Who was the first king of England?
Scholars say Aethelstan was likely the first king of England. But the story of his rise to power is complex.
Scholarly consensus positions Aethelstan as the first true king of England. But what makes a king? Is it authority over people? Over land? Is it some combination of the two?
These are some of the key questions in assessing when and why any monarchy develops. At the same time, these same questions often serve to complicate the identification of the first king of any realm. We need not look further than England to understand why.
Aethelstan was crowned King of the Anglo-Saxons in 925 A.D. However, understanding the other contenders for that title—and the history of the disparate kingdoms that became England—adds layers of complexity to answering the deceptively simple question: who was the first king of England?
Establishing a realm for a king
To really begin to locate the first king of England, one must start with the Angles. The name England, after all, derives from the Old English word Englaland, literally “land of the Angles.”
The arrival of these Germanic tribes to what was formerly the Roman province Britannia took place during the 5th century A.D. Alongside Jutes, Saxons, and Frisians, the Angles established settlements in southeast and east England through the 6th century.
(A journey along Hadrian’s Wall can be like taking a walk through Roman-era Britannia.)
With time, Germanic language and culture melded with existing Romano-British practices and traditions. By 600 A.D., individual kingdoms took shape throughout the British Isles.
These Germanic kingdoms were formed in accordance with peoples living in an area, as opposed to physical boundaries or borders. In time, smaller kingdoms coalesced to become larger ones, and what’s been called the Heptarchy emerged.
While the Heptarchy is a vast oversimplification of a complex social, political, and religious setting in England, it was built of seven kingdoms: Kent, Sussex, East Anglia, Northumbria, Essex, Wessex, and Mercia.
Each major kingdom included minor kingdoms with leaders of their own, many of whom vied for power within the larger sphere of influence. Rule was established and maintained through reciprocal relationships based in loyalty and protection, as well as an economic system contingent upon coordinated dues and services.
Contenders for the king of England
Major kingdoms in England competed for superiority among themselves, eventually resulting in a struggle that revolved around Mercia dominating the other kingdoms through much of the 8th century.
This resembled what Bede described in his Ecclesiastical History—completed in 731 A.D.—as a ruler who “held sway” over peoples outside his own kingdom. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a history of the Anglo-Saxons created in the 9th century, used the term bretwalda to represent this concept, applying it retroactively to Anglo-Saxon kings who ruled as early as the late 5th century.
(The Sutton Hoo cache is a time capsule of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon life.)
Mercia’s hegemony shifted during the reign of King Eghbert of Wessex (r. 802-839 A.D.). Under King Eghbert, Wessex defeated the Mercians at the battle of Ellendon in 825 A.D., after which the major kingdoms acknowledged his supremacy.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle identified King Eghbert as a bretwalda (again with the gift of hindsight), which serves as the crux of his candidacy for first king of England.
One additional factor influenced King Eghbert’s contention for the distinction as England’s first king. Where Mercia had struggled with the idea of peaceful succession, Wessex succeeded.
After Eghbert’s death, his son, Aethelwulf (d. 850 A.D.) ascended to the throne. A son ascending to the throne upon his father’s death infused the principle of hereditary succession in Wessex.
Following King Aethelwulf’s death, three of his sons served as King of Wessex, ultimately leading to the accession of a fourth in 871 A.D. This was Alfred, another considered contender for the first King of England.
(Here’s what life in medieval Europe was really like)
Alfred, the unlikely king
Alfred was never supposed to rule Wessex. When his older brother Aethelred died while campaigning against Scandinavian marauders, Alfred became king. As King of Wessex, Alfred continued defending his kingdom from what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle termed the “Great Heathen Army.”
Comprising Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, the Great Heathen Army first arrived in East Anglia in 865 A.D. and, within a decade, the only kingdom they left standing was Wessex.
After defeating Scandinavian forces at the Battle of Edington in 878 A.D., Alfred entered into a peace agreement with their leader, Guthrum, formally establishing a boundary between Wessex and the Viking-controlled areas. The latter came to be known as the Danelaw.
(Just how bad was Bad King John?)
However, this permanent Scandinavian presence to the north, as well as continued Viking raids and incursions, prompted Alfred to take steps to secure the kingdom. He reformed the military, established defensive settlements called burhs, and established a navy to defend the coasts of Wessex from attacks.
Alongside these efforts, Alfred undertook intellectual activities that have been credited with helping to create the cultural and political identity of England.
All of this—and the designation of Alfred as “King of the Anglo-Saxons” in charters attributed to him—make a solid case for his candidacy for the first king of England.
(Britain’s first Black queen? The real story of Queen Charlotte.)
Aethelstan, the first king of England
Alfred died in 899 A.D. and his son, Edward the Elder, took the throne. Edward died in 924 and, after his demise, his son Aethelstan was crowned king in 925 A.D.
Just like his grandfather Alfred the Great and father, Aethelstan began as King of the Anglo-Saxons. He differed in the extent of his domain, notably after the Battle of Brunaburh in 937 A.D.
Aethelstan’s authority was never uncontested and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he spent the decade after he became king bringing York and Northumbria under his control.
By 937, Welsh kings, as well as those of the Scots and Viking Dublin, united against Aethelstan, ultimately facing off against their common foe at Brunanburh.
The exact location of Brunanburh remains unclear, but the fight that took place there is considered by many scholars to be one of the defining events in British history.
(England was born on this battlefield. Why can’t historians find it?)
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle includes a poem about the Battle of Brunanburh that details how West Saxons slaughtered their enemies, with five opposing kings and seven defiant earls laying dead.
The poem explains how “no slaughter yet was greater made e’er in this island,” an expression of how devastating yet significant the conflict was to the people and land alike.
“Despite the arguments in favor of [other contenders], the weight of the evidence rests with Aethelstan. It was Aethelstan who went to York, defeated the Viking kingdom there, and brought the north (if sometimes only nominally) under English rule,” summarizes Karl Shoemaker, Robert F. and Sylvia T. Wagner Distinguished Professor, UW-Madison History and Law. “By the end of his reign, he had achieved more bureaucratic and administrative centralization than any of his predecessors.”
It was Aethelstan’s victory at Brunanburh that extended the King of the Anglo-Saxons’ dominion into Scotland and Wales. It also solidified his rule as king of the English.
Aethelstan only lived for two years after this fight but, to many, he became the true first king of England with that victory.
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