Proud of His Country
In 9th century England, a mom got a book of poetry and told her kids that whoever learned to read it and memorized all the poems first could have the book. One of her sons wins the book. He grows up to be Alfred the Great, king of England. Around the year 880, he decided he wanted every young man in England to be able to read books in English, too, but there weren’t many books in English.
He had a bunch of books translated into English (and translated a few himself) and had copies sent out to all the monasteries so they could teach people to read. The monks taught people to read in English, the people taught other people to read in English.
Story credit: Reddit / Yellowbug2001