The Legal Code of Ælfred the Great

Alfred, King of Wessex. The Legal Code of Aelfred the Great. Edited With an Introduction by Milton Haight Turk. Boston: Published by Ginn and Company, 1893. viii, 147 pp. Reprinted 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2003056437. ISBN 1-58477-392-8. Cloth. $95. * A legendary figure in Medieval history, Aelfred [871-899] expelled the Vikings from England and founded the first significant centralized kingdom in present-day England and Wales. A learned monarch, he was well-versed in Christian theology and Classical thought. His legal code attempted to teach his subjects about their duty, the king's authority and the collective destiny of Wessex. Indeed, the preface contains a history of law beginning with the Ten Commandments, which suggests that he believed his subjects were a new people of God. Not a code or handbook in the conventional sense, it aimed to promote the king as a lawgiver on Roman and biblical models. This edition contains the complete text of the code with full scholarly apparatus and an extensive introduction that discusses manuscripts of the code, philological issues and the code's legal and literary qualities.