The reign of Ethelbert of Wessex, who is also King of Kent and issues charters under the style of King of the West Saxons and the Kentishmen, has seen a Danish plundering of Kent and raids in Northumbria, both led by Ragnar Lodbrok.

They had also penetrated as far as Winchester in Ethelbert's early reign.

Dying in 865, he is buried at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.

His brother Ethelred, the fourth son of Ethelwulf, succeeds him.

The Welsh monk Asser, having become Bisop of Sherborne, in 893 writes a biography of Alfred called the Life of King Alfred.

The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library.

That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed.

The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler.

Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and possibly with other works.

Many more Benedictine communities have been founded during the centuries following the death of Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western Christian monastic communities, and a rule-giver for cenobitic monks.

These autonomous communities are not only for monks but also for nuns, first throughout Europe and eventually also other areas of the world. (This is to lead to the formation in 1883 of the Order of St. Benedict.)

In addition to these communities, a number of independent monastic orders have been founded on the rule of St. Benedict, and so are also Benedictines in that sense.

Such orders include the Congregation of Cluny, the Cistercians, and the Trappists.

The Benedictine monasteries continue to make considerable contributions not only to the monastic and the spiritual life of the West, but also to economics, education, and government, so that the years from 550 to 1150 may be called the "Benedictine centuries".

In England, where the Benedictines are active, the twentieth bishop of Sherborne, Wulfsige III (or St. Wulfsin), in 998 establishes a Benedictine abbey at Sherborne and becomes its first abbot.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, or Wyat, born near Maidstone, Kent, and educated at St. John's, Cambridge, has become a member of the court circle of Henry VIII.

Apparently popular and admired for his attractive appearance and skill in music, languages, and arms, Wyatt has served a number of diplomatic missions, but, having been a lover of Anne Boleyn before her marriage to Henry VIII, has twice been imprisoned on suspicion of treason.

He had been knighted, however, in 1537, the year after Anne’s execution.

Together with Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, Wyatt has introduced into English verse the Italian sonnet and terza rima verse form and the French rondeau.

Some of his lyrics are translations from Petrarch, but he has derived some of his finest poems, including his notable satires, from his own experience in love and politics.

His poems carry a strong sense of individuality unusual for the time.

He dies at thirty-nine on October 11, 1542, at Sherborne, Dorset.