Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Alfred could not have succeeded to the throne at a more critical time, just when the kingdom or Wessex, in southern England, was under fierce attack from a Danish Viking army. . . . Alfred fought nine more battles with the Vikings before they turned their attention to the neighboring kingdom of Mercia--no doubt deterred by the fierceness of Alfred's resistance. It was five years before they returned to Wessex. Born in 849, Alfred was the fifth and youngest son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex. The kingdom had recently consolidated its power over all of England south of the Thames, from Cornwall in the west to Kent in the southeast. . . . He made two visits to Rome, in 853 and 855, and while there he acquired the taste for learning that would become apparent in his later life--he is known to have translated Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care and Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy." [1001 Days]