The reign of Æthelstan (924 to 939) has excited an important quantity of research in recent times. In 2004 there was once The Age of Athelstan, through Paul Hill. In 2011, Sarah Foot printed Æthelstan: The First King of England, and in 2018, Tom Holland launched Athelstan: The Making of England. A key theme in those books is the position of Æthelstan as unifier of the dominion of England.
Æthelstan’s most renowned combat, Brunanburh (937) was once fought towards a coalition of vikings and Celtic-speaking peoples. Brunanburh was once observed, in all probability erroneously, to protected the way forward for a unified England. As a historian of this era, I’ve argued that the “kings and battles” tale of the previous continuously cloaks the longer-term engines of political exchange.
This newest ebook so as to add to this historical past is The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Delivery of a Kingdom through David Woodman, which addresses each topics of English unification and viking politics. It additionally seeks to supply deeper insights into the persona of King Æthelstan. The result’s a extremely enticing and informative biography.
The writing is definitely pitched for a basic reader. The terminology utilized in tenth-century political historical past is defined in a transparent and concise means with out seeming patronising to the reader. That is specifically helpful within the advent the place the other assets for Æthelstan’s reign are mentioned, inviting the reader to imagine how ancient narratives are produced from the proof that survives.
Woodman attracts on a variety of modern assets. He additionally makes in depth use of the Twelfth-century textual content, Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the kings of England), through historian William of Malmesbury, which is a
key supply for the lifetime of Æthelstan. For the reason that legends surrounding this tenth-century king have been already evolving and creating a lifetime of their very own in William’s time, a deeper dive into that exact textual content to guage its reliability, would had been welcome.
Princeton College Press
There’s intriguing dialogue in Woodman’s ebook across the demanding situations that Æthelstan confronted initially of his reign. Tensions had arisen between Æthelstan and his father Edward the Elder, because the king seems to have favoured Æthelstan’s part and more youthful brother Ælfweard of Wessex as his successor. Such circle of relatives rivalries supply relatable drama to bring in the reign of the brand new king.
Æthelstan’s reinforce was once based totally in Mercia (a formidable kingdom which was once within the Midlands) whilst his brother’s was once in Wessex (a big kingdom in what’s now south west England). When Edward the Elder died in 924, Æthelstan was once accredited as King of Mercia however reluctantly in Wessex, although Ælfweard died in a while after his father.
Those rivalries and circle of relatives dramas may counsel that the rebel on the Mercian stronghold of Chester, which simply preceded the dying of Edward the Elder in 924, were instigated through Æthelstan himself (even if this level isn’t made through Woodman). The intrigue continues as some years later, Æthelstan was once implicated within the dying of Ælfweard’s complete brother Edwin.
The cases during which Æthelstan later prolonged his energy over Northumbria and the way he held in combination a unitary “kingdom of England” are explored in considerate element. Some of the largest strengths of the ebook is the dialogue of classes of modern assets: diplomas (written grants of lands and privileges), regulations and coinage.
Æthelstan’s diplomas have been issued at his court docket, recording time and position and witness lists. Their information are skilfully deployed through Woodman to track Æthelstan’s travels, the converting club and hierarchy of his assemblies, his claims to energy, and the literary abilities and imaginable id in their authors.
A ways from being a dry and dusty matter, Woodman writes vividly about Æthelstan’s regulations. Criminal punishments expose harsh insights.
As an example, in step with one code, if an enslaved guy is located responsible of robbery of products over a undeniable price, he was once to be stoned to dying through fellow slaves. Æthelstan took a harsher line than his predecessors on robbery, and comparability with previous codes could have merited extra overarching attention to know his reign.
This uptick in state violence would possibly correlate with rising imbalances of energy and issues over obedience as executive changed into extra tough. Centralisation of authority and obedience are topics in Woodman’s dialogue of coin iconography, the places of mints and the way the recorded names of those that minted the cash display cultural range in Æthelstan’s England.
Woodman supplies a well-rounded research of Æthelstan’s executive, coping with ecclesiastical politics and piety. Æthelstan presented conspicuous presents to church buildings whose favour he sought to win at house and out of the country.
There also are insightful discussions round Æthelstan’s scholarly pursuits and his assortment and donation of relics and manuscripts. Those supply compelling glimpses into the king’s persona.
The need to dominate neighbouring peoples additionally seems as a much less savoury persona trait. Æthelstan sought to make his bombastic claims to be king of all Britain, or “Rex totius Britanniae,” which changed into a fact via negotiation and threats of violence. The 934 marketing campaign, which the king resulted in North Britain (Scotland and England didn’t exist in 926 however this might had been modern day Scotland), provides upward push to prolonged dialogue and is helping readers perceive the occasions resulting in the well-known Struggle of Brunanburh, 3 years later.
Some other important bonus on this ebook is the research of Æthelstan’s continental hyperlinks. As accounts of his reign have a tendency to be focal point at the “making of England” (or even a “making of Britain”) narrative, this size of his reign and his legacy has no longer all the time won the eye it merits. Woodman brings in combination the numerous articles in this subject composed through Sarah Foot, Simon MacLean and others, and combines them with perceptive research of number one assets.
General, Woodman gifts Æthelstan as a Ecu king, a pupil, with ruthless ambitions and a powerful streak of piety. It might be simple to cartoon Æthelstan inside positive narratives that aligns with perspectives of English nationhood as it’s these days, however this ebook supplies a deeper and extra nuanced research of this interesting king.
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