Confusingly, Athelstan the Ealdorman shares the same name as King Athelstan, a fact I allow the pair to find amusing because of the uncertainty it causes.
Athelstan is the son of an ealdorman, and one of four brothers, although one has already died by the events of Kings of War. Athelstan, Eadric and Æthelwald are held in high regard by King Athelstan. In time, all of them would become ealdormen.
Ealdorman Athelstan of the East Angles would become so powerfulthat he’d earn the epithet of ‘The Half-King’, and his family was influential throughout the tenth-century, and if you’ve read others of my books – especially those concerning Lady Elfrida, England’s first crowned queen – you’ll know they cause a lot of problems.
In my version, Athelstan is married to Lady Ælfwynn, the cousin of King Athelstan, a suggestion that isn’t widely accepted, but is certainly a possibility, thus making him a member of King Athelstan’s extended family.
His epithet, the Half-King could have arisen because he was indeed married to the king’s cousin (under Athelstan, Edmund and Eadred). If this is the case, and it’s impossible to prove, then Ælfwynn, as the wife of Ealdorman Athelstan, had four sons, Æthelwold, Æthelwine, Æthelsige and Ælfwold, and these sons would be friends and enemies of the kings of England in later years. She might also have been given the fostering of the orphaned, and future King Edgar, which would also have made these men the future king’s foster brothers.
‘he [Athelstan Half-King] bestowed marriage upon a wife, one Ælfwynn by name, suitable for his marriage bed as much as by the nobility of her birth as by the grace of her unchurlish appearance. Afterwards she nursed and brought up with maternal devotion the glorious King Edgar, a tender boy as yet in the cradle. When Edgar afterwards attained the rule of all England, which was due to him by hereditary destiny, he was not ungrateful for the benefits he had received from his nurse. He bestowed on her, with regal munificence, the manor of Weston, which her son, the Ealdorman, afterwards granted to the church of Ramsey in perpetual alms for her soul, when his mother was taken from our midst in the natural course of events.’ Edington, S and Others, Ramsey Abbey’s Book of Benefactors Part One: The Abbey’s Foundation, (Hakedes, 1998) pp.9-10
Even if Athelstan Half King wasn’t married to the daughter of Lady Æthelflæd of Mercia, it seems he was married to an Ælfwynn. He was a powerful man, building a dynasty, and also part of a powerful dynasty. His father was an ealdorman, and so was he, and all of his three brothers. Between them, they must often have been found at the court of the king in the tenth-century. Athelstan was the ealdorman of East Anglia, his older brother, Ælfstan, one of the ealdormen of Mercia (930-934) before his death, while Eadric was an ealdorman of Wessex (942-949), and Æthelwald was an ealdorman of Kent (940-946). But, it is Athelstan who built himself a dynasty and remained in his position for twenty-four years from c.932-956.
(See this article for more details. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44510619)
Read Kings of War now
Meet Olaf Gothfrithson, king of the Dublin Norse
Check out the Brunanburh Series page for more information about the historical characters featured in Kings of War.
MJ Porter 
2 thoughts on “Meet the new characters in Kings of War, Athelstan the Ealdorman”