This article is about the tenth-century king. For other persons of that name, see
Æthelstan (name).
Æthelstan or Athelstan (Old English: Æþelstan, Æðelstān; c. 893/895 – 27 October 939) was the King of England from 924 or 925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Æthelstan's success in securing the submission of Constantine II, King of Scots, at the Treaty of Eamont Bridge in 927 allowed him to claim the title of 'king of the English', and even "by wishful extension" 'king of Britain'.[1] Victory over Scottish and Viking forces at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 confirmed his prestige. His reign has been overlooked, overshadowed by the achievements of his grandfather, Alfred the Great, but he is now regarded as one of the greatest kings of the West Saxon dynasty.[2] Æthelstan was the first king of a unified England from 927, and his reign was of fundamental importance to political developments in the 10th century.
The materials for a life of Æthelstan are very limited, and the first biography, by Sarah Foot, was only published in 2011.[3] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in this period is principally devoted to military events, and as Æthelstan's achievements were mainly in the reconstruction of the church and government, it is largely silent during his reign apart from recounting his military triumphs.[4] The main source for his life is the twelfth century chronicle of William of Malmesbury, but historians are cautious about accepting his testimony, much of which cannot be verified from other sources. David Dumville goes so far as to dismiss William's account entirely, regarding him as a "treacherous witness" whose account is unfortunately influential.[5] However, Sarah Foot is inclined to accept Michael Wood's argument that William's chronicle draws on a lost life of Æthelstan, while cautioning that we have no means of discovering how far William 'improved' on the original.[6]
There are also a variety of other sources on Æthelstan's reign, and in Dumville's view the lack of information is more apparent than real.[7] Charters, law codes and coins throw considerable light on Æthelstan's government,[8] and a scribe known as Æthelstan A', who was responsible for drafting all charters between 928 and 935, provides very detailed information, including location, which allows the historian to trace Æthelstan's progress around the country.[9] Historians are paying increasing attention to less conventional sources, such as poetry in his praise and manuscripts associated with his name.[10]
Æthelstan was a generous donor of manuscripts and relics to the church, and these provide a further source of information. Indeed, his reputation was so great that some monastic scribes later falsely claimed that their institutions had been beneficiaries of his largesse. He was especially devoted to the cult of St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street, and his gifts to the community included Bede's Lives of Cuthbert.[11] This has a portrait of Æthelstan presenting the book to Cuthbert (illustration below), which is the earliest surviving manuscript portrait of an Anglo-Saxon king.[12]
There is very little information about Æthelstan's mother, Ecgwynn, and she is not even named in any pre-Conquest source. She was later rumoured to have been Edward the Elder's concubine, but Barbara Yorke and Sarah Foot argue that the rumours were a product of the dispute over the succession in 924, and that there is no reason to doubt that she was Edward's legitimate wife. One twelfth century chronicler described her as of noble birth, and she may have been related to St Dunstan.[13] According to William of Malmesbury, Alfred the Great honoured his young grandson, giving him a scarlet cloak, a belt set with gems and a sword with a gilded scabbard. Edward married Ælfflæd at about the time of his father's death, probably because Ecgwynn had died, although she may have been put aside. The new marriage weakened Æthelstan's position, as his step-mother naturally favoured her own sons' interests.[14] Æthelstan was educated at the Mercian court of his aunt, Æthelflæd, and her husband, Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, and probably gained his military training in the Mercian campaigns to conquer the Danelaw. After Æthelflæd's death in 918, Edward took direct control of Mercia, and Æthelstan may have represented his father's interests there.[2][15]
On 17 July 924 Edward died, and the events which followed are very unclear. Ælfweard, Edward's eldest son by Ælfflæd, had ranked above Æthelstan in attesting a charter in 901,[16] and Edward may have intended Ælfweard to be his successor as king, either of Wessex only or of the whole kingdom. When Edward died Æthelstan was apparently with him in Mercia while Ælfweard was in Wessex, and Mercia elected Æthelstan as king and Wessex Ælfweard. Whether a division of the kingdom was intended is uncertain, but Ælfweard only outlived his father by sixteen days, which changed everything.[17][18] Even after this there seems to have been opposition to Æthelstan in Wessex, particularly in Winchester, where Ælfweard was buried. According to William of Malmesbury, a certain Alfred plotted to blind Æthelstan on account of his supposed illegitimacy, and Ælfweard's full brother Edwin was allegedly involved in the plot. Æthelstan does not appear to have established his authority in Wessex until mid 925, and he was not crowned until 4 September 925.[15]
Edward the Elder had conquered the Danelaw, with the assistance of Æthelflæd and her husband, but when he died the Norse king Sihtric still controlled the Viking Kingdom of York, which extended into southern Northumbria. He seems to have taken advantage of Edward's death to encroach south, but in 926 he came to an agreement with Æthelstan, accepting Christianity and marrying his only known full sister, thus implicitly accepting Æthelstan's superiority. The following year Sihtric repudiated both wife and religion, but he died soon afterwards, and Æthelstan seized his chance. According to the bland description of a southern chronicler, he "succeeded to the kingdom of the Northumbrians". His usurpation was met with outrage by the Northumbrians, who had always resisted southern rule, but Æthelstan easily overcame the resistance of Sihtric's heir, Gothfrith, and Ealdred of Bamburgh, the lord of the English Northumbrians. Gothfrith was expelled and at Eamont, near Penrith, on 12 July 927, Ealdred, King Constantine of Scotland and Owain of Strathclyde[19] accepted Æthelstan's overlordship. He then went to the Welsh border and forced the Welsh princes to accept his authority and pay an unusually high level of tribute.[20]
He thus became the first king of all the Anglo-Saxon peoples[21] and in effect over-king of Britain. Between 928 and 935 British sub-kings witnessed his charters.[22] His Crowned Bust coinage of 933-938 was the first Anglo-Saxon coinage to show the king crowned, and on both coins and his charters he claimed the title Rex totius Britanniae, King of the Whole of Britain.[23]
Æthelstan's successes inaugurated what John Maddicott called the imperial phase of English kingship between about 925 and 975, when rulers from Wales and Scotland attended English kings' assemblies and witnessed their charters.[24] The Welsh poem Armes Prydein Fawr lamented the unwillingness of Welsh rulers to resist English claims of overlordship. For the next seven years, the record of events in the north is blank. Æthelstan's court was attended by the Welsh kings, but not (before 934) by Constantine or Owain. This absence of record means that Æthelstan's reasons for marching north against Constantine in 934 are unclear.[25]
Æthelstan's campaign is reported in brief by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and later chroniclers such as John of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and Symeon of Durham add detail to that bald account. Æthelstan's army began gathering at Winchester by 28 May 934, and reached Nottingham by 7 June. He was accompanied by many leaders, including the Welsh kings Hywel Dda, Idwal Foel, and Morgan ab Owain. From Mercia the army went north, stopping at Chester-le-Street, before resuming the march accompanied by a fleet of ships. Eógan of Strathclyde was defeated and Symeon states that the army went as far north as Dunnottar and Fortriu, while the fleet is said to have raided Caithness, by which a much larger area, including Sutherland, is probably intended. It is unlikely that Constantine's personal authority extended so far north, and while the attacks may have been directed at his allies, they may also have been simple looting expeditions.[26]
The Annals of Clonmacnoise state that "the Scottish men compelled [Æthelstan] to return without any great victory", while Henry of Huntingdon claims that the English faced no opposition. A negotiated settlement may have ended matters: according to John of Worcester, a son of Constantine was given as a hostage to Æthelstan and Constantín himself accompanied the English king on his return south. He witnessed a charter with Æthelstan at Buckingham on 13 September 934 in which he is described as subregulus, that is a king acknowledging Æthelstan's overlordship.[27] The following year, Constantine was again in England at Æthelstan's court, this time at Cirencester where he appears as a witness, appearing as the first of several subject kings, followed by Eógan of Strathclyde and Hywel Dda, who subscribed to the diploma.[28] At Christmas of 935, Eógan of Strathclyde was once more at Æthelstan's court along with the Welsh kings, but Constantine was not. His return to England less than two years later would be in very different circumstances[29]
Æthelstan presenting a book to
St Cuthbert (934), chief saint of the English far north; the earliest surviving royal Anglo-Saxon portrait (Corpus Christi MS 183, fol. 1v)
Following Constantine's disappearance from Æthelstan's court after 935, there is no further report of him until 937. In that year, together with Eógan of Strathclyde and Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin, Constantine invaded England. The resulting battle of Brunanburh—Dún Brunde—is reported in the Annals of Ulster as follows:
a great battle, lamentable and terrible was cruelly fought...in which fell uncounted thousands of the Northmen. ... And on the other side, a multitude of Saxons fell; but Æthelstan, the king of the Saxons, obtained a great victory.[30]
The battle was remembered in England a generation later as "the Great Battle". When reporting the battle, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle abandons its usual terse style in favour of a heroic poem vaunting the great victory. In this the "hoary" Constantine, by now around 60 years of age, is said to have lost a son in the battle, a claim which the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba confirms. The Annals of Clonmacnoise give his name as Cellach. For all its fame, the site of the battle is uncertain and several sites have been advanced, with Bromborough on the Wirral the most favoured location.[31]
Brunanburh, for all that it had been a famous and bloody battle, settled nothing. On 27 October 939 Æthelstan, "pillar of the dignity of the western world" in the words of the Annals of Ulster, died at Malmesbury. He was succeeded by his brother Edmund the Elder, then aged 18. Æthelstan's empire, seemingly made safe by the victory of Brunanburh, collapsed in little more than a year from his death when Amlaíb returned from Ireland and seized Northumbria and the Mercian Danelaw. Edmund spent the remainder of Constantín's reign rebuilding the empire.[32]
As Athelstan's kingdom grew it posed new challenges in administration. Towards the end of his reign we hear of another Athelstan, termed 'half-king', who was Ealdorman for much of eastern Mercia and East Anglia. Ian Walker has argued that, as the extent of Athelstan's power grew, the extent of rule of the next level of the aristocracy had to grow too. This points towards an increasing stratification of English society, a development that can be traced from earliest Anglo-Saxon times right up to the Norman Conquest and beyond.
A relatively large number of law codes have come down to us from Athelstan's reign. To examine each in detail would take too much space here, but two viewpoints summarise the arguments around them. Patrick Wormald, who has argued that written law had little practical use in Anglo-Saxon England, states that there is little homogeneity to the laws, and that the sporadic nature of them indicate little sign of a coherent system based on written law. Simon Keynes has instead argued that there is a pattern to the laws of Athelstan's reign, and that the laws are evidence "not of any casual attitude towards the publication or recording of the law, but quite the reverse".
Athelstan's reign marks a hiatus in sporadic unrest between the English and Welsh kingdoms. According to Asser, a monk from St David's, Dyfed, several kingdoms of Wales submitted (including eventually those ruled by the sons of Rhodri Mawr) to Alfred. No battles between the English and the Welsh are recorded during Athelstan's reign, but charters show Welsh kings attending his court, possibly coming with him on campaign. D.P. Kirby argued that Athelstan was repressing the Welsh kings, keeping them close in order to maintain their loyalty. Yet it is also possible that some Welsh kings, in particular Hywel Dda, were benefiting from this relationship. Hywel may have been influenced by English ideas of kingship – he is the first Welsh king associated with a major Welsh law code, and a coin, minted at Chester, carries his name.
Like those of his predecessors, Athelstan's court was in contact with the rest of Europe. His half-sisters married into European noble families. Ædgyth was married to future Holy Roman Emperor Otto, son of Henry I of Saxony. Alan II, Duke of Brittany and Haakon, son of Harald Fairhair of Norway, were both fostered in Æthelstan’s court, and he provided a home for his half-sister's son, Louis, the exiled heir of Charles the Simple.
Athelstan might have considered his rule in some way imperial: the style basileus is found in his charters, whilst he is the first king to bear the title r[ex] tot[ius] B[ritanniae]. According to William of Malmesbury, relics such as the Sword of Constantine (Emperor of Rome) and the Lance of Charlemagne (first Holy Roman Emperor) came to Athelstan, suggesting that he was in some way being associated with past great rulers.
Although he established many alliances through his family, he does not appear to have married or had children, although there is an uncorroborated allusion in the twelfth century Liber Eliensis to a daughter.[15]
Athelstan was religious and gave generously to the church in Wessex, and when he died in 939 at Gloucester he was buried at his favourite abbey (Malmesbury) rather than with his family at Winchester. Though his tomb is still there, his body was lost centuries later. There is nothing in the tomb beneath the statue, the relics of the king having been lost in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 by King Henry VIII. The remains may have been destroyed by the King's Commissioners or hidden before the Commissioners arrived to close down the Abbey. In Malmesbury, his name lives on into the 20th and 21st centuries, with everything from a bus company and a second-hand shop to several roads and streets, as well as the Care Home opened in 2008, named after him. His patronage of the abbey, and his gift of freemen status to the town also lives on with the Warden and Freemen of Malmesbury.
He was succeeded by his younger half-brother, King Edmund I of England.
- ^ Keynes, Higham & Hill ed., p. 61
- ^ a b Williams, Athelstan
- ^ Foot, 2011, pp. 2-3
- ^ Dumville, p. 167
- ^ Dumville, pp. 146, 168
- ^ Foot, 2011, pp. 251-258, discussing an unpublished essay by Wood
- ^ Dumville, pp. 142-143
- ^ Miller, Æthelstan
- ^ Foot, 2011, pp. 71-73
- ^ Foot, 2011, p. 247
- ^ Foot, 2011, pp. 117-124
- ^ Karkov, p. 55
- ^ Yorke, pp. 26, 33; Foot, 2011, 30-31. However, Ann Williams thinks that Ecgwynn may have been Edward's concubine (Willliams, Athelstan)
- ^ Foot, 2011, pp. 31-33
- ^ a b c Sarah Foot, Æthelstan, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
- ^ Foot, 2011, p. 37; Keynes, Higham & Hill ed., p. 51
- ^ Foot, 2011, p. 17
- ^ Keynes, Blackwell Encyclopaedia, p. 514
- ^ Or Owain of Gwent (Foot, 2011, p. 20)
- ^ Higham, Northumbria, pp. 184-190; Foot, 2011, 18-20; Williams, Ealdred
- ^ However, in the view of Ann Williams, Ealdred's submission was probably nominal and it is likely that he acknowledged Constantine as his lord. (Williams, Ealdred)
- ^ Foot, 2011, p. 20
- ^ Karkov, pp. 66-67
- ^ Maddicott, pp. 7-13
- ^ Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 161–165. The previous year had seen the death of Æthelstan's brother Eadwine, perhaps drowned on the king's orders; Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 107, Ms. E, s.a. 933 & note 11; Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 355–356. The following year Gofraid died and was succeeded by his son Amlaíb, Constantine's son-in-law; Annals of Ulster, s.a. 934. Finally, the Annals of Clonmacnoise report the death of "Adulf mcEtulfe, king of the North Saxons" in the same year as Æthelstan's campaign; Woolf suggests that this may represent Ealdred, or some other son of Eadulf, ruling in Northumbria.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 107, Ms. D, s.a. 934; Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 67–69; Miller, "Æthelstan"; Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 342; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 160–166; Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, p. 203.
- ^ Anderson, Early Sources, p. 426; Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 67–69; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 166–168; Miller, Sean. "Charter S 426". Anglo-Saxons.net. http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=426. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
- ^ Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 166–168; only a part of this charter survives, see "Charter S 1792". Anglo-Saxon Charters Website. http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/kemble/pelteret/Lsp/Lsp%2011.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
- ^ Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 167–168.
- ^ Anderson, Early Sources, pp. 428–429; Annals of Ulster, s.a. 937.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 106–110, Ms. A, s.a. 937; Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 69–73; Anderson, Early Sources, p. 429; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, 168–173; Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, pp 203–204; Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 342–343; Scragg, "Battle of Brunanburh".
- ^ Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 174; Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 356–359; Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 193; Blair, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 87–89.
- Anderson, Alan O. (1922) Early Sources of Scottish History, Oliver & Boyd
- Anderson, Alan O. (1908) Scottish Annals from English Chronicles, D. N. Nutt
- anglo-saxons.net, Charter S 426
- Annals of Ulster
- Blair, Peter Hunter (2003) An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge University Press
- Bolton, Timothy, King Athelstan, The Literary Encyclopedia, 2006
- Dumville, David (1992). Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on Political, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Revival. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-308-7.
- Foot, Sarah, Æthelstan, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
- Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: the first king of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1.
- Higham, N. J. (1993) The Kingdom of Northumbria, AD 350-1100, Alan Sutton
- Karkov, Catherine E. (2004) The Ruler Portraits of Anglo-Saxon England, Boydell ISBN 1-84383-059-0
- Keynes, Simon (2001), 'Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons', in N. J. Higham & D. H. Hill eds, Edward the Elder 899-924, Routledge
- Keynes, Simon, 'Rulers of the English, c.450-1066', in Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg eds (2001) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Blackwell Publishing
- Maddicott, John (2010). The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-958550-2.
- Miller, Sean, 'Æthelstan', in Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg eds (2001) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Blackwell Publishing
- Scragg, Donald, 'Battle of Brunanburh', in Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg eds (2001) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Blackwell Publishing
- Smyth, Alfred P. (1984) Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80-1000, Edward Arnold
- Stenton, Frank (1971) Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press
- Swanton, Michael J. (1997) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Dent
- Williams, Ann, 'Athelstan, King of Wessex', in (1991) Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth and D. P. Kirby eds, A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, Seaby
- Williams, Ann, 'Ealdred of Bamburgh', in (1991) Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth and D. P. Kirby eds, A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, Seaby
- Woolf, Alex (2007) From Pictland to Alba: 789-1070, Edinburgh University Press
- Yorke, Barbara (2001), 'Edward as Ætheling', in N. J. Higham & D. H. Hill eds, Edward the Elder 899-924, Routledge
- Foot, Sarah (2007) 'Where English Becomes British: Rethinking Contexts for Brunanburh', in Julia Barrow and Andrew Wareham eds, Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters, Ashgate, pp. 127–144, ISBN 978-0-7546-5120-8
- Hill, Paul (2004) The Age of Athelstan: Britain's Forgotten History, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2566-8
- Keynes, Simon (1999) 'England, c.900–1016, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. II. ed. R. McKitterick, Cambridge University Press
- Wood, Michael (2001, Revised Edition) In Search of the Dark Ages, BBC Books, ISBN 978-0-563-53431-0
- Wood, Michael (1983) 'The Making of King Aethelstan's Empire: An English Charlemagne?', in Patrick Wormald et al eds, Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society, Basil Blackwell, pp. 250–272 ISBN 0-631-12661-9
On Athelstan and the Welsh:
- Kirby, D. P., 'Hywel Dda: Anglophil?', Welsh History Review, 8 (1976–7)
- Loyn, H. R., 'Wales and England in the tenth century: the context of the Athelstan Charters', Welsh History Review 10, (1980–1)
For law in Athelstan's reign:
- Keynes, Simon, 'Royal government and the written word in late Anglo-Saxon England' in The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. ed. R. McKitterick, (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
- Wormald, Patrick (1999) The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, Vol. 1, Blackwell
Compilations of sources can be found in:
- Attenborough, F. L. (1922) The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, Cambridge University Press
- Whitelock, Dorothy (1980) English Historical Documents c.500–1042, 2nd ed., Eyre and Spottisoode
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Kingdom of Mercia
527–918 |
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| Persondata |
| Name |
Athelstan |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
King of England |
| Date of birth |
895 |
| Place of birth |
Wessex, England |
| Date of death |
939 |
| Place of death |
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![Athelstan The Ride [FULL ALBUM]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130917152748im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MguBe5tQ9iM/default.jpg "Athelstan The Ride [FULL ALBUM]")
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