cult of Alfred the Great
JOANNE PARKER
Manchester University Press
Manch ester
Copyright © Joanne Parker 2007
The right of Joanne Parker to be identifed as the author of this work has been asserted
by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA, UK
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
ISBN 978 0 7190 7357 1 paperback
First published by Manchester University Press in hardback 2007
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on
such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Contents
List of illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 The day of a thousand years: Alfred and the Victorian
mania for commemoration 1
2 Medievalism, Anglo-Saxonism and the nineteenth century 33
3 Turning a king into a hero: nine hundred years of
pre-Victorian reinvention 46
4 The hero as king: Alfred and nineteenth-century politics 82
5 ‘The root and spring of everything we love in church and
state’: Alfred and Victorian progress 128
6 ‘The most perfect character in history’: Alfred and
Victorian morality 167
7 ‘Never to be confused with King Arthur’: Alfred after
Victoria 200
Select bibliography 219
Index 239
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List of Illustrations
1. ‘The Naval Brigade’, part of the procession through
Winchester to the Alfred statue (published in Bowker’s 1902
record of the commemorations)
With the permission of the British Library 2
2. ‘The Unveiling Ceremony’ (photograph of Winchester’s statue
being unveiled by Rosebery, published in Bowker’s 1902
record of the commemorations)
With the permission of the British Library 3
3. Tableau of Alfred learning to read (performed as part of the
Winchester commemorations and published in Bowker’s 1902
volume, The King Alfred Millenary)
With the permission of the British Library 10
4. Invitation card to the launch of the HMS King Alfred
(reproduced in Bowker’s 1902 volume, The King Alfred
Millenary)
With the permission of the British Library 15
5. Martin Farquhar Tupper’s poster advertising the 1849
Wantage anniversary
Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Service 26
6. The earliest certain drawing of Alfred, by Matthew Paris (in
his Chronica Majora, part I, ed. by Nigel Wilkins)
With the permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge 28
7. David Williams, Political Constitution of England by Alfred
(in Lessons to a Young Prince, 1790)
With the permission of the British Library 67
8. Portrait of Alfred (commissioned by Thomas Walker,Master
of University College, Oxford, in 1661–62).
With the permission of University College and the Courtauld
Institute of Art 71
9. George Vertue, Portrait of King Alfred the Great(made and
engraved for the 1732 folio edition of Rapin’s History of
England)
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viii List of Illustrations
With the permission of V&A Images/Victoria and Albert
Museum 73
10. David Wilkie, Alfred Reprimanded by the Neatherd’s Wife
(1806, from an engraving published in 1828)
With the permission of The Bridgeman Art Library 74
11. Richard Westall, Queen Judith Reciting to Alfred the Great,
when a Child, the Songs of the Bards(1799)
With the permission of the Trustees of the British Museum 77
12. H. Warren, King Alfred in the Swineherd’s Cottage(engraved
for the Illustrated LondonNewsin 1846)
With the permission of the British Library 104
13. Daniel Maclise, Alfred, the Saxon King, Disguised as a
Minstrel, in the Tent of Guthrum the Dane(first exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1852)
With the permission of the Laing Gallery, Tyne and Wear
Museums 110
14. John Bridges, Alfred submitting his Laws to the Witan
(cartoon for a fresco, exhibited at Westminster Hall in 1843)
With the permission of the British Museum, Department of
Prints and Drawings 130
15. John Gilbert, King Alfred teaching the Anglo-Saxon Youth
(engraved for The Illustrated London Newsin 1885)
With the permission of the British Library 138
16. Alfred Stevens, King Alfred and his Mother(first exhibited in
the Tate Gallery in 1848)
With the permission of Tate London, 2006 185
17. George Watts, King Alfred Inspiring the Saxons to Resist the
Danes(winner of the 1847 oil-painting competition for the
decoration of the new Houses of Parliament)
With the permission of the Mary Evans Picture Library 194
18. Undated preparatory sketch of Alfred by William Morris (no
finished version of the design seems ever to have been
attempted)
With the permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London 201
19. George Morrow, ‘King Alfred Cooking Cakes’, Punch
Magazine
Reproduced with the permission of Punch, Ltd.,
www.Punch. co.uk 210
20. John Kenney, the imagined scene of Alfred’s coronation (in
the 1956 Ladybird book, King Alfred the Great)
Reproduced by permission of Ladybird Books, Ltd. 211
21. A pious Alfred, in Clive Donner’s 1969 film Alfred the Great
With the permission of the estate of the late David Hemmings
and Warner Bros. 213
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Preface – The king who burnt the cakes
It was whilst Alfred was in hiding, disguised as a poor peasant, that he knocked
one day at the door of a lonely hut in the marshes and asked for shelter. A
peasant woman opened the door, and taking pity on Alfred, told him that he
could come in and rest. She was baking some cakes, and asked Alfred to see that
they did not burn, whilst she went to the well. But Alfred was thinking about
how to beat the Danes, so he forgot all about the cakes, which were soon burnt
to cinders. When the women returned and found her cakes ruined, she was nat-
urally angry, and not knowing Alfred was the king, she scolded him bitterly and
even, as some of the stories tell, beat him with her broomstick.1
What is popularly known of King Alfred today? Possibly that he was Saxon
and fought the Danes. Perhaps that a statue of him stands in Winchester. And
maybe people have some vague recollection of the legend above – that Alfred
burnt the cakes – although how and where this happened and, more impor-
tantly, whose cakes they were, remains – for most people – shrouded in
mystery.
In the nineteenth century, the situation was very different. In 1852,
Alfred’s life could be described as ‘the favourite story in English nurseries’,
and between 1800 and 1901, a cult of the Saxon king developed in Britain,
with at least four statues of Alfred erected; more than twenty-five paintings
of him completed; and over a hundred popular ‘Alfredian’ texts published –
including poems, plays, novels and histories, as well as children’s books. The
authors of these works ranged from canonical figures such as William
Wordsworth, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hughes, to devoted amateurs
like John Fitchett (who spent forty years writing a 1,500-page epic about the
Saxon king, a work which is possibly the longest poem in the English lan-
guage). Rewriting Alfred’s life was not purely a male preserve: Victorian
women writers also celebrated the king, often in texts that provided a dis-
tinct, domestic focus upon his reign, and commonly in ‘improving’ texts for
juvenile readers. And besides English authors, Alfredian texts were produced
by writers from Scotland, America, Australia and India.
This book sets out to answer the questions that must arise in the face of
such remarkable nineteenth-century enthusiasm for a ninth-century king
who ruled only a portion of Southern England. What was it about Alfred’s
life that rendered him such an appealing figure? From what sources did the
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