The First King of England: \u00c6thelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom, a groundbreaking new biography of \u00c6thelstan, marks 1,100 years since his coronation in 925AD, reasserts his right to be called the first king of England, explains why he isn\u2019t better known, and highlights his many achievements.<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s author, University of Cambridge-based Professor David Woodman, is campaigning for greater public recognition of \u00c6thelstan\u2019s creation of England in 927AD.<\/p>\n
Professor David Woodman with the portrait of \u00c6thelstan. Picture: The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College<\/p>\n
The Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 are two of the most famous years in English history.<\/p>\n
But very few people know what happened in 925 or 927AD \u2013 and Professor Woodman is determined to change this, and not just with his book.<\/p>\n
He \u2013 and other historians \u2013 are planning a fitting memorial for England\u2019s first and unfairly-overlooked king.<\/p>\n
David, a professor at Robinson College and Cambridge\u2019s Faculty of History, says: \u201cAs we approach the anniversaries of \u00c6thelstan\u2019s coronation in 925 and the birth of England itself in 927, I would like his name to become much better known. He really deserves that.\u201d<\/p>\n
David is working with other historians towards a memorial for the king, which could be a statue, plaque or portrait in a location like Westminster, Eamont Bridge (where \u00c6thelstan\u2019s authority in 927 was recognised by other British rulers), or Malmesbury, where he was buried.<\/p>\n
The author is also calling for the history of \u00c6thelstan\u2019s reign to appear more routinely on the school curriculum, noting: \u201cThere has been so much focus on 1066, the moment when England was conquered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about time we thought about its formation, and the person who brought it together in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why isn\u2019t \u00c6thelstan better known? Professor Woodman\u2019s book, published by Princeton University Press, blames a lack of public relations.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u00c6thelstan didn\u2019t have a biographer writing up his story,\u201d says David. \u201cHis grandfather, Alfred the Great, had the Welsh cleric Asser to sing his praises.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd within decades of \u00c6thelstan\u2019s death, a wave of propaganda ensured King Edgar became famous for reforming the church. This completely overshadowed \u00c6thelstan\u2019s earlier revamping of learning and religiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In modern times, historians have tended to dismiss \u00c6thelstan\u2019s status as England\u2019s first king, on the basis that the kingdom fragmented soon after his death in 939AD.<\/p>\n
The focus has instead shifted to Edgar. David rejects this argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because things broke down after \u00c6thelstan\u2019s death doesn’t mean that he didn\u2019t create England in the first place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was so ahead of his time in his political thinking, and his actions in bringing together the English kingdom were so hard-won, that it would have been more surprising if the kingdom had stayed together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to recognise that his legacy, his ways of governing and legislating, continued to shape kingship for generations afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The First King of England: \u00c6thelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom\u2019 by Professor David Woodman<\/p>\n
Among the largely-forgotten king\u2019s many achievements, David suggests that \u00c6thelstan\u2019s most powerful legacy rests in his \u201crevolution of government\u201d.<\/p>\n
Legal documents from \u00c6thelstan\u2019s reign survive in relative abundance and, the author argues, take us right to the heart of the type of king he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cKing Alfred must have been a role model for his grandson,\u201d says David. \u201c\u00c6thelstan saw that a king should legislate and he really did. He took crime very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once \u00c6thelstan had created the English kingdom, royal documents known as \u2018diplomas\u2019 (in essence a grant of land by the king to a beneficiary) were suddenly transformed.<\/p>\n
Formerly short and straightforward, they were transformed into grandiose statements of royal power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re written in a much more professional script and in amazingly learned Latin, full of literary devices like rhyme, alliteration, chiasmus,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were designed to show off, he\u2019s trumpeting his success.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the professor also argues that government became increasingly efficient during \u00c6thelstan\u2019s reign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where the king and the royal assembly travelled, the royal scribe went too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writer points out that \u00c6thelstan also brought England together just as parts of continental Europe were fragmenting.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobles across Europe were rising up and taking territory for themselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u00c6thelstan made sure that he was well placed to take advantage of the unfolding of European politics by marrying a number of his half-sisters into continental ruling houses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book also argues that \u00c6thelstan reversed a decline in learning brought by the Vikings and their destruction of churches.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u00c6thelstan was intellectually curious and scholars from all over Europe came to his court,\u201d says David. \u201cHe sponsored learning and was a keen supporter of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of David\u2019s favourite pieces of evidence relate to Saint Cuthbert. The first, the earliest surviving manuscript portrait of any English monarch, appears in a 10th-century manuscript now cared for by The Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.<\/p>\n
\u00c6thelstan\u2019s head is bowed as he stands before the saint. \u201cEveryone should know about this portrait, it\u2019s one of the most important images in English history,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n
Professor David Woodman with the portrait of \u00c6thelstan. Picture: The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College<\/p>\n
In November 2021, King \u00c6thelstan was voted England\u2019s greatest ever monarch by listeners of the podcast The Rest is History.<\/p>\n
David calls the result \u201cterrific\u201d, adding: \u201cObviously there are great difficulties in conducting a comparison of all England\u2019s monarchs, but you can certainly make a case that \u00c6thelstan was formidably successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only was he England\u2019s founding father (a significant accolade in itself!), but he oversaw major advances in learning, governance, styles of kingship and in creating a foreign policy that connected England to contemporary Europe in new ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo my mind, the date when \u00c6thelstan first formed England \u2013 in 927 \u2013 should be as well-known as 1066, the date that everyone knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
The First King of England: \u00c6thelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom was published by Princeton University Press on 2 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The First King of England: \u00c6thelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom, a groundbreaking new biography of \u00c6thelstan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,276,26748,143165,393,4884,16,15,20248],"class_list":{"0":"post-418005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cambridge","10":"tag-cambridge-university","11":"tag-eat-my-words","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-whats-on-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115190421686972099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}