After being firmly repulsed by Danes at Reading, the Saxons were pursued into the marshes at Whistley. They made their escape however across the twin ford of the river Lodden and retreated onto the Berkshire Downs. King Ethelred and Prince Alfred needed to reassemble the army and raise more troops from the surrounding countryside. The signal was sent and from all over the county men rushed to join in the defence of their homeland.
Led by Halfdan and Bagsecg, the Danes had left Reading and were marching to confront the Saxons once more. That confrontation took place at Ashdown, near a lone thorn tree, on the morning of the 8th of January 871. With Halfdan in command of one column and Basecg in command of the other the Danish army began to move into position. Since the Saxons were already in place, Ethelred decided that he had time before the battle to take mass. Ordering Alfred to wait for his return he left the field to pray.
With the Danes deployed onto the higher ground and the opposing armies now in position. Alfred sent word to his brother; only to be told that the king would not return until his prayers were over. The 22-year-old prince was in a quandary over whether to wait as ordered, or make a pre-emptive attack. If he left it too late and let the Danes take the initiative the consequences would be disastrous. Things were coming to a head and both sides were building up courage by jeering and shouting insults. Alfred decided that he had no choice; the men, held on a knife-edge were ready to go, he ordered the attack, the shield walls crashed together and the bloody carnage began.
The Saxons fought bravely, but it was a hard fought battle with neither side gaining advantage, until Ethelred - having finished his prayers – brought fresh troops to the fray. Even so the fighting lasted most of the day and it was only in the afternoon that the Danes broke and ran. They were pursued across the countryside as far as Whistley Marsh and the Saxons continued to slay them until it was too dark to see.
Thousands of Danes died that day. The bodies were heaped on the battlefield and amongst them were five Danish earls and one Danish king, Bagsecg. Many of those that escaped, were brought down as they fled and lay scattered across the downs, as far as the eye could see. The Saxon army led by Ethelred and Alfred had won a great victory for Christianity against the pagan Danes. But they had lost great number of men in the process.
Even though the battle of Ashdown was a resounding Saxon victory, the army was greatly weakened and when they came against the Danes two weeks later, at Basing, they were defeated. They fared no better at Merton, where Ethelred sustained several wounds in the battle and was carried from the field by Alfred himself. The wounds were fatal and he died a painful and agonising death, at the age of thirty, in the April 871.
