‘BE THIS THE TASK OF ALFRED’: REPRESENTATIONS OF KING ALFRED THE GREAT, 1740-1801

The figure of King Alfred the Great had a fascinating and complicated history throughout the eighteenth century. Often considered in modern scholarship as precursors to the Victorian ‘cult’, eighteenth-century depictions of Alfred were in fact distinct instances of imaginative storytelling of considerable social and political significance. This thesis demonstrates that during moments of national crisis in the late eighteenth century, many British authors, playwrights and poets turned to King Alfred for answers. It will analyse how and why this Saxon king was mobilised to negotiate the nation’s biggest challenges, and how his cultural and political relevance helped to influence Britons’ responses to critical events, as well as having lasting impact upon the king’s literary legacy itself. In doing so, this thesis seeks to establish King Alfred as a highly contested figure in this period, capable of divergent interpretations and proving a figurehead for often opposing points of view. By focusing upon a series of clusters of Alfred texts, published within a few years of each other and prompted by similar events, it presents the figure of Alfred as a lens through which scholars can witness the impactful events of the turbulent eighteenth century.