Creating a Navy in Anglo-Saxon England

This article looks at how naval power developed in Anglo-Saxon England, focusing on how shipbuilding was organised, funded, and controlled between the late ninth and early eleventh centuries. Using evidence from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other written sources, it challenges the common idea that King Alfred the Great founded the English navy, and instead points to the more organised and fully developed naval system created under King Æthelred II. Although Alfred and later kings—such as Edward the Elder, Æthelstan, and Edgar the Peaceful—did use ships to fight Viking attacks, the evidence for permanent or well-maintained fleets before the eleventh century is limited and uneven.