Talk:Battle of Ashdown

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This page needs some work. The narrative is largely supposition and the Uffington/Ashbury location is now generally discounted. I have tried to clarify this, but the whole thing needs rewriting really Walgamanus 20:31, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

In the second paragraph the article says that "The battle was little more than a great clash of shield walls ..." and then "This was a 'pyrrhic victory', for a great many lives were lost on each side... ". This is contradictory. treesmill 13:01, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Large parts of the text on this page seem to be lifted, with only slight editing, from www.berkshirehistory.com, and as such are in breach of copyright. 86.148.170.255 18:47, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Which bits? Verica Atrebatum 19:12, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

The comment seems to be correct; after digging around on the Berkshire history site I found this page which has some of the same text. For example, this is from the current article:

Alfred was keen to get to grips with the enemy, but Ethelred decided to spend the ensuing lull in prayer for victory. He left the battlefield for the little church at Aston (Tirrold or Upthorpe) and, despite Alfred’s insistence, he would not return until the priest had finished! The young Prince had to make a decision: should he wait for his brother or commence the fight alone? The troops were on edge and impatient. The Danes had already deployed in an advantageous position, on the higher ground and to let them take the initiative would be to court disaster. Despite his brother’s absence, Alfred gave the command for his own men to charge.

and this is from the website:

Alfred was keen to get to grips with the enemy, but Ethelred decided to spend the ensuing lull in prayer for victory. He left the battlefield for the little church at Aston, and, despite Alfred’s insistence, he would not return until the priest had finished!So the young Prince had to make a decision: should he wait for his brother or fight the battle without him? He could not keep his troops on edge for long. The Danes had already deployed themselves on the higher ground, and to let them charge first would mean certain defeat. So despite his brother’s orders to the contrary, Alfred rode forth and gave the cry for his own men to attack first and the battle to begin.

There may be more; I didn't do an exhaustive search. I won't get to this soon, but will put it on my list. If anyone else has time, please clean up as you see fit. Mike Christie (talk) 02:43, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I am preparing to make some small but necessary stylistic and factual changes, and give some citations. Hopefully this will clarify some of the issues being here discussed and qualify the article to have the citations and verifications tag removed. To begin with, I updated the "Anglo-Saxon" spelling of Ashdown: what was there - "Aschendune" - appeared to be a combination of German spelling and the dative form (as appears in the Chronicles). It is listed a minor edit. Hopefully I will be able to make some other corrections to the satisfaction of those concerned.Delvebelow (talk) 18:20, 27 February 2008 (UTC)