The Peace of Wedmore

Following King Alfred’s successful at Battle of Edington in 878, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles contain the entry:

“7 þa salde se here him foregislas 7 micle aþas þæt hie of his rice uuoldon 7 him eac geheton þæt hiera kyning fulwihte onfon wolde” (sub anno 878)

“and then the raiding-army granted him prime hostages and great oaths that they would leave his kingdom, and also promised him that their king would receive baptism”

(“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles”, (trans) Swanton, M., Phoenix, 2000, p. 76)

Asser, Alfred’s biographer, refers to a ‘Peace of Wedmore’, but no copy of this survives.

The document that does survive is known as ‘The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum’. It dates to the period 878-890, but a firm date has not been established.