Æthelstan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetÆthelstan
King of the Anglo-Saxons, King of the English
Date of Birth: 01-Jan-0895
Place of Birth: Kingdom of Wessex
Date of Death: 27-Oct-0939
Profession: monarch
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Æthelstan
- Æthelstan or Athelstan (; Old English: Æþelstan or Æðelstan; Old Norse: Aðalsteinn meaning "noble stone"; c.
- 894 – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to 939 when he died.
- He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn.
- Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings.
- He never married and had no children.
- He was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund. When Edward died in July 924, Æthelstan was accepted by the Mercians as king.
- His half-brother Ælfweard may have been recognised as king in Wessex, but died within three weeks of their father's death.
- Æthelstan encountered resistance in Wessex for several months, and was not crowned until September 925.
- In 927 he conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England.
- In 934 he invaded Scotland and forced Constantine II to submit to him, but Æthelstan's rule was resented by the Scots and Vikings, and in 937 they invaded England.
- Æthelstan defeated them at the Battle of Brunanburh, a victory which gave him great prestige both in the British Isles and on the Continent.
- After his death in 939 the Vikings seized back control of York, and it was not finally reconquered until 954. Æthelstan centralised government; he increased control over the production of charters and summoned leading figures from distant areas to his councils.
- These meetings were also attended by rulers from outside his territory, especially Welsh kings, who thus acknowledged his overlordship.
- More legal texts survive from his reign than from any other 10th-century English king.
- They show his concern about widespread robberies, and the threat they posed to social order.
- His legal reforms built on those of his grandfather, Alfred the Great.
- Æthelstan was one of the most pious West Saxon kings, and was known for collecting relics and founding churches.
- His household was the centre of English learning during his reign, and it laid the foundation for the Benedictine monastic reform later in the century.
- No other West Saxon king played as important a role in European politics as Æthelstan, and he arranged the marriages of several of his sisters to continental rulers.
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