A new biography is highlighting the achievements of a great, but sometimes forgotten, king of England to mark 1,100 years since his coronation.
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom by Professor David Woodman of Cambridge University is shining a spotlight on Æthelstan, the overlooked king who united England more than a century before the Norman conquest.
In it he explains why Æthelstan isn't better known and why he deserves to be more famous.
“There has been so much focus on 1066, the moment when England was conquered. It’s about time we thought about its formation and the person who brought it together in the first place,” says Woodman, a professor at Robinson College and Cambridge’s faculty of history.
“Æthelstan didn’t have a biographer writing up his story,” Woodman explains. “His grandfather, Alfred the Great, had the Welsh cleric Asser to sing his praises. And within decades of Æthelstan’s death, a wave of propaganda ensured King Edgar became famous for reforming the church. This completely overshadowed Æthelstan’s earlier revamping of learning and religiosity.”
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Æthelstan’s achievements on the battlefield included expanding the kingdom and bringing Northumbria under his control.
He also famously defeated a formidable Viking coalition, supported by Scots and the Strathclyde Welsh, at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 – a battle Woodman believes deserves the same fame as Hastings.
Beyond the battlefield, Æthelstan transformed government and increased efficiency and legislation. He revamped royal documents and oversaw administration across the country.
“We can see him sending law codes out to different parts of the kingdom, and then reports coming back to him about what was working and what changes needed to be made,” says Woodman.
“There is also some of the clearest evidence we have for centralised oversight of the production of royal documents, with one royal scribe put in charge of their production. No matter where the king and the royal assembly travelled, the royal scribe went too.”
Woodman argues that Æthelstan also fostered learning and religion. He reversed a decline in learning brought by the Vikings and their destruction of churches.
“Æthelstan was intellectually curious and scholars from all over Europe came to his court,” Woodman says. “He sponsored learning and was a keen supporter of the church.”
Woodman, together with other historians, is campaigning for a memorial – possibly a statue, plaque or portrait – to honour the king, as well as greater coverage of Æthelstan’s reign in schools.
“There has been so much focus on 1066, the moment when England was conquered. It’s about time we thought about its formation, and the person who brought it together in the first place,” he says.
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Main image: Æthelstan presenting a book to St Cuthbert
