Page 21 - Alfred the Great And His Legacy

Reason Three – His Vision: Building Burhs

• The Vikings were terrible at sieges, they did not have the war

machines & they had no patience for it.

• So, if the markets, gold/money-making & the rich monasteries are

all inside the fortified towns, it is much harder for the Vikings to

get to them.

• It is literally State-building on a scale you might associate with

Pharaohic Egypt: essentially a huge infrastructure project so you

also need a bureaucracy to run it.

• Every year about 27,000 men are conscripted to guard these

walls. This requires a level of administration you do not get in

most Medieval countries.