[00:01.55]Lesson 9
[00:03.65]Royal espionage
[00:12.72]What important thing did King Alfred learn when he penetrated the Danish camp of Guthrum?
[00:22.10]Alfred the Great acted as his own spy,
[00:25.50]visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel.
[00:29.95]In those days wandering minstrels were welcome everywhere.
[00:34.22]They were not fighting men, and their harp was their passport.
[00:39.06]Alfred had learned many of their ballads in his youth and could vary his programme with acrobatic tricks and simple conjuring.
[00:48.62]While Alfred's little army slowly began to gather at Athelney,
[00:53.67]the king himself set out to penetrate the camp of Guthrum,
[00:58.34]the commander of the Danish invaders.
[01:01.40]These had settled down for the winter at Chippenham: thither Alfred went.
[01:07.36]He noticed at once that discipline was slack: the Danes had the self-confidence of conquerors, and their security precautions were casual.
[01:17.68]They lived well, on the proceeds of raids on neighbouring regions.
[01:22.12]There they collected women as well as food and drink, and a life of ease had made them soft.
[01:29.81]Alfred stayed in the camp a week before he returned to Athelney.
[01:34.76]The force there assembled was trivial compared with the Danish horde.
[01:39.31]But Alfred had deduced that the Danes were no longer fit for prolonged battle: and that their commissariat had no organization,
[01:48.35]but depended on irregular raids.
[01:51.81]So, faced with the Danish advance, Alfred did not risk open battle but harried the enemy.
[01:59.36]He was constantly on the move, drawing the Danes after him.
[02:03.73]His patrols halted the raiding parties: hunger assailed the Danish army.
[02:10.00]Now Alfred began a long series of skirmishes -- and within a month the Danes had surrendered.
[02:17.62]The episode could reasonably serve as a unique epic of royal espionage!