Athelstan, King of England 924-39

d. 939

Athelstan is known as one of the greatest of all the Anglo-Saxon kings. Under him the unification of the English nation advanced further than ever before.

He was the son of Edward the Elder, but spent many years at the court of his aunt Aethelfleda of Mercia. The political integration of the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia was already a fact by the time Athelstan became king in 924, but Athelstan's knowledge of the Mercian nobility will have further eased the rivalry between the two.

Although Edward the Elder, had pushed West Saxon power to south of the River Humber, the kingdom of York still lay in Norse hands. This was to change when in 927 Athelstan took advantage of the death of its ruler, Sihtric, to capture the city and its surrounding territory.

Athelstan was able to make good use of a relatively stable period in England's early history by introducing legal codes, centralising the coinage and making his court a centre for learning. He also sought to project his own power and obvious diplomatic abilities internationally: he offered protection to the exiled Louis IV (d'Outremer) of France and brought up at his court Haakon Haraldsson, who was to become a king of Norway.

His greatest military triumph was at the Battle of Bruannurgh in 937 when his army defeated a combined force of Norse, Irish and Scots, a victory which confirmed the dominant position of the West Saxon dynasty within what the Romans would have termed Britain. Indeed, as Athelstan's coins make clear, he liked to style himself as rex totius Britanniae, king of all Britain.

He can perhaps lay claim to being the first English king to assemble a fleet in support of a continental ally: in 939 he did just this to assist the aims of Louis d'Outremer. In the event the fleet took no real part in the campaign which followed.

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