Ignored and unfairly so - King Athelstan

Time to rehabilitate England's first king and certainly one of its greatest

There’s a reason why I’ve named my blog after King Athelstan.

I first started getting interested in Anglo-Saxon history roughly ten years ago. I’ve always been interested in social science topics, and this was just a natural evolution.

My initial grounding in this field was seeing the documentaries of the great Michael Wood. His series of the late 1970s - In Search of the Dark Ages - focused on Anglo-Saxon history and prime figures such as Kings Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Athelred the Unready, and William the Conqueror. His eloquent manner, in discussing points for the layman to understand, made it so engaging.

The King Athelstan episode struck a chord with me.

The reason for this has been that I had never been taught much about him before. Alfred the Great, Offa, and William the Conqueror were all rightfully noted kings in their own rights.

But Athelstan was the first king to claim rule over all Anglo-Saxon, and thus the first King of all the English - or king of England. He also secured overlordship over the Scots and Welsh, and at that point was the most powerful ruler in the British Isles since the Roman Emperors.

But he hasn’t been taught much in schools, and the Anglo-Saxon period generally hasn’t been well-communicated in British education.

I’ve often thought this was odd. Teaching children history should be about talking about the key formative points of the culture they live in. Not only was Athelstan the first king of England, he helped shape England’s dominance over Wales and Scotland, arguably lasting until the current day.

I don’t know about the history teaching in France - though I’d imagine Charlemagne, Pepin the Short, Charles the Bald, and Louis the Pious would be parts of the curriculum as formative kings of early France.

It should be time that King Athelstan was promoted a lot more in history education, as a prime king of the Anglo-Saxon period.

This is how I propose how Anglo-Saxon history is taught:

• Focusing on the formative points in this regard. This can be the Roman withdrawal, Hengist and Horsa, the rise of the Heptarchy, Great Heathen Army, Alfred the Great, etc.

• Highlight the prime figures in the early 10th century, such as King Edward the Elder, Lady Athelflead, and Kings Edmund and Eadred. They all, like Athelstan, played primary roles in the formation of England as a singular kingdom. Edmund and Eadred, Athelstan’s half-brothers via Edward the Elder, were his successors as king of the newly unified England.

• An England Day as either a national holiday, or a themed day with a hashtag, on 12th July. Athelstan proclaimed himself King of the English on this date, where he gained the submission of the Kings of Scots, Strathclyde and Deuherbarth in Wales. This can raise awareness of a key formative part of English and British history.

• A museum or visitor event, possibly in Winchester (the Wessex royal capital) or Malmesbury (where King Athelstan’s tomb currently sits). These would be fitting sites, given the importance they held in Athelstan’s lifetime and reign.

The same can apply for Athelstan’s immediate successors and predecessors. These can not only boost tourism and local economies, but create pride and awareness of key figures in formative English history.

Maybe this would be a purist view - but history should about the teaching of not just what happened. But why it happened, and the relevance of such events. Medieval history in our country has been slanted towards the Normans. Granted, the Normans did signify a prime shift in English and British history. But the bias towards them has been due to historiographers who were descended from Normans. This attitude presupposes that the Anglo-Saxons achieved little, and the Normans “civilised” England, which is false on both counts. The fact the Normans saw England has a prime prize is testament to the legacy of the Anglo-Saxons.

So this is why King Athelstan is the feature of this blog.

It’s my tribute to a great and unfairly neglected king.