Alfred the Great’s Indian Embassy
How likely is it that Alfred the Great sent two emissaries to India in the ninth century?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that, in 883, King Alfred sent an embassy to India:
[That] year Sigehelm and Athelstan took to Rome – and also to India to [the shrines of] St Thomas and St Bartholomew – the alms which King Alfred had vowed to send there when they besieged the raiding-army at London ...
Unsurprisingly, the notion that, in return for the saints’ help in his victory over the Vikings at London, Alfred dispatched emissaries with alms to India has long fascinated historians. In the early 12th century, both William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester included it in their histories, adding that Sigehelm, at least, had indeed made it to India and then returned to England, where he was subsequently made bishop of Sherborne. William considered the trip ‘an astonishing feat’ and informs us that:
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