Board: OCR | Unit: Y101 | Component: 1 (British Period Study)
About this option
Alfred and the Making of England covers one of the most dramatic periods in early medieval British history — the Viking assault on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the emergence of a unified English state under Alfred and his successors. Students trace Alfred’s survival against the Great Heathen Army, his programme of military, cultural, and administrative reform, and the conquest of the Danelaw by his children and grandchildren. The option requires breadth from the darkest point of the Viking invasions to the creation of a coherent English kingdom under Æthelstan.
Key themes
- The Viking invasions: the Great Heathen Army, the fall of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, and the survival of Wessex
- Alfred’s response: the Battle of Edington, the Treaty of Wedmore, and the reorganisation of Wessex’s defences
- Alfred’s reforms: the burh system, military reorganisation, legal code, and the revival of learning and literacy
- Alfred’s kingship: the construction of royal authority and the ideology of Christian kingship
- Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd: the reconquest of the Danelaw and the extension of West Saxon authority
- Æthelstan: the first king of all England, his court, and his place in European politics
- The nature of early English kingship: law, land, the Church, and the relationship between king and nobility
What the exam asks
Y101 is a period study. Questions require breadth across the full chronological range, assessing change and the ability to make comparisons across different phases of the period. Students are expected to demonstrate precise factual knowledge and to sustain arguments across the whole option.
Historiography
Alfred and the making of England has attracted debate about the nature of early medieval kingship and statehood:
- Alfred’s image: how far was Alfred’s reputation as a great reforming king constructed by his own court, particularly by Asser’s Life of Alfred, and how far does it reflect genuine achievement?
- The nature of the ‘making of England’: was the creation of an English state the deliberate project of Alfred and his successors, or an unintended consequence of military necessity?
- Æthelflæd of Mercia: the debate over her independent authority and the extent to which her role challenges traditional narratives of the period as driven by West Saxon kingship
- Viking settlement and Danelaw: the degree to which Viking settlement transformed the north and east of England and shaped the character of later English society and culture
Interpretations pack — coming September 2026
A teaching pack for this option is in development, covering all core historiographical debates. It will include named historians with argument summaries, paired comparison tasks built to OCR mark scheme logic, and provenance analysis prompts — all in a downloadable PDF.
£9.99 per pack · Available September 2026
