Born in the Margin: The Chronological Scaffolding of Asser's Vita Ælfredi

The evidence that Asser thought Alfred was born in 849 is too slender to bear the weight that has been hung from it. The systematic dating of events from ad 849, the birthdate of Alfred preserved in the Cotton MS. version of Asser’s Vita Ælfredi, was probably absent from the source of both ‘The Annals of St Neots’ and John of Worcester, and may therefore have been unknown to Asser himself. Asser may have written his Vita soon after 887. The implications for Asser’s contribution to the Alfredian canon, and especially for his account of Alfred’s trip to Rome, are not trivial.