As England take on Norway, a saga to stir the blood... Has scourge of the Vikings Alfred the Great been found under a car park in Winchester?

By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC Published: 00:59, 10 July 2026 | Updated: 01:27, 10 July 2026 England vs Norway, game on... but the first time these two sides met, the omens were dire and the weather was even more scorching than today. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as the Vikings turned up in their away kit, 'terrible portents appeared and miserably frightened the inhabitants: there were exceptional flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed.' When the Norsemen landed on Britain's east coast, a local administrator called a 'reeve' rode out to greet them. The visitors split his head in two with an axe. Shortly after that, they seized the England captain, King Edmund, and murdered him. England's defeat seemed certain.  But the Vikings – comprising Danes and Swedes as well as Norwegians – had reckoned without our substitutes. Another king came on, a 23-year-old named Alfred, which in Old English means 'elf wisdom'. In a series of dogged battles, he held back the Viking advance. With unrivalled diplomatic skills, he united the country's warlords under him, and won a final crushing victory against the invaders. Today we remember him as Alfred the Great, the first king of all the Anglo-Saxons. Without him it is likely that both Christianity in Britain and the Anglo-Saxon language would have died out. We could be worshipping Odin and speaking Scandi. In a piece of extraordinary timing, as England prepare to face Norway in the World Cup quarter-final in Florida on Saturday, King Alfred has turned up again.  Pictured: Daren Cahill (left) and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (right) in Vikings, 2018 Erling Haaland of Norway wears a viking helmet following their 2-1 win during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round Of 32 match between Cote d'Ivoire on June 30 According to historian Graham Phillips, who has spent 13 years searching for the monarch's burial place, Alfred's bones have been located... under a car park in Winchester. However you look at it, this has to be a better portent for an England win than thunderbolts and dragons. Mr Phillips, 73, the founder of Strange Phenomena magazine, has a record of announcing amazing – if not entirely believable – finds.  Among his claimed discoveries are the grave of the Virgin Mary on Anglesey, the staff of Moses, the site of Camelot, and the burial site of King Arthur. He also believes he has located the Holy Grail. He announced his latest find on an episode of Weird Britain on Wednesday night, on the free-to-air channel Blaze TV. The fact that Alfred's skeleton may be under the tarmac of a recreation ground car park is, he agrees, a 'bizarre' coincidence. The remains of another English king, Richard III, the last Plantagenet ruler, were famously found buried beneath a car park in Leicester in 2012. Three years later, he was interred in a ceremony at the city's cathedral. There are currently no plans to dig up the Hampshire car park and exhume King Alfred, let alone return him to Winchester Cathedral, where he was first buried in AD899. His remains were moved to nearby Hyde Abbey in 1110, but it was demolished during the 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1866, while workmen were building a parish poorhouse on the site, bones were found that antiquarian John Mellor proclaimed to be those of Alfred the Great.  But in 2013, DNA tests proved this couldn't be the case: they belonged to someone from the decades following the Norman Conquest, 200 years after Alfred. Now Mr Phillips has uncovered evidence, in the journal of the London Society of Antiquaries, of more building work on the abbey site during the late 18th century. 'I'm convinced the original bones were moved at that time and reburied,' he says.  The journal even included a map, dated 1800, to show where they were interred... right under that car park. If he is right, the relics deserve a far more respectful resting place. Alfred was a truly great man, a brilliant strategist and courageous warrior who led an army against the Vikings in 878 and comprehensively defeated them, at Edington in Wiltshire. Alexander Dreymon (left) and David Dawson (right) in season one of The Last Kingdom in 2015 Should national heroes like Alfred the Great get lavish reburials if their remains are discovered? What's your view?As a condition of their surrender, the Danish king, Guthrum, was ordered to renounce the Norse gods and embrace Christianity.  Alfred spent the next five years building a network of forts and walled towns, or burghs, to withstand future invasions.  He also ordered a fleet of longships, to his own design, to protect the coastline. In the 19th century, he was regarded as 'the father of the Royal Navy'. A passionate scholar and historian, he commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an annual report on the state of the nation, with accounts of major events, documented by monks at monasteries across the country. The Chronicle was written in Old English instead of Latin, so that, as the King put it, 'we can all understand'. He believed, 'the saddest thing about any man is that he be ignorant, and the most exciting thing is that he knows.' According to his biographer and friend, the Welsh monk Asser, he also invented the first indoor clocks – wax candles that burned for 24 hours, marked along their length at two-hour intervals. To prevent them being blown out, he invented a lantern with transparent panes made from cow's horn. His laws, or 'dooms', were harsh but fair. Anyone who stole from a church had his hand chopped off. Gossips and slanderers could pay a fine or have their tongues cut out. Infidelity was punished by vast fines of up to 120 shillings or six pounds of solid silver – enough to buy a herd of 40 oxen. Groping a woman was also punishable by fines – and the penalty for groping a nun was double. Mr Dawson (left), Brian Vernel (middle), Simon Kunz (right) pictured in season one A man who kept a dangerous ox was liable to be executed if the animal fatally gored someone. Slaves who committed rape were castrated. But he also made a point of being merciful. However much money a man owed, his creditors were not permitted to strip him of his last suit of clothes. He had a soft spot for widows and their children: any man who bullied or exploited them was warned, 'I will slay you with my sword, so that your wives shall be widows and your children step-children.' The one story every schoolchild used to know about Alfred the Great was how he 'burned the cakes'. At the start of his reign, when he was still merely King of Wessex and had not yet united the country against the Vikings, he and his small army were forced to retreat into the Somerset marshes. He took refuge in a swineherd's hut. The pig farmer's wife was baking loaves or cakes at an open fireplace, and told her guest to keep an eye on them. He failed. The woman scolded him roundly. He was happy enough to eat their food, she said, but he couldn't be bothered to save it from being ruined. That tale used to be taught to children as a lesson in humility. Even the humblest tasks should always be done well, and no one was too grand to do them. Whether the story is true or a myth, no one knows – just as we can't be sure whether Alfred's bones really are buried beneath a Winchester car park. What we do know is that England will need all Alfred's courage, guile and determination to send Erling Haaland and his fellow Vikings packing once again tomorrow night.