Their father, Ethelwulf, was a weak king, and should have been born a churchman rather than a prince.

He nominally reigned over Wessex, Kent, and Mercia, but the last paid him but a slight allegiance.

Alfred was his favourite son, and he sent him, when quite a child, to Rome for a visit.

In 855 he himself, with a magnificent retinue, and accompanied by Alfred, visited Rome, travelling through the land of the Franks, and it was there, doubtless, that Alfred acquired that love of learning, and many of those ideas, far in advance of his people, which distinguish him.

His mother, Osburgha, died before he and his father started on the pilgrimage.