Alfred the Great was helped on his way to legendary status by a fellow leader he refused to give credit to and allowed to be written out of history, experts now believe.
Images on medieval coins found in a stolen haul suggest King of Wessex Alfred, who stopped the Vikings in their tracks and paved the way for the formation of England, was in a years-long alliance with Ceolwulff II, King of Mercia.
A silver ‘Two Emperor’ penny from 870 AD shows the pair together, suggesting they were strong allies.
But Ceolwulf was later mocked by scribes loyal to Alfred as being a puppet of the Vikings.
The coin was among 44 found in the possession of treasure hunters Craig Best and Roger Pilling, who are facing jail after last week being convicted of conspiring to sell them after a police sting.
Dr Gareth Williams, medieval expert at the British Museum where the coins are now housed, said the haul had been a revelation.
He said: “The coins show beyond any possible doubt there was a political and economic alliance between Alfred and Ceolwulf II. That was previously unknown.
“We don’t know what happened to Ceolwulf. Was he killed by Alfred or killed by the Vikings?
"All the accounts were written by Alfred’s court. They basically write Ceolwulf out of history as a major player and suggest all the successes are down to Alfred.”
Best, of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham was arrested in a hotel in Durham trying to sell three of the coins in May, 2019, while Pilling, 76, of Loveclough, near Blackburn, Lancs, was arrested at his home.
The pair, who had 44 coins in total, valued at £766,000, will be sentenced on Thursday May 4 at Durham crown court.
Det Supt Lee Gosling of Durham Police, who led the operation that led to their convictions, joked that Alfred should be been nicknamed ‘Alfred the Average’ thanks to what the coins revealed.
He added: “This was an unprecedented case for us, as it is not very often we get the chance to shape history. It’s astonishing that the history books were rewritten because of this find.”
The coins were originally part of a haul of 300 – valued at £5.2m – found in Leomnister, Herefordshire, in 2015 by detectorists George Powell of Newport, South Wales, and Layton Davies of Pontypridd.
The pair would have received £1.4m each if they’d handed them to the authorities, but stole them instead.
They were jailed for a total of 18 years. Around 250 coins are still unaccounted for.
