Who was called "the father of English prose"?

The title of "the father of English prose" has been assigned to several different men, including King Alfred the Great, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir John Mandeville and John Wycliffe. These men lived in England in the ninth, late-16th to early-17th, and 14th centuries.

Alfred translated many books into English for the benefit of his people's education and morality. Bacon was a famed Elizabethan essayist known for his aphoristic style of writing. Mandeville, a physician, wrote of his travels to the East in the 14th century. Wycliffe, a theologian, is best known for creating the first complete translation of the Bible into English in 1384.