ABSTRACT
Having disposed of the political history of Alfred's central years, one may turn to the far more interesting subject of his domestic reforms during these fifteen years of comparative peace. To the reorganisation of the fighting force of Wessex, military and naval, they have already had occasion to allude. It seems probable that Alfred was also the originator of that extension of the thegnhood, as a professional military class, which is found working in the tenth century after his death. After fifteen years of comparative peace from 878 to 892, Alfred was, as one has already said, subjected to one greater Danish invasion—the indirect result of the checks which the "Great Army" had suffered from the Emperor Arnulf in 891 and in minor operations which followed his great victory on the Dyle. Nothing concerning these reforms can be deduced from Alfred's Collection of Laws, which is, in truth, rather disappointing document to the student of constitutional history.
