Æthelstan r. 924-39

Initial Opposition - Wessex/Mercia Divide

• 918 Edward the Elder accepted submission of Welsh (as Alfred had) and ended Mercian autonomy by occupying Tamworth
• 910-24 No charters of Edward so no titles to see how he saw how the unification was going
• Æthelstan was brought up in Mercia with Æthelflaed
• Possibly only accepted as king in Mercia (Mercia Register says the Mercians took him as king)
  • Ælfweard reigned for 4 weeks in Wessex before his death
  • Legitimacy as king not very clear - unification of Mercia and Wessex doesn't seem to have been planned! => Opposition in Wessex?
• 925 Charter: "whirlpools of cataclyrms", no WS signatures
• William of Malmesbury: records attempted rebellion
• Didn't marry - possibly offered to stay childless to allow Edmund successesion in exchange for support
• 933 mysterious death of Eadwine, Ælfweard's brother - possibly some foul play? (if so, reflects some division still existing)

Fading Opposition - Focus on Getting Northumbria

• Developments in Danelaw
  • York (Sihtric); Dublin (Guthfrith); Axis (c. 921-7)
• Æthelstan recognised them - Sihtric married Æthelstan's sister - shows relative weakness of West Saxon position
• 927 Sihtric died; Æthelstand gained direct overlordship of Northumbria
  • ASC: he "succeeded to the kingdom" - unclear whether Sihtric or Æthelstand intended for this to happen
    • Implies it was legitimate/concrete - suggests this was an idea somebody thought was happening/wanted to happen
  • Guthfrith travelled to York to oppose this, but was driven out
  • First king to officially rule Northumbria?
    • Threatened the Scots/Strathclyde
• 927 Æthelstan's success at Battle of Eamont - celebratory poem
  • Carta dirige gressus - based on a poem about Charlemagne
  • Depicts Æthelstan as successful in uniting the English
• 927 also conquered Dumnonia? And had oaths of allegians from the kings of Strathclyde and Picts

Numismatic Evidence

• Uniformity of coins and restriction of minting to towns
  • Innovation in royal control
• Hoards sugest this was successful - very little coinage from the period that isn't by him

Charters

• 925: early charters title him as 'King of the Anglo-Saxons'
• From 928: lots of charters by Æthelstan
  • Lofty titles such as 'King of the English'
  • Very high-flown, ornate style
  • Very long witness lists - regularly include Welsh kings as witnesses
  • High aspirations for his rule - could control polities under his control and create hierarchies

• Lots of charters - esp. when compared to dearth from Edward the Elder's reign
  • Deliberate policy or to meet the needs of a much larger kingdom?
• Centralisation of charter production
  • Control in Wessex and royal court
• Charters show granting land in Northumbria => real control
• Also at least nominal control in Wales

Numismatic Evidence

• Pre 927: had continued father's coinage, titled as 'Æthelstan Rex'
• Post 927: new type made throughout England, titled 'Æthelstan Rex Tot[ius] Bri[tanniae]' (also in charters)
  • Asserting control; distributing image and title
  • Return to idea of the ability to rule all of Britain - very Bedan, romanitas, etc.
• Also the first king to appear in a crown
  • Both on coinage and in manuscripts

• The image of the kingdom presented in the charters, coinage, etc. is one of unity
  • Idea of Britain as a single entity

• Issues four law codes in the 930s

Grately

• Emphasis on the enforcement of his law codes - detailing of harsh penalties
• Learn from the later Exeter Book that this had little effect

Exeter Code

• Says that his laws are not being kept as well as he would like and as he said they should be in his previous code at Grately
• Introduced gatherings of kings to give tribute, etc.
  • Possibly one at Colchester in March 931 - incl. 37 thegns, 13 earls (6 Danish), 3 abbots, 15 bishops (incl. that of Chester-le-Street) and the archbishop of Canterbury

• Exercising his power through control - also trying to encourage national unity
  • Trying to bring everyone together under his control

• 4 of his half-sisters married into Continental royal families
  • Cultivating royal continental connections, while houses on the Continent were interested in British ones
  • Real sense of setting up a European network of connections - possibly at the expense of relationships with Welsh, Northumbrians, Picts, etc.
  • Marriages were reciprocated with gifts; e.g. Eadhild married Duke Hugh of the Franks in 926 and Hugh sent Æthelstan the sword of Constantine the Great
  • Book containing the Rex Pius Æthelstan poem was possibly a gift from Otto I, who married Æthelstan's sister Edith
• Had strong allie across the Continet
  • Sent the first English military force across the continent to help Lois regain throne of West Franks in 939 (admittedly a disaster)
• Followed Alfred's legacy by encouraging Latin learning - poems from his reign, several books donated by him
• Role of foreigners at court - following Alfred but much wider range of countries
  • Egil Skallagrimson, links to Harald Fairhair - Hakon Æthelstansfoestri (fostering model similar to political marriage one)
• Foreign ecclesiastics - foreign influences in books and foreign names of scribes and clerics

• 920s: Ordinance of the Dunsaete = settlement of the English-Welsh disputes on the river Wye
  • Comparable with Alfred-Guthrum treaty?
  • Shows there was tension and local disputes - not v. successful in stopping them!

• 927: Æthelstan's success at Battle of Eamont against Constantine of the Picts, Owaine of Gwent, Hywel Dda of West Wales, Ealdred of Bamburgh - not yet integrated
• Welsh not v. happy
  • Poem Armes Prydein - plans to reclaim homeland and push England back to the Continent
  • Celebratory poem - carta dirige gressus - based on a poem about Charlemagne
    • Depicts Æthelstan as successful in uniting the English
    • Victory didn't cement loyalty in a long-lasting or secure way

• 934: Olaf became King in Dublin - possibly son in law of Constantine of Scotland
  • Constantine in outright rebellion against agreement with Wessex - wanted York as a buffer against the English
• Diplomatic response
  • Gave important gifts to monks of Chester-le-Street (previously of Lindisfarne) donated CCCC 183
    • Emphasising Wessex-Northumbria links; promoting aggressive image
  • Gave Bishop fo York land in Lancashire
• Military response
  • Ravaged Scotland - took Constantine's son hostage
    • Possibly alonstide Welsh and Scandinavian allies?
• 934: Æthelstan and Court back in south, Constantine in a witness list as 'sub king'

• 937: Olaf assembled coalition with Constantine, Strathclyde Britons, Scandinavian groups within Britain --> met by Æthelstan and Edmund at Brunanburh (where is this?)
  • OE battle poem in ASC celebrates a decisive English victory
• Reinforced English unity - poem emphasises the Mercians and West Saxons fighting together
  • So were divisions, but no longer opposition

• Kingdom still far from stable at Æthelstand's death in 939

• BUT could be regarded as an indication of Æthelstan's failture to rule Northumbria in a way that kept Alba, Strathclyde, Hiberno-Norse happy
  • Was too much of a threat/too agressive to British neighbours

• Very pious himself
• Used the church to further own political aims
  • Donations to churches - e.g. CCCC 183 to Chester-le-Street
  • Founded St Germans, Cornwall, to secure Anglo-Saxons power in Dumnonia
• Intellectual interests
  • William of Malmesbury says he was brought up to be an intellectual

• Lots of sources
• Foot: not an accident - careful to promote his own image - products of his own interests --> donated books to religious houses, attracted foreign scholars
• Attracted later scholarship
  • William of Malmesbury, Gestum Regum Anglorum - long section on Æthelstan
    • How valuable is his information? Æthelstan did have close links with Malmesbury Abbey, so there may have been some accurate records there
    • Pretty problems: later ideological view; set up quite a lot of deliberate parallels with Alfred in his early life (e.g. symbolic cloak, belt, sword)
• Lapidge: the three poems that survive represent three stages of Æthelstan's life/reign
  • Acrostic = childhood
  • Carta dirige gressus = zenith of power, triumph over Eamont
  • Rex pious Ædhelstan = latter days, mindful of mortality
• One judgement: demonstratedd the viability of a unified English kingdom, but failed to secure it