Alfred the Great

Alfred was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, a kingdom in southern England. He became king in 871, in the middle of a great Viking invasion that had already overrun most of the other English kingdoms. In early 878 a surprise Danish attack drove him to hide in the marshes of Somerset; a later legend says that while sheltering in a peasant's hut he let the cakes he was minding burn. A few months later he gathered an army and defeated the Danes at Edington, and their leader Guthrum agreed to be baptized. Alfred then built a network of fortified towns called burhs, reorganized the army, and built ships. Saddened that so few people could read, he had important Latin books translated into English, some by himself, including works by Gregory the Great and Boethius, and he encouraged the keeping of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He also issued a law code. His children and grandchildren went on to unite England into one kingdom.

Faith: Christian king of Wessex who defended English Christianity against the Viking invasions. Source: Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) (via Wikisource)