In the end his brother died, and he became king.
He continued, however, during his reign, to manifest the peaceful, quiet, and serious character which had led him to enter the monastery, and which had probably been strengthened and confirmed by the influences and habits to which he had been accustomed there.

He had, however, a very able, energetic, and warlike minister, who managed his affairs with great ability and success for a long course of years.
Ethelwolf, in the mean time, leaving public affairs to his minister, continued to devote himself to the pursuits to which his predilections inclined him.

He visited monasteries; he cultivated learning; he endowed the Church; he made journeys to Rome.

All this time, his kingdom, which had before almost swallowed up the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy, became more and more firmly established, until, at length, the Danes came in, as is described in the last chapter, and brought the whole land into the most extreme and imminent danger.
The case did not, however, become absolutely desperate until after Ethelwolf's death, as will be hereafter explained.
Ethelwolf married a lady whose gentle, quiet, and serious character corresponded with his own.

Alfred was the youngest, and, as is often the case with the youngest, the favorite child.