England’s forgotten first king deserves to be famous, says Æthelstan biographer as anniversaries approach

A new biography of æthestan marks 1,100 years since his coronation in 925 AAD, reaffirms his right to be called the first king of England, explains why he is not better known and highlights his many neglected achievements. The author of the book, Professor David Woodman, campaigned for greater public recognition of the creation of England by æthestan in 927ad.

The battle of Hastings in 1066 and the signature of Magna Carta in 1215 are two of the most famous years in English history. But very few people know what happened in 925 or 927 AD. Professor David Woodman, the author based at the University of Cambridge of the First King of England, a new biography of Irtlestan, is determined to change this and not only with his book. He – and other historians – plans an appropriate memorial for the first king of England and unjustly neglected.

“While we are approaching the birthdays of Ethelstan’s coronation in 925 and the birth of England itself in 927, I would like its name to become much better known. He really deserves it,” said Woodman, professor at Robinson College and the Faculty of History of Cambridge.

Woodman works with other historians towards a memorial for the king, who could be a statue, a plaque or a portrait in a place like Westminster, Eamont Bridge (where the authority of æthestan in 927 was recognized by other British leaders) or Malemesbury (where he was buried). Woodman also calls for the history of Ethelstan’s reign to appear more systematically on the school program.

“There was so much concentration out of 1066, the moment when England was won over. It is time that we think of his training and the person who brought him together in the first place,” said Professor Woodman.

Why is æthelstan better known?

Woodman’s book, published today by Princeton University Press, blames a lack of public relations. “Ætlestan did not have a biographer writing his story,” explains Woodman. “His grandfather, Alfred Le Grand, said Clerc Gallois to sing his praises. And in the decades of the death of æthestan, a wave of propaganda assured that King Edgar became famous for the reform of the Church. This completely overshadowed the anterior renovation of learning and religiosity by æthestan.”

In modern times, historians have tended to reject the status of æthestan as the first king of England, on the grounds that the kingdom fragme was shortly after his death in 939 AD. Rather, the goal has moved to Edgar. Woodman rejects this argument.

“It is not because things broke down after the death of Inthelstan that he did not create England in the first place,” said Woodman. “He was so ahead of his time in his political thought, and his actions by bringing together the English kingdom were so hard, that he would have been more surprising if the kingdom had remained together. We must recognize that his heritage, his ways of governing and legislating, continued to shape royalty for generations afterwards.”

Woodman cites a multitude of evidence to resuscitate the reputation of æthestan.

Military success

“Militarily, æthestan was extremely strong,” said Woodman. “It had to be very robust to extend the kingdom and then to defend it.”

Æthestan had to face the main colonies of Viking in the north and east. In 927, he acquired the authority on the bastion of Viking in York and, by bringing Northumbria to his Dominion, became the first to reign in an area recognizable as “England”.

While Orthelstan widens his kingdom, he attracted Welsh and Scottish kings in his royal assemblies. Original surviving diplomas on a large scale, hosted at the British Library, list the very many nobles to which he was forced to attend. Ethelstan assemblies must have been incredibly large, involving hundreds of people in total.

“These Welsh and Scottish kings had to be bitterly suspended from being far from their territories,” said Woodman. “An incredible Welsh poem of the tenth century, the great prophecy of Great Britain, calls on the English to be slaughtered. It is difficult to date, but this can be a direct response to this expansion of the power of æthestan.”

Then, in 937ad, during the famous Battle of Brunanburh, æthetan brutally crushed a formidable Viking coalition, supported by Scottish and Strathclyde Welsh, determined to overthrow it.

“Brunanburh should be both well known as the Hastings battle,” said Woodman. “Each major chronicle in England, Wales, Ireland and Scandinavia took note of this battle, its result and the number of people killed. It was an episode of extremely important importance in the history of the newly formed English kingdom.”

Many places have been offered for the battle. Woodman is convinced that this has happened in what is now Bromborough on the Wirral. “This location is strategically logical and the etymology of the name adapts,” he says.

Government revolution

The most powerful heritage of æthestan rests in his “government revolution”, suggests Woodman. The legal documents of the reign of Ethelstan survive in relative abundance and, supports Woodman, takes us to the right at the heart of the type of king he was.

“King Alfred was to be a model for his grandson,” said Woodman. “Æthestan saw that a king should legislate and he really did. He took the crime very seriously.”

Once the æthestan created the English kingdom, royal documents known under the name of “diplomas” (in substance, a concession of land by the king to a beneficiary) were suddenly transformed. Formerly short and simple, they were transformed into grandiose declarations of royal power.

“They are written in a much more professional and incredibly learned Latin script, full of literary devices such as rhyme, alliteration, chiasmus,” says Woodman. “They were designed to show himself, he was cheating on his success.”

But Woodman also argues that the government has become more and more effective during the reign of Ethelstan. “We can see him send law codes in different parts of the kingdom, then reports that come back to what worked and the changes to be made.”

“There are also some of the clearest evidence that we have for centralized surveillance of the production of royal documents, with a royal scribe charged with their production. No matter where the King and the Royal Assembly traveled, the Royal Scribe went too.”

Woodman underlines that æthestan gathered England at the time when parts of continental Europe were framing. “The nobles across Europe rose and took a territory for themselves,” he said. “Ætlestan made sure that he was well placed to take advantage of the deployment of European policy by marrying a number of half-sisters in continental leaders.”

Learning and religion

Woodman maintains that æthelstan has reversed a drop in the learning brought by the Vikings and their destruction of the churches. “Ætlestan was intellectually curious and the scholars of all Europe came to its court,” said Woodman. “He sponsored learning and was passionate about the Church.”

Two of Woodman’s favorite evidence concern Saint Cuthbert. The first, the first surviving handwritten portrait of all English monarch, appears in an 11th century manuscript now taken care of by the Parker library of the Corpus Christi College of Cambridge. The head of æthelstan is tilted while he stands in front of the saint. “Everyone should know this portrait, this is one of the most important images in English history,” said Woodman.

The manuscript was initially designed as a gift for the community of Saint Cuthbert. “Æthestan had just expressed in Northumbria and this manuscript intelligently includes a life of Saint Cuthbert,” explains Woodman. “He was trying to win them in his cause.”

Woodman felt even closer to Hélstan while studying the Durham Liber Vitae. Beforehand in the ninth century, this manuscript chronologically listed people who had a special link with the community of Saint Cuthbert, alternating gold and silver lettering.

“If æthestan will appear, it should be many pages, but in the 10th century, someone visited the community of Saint Cuthbert and wrote ‘æthestan rex’ above. Seeing that it was breathtaking.