Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum
9th century treaty between Wessex and East Anglia
The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum is a 9th-century peace agreement between Alfred of Wessex and Guthrum, the Viking ruler of East Anglia. It sets out the boundaries between Alfred and Guthrum's territories as well as agreements on peaceful trade, and the weregild value of its people.
Background
In 865, the Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia with the intention of conquering all of the English kingdoms. During its campaign, the Viking army conquered the kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. It initially overran the Kingdom of Wessex, but Danish King Guthrum was defeated by Alfred's army at the Battle of Edington in 878. Under the terms of his surrender, shortly afterward, Guthrum was obliged to be baptised to endorse the agreement, as well as to allow him to rule more legitimately over his Christian vassals but remaining pagan to his pagan vassals. He was then with his army to leave Wessex. That agreement is known as the Treaty of Wedmore.
Sometime after Wedmore, a treaty was agreed that set out the lasting peace terms between the two kings, which is known as the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum. The treaty is one of the few existing documents of Alfred's reign and survives in Old English in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Manuscript 383, and in a Latin compilation, known as Quadripartitus.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1849620. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.