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Documentary, King Alfred And The Anglo-Saxons S01E03 Athelstan The First King Of England
Not much is known for certain about the early life of Athelstan. There is a story that his grandfather - Alfred the Great - favoured Athelstan at court and made him a gift of a cloak and sword. It is also believed the Athelstan spent part of his youth in the kingdom of Mercia, which was ruled by Queen Ethelfleda (869? - 918), learning the skills of a young prince.
In 937 Athelstan's kingdom, which combined both Wessex and Mercia, came under attack from a combined force of Scots, Irish and Vikings. Athelstan won a decisive victory at the Battle of Brunanburgh - one of the bloodiest battles in English history. Thereafter Athelstan focused on building the strength of the kingdom.
For many historians Athelstan is the first ruler who can truly be regarded as 'king of all England'.
Not much is known for certain about the early life of Athelstan. There is a story that his grandfather - Alfred the Great - favoured Athelstan at court and made him a gift of a cloak and sword. It is also believed the Athelstan spent part of his youth in the kingdom of Mercia, which was ruled by Queen Ethelfleda (869? - 918), learning the skills of a young prince.
In 937 Athelstan's kingdom, which combined both Wessex and Mercia, came under attack from a combined force of Scots, Irish and Vikings. Athelstan won a decisive victory at the Battle of Brunanburgh - one of the bloodiest battles in English history. Thereafter Athelstan focused on building the strength of the kingdom.
For many historians Athelstan is the first ruler who can truly be regarded as 'king of all England'.
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LearningTranscript
00:00In around the year 980, a member of the English royal family wrote a history of England for his
00:15cousin in Germany, looking back on the great events of their times.
00:23My dearest Matilda, he wrote, here you'll find the story of our family.
00:30A tale of so many wars and the killings of men, the shipwreck of navies on the waves of the ocean.
00:39Now your uncle was King Athelstan.
00:43In his time, the barbarian forces were overcome on all sides, and England emerged as the victor.
00:53The fields of Britain became one.
00:56There was peace everywhere and abundance of all things.
01:00He was a mighty king, worthy of high honour.
01:05Among all the great rulers of British history, Athelstan today is the forgotten man.
01:20But in his time, a continental poet thought him an English Charlemagne.
01:25His nicknames in Scandinavia were the faith-strong and the victorious.
01:30To the Irish, he was the pillar of the West.
01:33To the Welsh, the king of kings.
01:36To the Scots, simply the bastard.
01:39But Athelstan will turn the dream of Alfred the Great into reality.
01:44A kingdom of all the English.
01:46A kingdom of all the English.
01:47A kingdom of all the English.
01:48A kingdom of all the English.
01:49A kingdom of all the English.
01:50A kingdom of all the English.
01:51A kingdom of all the English.
01:52A kingdom of all the English.
01:53A kingdom of all the English.
01:54A kingdom of all the English.
01:55A kingdom of all the English.
01:56A kingdom of all the English.
01:57A kingdom of all the English.
01:58A kingdom of all the English.
01:59A kingdom of all the English.
02:00A kingdom of all the English.
02:01A kingdom of all the English.
02:02A kingdom of all the English.
02:03A kingdom of all the English.
02:04A kingdom of all the English.
02:05A kingdom of all the English.
02:06A kingdom of all the English.
02:07A kingdom of all the English.
02:08A kingdom of all the English.
02:09A kingdom of all the English.
02:10This is the tale of how the Kingdom of England was created in the Viking Age
02:38by the most remarkable family in British history.
02:45And the third great figure in this story is Athelstan.
02:49But the most surprising thing about him is that when we look for contemporary accounts,
02:54there's almost nothing.
02:58We've come back to the source we followed through this tale, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
03:04The Chronicle tells how King Alfred resisted the Vikings
03:07and created a single kingdom of the old rivals Wessex and Mercia,
03:13a kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.
03:16It tells how his son and daughter expanded the kingdom
03:20and conquered the Viking Midlands and East Anglia.
03:25But when it comes to Athelstan, there's a surprise.
03:29Athelstan's the most powerful ruler that Britain has seen since the Romans,
03:33and you would have expected the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to wax lyrical about these great deeds of the dynasty,
03:40the grandson, after all, of Alfred the Great.
03:42But something very strange happens in this manuscript.
03:47No account is written of the reign of Athelstan.
03:50Only 16 years after Athelstan's death was a new booklet inserted which gives us four facts.
04:00His accession, his death and his wars.
04:04Somebody in Winchester clearly didn't see Athelstan as being quite the legitimate successor
04:12to the throne of the West Saxons.
04:21To find out why, we need to go back to Winchester,
04:26the capital of Wessex, in the last days of Alfred's life.
04:35At that time, Athelstan was Alfred's only grandson,
04:38and just before he died, Alfred knighted him with the symbols of kingship.
04:46Seeing the boy's graceful manners and handsome looks,
04:49Alfred affectionately embraced him and gave him a Saxon sword,
04:55a jewelled scabbard, belt and cloak, in omen of a kingdom.
05:00A poem was presented to the little boy, punning on his name.
05:06Prince, you're called Athelstan, noble stone.
05:11Take this as a happy omen for your life.
05:16You will be a royal rock,
05:18fighting fearsome demons.
05:20But take the holy path of learning, too.
05:26And if peace comes,
05:28I pray that you may seek and God may grant
05:31the promise of your noble name.
05:34But in the Middle Ages, a year was a long time in politics.
05:51After Alfred's death, Athelstan's father, King Edward,
05:54married and had other sons by his queen.
05:58And Athelstan was sent to be brought up by his aunt,
06:01Athelflaed, in Mercia.
06:07Athelstan was brought up at that Mercian court,
06:11and his formative years must have been passed in her orbit.
06:19She would be telling him the stories about her father
06:22and about her education at his court.
06:27I think it's impossible to describe Athelstan's personality
06:31without looking at Athelflaed's input into it.
06:40So Athelstan grew up in Mercia.
06:43He was educated in Latin letters.
06:46He trained to fight and hunt with the Mercian thanes
06:50in the rolling hills of the Forest of Dean.
06:52As a young man, he must have fought in his aunt's campaigns
06:58in the Danelaw, where he earned a name for courage and nerve.
07:11But as he grew up in Mercia,
07:14did Athelstan still think,
07:15despite his father's remarriage,
07:18that he was the true heir to the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons?
07:23Now, remember the care with which Alfred the Great
07:27had tried to ensure that the succession would pass down
07:31peacefully through his descendants.
07:34But look at this.
07:36There's Alfred's son, Edward.
07:37And Edward had at least 14 children
07:41by three different wives,
07:43two of whom were anointed queens.
07:47Here's the sons.
07:48His heir as king of Wessex,
07:51Elfwyrd, who's in his 20s.
07:53The next heir,
07:55Eadwyn, his brother, also in his 20s.
07:58And here in the middle,
08:01Athelstan.
08:03He's the oldest.
08:05He's the son of a lesser consort.
08:09It says here in French at the side
08:12that Athelstan was warlike and courageous
08:15and greatly feared
08:17and the most handsome man that ever lived.
08:22The stage was set
08:23for a typical medieval succession crisis.
08:29And that's exactly what happened.
08:33After Athelflid's death,
08:36King Edward marched into Mercia,
08:38but in 924,
08:39the Mercians revolted against him
08:41and on the campaign,
08:43Edward died near Chester.
08:46And then only days later,
08:49so did his chosen heir,
08:50Athelstan's half-brother, Elfwyrd.
08:53And now the Mercians chose Athelstan as their king.
09:03Here in Winchester,
09:05it must have seemed
09:05it was one piece of bad news after another.
09:09The Mercians are in revolt in the north-west.
09:12The king has died,
09:14suppressing the rebellion.
09:16His heir apparent in Wessex,
09:17King Alfwyrd doesn't even get back home.
09:20He dies mysteriously 16 days later.
09:24Rumours swirling of plots and intrigue.
09:28Murder, maybe.
09:31And then to cap it all,
09:32the Mercians have elected Athelstan
09:35not as their lord,
09:37but as their king.
09:38At that point in the story,
09:42it must have seemed
09:43that the joint kingdom of Wessex
09:45and Mercia created by Alfred the Great
09:47was about to be torn apart.
09:54But to save the family project,
09:56Athelstan now offered a deal.
09:59He wouldn't marry or have heirs.
10:01He'd be a kind of caretaker king.
10:04He's not known ever to have married.
10:06There was a certain way
10:09of avoiding tensions in royal dynasties
10:13in some adult men
10:17renouncing family and heirs
10:21in order to make way
10:23for younger brothers or nephews.
10:25The Franks occasionally tried this.
10:28Kings in Spain in this period
10:29also tried this.
10:31It was an option.
10:32But it still took a year of infighting
10:37before he was accepted in Wessex.
10:42And even then,
10:43there was a plot to blind him
10:45before he was crowned.
10:51No wonder then
10:52that he was strategic
10:54in his choice of coronation place.
10:56He was crowned not in Wessex
11:00or in Mercia
11:01but on the border
11:03between the two
11:04at Kingston-on-Thames.
11:11Kingston had the only bridge
11:13across the Thames
11:14other than London Bridge
11:15up until about 1750, I think.
11:17And so presumably,
11:18the king of Wessex
11:19comes to the edges
11:20of his kingdom
11:22so that he can then
11:24bring his lords over
11:24from Mercia
11:25and begin joining together
11:27all that national story.
11:30Yeah, yeah.
11:30If you're bidding
11:31to be king of all the English
11:33then a place on the boundary
11:34between the two key kingdoms,
11:36the West Saxons
11:37and the Mercians
11:38would be ideal.
11:40Yeah.
11:40Yeah.
11:42He was crowned here
11:43on the 4th of September 925.
11:47It was the first
11:48English coronation.
11:50Tradition said
11:51on a great wooden platform
11:53set up in the marketplace
11:54in front of Kingston Church.
11:59And if you'd been here that day
12:01what you would have seen
12:02was a series of
12:03carefully orchestrated
12:05ritual tableaus
12:07of dramatic scenes
12:08in which the archbishop
12:10and the bishops
12:11anointed him,
12:12gave him the sword,
12:14the sword of justice,
12:15the ring and the rod
12:16and the scepter
12:17and then on his head
12:19they put the crown.
12:20Nathelsand's the first
12:21British monarch in our history
12:23to be portrayed
12:24wearing a crown.
12:25and he was crowned
12:37in the name
12:37of the two peoples
12:39the West Saxons
12:40and the Mercians
12:42for if one kingdom
12:45of England
12:46was ever to emerge
12:47it couldn't happen
12:49without the two of them.
12:50when the ceremonies
12:56were over here
12:57at Kingston
12:57there was a great
12:58coronation banquet
12:59for all the court
13:00overflowing with fine
13:02food and wine
13:02but before the king
13:04left the church
13:05he performed
13:06one last
13:07intimate ritual
13:09in front of the altar
13:11he freed a slave.
13:12In Oroch
13:32I mean this is a book
13:34which Athelstan
13:34seems to have had
13:36with him
13:36at the time
13:37of his coronation.
13:39It's obviously
13:40a book
13:40of great importance to him, and he's used it to record this act of his. It's a good act for a king
13:51to perform at the time of his coronation. The highest and the lowest in the land associated
13:56in the same inscription. That's a nice way to put it, yes. He's keen to get his credit for this,
14:02and it's obviously an act which will benefit Athelstan as much as it will benefit
14:08the person he is freeing. So he'd won the crown. He was 30 years old, and as he believed,
14:17called by God. But he's also a politician, a man with nerve.
14:23But he still faced many threats. Beyond the Humber, Northumbria was ruled by a powerful Viking dynasty,
14:44whose empire stretched across the Irish Sea, to Dublin and the Western Isles.
14:55Wary of Athelstan's warlike reputation, they immediately sent ambassadors. And in New Year 926,
15:03he met them at the old Mercian royal centre of Tamworth. Here, in a great ceremony, he married his
15:12sister to Citrich, the pagan Viking king of Northumbria.
15:21Citrich accepted baptism as part of the deal with Athelstan as his sponsor, his godparent.
15:27Lots of later legends here in Tamworth about this tale. And those beautiful windows up there by
15:33William Morris give you the story. There's Athelstan on the left, giving away his sister.
15:39There she is, Edith in white, receiving a ring from her rather handsome Viking husband-to-be.
15:47Not the grizzled, one-eyed veteran of history. And next to them, the Bishop of Litchfield,
15:53Elna, a central figure in Athelstan's regime. It's a fascinating moment in the story of Viking Age
16:01England. The granddaughter of the most Christian king, Alfred the Great, is marrying the grandson
16:08of Ivor the Boneless, the bloodthirsty Viking who died on campaign in Repton 50 years before,
16:14and was buried with human sacrifice at the graveside. But Athelstan's accepting the facts on the ground.
16:23Scandinavian England is here to stay. And on this spot, Citrich is honoured as a descendant of the
16:31royal line of the race of the Danes.
16:39So Athelstan had begun his long-term plan, after 60 years of war, to bring peace to the Isles of Britain.
16:47Back in Winchester, like a new president, he surrounds himself with his own men, and a think tank from all over Europe.
17:00And it's the people around Athelstan at this moment that are really interesting.
17:04Werewolf the priest, famous Mercian scholar who was part of Alfred the Great's translation team.
17:12Walter Gundlach and Hildwin are German names. Dublitter is an Irish abbot and scholar.
17:20Petrus, a Frankish learned man and poet. This is Athelstan's courtly circle,
17:28his intellectual bodyguard around him in the potentially hostile atmosphere of Winchester.
17:36But looking over his shoulder at that moment is his father's next chosen heir, Prince Edwin.
17:43Edwin Cliton, Prince Atheling Edwin, his half-brother. If Athelstan had agreed not to marry and not to beget
17:55heirs in becoming king, then this is the heir apparent. And Edwin will play a very dramatic role in the story that follows.
18:06For the moment, Athelstan's rule was secure. But the next year, 927, the politics of Britain changed with dramatic speed.
18:20The first two, 3rd century, a heirs in the first six years, the white prince were born.
18:30Centrum in Anarches, a French tribes, in Northumbra.
18:36I believe in the first two, the first one was a German priest.
18:37But the first two, the last two, the father was the a German citizenship.
18:43And the終 of the wedding was the time of the Greek prince.
18:46The Terranians, his father and the three, the man, the king of the mother, the king of the king of the great prince.
18:48The whole country ended up in the other country.
18:49Athelstan, now armed for war across the whole of Britain,
18:54wrote his court poet Petrus, spearheaded by his armour-bearing thanes.
19:04Citrich of Northumbria had rejected the king's sister
19:08and renounced Christianity, but then died.
19:11And when his kinsmen came over from Dublin to claim their kingdom,
19:20Athelstan invaded Northumbria and drove them out.
19:28And now he sends ambassadors to the kings of the Scots
19:32and the Strathclyde Welsh,
19:35calling them to a peace conference in Cumbria.
19:37This is the Eamont Bridge.
19:41This is where Athelstan met Constantine, the king of the Scots,
19:45Owain, the king of the Strathclyde Welsh and the Cumbrians,
19:49and Eldred and Uchtred, the lords of Bamboura,
19:53the Anglo-Saxon rulers of northern Northumbria.
19:56The Anglo-Saxon chronicle mentions kings of Wales too,
19:59the king of Gwent and Howaldar of Diffid, the future lawgiver.
20:03Maybe they came here too.
20:07Here the northern kings acknowledged Athelstan
20:18as the supreme king of Britain.
20:22It was a turning point in British history.
20:25Guided by God-given dreams, as well as by realpolitik,
20:41Athelstan was determined that this would be a Christian empire.
20:45Before the kings parted, they went to a little village called Daca.
20:50So why did Athelstan bring the kings of Britain out to this lonely valley above Oswater?
20:59Well, the answer is that.
21:02Daca was an Anglo-Saxon monastery from the 7th century.
21:10It's mentioned by Bede.
21:12St. Cuthbert was supposed to have performed one of his miracles here.
21:16So they came here because it was a sacred place.
21:20And it was on this spot that they would have performed their solemn oaths against idolatry,
21:27Diffelgeld, and made their pact of peace.
21:30Writing back to the royal family in Winchester, his court poet was jubilant.
21:41Let her wing your way back to the palace.
21:45King Athelstan lives glorious through his deeds.
21:49This England is now complete.
21:52So Athelstan had power, but what he still wanted was legitimacy.
22:13That summer, 927, he sends an embassy to Rome with his archbishop Wolfhelm
22:18and the famous Welsh king, Howaldar.
22:25The new archbishop was to receive his spiritual authority from the pope himself.
22:36And the pope would give his blessing to Athelstan's Christian empire.
22:41The king is fired up now by his own sense of history,
22:47his awareness that he is guiding great events.
22:52The ancient Roman historians had spoken of a tripartite world,
22:57Europe, Africa, and Asia, with Britain beyond the edge.
23:01Now, Athelstan would claim to rule the world of Britain,
23:10a Christian empire with the authority of St Peter.
23:22Athelstan's pan-British embassy to Rome will have spent two or three months here
23:26and then begun the return journey in the new year of 928.
23:31And over the next six years,
23:33a revolution will take place in English government
23:36as far-reaching, if not more so, than the Angevins and the Tudors.
23:41This is the moment for Athelstan's visionary kingdom of all the English.
23:47When the embassy returned, Athelstan held a great Easter council in Exeter.
24:01The sacred flame, he said, has blown across the tripartite world.
24:06In this third year of my reign,
24:09which there is now no doubt is gifted by God.
24:12And so he began his project with laws on charity
24:19and a ferocious clampdown on crime.
24:26And he's already moving fast.
24:30It's as if he thought he didn't have much time
24:32and was desperate to turn his ideas into reality.
24:36No biography has survived for him, as it has for Alfred,
24:44so his story has to be pieced together from fragments,
24:48inscriptions, burned manuscripts.
24:52And one key aspect of his revolution in government
24:55is revealed in an unlikely source, the king's land grants.
24:59Although it's only a land document, I say only,
25:01but it gives us a vision of his kingdom at that moment, doesn't it?
25:05Yes, I think the point about these royal diplomas
25:08is that any one of these on its own is interesting up to a point.
25:14From a historian's point of view,
25:16the interest of these documents is completely transformed
25:19when you put them all together.
25:21Because these charters are dated, because they're localised,
25:27you can begin to see how the king moves
25:30from one part of the country to another.
25:33So, yes, these are the documents
25:35that represent the first flush of enthusiasm
25:38for this new kingdom of the English.
25:40And in this new kingdom,
25:45the king demanded control and wanted feedback,
25:49so he travelled constantly,
25:51holding regular gatherings of local and national leaders.
25:57One of these was held in November 931 at Lifton in Devon.
26:02One of these was held in November 931 at Lifton.
26:32There must be hundreds or so people named in this charter.
26:43One imagines certainly that there would have been
26:45two, three, four hundred people present at the meeting.
26:48Maybe thousands of supporters.
26:50Even more, yes, yes.
26:51And certainly the bishops
26:52are certainly not going to be travelling on their own.
26:57So many hundreds of people needed to be fed
27:00and temporarily housed.
27:02From support staff to the king himself.
27:06We can begin here with Ego Athelstanus.
27:09So you have I Athelstan, king of Britain, he's called there.
27:13Then you have Ego Wolfhelm.
27:16He's the archbishop of Canterbury.
27:19Here in the far west of Devon
27:21were Viking earls from the Danelaw feasting with the kings of Wales.
27:27And then, most interestingly,
27:29you have Ego Howell sub-regulus, Welsh sub-king.
27:35So the Welsh kings have come down to Lifton in Devon in November
27:38and are acknowledging Athelstan as the supreme king of Britain then, Simon.
27:42That is certainly the impression that this charter of Athelstan is creating, yes.
27:48As I say, whether the Welsh would have seen it quite their way is another matter.
27:53The world had changed.
28:03A whole new agenda was on offer,
28:06which was this notion of consensus, of collaboration,
28:09of assemblies as the place where you shape policy together.
28:13It had to be happening in assemblies beyond the court,
28:19in the shires, in the hundreds.
28:22And in these places, landowners and royal agents
28:26communed with each other
28:28and came to share an ideology
28:32which bound the king and his people together
28:35as divinely approved.
28:43So, in the mundane record of the king's journeys,
28:46you can glimpse the growth of English government
28:49and even the origins of parliament.
28:55Lawmaking is one of the most important aspects of assembly functions.
29:03Athelstan makes laws on a large scale.
29:06Chalice, that's fantastic.
29:10There's clearly also a good deal of give and take.
29:13A general discussion between the king and his great men.
29:18There's one instance in one of Athelstan's gore codes
29:21where he says there are complaints about disorder.
29:24And he says,
29:25my councillors have said that I have suffered this too long.
29:29And there's clearly a sense there of give and take.
29:32The councillor's putting up a point,
29:34making a complaint, and the king responding.
29:36He apologises for the state of the nation.
29:46My councillors say I've borne it too long.
29:49But then he sends a messenger,
29:52following on the latest lawmaking session.
29:54We all grew up with the idea that Simon de Montfort is the founder of the English parliament.
30:10But you're suggesting we should look much further back in time.
30:25Legislation, political discussion,
30:30consensual politics,
30:32the sort of thing that goes on in 13th century politics.
30:35And you can trace, I think, a clear line through,
30:38in terms of the history of large assemblies,
30:40straight through from Athelstan to the 13th century parliament.
30:43Of course, a lot changes.
30:45But there is a clear line of continuity.
30:54And to see how it all worked at grassroots,
30:57we've come to a borough built by Alfred the Great,
31:00and especially favoured by Athelstan.
31:04We're just outside the little town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire,
31:08on the northern edge of the West Saxon kingdom in Anglo-Saxon times.
31:13Just over the Avon into Gloucestershire, that's Mercia.
31:17And from at least as far back as the 14th century,
31:20the townsfolk here have believed
31:22that these fields were given to the town by King Athelstan.
31:29And believe it or not,
31:31even today, these fields, known as the King's Heath,
31:35are administered by King Athelstan's court.
31:43To help enforce his laws,
31:47all free men had to swear a solemn oath of loyalty to him.
31:52Oh, yay, oh, yay, oh, yay.
31:55All persons come forward and do your business in a peaceful manner.
31:59Thank you very much.
32:00Thank you very much.
32:02Warden and freemen of Malmesbury,
32:04King Athelstan's feast day court,
32:06was held in the old courthouse on Tuesday 12th June 2012,
32:12before M. Westmacott warden, O. Pike, N.O.J. Pike...
32:17To break your oath was treason to the King.
32:20The warden's oath.
32:24You shall swear that you will well and truly execute
32:27the office of warden of this corporation.
32:29You shall maintain, support and uphold all the rights,
32:33liberties, immunities, privileges and franchises of the corporation.
32:40So Athelstan's subjects were bound by the sworn oath
32:47in village tithings and the courts of Hundred and Shire.
32:51So it's wonderful seeing these ancient English traditions
32:55still in action, isn't it?
32:56Yeah, all of us.
32:57The warden and free burgesses of Malmesbury
32:59have a direct link to Athelstan via the 500 acres
33:03that he gave us in recognition of our assistants
33:07in his fight with the Danes.
33:09So there's the direct link.
33:11You can't get away from that.
33:13The King, in a nutshell, was creating an allegiance
33:17to his person, but most of all to his law,
33:21a key idea in English history.
33:24Athelstan also fixed England's physical frontiers.
33:42Across the Tamar, the Cornish too now became part of England
33:46for the first time.
33:47And 40 years on from Alfred's Viking wars,
33:51Athelstan overhauls his defensive network of boroughs.
33:55He closes some down and turns others
33:58into centres of trade and civic life.
34:03In Exeter, he restored the Roman walls,
34:07laid out streets and housing plots,
34:09encouraging merchants to settle.
34:11But markets need outlets.
34:29Athelstan granted to Exeter,
34:31the old Roman port on the River Ex,
34:34a place, as he put it,
34:35known to the locals as Topper's Hum.
34:40Morning!
34:42Salmon fishermen.
34:44Those boats are for salmon fisheries.
34:47Grant of Topsham to Exeter in the 10th century
34:50mentions these fisheries.
34:51They're still doing it.
34:56Topsham would grow rich on Exeter's trade.
34:59Wool from Devon.
35:01Tin and silver from Cornwall.
35:06So trade came with the revival of the English town.
35:13In Athelstan's time, it was said,
35:16the standard of living started to rise.
35:18There was plenty in the shops.
35:22But markets must have money.
35:25The only authority for the currency now
35:46was the king,
35:47who took a cut of the profits of each mint.
35:50By the end of the 10th century,
35:54nowhere in southern England
35:55was more than 15 miles from a mint.
35:58The English people were getting used to living
36:01in a money economy.
36:11We have here a very nice example from Chester.
36:15In this particular case,
36:17we have the name of the king
36:19surrounding a cross on one face.
36:23And we have him being called
36:24Athelstan Rex Tober.
36:29Athelstan, king of all Britain.
36:31The king of all Britain.
36:32Yes.
36:33And then on this other coin,
36:34which is from Winchester,
36:36we see again this same title.
36:39Athelstan Rex Tober,
36:42king of Totius Britanniae, all Britain.
36:44Completely the other side of the kingdom,
36:46but yet using the exact same title,
36:48and of course the same title
36:50that is used in his charters
36:51and in certain other documents.
36:53The fact that we see it coming through
36:54in both types of source
36:56really does indicate
36:58that someone at the top of the food chain
37:00is issuing a command
37:01that it's got to change,
37:03that we've all got to start singing
37:04from the same hymn sheet
37:05in terms of what we're calling the king.
37:07So Athelstan was a man in a hurry.
37:16His first six years
37:17saw great practical achievements,
37:20but culture and learning
37:21would also play a key role
37:23in nation building.
37:26His grandfather Alfred
37:28had begun the revival of education,
37:31and Athelstan took it
37:32to the next level.
37:36You can't put together
37:38a collection like this
37:39for any other
37:40Anglo-Saxon king.
37:42He obviously liked books,
37:45and he saw books
37:47as a useful tool
37:49for him to make his connections
37:52and to establish his networks
37:53and so on.
37:54And in his books,
37:58you can see too
37:59how learning
37:59was to be a tool of kingship.
38:03Well, here you have
38:05an extraordinary inscription
38:07indicating that
38:09this gospel book
38:10was given by King Athelstan
38:12to the church of Canterbury.
38:15Very fancy titles here.
38:17Athelstan, Anglorum,
38:19Basileus et Curaculus.
38:22This is all fancy words
38:24used in order
38:24to express kingship.
38:27Athelstan, king
38:28of the English
38:30and ruler
38:31of the whole of Britain.
38:34He's king not only
38:35of the English,
38:36but also of the whole
38:37of Britain,
38:38which is an extraordinary claim.
38:44When Athelstan was a boy,
38:46his grandfather
38:47had urged him
38:48to follow the path
38:49of learning.
38:51And his own book
38:52of Psalms hints
38:53at his personal interests
38:55with its added paintings,
38:58its religious calendar
39:00and its private prayers.
39:03The end, perhaps most surprisingly,
39:06series of texts in Greek,
39:08the Apostles' Creed,
39:10the Lord's Prayer,
39:11and so on.
39:14You can get a real sense
39:16of the king
39:17of the king
39:17as an intellectual,
39:18dare one say it.
39:22One writer
39:22he especially admired
39:24was the 7th century saint
39:25Aldhelm,
39:27to whom,
39:28it was said,
39:29Athelstan devoted himself
39:30body and soul.
39:33And this manuscript
39:35of Aldhelm
39:36was written
39:36by one of the king's
39:38scribes.
39:38What you're looking at
39:42is 10th century scholarship.
39:46Almost every word,
39:48every phrase
39:49is being glossed,
39:50i.e. explained
39:52and commented on.
39:54And through this manuscript,
39:56there are thousands of these.
40:00And perhaps the choice of text
40:02also tells us
40:04about the unmarried king himself.
40:06its message
40:08that self-control,
40:10purity of mind,
40:12chastity,
40:13is a victory for a man,
40:15as great
40:16as victory in battle.
40:20That even a warrior hero
40:22must fight
40:24his inner demons.
40:29The king spent Christmas 932
40:32at Amesbury
40:33in Wiltshire.
40:34And then,
40:37out of the blue,
40:38comes this.
40:45In this year,
40:46933,
40:47King Athelstan
40:48ordered his brother Edwin
40:50to be drowned at sea.
40:52Many later legends
41:00grew up
41:00about the drowning
41:01of Prince Edwin.
41:03It was said
41:04that Athelstan
41:06had been turned
41:06against his brother
41:08by a wicked cup-bearer,
41:10that the counsellors
41:11of England
41:12had tried Edwin
41:13in London
41:14and drowned him
41:14off London Bridge.
41:16And even better,
41:17that Athelstan
41:18had deliberately
41:19and cruelly
41:20had Edwin
41:21set afloat
41:22in the middle
41:23of the sea
41:24in a rotten boat
41:25with no oars.
41:30What we know
41:31is that Edwin
41:32was buried
41:32at Saint-Bartin
41:33in Flanders.
41:35And there,
41:35a chronicler
41:36told how
41:37King Edwin
41:38had drowned
41:39at sea,
41:40fleeing across
41:41the channel
41:41after upheavals
41:43in his kingdom.
41:51Later legends
41:53said that Edwin
41:54had been unjustly
41:55accused of rebellion,
41:57that afterwards,
41:58weighed down by guilt,
41:59Athelstan
42:00did public penance.
42:03Oh, that's magnificent,
42:05isn't it?
42:06This is beautiful.
42:07Oh.
42:08And that he founded
42:09a church
42:10where prayers
42:11would be offered
42:11for his brother's soul
42:13and his own sins.
42:15And the foundation
42:16of all of this
42:17obviously was
42:18the original church
42:19that burnt down,
42:20founded by Athelstan here.
42:22So King Athelstan
42:23in 934
42:24founded the church here,
42:26which was then
42:27called Middleton,
42:28as a penance
42:29for the death
42:30of his brother,
42:31who he believed
42:31was plotting against him.
42:33And he felt
42:34so guilty about it.
42:36The legend is
42:36that he actually
42:37built the church
42:38here on this site.
42:40And as we can see
42:42in the paintings
42:43very much
42:43that he is offering
42:44the church
42:45to the abbot.
42:47Possibly Athelstan
42:48had behaved
42:48in ways perhaps
42:50which he then regretted.
42:51Strangely enough,
42:53in the Irish law codes,
42:55there is a punishment
42:56of being set to sea
43:00in a boat
43:01with no oars
43:02is actually
43:03a legal punishment
43:04for homicide
43:05of brothers,
43:06amazingly.
43:07And it's
43:09obviously a way
43:11in which you don't
43:12want to have
43:12the blood on your hands
43:13of actually executing somebody.
43:15Yes, almost like
43:16the worst way.
43:17So you set them to sea
43:18and if God allows them
43:19to come back to land,
43:21then fine.
43:22If not,
43:23it's done with.
43:24So there's an eerie shadow
43:26behind the tale,
43:27isn't there really?
43:27Absolutely, yeah.
43:28So the succession crisis
43:35after his father's death
43:37had come back
43:38to haunt him.
43:41Athelstan's hard-won authority
43:43had been shaken.
43:50The next spring,
43:52Constantine,
43:53king of the Scots,
43:54renounced his allegiance.
43:56And Athelstan now
44:01raised a great army
44:03to punish Constantine
44:04and bring him
44:05back into the fold.
44:079.34,
44:10here for Athelstan
44:11Cooning
44:12in on Scotland.
44:15From Winchester
44:16on the 28th of May,
44:18they rode to Nottingham
44:19and then up
44:21into Northumbria.
44:22On the 1st of July,
44:39as the English fleet
44:40moved up the East Coast,
44:42the land army
44:43stopped at Chesterless Street
44:44on the River Weir,
44:46the shrine
44:47of St. Cuthbert.
44:48Athelstan came here
44:52with his
44:52grand army
44:54from all over Britain.
44:56He came into
44:57the little church
44:57on this spot
44:58and the priests
44:59opened St. Cuthbert's coffin
45:01so the king
45:03could actually
45:03touch the preserved body
45:05and wrap it
45:07in beautiful
45:08embroideries
45:09that he'd brought
45:10with him.
45:13Athelstan's grandfather,
45:14Alfred,
45:15had had a vision
45:16of St. Cuthbert
45:16in his moment
45:18of direst danger
45:19in the marshes
45:20of Somerset.
45:21Cuthbert had prophesied
45:23that Alfred's descendants
45:24would become kings
45:25of all England
45:26and rulers of Britain.
45:27That had now happened
45:28and Athelstan
45:30had come to this place
45:31to say thank you
45:33and to ask the saint
45:34for his help
45:36in the wars
45:37that lay ahead.
45:38And then he invaded
45:42Scotland
45:43plundering the lands
45:45of the Scots
45:46and the Picts.
45:48A Northumbrian chronicle
45:49says they attacked
45:50Dunfodder
45:51Dunotar Castle
45:54on the coast
45:55south of Aberdeen.
45:59In early August
46:00they reached the shores
46:02of the Moray Firth
46:03and the fleet
46:04went on to Caithness
46:05the northernmost point
46:07of the British mainland.
46:11There'd been nothing
46:12like it
46:12since the expedition
46:14of the Roman general
46:15Agricola.
46:24Faced by such a show
46:26of force
46:26Constantine
46:27submitted to Athelstan
46:29and came back
46:30with him
46:31into England.
46:37But across the British Isles
46:41voices of opposition
46:43were growing.
46:45In Wales
46:46a poet now called
46:48for the King of Kings
46:49to be overthrown
46:50and for the English
46:52to be driven
46:53out of Britain
46:54where they had come
46:56as landless wanderers
46:57400 years before.
46:59It is a prophetic poem
47:03in which it is hoped
47:05that it would be
47:06an alliance
47:07between the peoples
47:08of what I suppose
47:10we would term
47:10the fringes
47:12of the Isles of Britain
47:13to push the Alhmin,
47:15the English,
47:16out of England.
47:18The idea is that
47:19this alliance
47:20of Britons,
47:21Vikings
47:22and the Irish
47:23will push them
47:24out again
47:24and make them
47:25once more
47:26the Romers
47:27of the high seas.
47:28A chymod Cymru
47:40a gwir dilyn
47:41gweddil i werddon
47:43môn a phrydin
47:44a corniw
47:47a chludwys
47:48a chynnwys
47:49genin
47:49at porion
47:50fydbrothion
47:51pan di orfin.
47:55A muse foretells
47:56the men of Wessex
47:58will see England
47:59burn.
48:02When the great
48:03battle comes
48:04their dead
48:05will be packed
48:06too tight
48:07to fall.
48:12And in summer
48:13937
48:14the moment
48:15came.
48:18That August
48:19a huge Viking
48:20fleet left Dublin
48:21under King
48:22Anlaf Guthrison
48:23whose kinsmen
48:24Athelstan
48:25had driven
48:25from York
48:26ten years
48:27before.
48:29The Scots
48:30and Strathclyde
48:31Welsh
48:31came overland
48:32under King
48:33Constantine.
48:36Northumbrian
48:37sources say
48:38the Viking
48:38fleet
48:39of 615
48:40ships
48:41landed
48:42in the Humber.
48:44There
48:44in their chief
48:45city of York
48:46the Northumbrians
48:47joined the invaders.
48:50And suddenly
48:51Athelstan's
48:52northern empire
48:53had collapsed.
48:54The axis of the war
49:03was probably
49:04the Great North Road.
49:09The Allies
49:10now began to
49:11devastate the lands
49:12to the south
49:13to draw Athelstan
49:15to them.
49:15and that autumn
49:18you have to imagine
49:19columns of refugees
49:21fleeing away
49:22from the smoke
49:23as the Allies
49:25the Scots
49:25and the Norse-Irish
49:27devastated the land
49:28south of the Humber.
49:29They ravaged everything
49:36with incessant
49:37plundering raids
49:38driving out
49:40the peasants
49:41and setting fire
49:42to their fields.
49:44Such was
49:45the barbarians
49:46mounted strength.
49:51As autumn
49:52turned towards winter
49:53Athelstan
49:54still didn't move
49:55and now the moneyers
49:57in Nottingham
49:57and York
49:58stopped putting
49:59the king's name
50:00on their coins
50:00uncertain how events
50:02would turn out.
50:06And in England
50:07voices were raised
50:08against the king.
50:11In his youth
50:12he was fearless
50:13and bold
50:13it was said
50:14but he now let
50:15precious time
50:16slip by
50:17in inaction
50:18while they destroyed
50:21everything.
50:32But still
50:34Athelstan
50:35refused to be drawn.
50:39A later legend
50:40says that he came back
50:42to the little chapel
50:43of St Catherine
50:44at Milton
50:45to pray for God's help.
50:48And as for what
50:51Athelstan
50:52might have spoken
50:53on this spot
50:54at that moment
50:55well a prayer
50:56survives
50:57attributed to him
50:58a prayer before battle
50:59in which he asked God
51:01to let him
51:02fight well
51:03and act
51:05manfully
51:05and he begs
51:07that his enemies
51:07will be destroyed
51:08like Pharaoh's army
51:10before the people
51:12of Israel.
51:13And at the end
51:14of the prayer
51:14were a series
51:16of dreadful
51:17maledictions
51:18against the hostile
51:19king and his kingdom.
51:21Tear them apart
51:22O Lord
51:23smash them
51:25into dust.
51:27Aggression
51:28anger
51:29sense of betrayal
51:30whoever composed
51:32that prayer
51:33sounds as if
51:34he was contemplating
51:35a fight
51:35to the death.
51:42Alone in his
51:43private chapel
51:44he prayed
51:45on his most sacred
51:46relic
51:47a fragment
51:48of the true cross
51:50set in a rock crystal
51:52meditating on his past sins
51:57and the sins
51:58which would inevitably
51:59come with the slaughter
52:01of thousands
52:02in war.
52:06Such were the tensions
52:07between being an Anglo-Saxon
52:09warrior king
52:10and a pious
52:12Christian man.
52:15There's a later
52:16tradition that
52:17Athelstan wore
52:18his cross relic
52:19around his neck
52:20in his battles
52:20and literally
52:22arming his soul
52:24and protecting
52:25his body
52:26with one of the most
52:27potent relics
52:29in the whole
52:30of Christendom.
52:31Then with the armies
52:39of Wessex
52:39and Mercia
52:40Athelstan
52:41attacked.
52:44Athelstan
52:45König
52:45Erle
52:46Drichten
52:47Berna
52:48Berkjeva
52:49and his
52:49brother
52:50Erk
52:50Elder
52:52Langnetir
52:53Slogan
52:54at
52:54Satshe
52:54Swerda
52:55Edjum
52:56in
52:56Bebrunnan
52:57Burg.
53:01Nowherez
53:01Wal
53:02Mare
53:02on
53:03this
53:03Eklan
53:03Avre
53:04yet
53:05a
53:05folk
53:06gets
53:06your
53:06fillet
53:06beforran
53:07this
53:07um
53:08Swerda
53:09Edjum.
53:29But where
53:30Brunan
53:30Bo
53:31was
53:31is still
53:32a mystery.
53:35We'll never
53:36know for sure
53:37what happened
53:38in 937
53:39but my guess
53:42is that it
53:42was on this
53:43stretch
53:44of this road
53:45that the
53:46great war
53:47of the 10th
53:48century
53:48came to
53:49its climax.
53:50The news
54:06spread across
54:07the northern
54:08world.
54:10The battle
54:11was immense,
54:12lamentable and
54:13horrible,
54:14they said in
54:15Ulster.
54:15It was a
54:17black day
54:17for the
54:18Scots,
54:18they said,
54:19more savage
54:20than anything
54:21on record.
54:23He smashed
54:24those fears
54:24kings,
54:25wrote a
54:25Frankish
54:26poet,
54:27and by
54:27God's will
54:28trod on
54:29their proud
54:30necks.
54:30There were
54:34those who'd
54:35criticised his
54:36war leadership
54:37but as one of
54:38his courtiers
54:39wrote long
54:40afterwards,
54:41he was
54:42experienced
54:43and far
54:44sighted
54:44and very
54:46hard to
54:46overcome
54:46in any
54:47conflict
54:47and so
54:49it had
54:49proved.
54:54And even
54:5550 years
54:55on,
54:56the English
54:56still
54:57called it
54:57the Great
54:58War.
55:06Athelstan
55:07had saved
55:08his crown
55:08but in
55:09his books
55:10are perhaps
55:11hints of
55:11the troubling
55:12aftermath
55:12for him
55:13as a
55:13Christian.
55:16They contain
55:17inscriptions
55:18in which
55:18Athelstan
55:19A.
55:20records
55:21that he's
55:22the donor
55:22of the
55:22book
55:23but B.
55:23then,
55:24yes,
55:24asks
55:25anybody
55:26looking
55:26at the
55:27inscription
55:27to bear
55:28him
55:29in mind
55:30in their
55:30prayers.
55:34You who
55:35come after
55:36me,
55:37I ask
55:37you for
55:38a moment
55:38to pray
55:39for my
55:39soul.
55:41In
55:41future
55:41times,
55:43remember
55:43me
55:43and forgive
55:45me my
55:45sins.
55:55the
55:58war had
56:01united
56:01the
56:02West
56:02Saxons
56:02and
56:03Mercians
56:03in a
56:04great
56:04national
56:04achievement
56:05though
56:06it would
56:06be a
56:07while
56:07yet
56:07before
56:07the
56:07Northumbrians
56:08felt
56:09part of
56:09a new
56:10England.
56:11As for
56:11the Scots
56:12and the
56:12Welsh,
56:13they are
56:13still
56:14negotiating
56:14their
56:15relationship
56:15with
56:16Athelstan's
56:17successes.
56:17He'd
56:21started
56:22as a
56:22compromise
56:22candidate,
56:24a
56:24caretaker
56:24king,
56:25but he
56:26had carried
56:26through
56:27the
56:27family
56:27plan
56:28of
56:28his
56:28grandfather
56:29Alfred,
56:30the
56:30creation
56:30of an
56:31English
56:31kingdom
56:32with
56:33governance
56:33and
56:34justice,
56:35law
56:36and
56:36learning,
56:38shires,
56:39towns
56:39and workable
56:41institutions.
56:46He
56:47had done
56:47as his
56:48grandfather
56:48asked
56:49him.
56:50He'd
56:50followed
56:51the path
56:51of
56:51wisdom
56:52and yet
56:53like the
56:53old
56:53pagan
56:54heroes
56:54fought
56:55with
56:56all
56:56his
56:56might
56:56against
56:58the
56:58demons.
57:02As a
57:02man,
57:03it was
57:03said,
57:03he was
57:04affable
57:04and
57:04courteous
57:05and
57:06beloved
57:06by his
57:07people
57:07who
57:07admired
57:08his
57:08courage
57:08and
57:09humility.
57:11But
57:11he was
57:12like a
57:12thunderbolt
57:13to his
57:13enemies
57:14by his
57:14invincible
57:15steadfastness.
57:17Athelstan
57:27died in
57:27939,
57:29in his
57:29mid-40s,
57:30maybe worn
57:31out by
57:31the job.
57:33An Irish
57:33writer called
57:34him the
57:35roof tree
57:36of the
57:36honour
57:37of the
57:37western
57:38world.
57:40Athelstan's
57:41funeral took
57:42place
57:42very end
57:43of October
57:43or early
57:44November
57:44939,
57:46and he
57:46was buried
57:46here in
57:47Malmesbury,
57:49close to
57:50his personal
57:51saint,
57:52Aldhelm.
57:54He'd
57:54reigned for
57:5514 years
57:56only,
57:57but he'd
57:58set a path
57:59for the future,
58:00building on
58:01what his
58:01grandfather and
58:02his father and
58:03aunt had done.
58:04He'd
58:05made real
58:05the England
58:07that Alfred
58:08had dreamed.
58:08And for
58:09all the
58:10ups and
58:10downs of
58:11our
58:11history
58:11ever
58:11since,
58:12Athelstan's
58:13visionary
58:14kingdom of
58:15the
58:15English
58:16would
58:16endure.
58:18And of
58:18course,
58:18it still
58:19does.
58:19things.
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