Family and early life

Information about Æthelstan's youth is found only in the twelfth-century Gesta regum Anglorum by William of Malmesbury; this long account of the king's life may at least in part be based on pre-conquest sources, although its precise evidential value is questionable. If Æthelstan was indeed aged thirty on his accession to the throne in 924, he must have been born to King Edward in 893 or 894, while his grandfather King Alfred was still ruling. Little is known about the future king's mother, whose name is not given in any pre-conquest English sources. The verse account by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim of the marriage of Otto I of Saxony to Eadgyth, Æthelstan's half-sister, which implies that Æthelstan's mother was socially inferior to Eadgyth's, may reflect rivalry among the offspring of Edward the Elder's different liaisons, rather than being intended to represent Æthelstan as illegitimate, though William of Malmesbury would later represent him as such.

According to William, King Alfred honoured his grandson as a child, investing him with the gift of a scarlet cloak, a belt set with gems, and a Saxon sword with a gilded scabbard; Æthelstan can have been no more than five or six years old at the time, for Alfred died in 899. The story presents problems, but does not lack corroboration. A short acrostic poem bearing the legends (ADALSTAN/IOHANNES), surviving in a single manuscript in Oxford (Bodl. Oxf., MS Rawl. C.697, fol. 78v), which praises the prince as 'abundantly endowed with the holy eminence of learning', and prays that he will fulfil the promise implied by the 'noble rock' of his name (Lapidge, 72–81), was apparently written to commemorate the ceremony of Æthelstan's investiture. William of Malmesbury reports further that Alfred had Æthelstan educated and trained for rulership at the court of his daughter, Æthelflæd, and her husband, Æthelred, ealdorman of the Mercians; if so, the young man would have gained his military experience in the Mercian campaigns to conquer the Danelaw, indeed Æthelstan may have represented his father's interests in Mercia after his aunt's death in 918.

Æthelstan himself appears never to have married, for what reason one can only speculate. Having four younger brothers, he may have been trying to prevent conflict over the succession to the West Saxon throne, conceivably influenced in this by the prevalence of rumour about the legitimacy of his own birth; alternatively—or additionally—this could have been a decision inspired by a religious vocation to chastity. The allusion in the twelfth-century Liber Eliensis to an otherwise unattested daughter of Æthelstan's—'Æðida filia regis Æðelstani'—who supposedly made a gift to Ely (Liber Eliensis, 292) must remain unexplained, unless it is assumed that the Ely author mistook one of the king's many sisters for his daughter.

Accession

Considerable confusion surrounds the accession of Æthelstan following the death of his father, Edward the Elder, on 17 July 924. During his reign Edward had taken direct control of Mercia, creating a single ‘Anglo-Saxon’ kingdom, but it is not clear that his composite realm would have been inherited as a single entity by his heirs. The Mercian register (a set of early tenth-century annals incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) reports that on Edward's death Æthelstan was chosen king by the Mercians and consecrated at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. But his coronation did not take place until 4 September 925, a delay apparently to be accounted for by Edward's realm being divided on his death, with Æthelstan being chosen as king in Mercia, and his half-brother Ælfweard, born to Edward's second wife, Ælfflæd, succeeding to Wessex. However, the Mercian register notes that Ælfweard died 'very soon' after his father—only sixteen days after, according to the D version of the chronicle. Æthelstan would have succeeded to the combined kingdom only after his half-brother's premature death and possibly not without opposition; this may be the correct reading of the sequence of events reported in the Mercian register.

Some political difficulties apparently surrounded the start of Æthelstan's reign in Wessex. In a charter of 925 (from the part of the year when Æthelstan's authority seems to have been recognized only in Mercia), Æthelstan was termed 'supervisor of the Christian household of the whole region well-nigh in the whirlpools of cataclysms' (AS chart., S 395). William of Malmesbury reports particular opposition to Æthelstan's rule at Winchester, the place of Ælfweard's burial; a certain Alfred was said to have organized a plot to blind Æthelstan, supposedly on account of his illegitimacy, and Ælfweard's younger brother Eadwine was allegedly complicit in this enterprise. It is notable that the bishop of Winchester did not apparently attend the king's coronation in 925, nor does he appear among the witnesses to royal charters during 926. It may be appropriate to see Æthelstan as something of an outsider at the West Saxon court even after his accession there; King Edward's widow, Eadgifu, seems to have been marginalized on her stepson's accession, since she did not attest any of his charters.

That the tensions within royal circles persisted beyond 925 may be suggested by the suspicious death of the atheling Eadwine (Ælfweard's brother) in 933. The E manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records laconically for 933: 'In this year the ætheling Eadwine was drowned at sea'. The twelfth-century historians Symeon of Durham and William of Malmesbury attribute this event to conspiracy and violence in which Æthelstan himself was involved. The details can be safely ignored, but that there was indeed a background of political unease to Eadwine's death is suggested by the account given by Folcwin the Deacon in his Gesta abbatum S Bertini (chap. 107), written before 962 at St Bertin, where Eadwine was buried. According to Folcwin, ‘King’ Eadwine left England following 'some disturbance in his kingdom', but was shipwrecked and washed ashore in Flanders, where he was buried with honour; Æthelstan subsequently sent several gifts of alms to St Bertin on his brother's behalf. Perhaps the chronicler knew more than he was prepared to say. But it is more likely that Folcwin was confused over Eadwine's royal status than that the latter was co-ruler with Æthelstan. In the one diploma that Eadwine witnessed (AS chart., S 1417), he attested next after the king as cliton, atheling.

Wars

Æthelstan's posthumous reputation rests largely on his prowess in war, notably his famous victory over the combined forces of the kings of Dublin, Scots, and Strathclyde at ‘Brunanburh’ in 937. But although this victory consolidated Æthelstan's position as sole king of England, it might properly be seen as the final phase of a process begun much earlier in his reign. Once he came into possession of all of his father's kingdom, Æthelstan found himself heir to a wider realm than that inherited by any previous West Saxon (or indeed Anglo-Saxon) king. Apart perhaps from the ruler of English Bernicia at Bamburgh, Ealdred, son of Eadwulf, he was the sole native English ruler in England. The kingdom of the Northumbrians was ruled by the Danish king, Sihtric Cáech (formerly king in Dublin). In 926 Æthelstan and Sihtric met at Tamworth, the old Mercian capital, where they made an alliance sealed by Sihtric's marriage to a sister of Æthelstan. That the treaty involved at the very least a commitment on both sides not to invade the territory of the other, nor to support the other's enemies, seems plausible; where the boundary between their respective territories lay is not entirely clear, since it may be that Sihtric was minting coins in Lincoln as well as in York.

When Sihtric died, the year after this marriage treaty was agreed, Æthelstan took control of his kingdom. The report in the northern version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in using the standard phraseology of royal succession—'Æþelstan cyning feng to Norðhymbra rice'—seems to imply that this was in some sense a legitimate accession to a territory to which Æthelstan had some claim. Similarly, William of Malmesbury asserts that on Sihtric's death Northumbria became Æthelstan's lawfully, belonging to him both by ancient right and by reason of the recent marriage alliance. Æthelstan may at the same time have driven out the one remaining claimant to Northumbrian power, representative of the house of Bamburgh. Two other texts presented Æthelstan's acquisition of Northumbria rather as the conquest it more plausibly was. The northern annals incorporated into the Historia regum attributed to Symeon of Durham state that Æthelstan added Sihtric's dominion (imperium) to his own, driving out the latter's son (recte brother) Guthfrith. Æthelstan's acquisition of Northumbria in 927 is also described in military terms in a poem, 'Carta dirige gressus', written in that year by Petrus, probably a clerk in the king's retinue: 'He [Æthelstan], with Sihtric having died, in such circumstances arms for battle [armat tum in prelio] the army of the English throughout all Britain' (Lapidge, 89).

The acquisition of Northumbria made Æthelstan the first West Saxon ruler to have a border with the Scots. Seeking recognition of his new position over the English kingdoms, and wary of the potential support his new neighbours might offer to the exiled Scandinavians, Æthelstan gathered the other kings in the island to Eamont, near Penrith. There on 12 July 927 Hywel of the West Welsh, Constantine, king of the Scots, Owain, king of the people of Gwent, and Ealdred, son of Eadwulf, from Bamburgh, all 'established peace with pledge and oaths in the place which is called Eamont and renounced all idolatry and afterwards departed in peace' (ASC, s.a. 927, text D). Constantine's submission is also reported in the poem 'Carta dirige gressus', which celebrated 'this England now made whole' (ista perfecta Saxonia; Lapidge, 89–90). The Owain present at Eamont was in fact probably Owain of Strathclyde, on the border of whose territory the meeting took place; the submission of Owain of Gwent is more plausibly placed by William of Malmesbury later in the same year at Hereford. William also reports (uniquely, and so unverifiably) that the Scottish king was baptized as Æthelstan's godson at Eamont, and that although an attempt to secure Guthfrith's person failed, Æthelstan nevertheless took the opportunity to raze to the ground a fortress that the Danes had built at York, 'in order to leave disloyalty no place of refuge' (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 214–15).

Other matters occupied Æthelstan south of the Humber in the next few years, but the Scottish peace did not prove permanent and in 934 the king found himself (perhaps driven by some offensive move from the north) obliged to plan a new campaign. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in that year 'King Æthelstan went into Scotland with both a land force and a naval force, and ravaged much of it' (ASC, s.a. 934, text C). Something of the preparation for this enterprise can be seen from the witness lists to Æthelstan's charters in this period; on 28 May the king was at Winchester, where he made a grant witnessed by a number of his English thegns, three of the Welsh kings, and five earls of Scandinavian origin (AS chart., S 425), while a broadly similar group witnessed a charter granted at Nottingham on 7 June (AS chart., S 407). The fullest account of the expedition is that given among the northern annals incorporated into Symeon of Durham's Historia regum: on his way north the king stopped at the then resting-place of the community of St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street, and having commended himself and his expedition to the saint's protection, 'he then subdued his enemies, laid waste Scotland as far as Dunnottar and Wertermorum with a land force, and ravaged with a naval force as far as Caithness' (Symeon of Durham, Opera, 2.124). That the attack was made as far north as Caithness (part of the Norse kingdom of Orkney) hints at the beginning of the alliance between Scots and Norsemen that was to find full expression in their attempted joint invasion of England in 937; it also demonstrates the strategic advantages to a West Saxon king of the acquisition of the kingdom of York. The success of Æthelstan's 934 expedition is noted also by John of Worcester, who blames Constantine for provoking the war by violating the peace between him and Æthelstan, and reports that the Scots king was forced to give up his son as a hostage after his defeat.

‘Brunanburh’

Individually Æthelstan's northern neighbours lacked the strength to counter the wealth and military capability of the enlarged English kingdom; together, however, they might have hoped to check Wessex's northward expansion, if not reverse some of its more recent gains. The most celebrated of the military engagements of Æthelstan's reign was the occasion on which he inflicted a crushing defeat on a combined army led by Constantine, king of the Scots, Olaf Guthfrithson, king in Dublin, and Owain, king of Strathclyde, at a place called ‘Brunanburh’. To the annalist of Ulster, this was a 'great victory' for Æthelstan, a 'great, lamentable and horrible battle' in which several thousand Norsemen died as well as a large number of Saxons (Ann. Ulster, 384–7). According to the contemporaneous Old English poem recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937, 'Æthelstan, lord of nobles, dispenser of treasure to men, and his brother also, Edmund ætheling, won by the sword's edge undying glory in battle round Brunanburh'. On the field died five kings and seven earls from Ireland, as well as the son of the king of the Scots; the combined West Saxon and Mercian force suffered heavy losses but achieved a decisive victory. Well might the chronicle exult that:

Never yet in this island before this by what books tell us and our ancient sages, was a greater slaughter of a host made by the edge of the sword, since the Angles and Saxons came hither from the east, invading Britain over the broad seas, and the proud assailants, warriors eager for glory, overcame the Britons and won a country.

ASC, s.a. 937, text C

The site of this battle remains a subject of controversy among historians. It has been customary to suppose that it occurred somewhere on the Scottish border, but it has also been argued that it was more plausibly on the frontier established by Edward between English and viking Mercia, that is on Watling Street, possibly even as far south as Northampton. The Old English poem implies that wherever the battle occurred it was near enough to the coast (or to an estuary or a river deep enough for ships to get far inland) for the defeated Norsemen to return swiftly to Dublin by sea. It is also known from the poem that the battle occurred outside Wessex and beyond Constantine's own territory.

For the remaining two years of his life Æthelstan retained his control over the north, although the fragility of that hold is suggested by the speed with which his brother Edmund lost it on his succession in 939. Æthelstan's claim to a kingship of Britain was based on more, however, than his conquest of Northumbria and effective subjugation of the Scots. He had expansionist interests also in western Britain, as William of Malmesbury suggests, in his account of the submission by Welsh princes to the king at Hereford in 927. Supposedly the River Wye was agreed on this occasion as the boundary between the English and the Welsh, and an implausibly vast annual tribute imposed. The chronicler had named Hywel, king of the West Welsh, and Owain, king of Gwent, among those who submitted at Eamont; the charter evidence suggests that Idwal, king of Gwynedd, should be included with these in the Hereford submission. Hywel, Idwal, and Guriat (son of Rhodri) attested a charter issued at a meeting in Exeter in April 928, in which they are all described as subreguli (AS chart., S 400). This meeting of the king's council probably coincided with Æthelstan's driving the Cornish out of Exeter and the fixing of the boundary of their province at the Tamar; the king supposedly reinforced that city's defences on this occasion, memory of his building-works there surviving into the twelfth century. The legal tract known as the ordinance of the Dunsæte, a short agreement for the settlement of disputes between the Welsh and English on both sides of the River Wye, may date from the period after the agreement between Æthelstan and the Welsh in 927.

The reluctance with which the Welsh kings accepted Æthelstan's overlordship is hinted at by William of Malmesbury; the fear that they would conspire against him may have prompted the West Saxon king to demand their regular attendance at his court. Several Welsh subreguli attest the king's charters in the 930s, and three of them appear to have accompanied Æthelstan on his Scottish expedition of 934. The subject Welsh clearly resented their subordinate status, reinforced as it may have been by the payment of frequent gifts, if not of regular tribute. An apparently contemporary poem, Armes Prydein vawr ('The great prophecy of Britain'), looks forward to the day when the British will rise up against their oppressors and drive them back to the sea.

Kingship

As the early eleventh-century author of the Old English list of the relics which the king had given to the church of Exeter reminded his audience, by grace of God Æthelstan 'ruled England singly, which prior to him many kings had shared between them' (Bodl. Oxf., MS Auct. D.2.16, fol. 8r). Furthermore, he achieved by force of arms (and surely also of personality) the submission of other rulers within the British Isles, the Welsh, the Scots, and the Norse claimants to the kingdom of York. In these circumstances one might expect to find some sophistication in the articulation of Æthelstan's dignity and status, both through the royal styles adopted in his charters, and also in the language and imagery of his charters and coins alike. At the beginning of his reign Æthelstan had himself described in his charters as 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' (AS chart., S 396–7, 394), continuing the style first adopted by his grandfather Alfred and used by his father, Edward the Elder. This title reflected his rule over a combined West Saxon and Mercian polity, but was arguably inadequate to represent his military and political achievement of creating an English monarchy. After 927 Æthelstan's diplomas affect more grandiose regnal styles, making the king (rex Anglorum'king of the English'; AS chart., S 399–400, 403, 412, 416), (rex totius Britanniae'king of the whole of Britain'; AS chart., S 431, 437, 445–6), or 'nodante dei gratia basileos Anglorum et eque totius Brittannie orbis curagulus' ('by grace of God king of the English and equally guardian of the whole country of Britain'; AS chart., S 429–31, 438, 446). On his coins Æthelstan chose also to be represented as rex totius Britanniae.

Whether Æthelstan, or the members of his immediate circle, indeed desired to portray the king's rule in quasi-imperial terms, in emulation of his Saxon contemporaries or Carolingian predecessors, is uncertain. Æthelstan's expression of his hegemony, including his use of imperator (AS chart., S 392), and his claim to rule not just the English but all the peoples round about (AS chart., S 441–2), can be paralleled in earlier English contexts which may offer more plausible models. Beyond the rhetoric, however, the sheer practical difficulties of administering so large a realm demanded innovative solutions. After the documentary silence of the later years of his father's reign, Æthelstan's resumption of the issuing of royal diplomas in 925 testifies to a reinvigorated monarchy, and the years of his rule represent a formative period in the creation of the late Anglo-Saxon state. The charters issued in the king's name between 928 and 935 are all the work of a single, apparently royal, scribe, known to modern historians as Æthelstan A. The texts of this scribe's charters are remarkable as much for their literary qualities (testimony to the intellectual environment of the royal court) as for their diplomatic structure and formulation. The witness lists with which they are supplied are of particular interest, recording the presence of the Welsh and occasionally Scottish sub-kings, large numbers of ecclesiastics (abbots as well as bishops), and ealdormen from the Danelaw areas of England. Furthermore, it is possible from these charters to establish the king's itinerary around his expanded realm, since they record the day and place of issue more precisely than earlier diplomas. In centralizing charter production in a royal chancery, the king was taking an unprecedented degree of control over this important area of royal activity; beyond 935 the king's diplomas were still apparently centrally produced in a royal writing office, but by more than one scribe, none with the flamboyance of Æthelstan A.

The scale of Æthelstan's councils—the number of participants, the breadth of the geographical area from which they were drawn, and the frequency with which they were held—marked for Stenton an important change in the character of royal councils; for him these were 'national assemblies, in which every local interest was represented, and they did much to break down the provincial separatism which was the chief obstacle to the political unification of England' (Stenton, 352). These changes may have been the result of pragmatism rather than deliberate innovation, no previous king having needed to devise systems for governing both sides of the Humber, and for uniting all the separate Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a single polity. The regularity of the gatherings may have assisted with the process of cultural assimilation, as surely will have the gradual conversion of the Danelaw population to Christianity; yet the speed with which the kingdom of York recovered its autonomy after Æthelstan's death should be a reminder of the fragility of Wessex's hold, and its abhorrence to many of the king's reluctant subjects. Problems with the preservation of the peace are evident in Æthelstan's legislation, the vitality of which is one of the most impressive features of his government. In total six law codes survive from this reign, together with a short ordinance on almsgiving: four of the codes are official royal productions, including two general proclamations of laws from the king, one issued at Grately, the second at Exeter following continued violations of the earlier code ( II Æthelstan and V Æthelstan); two other codes represent reports to the king about the keeping of his peace by the men of Kent and by the bishops and reeves of the London district ( III Æthelstan and VI Æthelstan). The law codes reveal Æthelstan's concern to fulfil his obligation to govern his people effectively, while at the same time illustrating the difficulties of controlling so diverse a population.

Æthelstan's coins shed further light on his perceptions of his kingship. His willingness to exploit the new political circumstances he had created is evident not just from the adoption of the legend proclaiming him king of Britain, but by the imposition of his coinage over his whole realm, enforced in law: 'there is to be one coinage over all the king's dominion and no one is to mint money except in a town' (II Æthelstan, chap. 14). Rather than meaning that there was to be only one type of coin in circulation, this provision may have been intended to ensure that only the coins of the West Saxon king were to be accepted currency within his realm; the hoard evidence certainly indicates that non-English types were kept out quite successfully, as well as demonstrating that old types were not removed from circulation as soon as new ones were introduced. The sites of mints, and the numbers of moneyers at each of them, were similarly tightly controlled by law; yet it is clear that coinage was still, in fact, organized on a local basis. Another innovation lay in the pictorial representation on Æthelstan's coins; in the ‘crowned bust’ type, issued from c.933, the king was depicted wearing a crown, a simple band with three stalks, each surmounted by a globule. The significance of this imagery is hard to determine, but it is difficult to resist the conclusion that this was a further symbolic promotion of Æthelstan's status and a reflection of his own conception of his kingship. It is unlikely to be coincidental that the inclusion of a crown (as opposed to a helmet) among the kingly regalia conferred at inauguration is first attested in the second Anglo-Saxon coronation ordo, which dates from the first half of the tenth century and may plausibly be dated to Æthelstan's reign. The rite was intended for one who would be king over the Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians, a king elected in regnum Albionis, who was to be honoured before all the kings of Britain. Similarly, in both the known manuscript depictions of the king Æthelstan is pictured wearing a crown, and in one he is also holding a sceptre. In these spheres Æthelstan and his circle appear to have been searching for outward signs and symbols to mark the unprecedented nature of his rule.

Foreign contacts

Æthelstan is the first Anglo-Saxon king who might genuinely be thought to have pursued a ‘foreign policy’, in the shape of the marriage alliances and fostering arrangements he negotiated strategically with his continental neighbours, and the refuge he offered at his court to exiles from abroad, as well as the more conventional overtures of friendship he made to foreign, especially German and Breton, religious houses. William of Malmesbury makes much of this aspect of Æthelstan's rule, reporting that 'the whole of Europe sang his praises and extolled his merits to the sky; kings of other nations, not without reason, thought themselves fortunate if they could buy his friendship either by family alliances or by gifts' (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 216–17).

One of Æthelstan's sisters, Eadgifu, had already been given in marriage to Charles the Simple, king of the Franks, during her father's lifetime. When Charles was deprived of power and Robert, count of Paris, made king in 922, Eadgifu returned to England with Charles's son and heir, Louis, taking shelter at her father's court and remaining there after Æthelstan's accession. Æthelstan's defence of his nephew's interests is clear from his receipt of the Frankish embassy that sought the return of Louis d'Outremer (so named from his sojourn in England) as king in 936; the king demanded oaths of goodwill from the legates and arranged for an English escort to accompany the young king back to Francia. But it was expediency rather than sentiment that governed Æthelstan's diplomatic policy. Despite his obvious support for the Carolingian line in West Francia, the king married another of his sisters into the rival Robertian family; the marriage of Eadhild in 926 to Hugh, duke of the Franks and son of Count Robert, is reported in both English and Frankish sources from the tenth century. William of Malmesbury provides an elaborate account of the embassy that came to the English court at Abingdon to promote Hugh's suit; the magnificent gifts supposedly brought to the West Saxon king included the sword of Constantine the Great, its scabbard decorated with a nail from the crucifixion, Charlemagne's famous lance (allegedly that with which the centurion Longinus had pierced Christ's side on the cross), and the standard of St Maurice, as well as pieces of the true cross and the crown of thorns enclosed in crystal (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 218–21). It is difficult to determine how much credence should be given to this story, but the Malmesbury community claimed that Æthelstan had bequeathed them the relics of Christ's passion, and it may be that there were other traditions of the house by which the king's acquisition of such valuable relics was recollected.

The most celebrated, and arguably most prestigious, of the marriages negotiated by Æthelstan was that contracted with the Liudolfing house, recently elevated to the kingship in Saxony, even though it was the historic and saintly lineage of the West Saxon house that made its daughters eligible brides for the young Otto, rather than the particular achievements of the girls' half-brother. English and German sources agree that Æthelstan sent two of his sisters to Saxony for the young prince to choose whom he preferred. The girls were escorted to Germany in the autumn of 929 by Cenwald, bishop of Worcester, bearing lavish gifts for their Saxon hosts. Otto's choice fell to the elder of the two girls, Eadgyth; the fate of her younger sister, Ælfgifu, has puzzled historians since the late tenth century. Contemporary sources disagree on her name, as well as on the identity of her husband, but it seems likely that she married Louis, brother of Rudolf II, king of Burgundy, with whom she had the son named ‘Henricus filius Ludowici’ who appears in Burgundian sources between 943 and 961. Although this marriage obviously enhanced Æthelstan's European connections, it was surely contracted on Ælfgifu's behalf by her new in-laws, the arrangement serving the immediate purpose of sealing Ottonian influence in the Rhône valley and the area between the Jura and the Alps.

Beyond the liaisons contracted through these marriages, Æthelstan further promoted English interests in foreign affairs by other means. Having helped Louis d'Outremer to return to West Francia in 936, Æthelstan appears to have continued to support his nephew after his accession to the throne, sending a fleet to help him by attacking the Flemish coast at Thérouanne in 939. Æthelstan's dealings with the count of Flanders were more complicated. Earlier in 939, when Count Arnulf captured Montreuil-sur-Mer he had sent the wife and sons of the captured Count Herlouin of Ponthieu to Æthelstan's court for safe keeping; yet the English raid on the Flemish coast in 939 seems to have led to an abrupt change in Flemish tactics and to have ended friendly relations between the courts of England and Flanders.

Other foreign exiles found refuge with the English king in this period. According to the chronicle of Nantes (written in the mid-eleventh century on the basis of earlier annals) a number of Bretons fled their land for fear of the Danes and sought refuge at the court of King Æthelstan; among these was a certain Mathuedoi, count of Poher, who took with him his son Alain, afterwards known as Crooked Beard. The English king is said to have stood as Alain's godfather at his baptism and to have fostered him at his own court; when in 936 Alain returned to his native Brittany he did so with Æthelstan's support. Hákon, son of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, was reputedly fostered at Æthelstan's court; his nickname in Scandinavian sources is Aðalsteinsfóstri (‘Æthelstan's fosterling’), and he is reported (admittedly only in texts dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries) to have reclaimed his kingdom with military help from his foster father. The story is not implausible, although Hákon's presence in England is not recorded in any contemporary English sources. William of Malmesbury does, however, report Æthelstan's reception at York of an embassy from King Harald of Norway, who sent him a magnificently furnished viking long ship. The extent and breadth of Æthelstan's connections within the British Isles and beyond is remarkable and unprecedented.

Religion and learning

Æthelstan was a king noted for his piety, even in an age when pious devotion was a recognized attribute of the good monarch. He founded two new religious houses, at Milton Abbas in Dorset and at Muchelney in Somerset, and reputedly made substantial grants of land to existing houses, notably Malmesbury. The king's fervour is evident both from his efforts to attract ecclesiastics to his court, and from his interest in religious manuscripts and particularly in the collection of relics. He may have inherited some relics from his grandfather, King Alfred (AS chart., S 1043); he certainly already had a substantial collection of saints' relics by his accession; the text of a manumission granted by the king on the day of his coronation referred to oaths sworn on the king's haligdom (BL, Royal MS 1 B. vii, fol. 15v). In his Gesta pontificum William of Malmesbury reports that he had found in a shrine at Milton Abbas in Dorset a letter from Radbod, prior of St Samson's at Dol in Brittany, addressed to Æthelstan and sent with a gift of relics 'which we know to be dearer to you than all earthly substance' (Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum, 399–400). In the prelude to a list of relics supposedly given to Exeter by King Æthelstan it was said that the king had sent men overseas to buy relics for him. The churches of Westminster and Glastonbury, and the New Minster at Winchester, also laid claim to relics given by Æthelstan. The church of Abingdon even claimed to have received some of the relics that Æthelstan had been given by Hugh, duke of the Franks.

'There was scarcely any ancient house in all England that he did not adorn with buildings or ornaments, books or estates', recalled William of Malmesbury (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 206–7). Æthelstan's generosity as a donor of manuscripts is apparent from surviving manuscript inscriptions that record the king's gift of books to Christ Church and St Augustine's at Canterbury (BL, Cotton MS Tiberius A.ii, and LPL, MS 1370; BL, Royal MS 1 A.xviii), to the minster at Bath (BL, Cotton MS Claudius B.v), and to the community of St Cuthbert, then at Chester-le-Street (BL, Cotton MS Otho B.ix, and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183). A number of these manuscripts are gospel books, of which one is worth singling out for special mention: Tiberius A.ii. Written perhaps at Lobbes in Belgium in the late ninth or early tenth century, this manuscript has inscriptions associating it with Otto, the German king who married Æthelstan's sister Eadgyth, and with Æthelstan himself. Two inscriptions on folio 15 record Æthelstan's gift of this manuscript to Christ Church, Canterbury; the first, in prose, describes the king as 'Anglorum basyleos et curagulus totius Bryttaniae'—terms reminiscent of the royal styles used in his charters between 935 and 939, implying that the inscription dates from the last years of the king's reign. The second is a poem, beginning 'Rex pius Æðelstan', that celebrates Æthelstan's achievements; written in the present tense, it would also seem to date from the end of his reign.

Of these manuscripts, only Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183 (whose contents include a collection of texts celebrating the life of St Cuthbert) was wholly written in England during Æthelstan's reign, and this appears to have been specially commissioned for presentation to the community of the saint at Chester-le-Street. The reverse side of the first folio of the first quire of the manuscript carries a splendid picture of a king presenting a book to a saint; the king, wearing a crown, stands holding a book in both hands; the saint, standing in front of his church, has a halo above his head and gives a blessing with his right hand while holding a book in his left. Although the figures are not labelled, there can be no doubt that the two are Æthelstan and St Cuthbert. Similar in style was a portrait in the other manuscript given by the king to Chester-le-Street (burnt in the Cotton Library fire of 1731 but known from various antiquarian descriptions of the undamaged manuscript); this was a gospel book written probably in Brittany in the late ninth or early tenth century. In the Otho B.ix picture the king, again crowned, and holding a sceptre in his left hand, knelt to offer a book to St Cuthbert with his right hand; this picture bore an inscription: 'Æthelstan, the pious king of the English, gives this gospel book to St Cuthbert, the bishop' (Keynes, Athelstan's books, 173–4). One further manuscript may have been intended for the king to give to Chester-le-Street: a de luxe copy of Aldhelm's prose De virginitate (BL, Royal MS 7 D.xxiv) made by the scribe of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183. The text and illustrations are, however, incomplete and the gift, if planned, was seemingly abandoned (Gretsch, 359–67). According to the Historia de sancto Cuthberto Æthelstan visited the shrine of St Cuthbert on his way north to Scotland in 934, and while there drew up a testamentum, which he placed beside Cuthbert's head, recording his gifts to the saint; these included vestments and other sacred texts, together with a substantial estate at Wearmouth, as well as 'this gospel book'. The vestments may have been the embroideries found in the coffin of St Cuthbert in 1827; from the inscriptions on the maniple and stole it is clear that these had originally been made for Frithestan (bishop of Winchester 909–31), on the orders of Edward's queen, Ælfflæd.

Beyond his generosity as a patron of religious houses, Æthelstan should be remembered for his promotion of learning at his court. In this he was certainly assisted by his reception of scholars from abroad, as well as of continental princes and nobles, thereby helping to foster an intellectually vibrant environment. The learned men who attended his court included Bretons (notably Israel the Grammarian), Franks, Germans, Irish, Italians, and possibly even the Icelander Egill Skallagrímson, fragments of whose verses in praise of the king survive. Bishop Cenwald, travelling round German monasteries in 929, may have hoped to collect books and possibly relics, to gain some insights into German monasticism, and conceivably to recruit German ecclesiastics for the English church. During and beyond Æthelstan's reign there were men with German names among the clerical communities at the New Minster, Winchester (it is not clear, however, whether they were members of that community, or of the royal household), and at London, and there may have been a German priest at Abingdon. Some of the king's moneyers, too, had German names.

Æthelstan's reign also represented a crucial period in the background to the monastic revolution that reached its climax in the reign of King Edgar. Many of the leading ecclesiastics of that later movement had spent time in their youth at the court of King Æthelstan, and thereby had the opportunity of contact with the ideas and new manuscript books circulating around the king. Some of the bishops in Æthelstan's circle identified themselves in charters as monachi, including Cenwald of Worcester, Ælfheah of Winchester, Oda of Ramsbury, and Theodred of London; although it is possible that these men had taken individual professions of monastic vows, it may be that they styled themselves monks to mark their confraternity with continental religious houses. Cenwald visited a number of German monasteries and Oda had spent time at Fleury. The reign of Æthelstan saw the continuation of the revival of ecclesiastical Latin learning for which Alfred had laid the foundations, together with a developing interest in Old English prose and in the production of scholarly glosses, notably to explain the Latin writings of Aldhelm (Gretsch, 332–83). The same period witnessed the gradual restructuring of religious provision for the laity and an expansion in aristocratic lay devotion. Æthelstan's personal piety thus helped to sponsor a religious revival that extended far beyond the collection and commissioning of luxury manuscripts or the esoteric pursuit of relics.

Death

Æthelstan died at Gloucester on 27 October 939 and was buried, not with his father and elder brother at the New Minster in Winchester, but rather in Malmesbury Abbey, perhaps a further indication of his distance from the West Saxon establishment. William of Malmesbury provides an account of Æthelstan's funeral, reporting that many gifts in gold and silver were carried before the body, as well as 'many relics of saints, bought in Brittany, for such were the objects on which he expended the treasure accumulated and left untouched by his father' (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 228–9). The chronicler's particular interest in this king is clearly at least in part explained by the presence of Æthelstan's tomb at his own abbey; it was on the basis of his own observation that he describes the king as not above the average height, slim in build with fair hair 'as I have seen for myself in his remains, beautifully intertwined with golden threads' (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 214–15).

Historical significance and reputation

Æthelstan's importance as the first king of all England cannot be doubted. Yet there are few contemporary or near-contemporary narrative accounts of his reign, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle being particularly sparse in this period; historians have had perforce to turn to the account of William of Malmesbury in their attempt to build a fuller picture of the king and his achievements. William may well have had access to sources no longer extant, but that these included an extended verse narrative dating from the tenth century, as was once suggested, now seems unlikely. In spite of these difficulties, it is clear that Æthelstan's historical significance was already recognized in his own time, and remarked beyond his death. The poem Rex pius Aðelstan, entered in a continental hand in manuscript Tiberius A.ii, the gospel book presented by Otto the Great, gives an idea of the lavish praise heaped upon Æthelstan by panegyrists during his lifetime; it opens with the lines:

Holy King Æthelstan, renowned through the wide world,whose esteem flourishes and whose honour endures everywhere.

Lapidge, 95–6In noting that Æthelstan died 'an untroubled death', the annalist of Ulster describes the West Saxon king as 'pillar of the dignity of the western world' (Ann. Ulster, 386–7). Ealdorman Æthelweard's Chronicon illustrates the king's reputation at the end of the tenth century, calling Æthelstan 'rex robustissimus' and 'rex venerandus', and dwelling on the consequences of his victory at ‘Brunanburh’ and the submission of the Scots and the Picts. In a discussion of the nature of kingship which forms the epilogue to his translation of the Old Testament book of Judges, Æthelweard's contemporary Ælfric, monk of Cerne and later abbot of Eynsham, draws attention to English kings 'victorious because of God', including Æthelstan 'who fought against Anlaf and slaughtered his army and put him to flight, and afterwards with his people dwelt in peace' (Heptateuch, ed. Crawford, 416–17).

Modern accounts of the reign attempting to integrate the full range of available sources for Æthelstan begin with Armitage Robinson's account in his 1922 Ford Lectures, The Times of St Dunstan (1923); however, although Robinson did much to demonstrate Æthelstan's significance as a collector of books and relics, and to sketch his foreign contacts, he presented the reign essentially as a prelude to the later tenth-century monastic revolution. Stenton's discussion in his Anglo-Saxon England (1943, third edition 1971) focused especially on the role of Æthelstan in promoting the formation of the English state, while Kirby (1976) and Loyn (1980–81, repr. 1992) demonstrated the significance of his relations with the Welsh kings. Michael Lapidge's critical analysis of the poems about Æthelstan (1981), questioning the reliability of William of Malmesbury, has had a considerable impact on perceptions of the king. An attempt to restore the credibility of William's account has recently been made by Michael Wood (Wood, 149–68). Other recent studies have dealt with cultural aspects of the reign, for instance the king's manuscript collection and his foreign connections, and attention has also been given to the Celtic dimension at Æthelstan's court (Sharp).

Beyond his undoubted military achievements, and the administrative and governmental advances made notably in the centralization of charter production and the tighter royal control of the coinage, Æthelstan stands out most remarkably for the extent of European diplomatic activity promoted through his court, to which the marriage alliances and the intellectual energy of his circle both bear witness. Although the sources of his information cannot all be verified, William of Malmesbury's account offers the most comprehensive view of Æthelstan; in the words of the twelfth-century poet whom he quoted (and with whose opinion he patently concurred) this was indeed a great king, glory of his native land: 'magnus Adelstanus, patriae decus' (Malmesbury, Gesta regum, 210).