Alfred the Great was born in the royal village of Wanatge. He was born into a family that supposedly could trace their roots all the way back to Adam. His father was king Ethelwulf and his mother was Osburga noble both by birth and nature. He grew up being loved by everybody around him, his family, friends and even all the people. He was more loved by the people than his older brothers. He was well educated by the court. But even though he was well educated he never got to learn what he wanted to learn the most: liberal arts. He couldn't learn this because there were no good teachers in the kingdom of the West-Saxons. .
All during Alfred's childhood his father and the Christians were fight many wars against the pagans. When Alfred was only three years old a great pagan army came in three-hundred ships. The pagans sack the city if Dorobernia and continued on to destroy the city of London. After sacking the aforesaid city, the pagans went into the district of surrey where they met a large force. The army that opposed the pagans was king Ethelwulf of the West-Saxons and his son Ethelbald. These two armies fought a great battle for a long time with the Christians finally driving back and destroying the pagans. The battle was so large it was the largest battle fought in one day, in history to that date and would remain that for some time.
At the same time as the aforesaid battle king Ethelwulf's other son, king Athelstan and earl Ealhere defeated a large army of pagans in Kent, at a place known as Sandwhich. They were able to capture nine of the pagan's ships although the rest got away.
When Alfred was five years old in 853 king Ethelwulf sent him to Rome with an escort of honorable nobles and commoners. The presiding Pope in Rome at the time was Pope Leo the fourth. He anointed Alfred for king and adopted him as his spiritual son. This is all according to Asser Bishop of St. David's, of Sherborne.