In addition to the Life of King Alfred, Asser is credited by Alfred as one of several scholars who assisted with Alfred's translation of Gregory's Regula Pastoralis ( Pastoral Care ).

The historian William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, believed that Asser also assisted Alfred with his translation of Boethius.

Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won a prize of a volume of poetry in English, offered by his mother to the first of her children able to memorise it.

Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably also paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.

According to Asser, because of Pope Marinus ’ friendship with King Alfred, the pope granted an exemption to any Anglo-Saxons residing within Rome from tax or tribute.

( It is probable that, under the classical tutelage of Asser, Alfred utilised the design of Greek and Roman warships, with high sides, designed for fighting rather than for navigation.

Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves, and " would carefully look into nearly all the judgements which were passed in his absence anywhere in the realm, to see whether they were just or unjust.

Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic judge, painstaking in his own judicial investigations and critical of royal officials who rendered unjust or unwise judgments.

Although Asser never mentions Alfred's law code, he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be literate, so that they could apply themselves " to the pursuit of wisdom.

It is uncertain how seriously this should be taken ; Asser was more concerned to represent Alfred as a wise ruler than to report actual royal policy.

Comparatively early in his reign, according to Asser, the southern Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred.

Grimbald and John the Saxon came from Francia ; Plegmund ( whom Alfred appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 890 ), Bishop Werferth of Worcester, Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia ; and Asser, from St. David's in south-western Wales.

Asser in his Life of Alfred claims that Alfred's mother, Osburga, was descended from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight, whom he identifies with the Goths.

* Peace – Tobias Michael Carel Asser Alfred Hermann Fried

The late 9th-and early 10th-century writer Asser informed us that " there was in Mercia in fairly recent time a certain vigorous king called Offa, who terrified all the neighbouring kings and provinces around him, and who had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea " ( Asser, Life of Alfred, p.. 14 ).

Eadburh is mentioned by Asser, a ninth-century monk who wrote a biography of Alfred the Great: Asser says that Eadburh had " power throughout almost the entire kingdom ", and that she " began to behave like a tyrant after the manner of her father ".

It is mentioned by the monk Asser in his biography of Alfred the Great: " a certain vigorous king called Offa ... had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea ".

Æthelflæd is mentioned by King Alfred's biographer Asser, who calls her the first-born child of Alfred and Ealhswith and a sister to Edward, Æthelgifu, Ælfthryth and Æthelweard.

According to Alfred the Great's biographer, Asser, during Æthelwulf's absence there may have been a plot hatched to prevent the king's return either by Æthelbald, or by Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne and Eanwulf, Ealdorman of Somerset, or by all three.

* Asser writes his Life of King Alfred.

According to Asser, a monk from St David's, Dyfed, several kingdoms of Wales submitted ( including eventually those ruled by the sons of Rhodri Mawr ) to Alfred.

Asser in his Life of Alfred writes instead that the pagans worshipped Geat himself for a long time as a god.

In 893 Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred.

About half of the Life is little more than a translation of part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the years 851 – 887, though Asser adds personal opinions and interpolates information about Alfred's life.

The strongest arguments for forgery are that a ) there is actually no new information in ' Asser ' that cannot be found in the surviving Anglo Saxon Chronicles, so that it is not contemporary with Alfred as it claims ; b ) that the Latin translation is simply lifted from the Chronicles ' narrative and interspersed with padding of no importance ; c ) that writing in Latin a contemporary narrative was anachronistic ; d ) that much of the alleged illness of Alfred in ' Asser ' is lifted from standard hagiographic conventions and similarly so are ' Asser's ' claims as to the educational development and attainments of Alfred ; and e ) that much of the dating in ' Asser ' uses the age of Alfred can be shown as incorrect and can be traced to the mis-datings in later rescensions of the Chronicles, so that ' Asser ' cannot have been a contemporary of Alfred.

According to Alfred the Great's biographer, the Welsh monk and bishop, Asser, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was descended from Coenwulf through her mother, Eadburh, though Asser does not say which of Coenwulf's children Eadburh descends from.

In later years Asser, a scholar at Alfred the Great's court, recorded the story that Beorhtric had died from being accidentally poisoned by his wife, Eadburh.

In any event, Asser had already been a bishop prior to his appointment to the see of Sherborne, since Wulfsige is known to have received a copy of Alfred's Pastoral Care in which Asser is described as a bishop.

It is during this period that Bishop Asser applied to him the unique title of " secundarius ", which may indicate a position akin to that of the Celtic tanist, a recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch.

Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers, but little definite information is available.

On Good Friday 1158, bishop Asser of Roskilde died, and Absalon was eventually elected bishop of Roskilde on Zealand with the help of Valdemar, as the king's reward for the Hvide family support.

Sir Cyril Fox completed the first major survey of the Dyke ( Fox 1955 ), and, in agreement with Asser, theorized that the Dyke ran from the estuary of the River Dee in the north to the River Wye in the south ( approximately 150 miles, or 240 km ).

Asser may have been familiar with a work by St Jerome on the meaning of Hebrew names ( Jerome's given meaning for " Asser " was " blessed "), so it is possible that Asser's birth name was " Gwyn " ( or " Guinn "), which is Welsh for " blessed " ( or " blessedness ").

Hence it is possible that Alfred's relationship with the southern Welsh kings led him to hear of Asser.

Asser again asked for time to consider, but ultimately agreed to return to Alfred with an answer in six months.

On his return to Wales, however, Asser fell ill with a fever and was confined to the monastery of Caerwent for twelve months and a week.

On Christmas Eve, 886, after Asser had for some time failed to obtain permission to return to Wales, Alfred gave Asser the monasteries of Congresbury and Banwell, along with a silk cloak and a quantity of incense " weighing as much as a stout man.

It is also clear from the text that Asser was familiar with Virgil's Aeneid, Caelius Sedulius's Carmen Paschale, Aldhelm's De Virginitate, and Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni (" Life of Charlemagne ").

Asser takes pains to explain local geography, so he was clearly considering an audience not familiar with the areas he described.

As a result, and given that Alfred's overlordship of south Wales was recent, it may be that Asser intended the work to acquaint a Welsh readership with Alfred's personal qualities and reconcile them to his rule.

Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, is still the standard edition.