King Alfred the Great - The First King of England

Since the beginning of recorded history, many states, many states have been ruled by a monarch calling themselves an Emperor, a Shahanshah, a Sultan, a King, or a Prince, but as "common" as monarchs in history have been it is truly the rare ruler whom the history books see fit to describe with the epithet, the Great. This honor is ever more rare among the Kings and Queens who have ruled what has become the most popular and well-known monarchy in the world, that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the various states that were fore-runners to this now united realm. Only one monarch in the history of this great monarchy has ever been remembered with this illustrious description and that was the man described as the founder of both the English monarchy and the English nation: King Alfred of Wessex, Rex Anglorum(King of the English.)

King Alfred is called the Great and the father of England quite rightfully. He made an incomparable and everlasting mark on the British Isle that laid the foundation on which England became the nation that it is today. Alfred dynamically transformed his country in war and in peace, in how they organized a military to the way they lived their lives. Alfred is alone responsible for providing England with a standing army to provide constant defense if ever needed. He is responsible for protecting England from total domination by the Danish Vikings and establishing true English rule over their own destiny, an English monarch for an English people when he expelled the Danes from much of modern day England through a combination of military victory and shrew foreign and domestic policy.