A groundbreaking new biography of Æthelstan marks 1,100 years since his coronation in 925 AD, reasserts his right to be called the first king of England, explains why he isn’t better known and highlights his many overlooked achievements. The book’s author, Professor David Woodman, is campaigning for greater public recognition of Æthelstan’s creation of England in 927 AD.
The Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the signing 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 927AD. Professor David Woodman, the University of Cambridge-based author of The First King of England, a groundbreaking new biography of Æthelstan, is determined to change this and not just with his book. He – and other historians – are planning a fitting memorial for England’s first and unfairly overlooked king.
“As we approach the anniversaries of Æthelstan’s 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,” says Woodman, a Professor at Robinson College and Cambridge’s Faculty of History.
Woodman 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 Æthelstan’s authority in 927 was recognized by other British rulers) or Malmesbury (where he was buried). Woodman is also calling for the history of Æthelstan’s reign to appear more routinely on the school curriculum.
“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,” Professor Woodman says.
Why isn’t Æthelstan better known?
Woodman’s book, published by Princeton University Press, blames a lack of public relations. “Æthelstan didn’t have a biographer writing up his story,” Woodman says. “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.”
In modern times, historians have tended to dismiss Æthelstan’s status as England’s first king, on the basis that the kingdom fragmented soon after his death in 939AD. The focus has instead shifted to Edgar. Woodman rejects this argument.
“Just because things broke down after Æthelstan’s death doesn’t mean that he didn’t create England in the first place,” Woodman says. “He 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. We need to recognise that his legacy, his ways of governing and legislating, continued to shape kingship for generations afterwards.”
Woodman cites a wealth of evidence to resurrect Æthelstan’s reputation.
Military success
“Militarily, Æthelstan was supremely strong,” Woodman says. “He had to be very robust to expand the kingdom and then to defend it.”
Æthelstan had to contend with major Viking settlement in the north and the east. In 927AD, he acquired authority over the Viking stronghold at York, and, in bringing Northumbria within his dominion, became the first to rule over an area recognizable as ‘England’.
As Æthelstan expanded his kingdom, he drew Welsh and Scottish kings into his royal assemblies. Large-scale surviving original diplomas, housed in the British Library, list the very many nobles he compelled to attend. The meetings of Æthelstan’s assemblies must have been incredibly grand affairs, involving hundreds of people in total.
“These Welsh and Scottish kings must have bitterly resented being brought so far out of their territories,” Woodman says. “An incredible tenth-century Welsh poem, The Great Prophecy of Britain, calls for the English to be slaughtered. It’s difficult to date, but it may be a direct response to this expansion of Æthelstan’s power.”
Then, in 937AD, at the famous Battle of Brunanburh, Æthelstan brutally crushed a formidable Viking coalition, supported by Scots and the Strathclyde Welsh, determined to overthrow him.
“Brunanburh should be as well-known as the Battle of Hastings,” Woodman says. “Every major chronicle, in England, Wales, Ireland and Scandinavia took note of this battle, its outcome and how many people were slaughtered. It was a critically important episode in the history of the newly-formed English kingdom.”
Numerous locations have been proposed for the battle. Woodman is confident that it happened at what is now Bromborough on the Wirral. “That location makes sense strategically and the etymology of the name fits,” he says.
Revolution of government
Æthelstan’s most powerful legacy rests in his “revolution of government,” Woodman suggests. Legal documents from Æthelstan’s reign survive in relative abundance and, Woodman argues, take us right to the heart of the type of king he was.
“King Alfred must have been a role model for his grandson,” Woodman says. “Æthelstan saw that a king should legislate and he really did. He took crime very seriously.”
Once Æthelstan had created the English kingdom, royal documents known as ‘diplomas’ (in essence a grant of land by the king to a beneficiary) were suddenly transformed. Formerly short and straightforward, they were transformed into grandiose statements of royal power.
“They’re written in a much more professional script and in amazingly learned Latin, full of literary devices like rhyme, alliteration, chiasmus,” Woodman says. “They were designed to show off, he’s trumpeting his success.”
But Woodman also argues that government became increasingly efficient during Æthelstan’s reign. “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.”
“There is also some of the clearest evidence we have for centralized 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 traveled, the royal scribe went too.”
Woodman points out that Æthelstan brought England together just as parts of continental Europe were fragmenting. “Nobles across Europe were rising up and taking territory for themselves,” he says. “Æthelstan 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.”
Learning and religion
Woodman argues that Æthelstan 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.”
Two of Woodman’s favorite 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. Æthelstan’s head is bowed as he stands before the saint. “Everyone should know about this portrait, it’s one of the most important images in English history,” says Woodman.
The manuscript was originally designed as a gift for the Community of Saint Cuthbert. “Æthelstan had just expanded into Northumbria and this manuscript cleverly includes a life of Saint Cuthbert,” Woodman says. “He was trying to win them over to his cause.”
Woodman felt even closer to Æthelstan while studying the Durham Liber Vitae. Begun in the ninth century, this manuscript chronologically lists the people who had a special connection to the Community of Saint Cuthbert, in alternating gold and silver lettering.
“If Æthelstan is going to appear, he should be many pages in, but in the tenth century someone visited Saint Cuthbert’s Community and wrote ‘Æthelstan Rex’ right at the top. Seeing that was breathtakingly exciting. It’s feasible that someone in his entourage was responsible. We know they visited the Community in 934 and this manuscript may have been on prominent display there, perhaps on its high altar.”
Notes
*The group has been convened by Alex Burghart MP, and incudes the historian-broadcasters, Tom Holland and Michael Wood.
Reference
David Woodman, The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom is published by Princeton University Press on 2nd September 2025 (ISBN:9780691249490)