On the 1100th anniversary of King Athelstan becoming King of Mercia, some snippets from my recent Zoom talk with readers

The death of King Edward (the Elder), 17th July 924

17th July saw the anniversary of the death of Edward the Elder, who was Athelstan’s father.

We don’t know why Edward was in Mercia at the time of his death, although this is only recorded in the C and D versions of the Anglo Saxon Chronicles, always deemed to be more Mercian in their outlook by scholars of the era than other surviving versions. I highly recommend Pauline Stafford’s book on the writing of the ASC, and you can read more about the ASC recensions here.

We don’t know why Edward died, although it was potentially quite sudden. Was he wounded in battle? Was he unwell – the fact his oldest son with his second wife dies only 16 days later (the 16 days is provided by the D version of the ASC) at Oxford might suggest a contagion. Admittedly, it might also suggest that Ælfweard was murdered by those loyal to Athelstan, to enable him to also claim Wessex but there is no mention of this in any surviving source material. Alternatively, it might point to a deadly war with ‘someone.’

Who was Edward the Elder (899-924)

So, who was Edward the Elder? He was the younger brother of Æthelflæd, famously known as the Lady of Mercia, as well as the son of King Alfred. He seems to have ‘stolen’ the kingdom of Mercia from his niece Ælfwynn, who was intended to rule there after her mother’s death in June 918. Perhaps Edward was an unwelcome presence in Mercia. It’s been suggested he might have been putting down either a Mercian rebellion, perhaps orchestrated by Athelstan, or that Edward was fighting the enemies of the Saxons – no doubt the Viking raiders – at the time of his death.

King of the Mercians

We are then told by the D version of the ASC that Athelstan was chosen as king by the Mercians.

So, a few important things to highlight – he was chosen as king, but only by the Mercians even though his father was ruling Wessex and Mercia.

Despite very popular portrayals of England at this time, we are still very much looking at the kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria, (and of course Jorvik), so not ‘England’ at all. Edward the Elder did try to rule both Mercia and Wessex at the same time after his sister’s death. How successful he was at that is very much open to debate. Certainly, he has been very much relegated behind the achievements of his father and his son (and his sister). It’s not always that easy to study his reign in depth due to the lack of surviving charter evidence. There is also a debate about how ‘much’ ruling Æthelflæd and Æthelred did in Mercia? Was their kingship under a Wessex banner?

But to return to Athelstan. Was he immediately declared king of Mercia on 18^th July 924 or did it take longer? We don’t know the answer to this.

A beguiling suggestion by historian Jayakumar is that Athelstan might have been marked to succeed by his grandfather King Alfred in Mercia, not in Wessex. This is intriguing – prior to this we see fathers and sons ‘sharing’ the kingship of Wessex and then Kent, when it was taken back from the Mercians in the 820s/830s. And indeed, while Mercian, Kent was often ruled by an offshoot member of the Mercian ruling family as well.

Who was Athelstan?

So, who was this Athelstan, who became king of Mercia in 924?

The oldest son of Edward the Elder, but who was his mother?

It’s been suggested his mother might have been Mercian, and this also made him acceptable for the Mercians to declare him as king- but it’s impossible to determine more about her. We don’t even know her name, although it’s suggested that it was Ecgwynn. She was soon replaced, either because of her death or because Edward, on becoming king of Wessex, needed to cement his position through marriage with a powerful ealdormanic family. Lady Ælfflæd was Edward’s second wife.

Later discussions abound about Athelstan’s suitability to become king of Wessex, with many casting doubt on the union, but it is evident that Alfred believed the union was a lawful one, and his grandson would one day become king, although of where, we don’t know.

Equally, we don’t actually know when Edward’s second marriage occurred, was it before or after his father’s death?

Athelstan’s early life

Athelstan and his younger half-brother, Ælfweard, who we must assume was the oldest son born to Edward and his second wife, begin to attest charters in 901 both as filius regis although Ælfweard is named above Athelstan despite being younger. 

Athelstan attests eleven of his father’s charters (Sawyer, P.H. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon charters: An annotated list and bibliography, rev. Kelly, S.E., Rushforth, R., (2022). http://www.esawyer.org.uk/ S365, S366, S371, S375, S376, S377, S378, S379, S381, S382, S383), Ælfweard only eight, but again, the number is still small and so may not be representative – in 901, Athelstan witnesses 2 charters, but Ælfweard only one.

Only three of the eleven charters that Athelstan witnesses under his father are deemed to be authentic, and only one of those witnessed by Ælfweard and Athelstan together which is dated to 901, when they were both young children. This would have been very early in Edward’s reign, when his cousin, Æthelwold, was still alive and contesting the rulership of Wessex, something that wasn’t resolved until the decisive Battle of the Holme, in either 901 or 902. Edward may have wanted to labour the point that he was the father to two potential male heirs, or æthelings. (His brother, Æthelweard is also termed filius regis, and so Edward might have been highlighting that if something did befall him, he had a brother who could also succeed him, as opposed to two young children.)

However, there is a large gap in the charter evidence for Edward the Elder in the middle of his reign, and so it is difficult to track any developments. 

But with all that said, I don’t find Athelstan’s charter witnessing very helpful when trying to determine his place at the Wessex royal court at this time, his position as a young man or even how he got on with his father’s second wife (as well as his third wife) and her many, many children, who would bedevil him when he became king. 

Was Athelstan raised in Mercia by his aunt and uncle?

The fact Athelstan was declared king of Mercia does seem to corroborate a statement made by William of Malmesbury, in the later Gesta Regum Anglorum, or The History of the English Kings, that Athelstan was raised in Mercia by his aunt and uncle, alongside his full birth sister, who may have been called Edith.

Or, it could be that his mother was Mercian. It’s frustratingly difficult to find explanations when events are merely told us as supposed ‘fact,’ and William of Malmesbury’s assertion has been little questioned, other than by historian David Dumville, even though it dates to two centuries after the events. It seems to be the ‘easy’ explanation as to why Athelstan became king of Mercia after his father’s death.

What was happening in Wessex?

Ælfweard, his younger half-brother, was declared king, until his death, 16 days after his father.

How did Athelstan become king of Wessex?

So, once he was chosen as Mercia’s king, how did he then become king of Wessex on the death of Ælfweard so soon after that of Edward?

This period is as equally hazy as what happened to make Athelstan king of Mercia.

But, after Ælfweard’s death, there is another son of Edward’s second marriage who could have become king, Edwin. As could the sons of Edward’s third wife, Lady Eadgifu, who were very young at the time, perhaps no more than one and three years old. 

Why Athelstan was chosen is difficult to rationalise, especially if the Wessex witan were so uneasy with him. Some suggest he reached an agreement with Lady Eadgifu (his father’s third wife) that her sons would be his heirs. Others think there was a period of unease where Wessex was kingless. We have no explanation for Edwin being overlooked, and certainly, it seems he went on to cause his older half-brother problems. We have reports of Edwin’s death in 933 – apparently from drowning, but it seems likely, it was some sort of rebellion against his half brother, the king. The Gesta Abbatum S. Bertini Sithiensium, reports his burial by his cousin in Flanders. 

I find this period quite interesting as by now, another Eadgifu, a half sister of Athelstan, who had been married to King Charles III of the West Franks, might have been in Wessex. She had a young son, Louis, but Charles had been usurped and imprisoned and certainly Louis was at the Wessex court when his grandfather died. It’s possible Eadgifu was as well. Would she not have supported her full brother against Athelstan claiming the kingship? Equally, we don’t know if Edwin’s mother was still alive. It is all very perplexing.

What we do know is that Athelstan underwent his coronation in September 925, so over a year after his father’s and half-brother’s death. The coronation took place at Kingston upon Thames. This delay has been interpreted as showing he met resistance in Wessex to his rule, but it might not have been that unusual. His father’s coronation was not immediate, although, admittedly, his father was faced with the rebellion of Æthelwold, his cousin and the surviving son of Alfred’s older brother, Æthelred I. Alfred and his brother seem to have reached an accord about the succession before Æthelred I’s death, and Alfred then rode roughshod over it. 

A coronation with a crown?

There is some discussion about whether the surviving Coronation ordo (ceremony) was devised for Athelstan or not, but he was crowned with a crown and not a helmet, as earlier kings had been. We have a famous image of Athelstan, (we only have two contemporary/near-contemporary images of the tenth century kings) presenting a book to St Cuthbert, and in this image, he is shown wearing a crown. This was a departure from earlier ceremonies.

 

For more suggestions, and my fictional recreation of how Athelstan became king of Mercia, Wessex and the English, do check out my books, Kingmaker (the story of Lady Eadgifu), and King of Kings (which begins with the coronation of King Athelstan).

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle quotations from M Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.