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.

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.

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.

Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend about Alfred's having founded the University of Oxford, which is now known to be false.

It is not known how Alfred heard of Asser, but one possibility relates to Alfred's overlordship of south Wales.

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

Asser joined several other noted scholars at Alfred's court, including Grimbald, and John the Old Saxon ; all three probably reached Alfred's court within a year of each other.

Thereafter Asser seems to have divided his time between Wales and Alfred's court.

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.

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.

Asser also adds material relating to the years after 887 and general opinions about Alfred's character and reign.

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.

This Eadburh is not the same as Alfred's mother-in-law, also named Eadburh, whom Asser mentions elsewhere.

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 ).

Asser, mentor of King Alfred the Great, and writer of his biography, was a monk at St David's before being called into Alfred's service.

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 the early 880s, Æthelred's " might and tyrannical behaviour " ( in the words of Asser ) towards the south Welsh kingdoms of Glywysing and Gwent forced them to seek the protection of King Alfred's lordship.

According to Asser, in his Life of Alfred, the Vikings gave Alfred peace hostages, and " swore in addition that they would leave his kingdom immediately, and Guthrum, their king, promised to accept Christianity and to receive baptism at King Alfred's hand ; all of which he and his men fulfilled as they had promised.

Alfred's biographer, Asser, described her as " a most religious woman, noble in character and noble by birth ".

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.

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.

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 assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and possibly with other works.

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 ").

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.

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

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.

Aside from the fact that Leofric would have known little about Asser and so would have been unlikely to construct a plausible forgery, there is strong evidence dating the Cotton manuscript to about 1000.

The East Saxon tribe who settled in southern England and formed the kingdom of Essex claimed to be the descendents of a god known as Seaxnēat, of whom little is known, whilst a runic poem mentions a god known as Ingui and the writer Asser mentioned a god known as Gēat.

Asser gives no information about his time in Wales, but mentions various places that he visited in England, including the battlefield at Ashdown, Countisbury ( which he calls Cynuit ), and Athelney.

Although because of the important achievements of nineteenth century scholars in the field of textual criticism the advance is not so striking as it was in the case of archaeology and place-names, the editorial principles laid down by Stevenson in his great edition of Asser and in his Crawford Charters were a distinct improvement upon those of his predecessors and remain unimproved upon today.

The purpose of this expedition is debated, though Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.

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.

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 ".

A map of southern Great Britain showing places Asser is known to have visited.

The name Asser is likely to have been taken from Aser, or Asher, the eighth son of Jacob in Genesis.

Much of what is known about Asser comes from his biography of Alfred, in particular a short section in which Asser recounts how Alfred recruited him as a scholar for his court.

There is a charter of Hywel's which has been dated to c. 885 ; amongst the witnesses is one " Asser ", which may be the same person.

Asser subsequently became Bishop of Sherborne, though the year of succession is unknown.