#æthelstan of england

[emptyrubiccube]

top 10 historical yassifications

[wonder-worker]

[Æthelflæd was] a remarkable leader who, both in her own right, and as a collaborator with her father, husband, and brother, helped to shape the politics of central England for two decades. Indeed, the legacy of her rule was longer even than that. Æthelflæd came to prominence at a critical juncture of Mercian history, and of English history more widely. In the aftermath of invasion and political upheaval, Æthelflæd secured Mercia’s political stability, fortified and expanded its frontiers, and won the submissions of neighbouring Welsh and Scandinavian lords and towns. These successes were foundational to the remarkable expansion of West Saxon hegemony in the decades that followed her death and, further, to the ability of subsequent generations of West Saxon monarchs, beginning with her nephew and one-time charge, Æthelstan, to claim kingship over all England.

-Matthew Firth, "Early English Queens, 850-1000: Potestas Reginae"

[scotianostra]

On 12 July 927 King Constantín mac Áeda, King Hywel Dda , Ealdred of Bamburgh, and King Owain ap Dyfnwal gathered at Eamont, near Penrith, to accept Æthelstan as their overlord.

Æthelstan was king of the Anglo Saxons and later England, regarded by many as their first King, Constantín mac Áeda, giving him his old Gaelic name, was King of Alba, mostly covering lands around the Tay down to the Forth, King Hywel Dda, it won't surprise you was ruler of Wales, Ealdred of Bamburgh, King of Northumberland and Owain ap Dyfnwal ruled Strathclyde, which included parts of modern day Cumbria.

After defeating the Norsemen at York Æthelstan started to stamp his authority in the North and according to the ‘Annals of Ulster’ in 927 AD Constantine and Owain had met with Æthelstan, on what was probably the Northumbria/Strathclyde border, where:

“... they surrendered themselves and their kingdoms to the sovereign of England. Out of regard to this treaty, the king himself stood as sponsor for the son of Constantine, who was ordered to be baptized at the sacred font.”

The ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ also records the meeting its list of attendees differed and it's a wee bit more dramatic, so I'll classify it as the tabloid of the day!! “In this year [927] fiery beams of light appeared in the north part of the sky. And Sihtric died; and King Athelstan succeeded to the kingdom of the Northumbrians, and he subjugated all the kings that were in this island: first, Hywel king of the West Welsh, and Constantine king of the Scots, and Owain king of Gwent, and Ealdred son of Eadwulf from Bamburgh:+ and with pledge and with oaths they confirmed peace, in the place called Eamont, on the 4th of the Ides of July [12th July], and renounced every kind of idolatry; and after that departed in peace.”

It led to six years of peace between the Northern Kings and the new King of England, by 934 things had taken a turn as “In this year King Athelstan went into Scotland, with both a land-force and a ship-force, and ravaged a great part of it.”

Other sources tell that Constantine's son was taken to England as a hostage to keep the peace.

There is loads more info on how things developed in the tenth century and beyond here http://www.dot-domesday.me.uk/athelstan.htm

The map shows you how the countries were laid out back in the 10th century.

[racefortheironthrone]

It's command to refer to pre Norman English Kingdoms as Anglo-Saxon, but would the people /kings have considered themselves as such? Or was there still a separate Saxon / Angle / Jutish identity?

The answer is that it changed over time. After you had the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, you had the Heptarchy, and so forth. So for many years, people would not have considered themselves Anglo-Saxon and probably had never heard that word used in that way.

However, one of the major long-term ideological projects of the House of Wessex was to promote a broader identity beyond one's local region, as part of their project to beat back the Danes and eventually unify England under their reign. Thus, Alfred the Great started his reign as the King of Wessex, but in 886 CE started styling himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons after he had reconquered London from the Vikingers. His son Edward the Elder continued that claim, using it to leverage his claims to Mercia and East Anglia.

Then with Edward's son Æthelstan the Thunderbolt, you get the first of the House of Wessex to style himself as King of the English, which is really where you start to see an attempt to construct a unified "English" identity, although he also used the title "Rex totius Britanniae" (King of all Britain) after defeating King Constantine II of Scotland and forcing him to swear vassalage.

[ginandoldlace]

In England, the monarchy is an institution which connects us to the greats of our history, such as Alfred the Great (848/849 - 899AD) and Æthelstan, the first King of The English (894 - 939AD), who united England for the first time, in 927. Over the course of more than a thousand years, monarchy has firmly planted itself as a pillar of English culture.

Part of what is special about our great nation is our conservatism and adherence to tradition. The pure materialism of the modern era is something quite foreign to the English. We have always been a sentimental people, connected by bonds of duty and affection to our fellow countrymen and the nation, which transcend the cold, mathematical calculations of the age of rationalism in which we find ourselves. We have always understood that there is a place for heirarchy; we have always had a respect for tradition; we have always held an “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” attitude.

[ariadnethedragon]

‘No slaughter yet was greater made e’er in this island; Of people slain before this same, with edge of a sword.’

The Battle of Brunanburh was fought in 937 between Æthelstan, King of England, and an alliance of Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scotland, and Owain, King of Strathclyde. The battle is often cited as the point of origin for English nationalism: historians such as Michael Livingston argue that "the men who fought and died on that field forged a political map of the future that remains [in modernity], arguably making the Battle of Brunanburh one of the most significant battles in the long history not just of England, but of the whole of the British Isles."

[ancestorsalive]

Eadgyth (Edith) of England.

Eadgyth was born c.910, she was the daughter of Edward the Elder and granddaughter of Alfred the Great.

Her early years were spent in Wessex before she was sent to Germany with her sister Edgifu, by her half-brother King Æthelstan, at the request of the East Frankish king Henry the Fowler. Henry presented both women to his son Otto to choose which one he wanted and he picked Eadgyth, they were married in 930.

Otto was crowned King at Aachen Cathedral, on the death of his father in 936, it's possible she was anointed as Queen in a separate ceremony.

As Queen she was popular with her people and according to the secular canoness Hrotsvitha, she was a woman "of pure noble countenance, graceful character and truly royal appearance".

Eadgyth died young aged about 36 in 946, records state her body was moved twice before she was interred at Magdeburg Cathedral.

In 2008 there was some building work going on at the cathedral when a lead coffin inside a stone sarcophagus with her name on it was found and opened by archaeologists. An inscription recorded that it was the body of Eadgyth, reburied in 1510.

The bones were fragmented and incomplete and were examined in 2009, then brought to Bristol, England, for tests in 2010.

The bones were radiocarbon dated which showed they were from the right time period, and belonged to one woman aged around 30-40 years of age. Other signs showed she was probably a horse rider suggesting noble birth, her bones and teeth showed she had a high protein diet and ate a lot of fish, another indication of high status. Isotope analysis which tests the enamel on the teeth showed she did grow up in South West England, which matches the records. DNA testing wasn't undertaken and wouldn't have proved anything because there are no known descendants from Alfred the Great (despite the 15 or so who regularly appear on this group). As far as all the evidence showed it is believed that this is the body of Eadgyth and she was re-interred in a new titanium coffin in her tomb at Magdeburg Cathedral on 22 October 2010.

For more information on Eadgyth's re-burial go to the link below:

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/8111

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.12 (before 1920)

70 – The armies of Titus attack the walls of Jerusalem after a six-month siege. Three days later they breach the walls, which enables the army to destroy the Second Temple. 927 – King Constantine II of Scotland, King Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred of Bamburgh and King Owain of the Cumbrians accepted the overlordship of King Æthelstan of England, leading to seven years of peace in the north. 1191 – Third Crusade: Saladin's garrison surrenders to Philip Augustus, ending the two-year siege of Acre. 1335 – Pope Benedict XII issues the papal bull Fulgens sicut stella matutina to reform the Cistercian Order. 1470 – The Ottomans capture Euboea. 1488 – Joseon Dynasty official Choe Bu returned to Korea after months of shipwrecked travel in China. 1493 – Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published. 1527 – Lê Cung Hoàng ceded the throne to Mạc Đăng Dung, ending the Lê dynasty and starting the Mạc dynasty. 1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace. 1562 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, burns the sacred idols and books of the Maya. 1576 – Mughal Empire annexes Bengal after defeating the Bengal Sultanate at the Battle of Rajmahal. 1580 – The Ostrog Bible, one of the early printed Bibles in a Slavic language, is published. 1691 – Battle of Aughrim (Julian calendar): The decisive victory of William III of England's forces in Ireland. 1776 – Captain James Cook begins his third voyage. 1789 – In response to the dismissal of the French finance minister Jacques Necker, the radical journalist Camille Desmoulins gives a speech which results in the storming of the Bastille two days later. 1790 – The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed in France by the National Constituent Assembly. 1799 – Ranjit Singh conquers Lahore and becomes Maharaja of the Punjab (Sikh Empire). 1801 – British ships inflict heavy damage on Spanish and French ships in the Second Battle of Algeciras. 1806 – At the insistence of Napoleon, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and thirteen minor principalities leave the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine. 1812 – The American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now at Windsor, Ontario. 1862 – The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress. 1913 – Serbian forces begin their siege of the Bulgarian city of Vidin; the siege is later called off when the war ends. 1913 – The Second Revolution breaks out against the Beiyang government, as Li Liejun proclaims Jiangxi independent from the Republic of China. 1917 – The Bisbee Deportation occurs as vigilantes kidnap and deport nearly 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona. 1918 – The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.

[aelswiths]

Which TLK relationships do you wish the show explored more (I mean platonic and family, even rivals, not just like ships - but I didn't know how to word it. Sorry).

Oh man anon, this is a very tough question because there are many relationships I wish were explored more. This question brings to mind a couple different answers, some that are family focused and some more general (which I’ll briefly mention later). It’s a long one so I’m putting a read more for everyone’s sanity lol.

I think the one I think about the most is Aelswith and Edward, and to a lesser extent Alfred and Edward. In some ways this is very on brand, being you know the Aelswith blog lol, but I do feel like this relationship has gaps in it.

Compared to aethelflaed we don’t have as much childhood focused scenes between them, so I wonder a lot about the type of relationship they had. From the show it seems to me that Edward was clearly very beloved by his parents but it’s also obvious that there’s tension between them at the beginning of s3. Now this could be explained as due to his relationship with ecgwynn and his children, but I feel like there’s more to it. Especially as we move into s4 & 5, it’s very clear that they’re almost estranged from each other and it’s always had me wondering why. By the end of s4 it appears that they have almost reconciled, but by the time s5 starts its clear that Aelswith doesn’t even live in Winchester anymore and to make things even more interesting she ends up in bebbenburh. It’s so bizarre to me, since her family is most important to her, why would Aelswith decide to remain as far away from her only surviving child as possible? By the end of s5 it also seems as if they’ve reached a reconciliation and clearly care for each other, so it’s very odd to me unless there’s more to this relationship.

Other relationships I wish were explored were Aelswith and her grandchildren, I really wish we had more insight to what happened between her and Æthelstan after s4. I find it highly unlikely that she’d just accept someone else raising him and not being in his life, so I wish we knew more about what happened (and what happened to Aelswith in general after s4 because the way they swept that poisoning under the rug bothers the hell out of me, but I am off track).

I also wish we knew more about Aelfweards relationship with Aelswith, since in s5 he and Æthelstan get along and don’t have any grudges it makes me so curious as to what he thinks of Aelswith and if he wonders why he doesn’t have a relationship with her. I think a lot about post s5 Ælfweard and how he must be questioning everything in his life because of Æthelhelm. I also wonder if Aelswith ever saw him afterwards.

As for Aelfwynn, I feel like we did get some good material I just wish we had more than one season and that we knew what happened to her after s5. I do wonder if after s5 Aelfwynn ended up leaving England because it wasn’t safe for her, and if that’s the case I just don’t see Aelswith going with her which means they probably never saw each other again :(((.

And that concludes the family specific aspect of this question, the more general aspect I’ll try to keep short. Essentially I wish we’d been given a better idea of what aelswith’s relationship with the court in Wessex was. From what the show portrays it’s very clear that from the few advisors we’re shown she interacts with she has a tense to contentious relationship with them all. Which I find very curious because it’s clear that Aelswith has means and influence, great enough that in s4 at the height of his power not even Aethelhelm can remove her and while imprisoned she’s able to raise loyal guards to free and escort her to Mercia. This tells me that Aelswith is an influential figure and that she has great respect and I really wish we saw more of that because it’s another interesting layer to unravel and explore. It does also make me wish that they’d continued to explore aethelhelm and Aelswith’s rivalry in s5. The way s4 ended with the poisoning was such an interesting choice and had a lot of potential for character building and they just didn’t build off of it.

Anyway, I feel like the takeaway from this ask is I think we should’ve had a show about my emotional support family because there’s so much potential about them that’s not explored.

[gemsofgreece]

I studied at Classics at Cambridge and I can tell you in the years since I left the arts and humanities has been increasingly captured by the American woke virus. The Daily Telegraph story you cited is just the tip of this wider ‘decolonise’ the syllabus BS in the arts at Oxford and Cambridge.   The unification of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms under their shared allegiance to Æthelstan of Wessex was a critical moment in the history of England. What is being reported here is not anti-racism - it is an aggressive form of anti-English historical revisionism. The agitation around the word ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is purely as a consequence of woke cultural politics within the medieval academia in the USA. In other words, Americans have jumped on this word and tied it to white supremacy as it is in US history and culture. It has nothing to do with how the English have used the term. They keep citing the bogeyman of ‘nationalism’ etc but it’s just woke American academics projecting their own BS on to the English. To understand the proper context to all this please do read this very excellent article by Sam Rubenstein on the strange logic of American woke scholars on the term Anglo-Saxon. https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/june-2023/anglo-saxon-extremists/ Cheers - BSE

@blackswaneuroparedux Thank you for your insight and your nice words! I read the article and is indeed very informative. It answers a lot of questions regarding how accurate Anglo Saxon is as a term. I also agreed the most with this part:

Again, such “misuses” of the term are by the bye, and historians should be permitted to use it in their correct way regardless.

That some supremacists might use the term poorly cannot be given essentially such impact, enough to make a university of such a status to modify the way it examines historiography and teaches history! You marginalise supremacy, you don’t grant it terms and definitions to use all by itself! I guess this means The Telegraph wasn’t sensationalising this out of proportion - Cambridge indeed succumbs to illogical whims generated by American wokes.

[emptyrubiccube]

wouldn't it have been funny if anlaf also had a "hump whoever you wish, BUT-" type of convo with ingilmundr, assuming his seduction of æthelstan wasn't what anlaf originally had in mind for his convoluted scheme

[danceingiceprincess]

Cant believe im joining this.

But where is Henry VIII in this list? And then Elizabeth the first his second born daughter to Anne Bolyn who famously said "It would please me best if, at the last a marble stone shall record that this Queen having lived such and such a time lived and died a virgin"

Reminder she died in 1603 and James the VI of Scotland took over. Who become James the first of england who was the son of Mary queen of scots, Elizabeth the firsts rival. Now the house of stuarts was a Scottish family, that started in 1371 by the King Robert II of Scotland. And granted, James IV married Margaret Tudor in 1503 linking the Tudor family with the Stuarts.

You seem to be omitting several kings and queens of england to try and prove your point. Now there is no solid scientific proof that all kings and queens were related to William the conqueror. Now granted they may have had a connection or tried to claim they were related. Plus, we do not know if any child was swapped with another because accidents, illness, assassinations. Such as the famous conspiracy theory with Queen Elizabeth I. It is called the bisley boy conspiracy.

Let us not forgot that our current UK monarchy is german. They genealogically belong to house of oldenburg as the late Prince Philip was a member of the Glücksburg branch.

Even more details

House of Windsor is the cadet branch to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha which is a European royal house whose parent house is House of Wettin which is a Dynasty of german kings, princes, dukes and counts.

House of Wettin is one of the oldest dynasties in europe. And this house cant be traced to William the conqueror.

Henry VII started the tudor reign and took the throne in 1485 after Richard III died in battle (Still cant believe we found his body under a bloody car park)

Here is a family tree from The Plantagenets by Dan Jones

Now if we want to get technical, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland didn't become a kingdom until ireland joined in 1801, then in 1920 it become United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

It is well known that there has been several wars between England and Scotland. They had a political union in 1707, under Queen Anne, this time having same everything, not just a shared king/queen but shared parliament and such.

Now the Monarchy of England its self started in the year 927 with Æthelstan and ended with Queen Anne in 1707

So really there is no English Monarchy.

There is a United kingdom of Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland Monarchy.

Okay, here's my idea:

The British should put a time limit on the Monarchy.

Not like declaring a republic tomorrow, but deciding on a date in the future that ends the British Monarchy.

And there's a perfect date for it coming up!

October 14th, 2066.

A thousand years since the Battle of Hastings. A thousand years of this one specific bloodline ruling England.

Call time on the Monarchy after exactly one thousand years. Nice, and neat.

Even better: Charles isn't living 44 years. He'll be gone in about twenty. Now William? He's what, 40? Yeah, he can live another 44 years. His great grandmother was over a hundred, his granny was 96, William can make it to 84 barring accident or assassination.

So on October 14th 2066, William the Last steps down a thousand years after William the First won the crown.

Nice, neat, and fair. William gets the crown he's been waiting forty years for already, but ten-year-old George grows up without expectation of it.

Have a nice big abdication ceremony, even.

[autodidactprofessor]

The Battle of Brunanburh: A Defining Clash for England's Destiny

Introduction: A Turning Point in Anglo-Saxon England Throughout British history, few battles hold as much significance as the Battle of Brunanburh, fought in the year 937 AD. This monumental clash was more than a mere military engagement; it was a decisive confrontation that shaped the future of England and the British Isles. The battle pitted the forces of King Æthelstan of England, often…

[scotianostra]

On 12 July 927 King Constantín mac Áeda, King Hywel Dda , Ealdred of Bamburgh, and King Owain ap Dyfnwal gathered at Eamont, near Penrith, to accept Æthelstan as their overlord.

Æthelstan was king of the Anglo Saxons and later England, regarded by many as their first King, Constantín mac Áeda, giving him his old Gaelic name, was King of Alba, mostly covering lands around the Tay down to the Forth, King Hywel Dda, it won't surprise you was ruler of Wales, Ealdred of Bamburgh, King of Northumberland and Owain ap Dyfnwal ruled Strathclyde, which included parts of modern day Cumbria.

After defeating the Norsemen at York Æthelstan started to stamp his authority in the North and according to the ‘Annals of Ulster’ in 927 AD Constantine and Owain had met with Æthelstan, on what was probably the Northumbria/Strathclyde border, where:

“... they surrendered themselves and their kingdoms to the sovereign of England. Out of regard to this treaty, the king himself stood as sponsor for the son of Constantine, who was ordered to be baptized at the sacred font.”

The ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ also records the meeting its list of attendees differed and it's a wee bit more dramatic, so I'll classify it as the tabloid of the day!! “In this year [927] fiery beams of light appeared in the north part of the sky. And Sihtric died; and King Athelstan succeeded to the kingdom of the Northumbrians, and he subjugated all the kings that were in this island: first, Hywel king of the West Welsh, and Constantine king of the Scots, and Owain king of Gwent, and Ealdred son of Eadwulf from Bamburgh:+ and with pledge and with oaths they confirmed peace, in the place called Eamont, on the 4th of the Ides of July [12th July], and renounced every kind of idolatry; and after that departed in peace.”

It led to six years of peace between the Northern Kings and the new King of England, by 934 things had taken a turn as “In this year King Athelstan went into Scotland, with both a land-force and a ship-force, and ravaged a great part of it.”

Other sources tell that Constantine's son was taken to England as a hostage to keep the peace.

There is loads more info on how things developed in the tenth century and beyond here http://www.dot-domesday.me.uk/athelstan.htm

The pic shows how the British Isles looked back then.

[dijeh]

Æthelstan: The First King of England, Sarah Foot

[thinkingofyours]

👑 Did You Know? 👑

Today, we dive into some fascinating facts about the first King of England, King Aethelstan:

🏰 First True King: Æthelstan, who reigned from 925 to 939 AD, is often considered the first true King of England. He united various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and defeated the last Viking invaders. 📜 Lawgiver: Æthelstan was known for his legal reforms. He issued many laws that helped shape the English legal system. 🌍 Diplomatic Ties: He established strong diplomatic relationships with other European rulers, including the Holy Roman Emperor and the kings of France and Norway. ⚔️ Battle of Brunanburh: Æthelstan’s victory at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 AD was a defining moment in English history, securing his rule over a unified England. 🏅 Religious Patron: He was a great patron of the church, founding many monasteries and promoting religious education. Let’s celebrate the legacy of King Æthelstan, a ruler who laid the foundations of modern England! 🏰