0:00:08 > 0:00:10In around the year 980,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14a member of the English royal family wrote a history of England
0:00:14 > 0:00:17for his cousin in Germany...
0:00:17 > 0:00:20looking back on the great events of their times...
0:00:23 > 0:00:25"My Dearest Matilda", he wrote,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28"here you will find the story of our family.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34"A tale of so many wars, and the killings of men,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37"the shipwreck of navies on the waves of the ocean."
0:00:40 > 0:00:42"Now, your uncle was King Athelstan.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48"In his time, the barbarian forces were overcome on all sides
0:00:48 > 0:00:51"and England emerged as the victor."
0:00:53 > 0:00:56"The fields of Britain became one,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59"there was peace everywhere and abundance of all things.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05"He was a mighty king, worthy of high honour."
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Among all the great rulers of British history,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Athelstan today is the forgotten man,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25but in his time, a continental poet thought him an English Charlemagne.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27His nicknames in Scandinavia
0:01:27 > 0:01:30were the "faith strong" and the "victorious".
0:01:30 > 0:01:33To the Irish, he was the "pillar of the West".
0:01:33 > 0:01:36To the Welsh, the "King of Kings".
0:01:36 > 0:01:39To the Scots, simply the "bastard".
0:01:39 > 0:01:44But Athelstan will turn the dream of Alfred the Great into reality -
0:01:44 > 0:01:46a kingdom of all the English.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50DRAMATIC MEDIEVAL MUSIC
0:02:01 > 0:02:03SOLDIERS SHOUTING
0:02:28 > 0:02:30BELL TOLLS
0:02:34 > 0:02:37This is the tale of how the kingdom of England was created
0:02:37 > 0:02:39in the Viking Age
0:02:39 > 0:02:42by the most remarkable family in British history.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49And the third great figure in this story is Athelstan.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51But the most surprising thing about him
0:02:51 > 0:02:54is that when we look for contemporary accounts,
0:02:54 > 0:02:55there's almost nothing.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01We've come back to the source we've followed through this tale -
0:03:01 > 0:03:03the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08The Chronicle tells how King Alfred resisted the Vikings
0:03:08 > 0:03:13and created a single kingdom of the old rivals Wessex and Mercia -
0:03:13 > 0:03:14a Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20It tells how his son and daughter expanded the kingdom
0:03:20 > 0:03:23and conquered the Viking Midlands and East Anglia.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29But when it comes to Athelstan, there's a surprise...
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Athelstan is the most powerful ruler that Britain has seen
0:03:32 > 0:03:35since the Romans, and you would have expected
0:03:35 > 0:03:37the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to wax lyrical
0:03:37 > 0:03:39about these great deeds of the dynasty -
0:03:39 > 0:03:42the grandson, after all, of Alfred the Great.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47But something very strange happens in this manuscript -
0:03:47 > 0:03:51no account is written of the reign of Athelstan.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Only 16 years after Athelstan's death was a new booklet inserted,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59which gives us four facts...
0:04:00 > 0:04:03..his accession, his death and his wars.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Somebody in Winchester clearly didn't see Athelstan
0:04:08 > 0:04:12as being quite the legitimate successor
0:04:12 > 0:04:14to the throne of the West Saxons.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25To find out why, we need to go back to Winchester,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29the capital of Wessex in the last days of Alfred's life.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32CHOIR SINGS
0:04:35 > 0:04:38At that time, Athelstan was Alfred's only grandson,
0:04:38 > 0:04:40and just before he died,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Alfred knighted him with the symbols of kingship.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Seeing the boy's graceful manners and handsome looks,
0:04:49 > 0:04:55Alfred affectionately embraced him and gave him a Saxon sword,
0:04:55 > 0:05:00a jewelled scabbard, belt and cloak, in omen of a kingdom.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06A poem was presented to the little boy punning on his name -
0:05:06 > 0:05:10"Prince, you're called Athelstan - noble stone.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15"Take this as a happy omen for your life.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20"You will be a royal rock, fighting fearsome demons."
0:05:23 > 0:05:26"But take the holy path of learning too.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30"And if peace comes, I pray that you may seek,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34"and God may grant the promise of your noble name."
0:05:36 > 0:05:38MEDIEVAL CHANTING
0:05:47 > 0:05:51But in the Middle Ages, a year was a long time in politics.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55After Alfred's death, Athelstan's father King Edward married
0:05:55 > 0:06:00and had other sons by his queen and Athelstan was sent to be brought up
0:06:00 > 0:06:03by his aunt Aethelflaed in Mercia.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Athelstan was brought up at that Mercian court
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and HIS formative years
0:06:14 > 0:06:18must have been passed in her orbit.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22She would be telling him the stories about her father
0:06:22 > 0:06:25and about HER education at HIS court.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31I think it is impossible to describe Athelstan's personality
0:06:31 > 0:06:35without looking at Aethelflaed's input into it.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38WOMAN SINGS FOLK SONG
0:06:40 > 0:06:42So Athelstan grew up in Mercia.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49He was educated in Latin letters, he trained to fight and to hunt
0:06:49 > 0:06:52with the Mercian thegns in the rolling hills of the Forest of Dean.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57As a young man, he must have fought
0:06:57 > 0:07:00in his aunt's campaigns in the Danelaw,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03where he earned a name for courage and nerve.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16But as he grew up in Mercia, did Athelstan still think -
0:07:16 > 0:07:18despite his father's remarriage -
0:07:18 > 0:07:22that HE was the true heir to the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons?
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Now, remember the care with which Alfred the Great had tried to ensure
0:07:28 > 0:07:34that the succession would pass down peacefully, through his descendants.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38But look at this, there's Alfred's son Edward.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43And Edward had at least 14 children by three different wives,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46two of whom were anointed queens.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Here's the sons...
0:07:48 > 0:07:53His heir as King of Wessex - Aelfweard, who is in his 20s.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58The next heir Eadwin, his brother, also in his 20s.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02And here in the middle...Athelstan.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08He's the oldest, he's the son of a lesser consort.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It says here in French, aside
0:08:12 > 0:08:18that Athelstan was "Warlike and courageous and greatly feared
0:08:18 > 0:08:21"and the most handsome man that ever lived."
0:08:22 > 0:08:27The stage was set for a typical medieval succession crisis.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31And that's exactly what happened.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38After Aethelflaed's death, King Edward marched into Mercia.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41But in 924, the Mercians revolted against him
0:08:41 > 0:08:45and on the campaign, Edward died near Chester.
0:08:47 > 0:08:48And then, only days later,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53so did his chosen heir - Athelstan's half brother Aelfweard...
0:08:56 > 0:09:00..and now the Mercians chose Athelstan as their king.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Here in Winchester, it must have seemed
0:09:06 > 0:09:09it was one piece of bad news after another.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12The Mercians are in revolt in the northwest.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16The King has died, suppressing the rebellion.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18His heir apparent in Wessex, King Aelfweard,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23doesn't even get back home - he dies mysteriously 16 days later.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29Rumours swirling of plots and intrigue, murder maybe.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35And then to cap it all, the Mercians have elected Athelstan,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38not as their Lord but as their King.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44At that point in the story, it must have seemed
0:09:44 > 0:09:47that the joint kingdom of Wessex and Mercia created by Alfred the Great,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49was about to be torn apart.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59But to save the family project, Athelstan now offered a deal -
0:09:59 > 0:10:03he wouldn't marry or have heirs, he'd be a kind of caretaker king.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07He's not known ever to have married.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11There was a certain way of avoiding...
0:10:11 > 0:10:14tensions in royal dynasties...
0:10:14 > 0:10:19in some adult men renouncing family
0:10:19 > 0:10:25and heirs in order to make way for younger brothers or nephews.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28The Franks occasionally tried this,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32kings in Spain in this period also tried this - it was an option.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37But it still took a year of in-fighting
0:10:37 > 0:10:39before he was accepted in Wessex...
0:10:42 > 0:10:46..and even then, there was a plot to blind him before he was crowned.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56No wonder then that he was strategic in his choice of coronation place...
0:10:59 > 0:11:02He was crowned, not in Wessex or in Mercia,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06but on the border between the two at Kingston on Thames.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Kingston had the only bridge across the Thames,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17other than London Bridge up until about 1750, I think.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22And so presumably the King of Wessex comes to the edges of his kingdom
0:11:22 > 0:11:25so that he can then bring his lords over from Mercia
0:11:25 > 0:11:30and begin joining together all that national story.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Yeah, if you're bidding to be king of all the English,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36then a place on the boundary between the two key kingdoms -
0:11:36 > 0:11:40- the West Saxons and the Mercians - would be ideal.- Yeah.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47He was crowned here on the 4th September, 925.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50It was the first English coronation,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55tradition said, on a great wooden platform set up in the market place
0:11:55 > 0:11:57in front of Kingston church.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And if you'd been here that day, what you would have seen
0:12:02 > 0:12:07was a series of carefully orchestrated ritual tableaus,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11of dramatic scenes, in which the archbishop and bishops
0:12:11 > 0:12:15anointed him, gave him the Sword of Justice,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18the ring and the rod and the sceptre.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20And then, on his head, they put the crown,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23and Athelstan's the first British monarch in our history
0:12:23 > 0:12:26to be portrayed wearing a crown.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39And he was crowned in the name of the two peoples -
0:12:39 > 0:12:42the West Saxons and the Mercians.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47For if one kingdom of England was ever to emerge,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50it couldn't happen without the two of them.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58When the ceremonies were over here at Kingston,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01there was a great coronation banquet for all the court,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03overflowing with fine food and wine.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05But before the king left the church,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10he performed one last intimate ritual.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13In front of the altar, he freed a slave.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36This is a book which Athelstan seems to have had with him
0:13:36 > 0:13:39at the time of his coronation...
0:13:39 > 0:13:42It's obviously a book of great importance to him.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49And he's used it to record this act of his.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51It's a good act for a King
0:13:51 > 0:13:53to perform at the time of his coronation.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56The highest and the lowest in the land
0:13:56 > 0:14:00- associated in the same inscription. - That's a nice way to put it, yes.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02He's keen to get his credit for this,
0:14:02 > 0:14:07and it's obviously an act which will benefit Athelstan
0:14:07 > 0:14:10as much as it will benefit the person he is freeing.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15So he'd won the crown.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19He was 30 years old, and as he believed, "called by God".
0:14:20 > 0:14:23But he's also a politician, a man with nerve...
0:14:30 > 0:14:32BELL TOLLS
0:14:37 > 0:14:40But he still faced many threats.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Beyond the Humber, Northumbria was ruled by a powerful Viking dynasty
0:14:45 > 0:14:47whose empire stretched across the Irish Sea
0:14:47 > 0:14:50to Dublin and the Western Isles.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Wary of Athelstan's war-like reputation,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01they immediately sent ambassadors
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and in new year 926,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07he met them at the old Mercian royal centre of Tamworth.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Here, in a great ceremony, he married his sister
0:15:14 > 0:15:17to Sihtric the pagan Viking King of Northumbria.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Sihtric accepted baptism as part of the deal,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28with Athelstan as his sponsor, his godparent.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Lots of later legends here in Tamworth about this tale...
0:15:31 > 0:15:35Those beautiful windows up there by William Morris give you the story.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40There's Athelstan on the left, giving away his sister.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41There she is - Edith - in white,
0:15:41 > 0:15:48receiving a ring from her rather handsome Viking husband-to-be.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Not the grizzled one-eyed veteran of history!
0:15:51 > 0:15:55And next to them, the Bishop of Lichfield, Ella -
0:15:55 > 0:15:57a central figure in Athelstan's regime.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01It's a fascinating moment in the story of Viking Age England -
0:16:01 > 0:16:06the granddaughter of the most Christian King, Alfred the Great,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10is marrying the grandson of Ivor the Boneless,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14the bloodthirsty Viking who died on campaign in Repton 50 years before
0:16:14 > 0:16:19and was buried with human sacrifice at the graveside.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23But Athelstan's accepting the facts on the ground -
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Scandinavian England is here to stay,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and on this spot Sihtric is honoured
0:16:29 > 0:16:33as a descendent of the royal line of the race of the Danes.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43So Athelstan had begun his long-term plan -
0:16:43 > 0:16:45after 60 years of war,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47to bring peace to the isles of Britain.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Back in Winchester, like a new president,
0:16:54 > 0:16:56he surrounds himself with his own men
0:16:56 > 0:16:59and a think tank from all over Europe.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03And it's the people around Athelstan at this moment
0:17:03 > 0:17:06that are really interesting - Waerulf the priest,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08a famous Mercian scholar
0:17:08 > 0:17:11who was part of Alfred the Great's translation team.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Walter, Gundlaf and Hildewin are German names.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Dubliter is an Irish abbot and scholar.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Petrus, a Frankish, learned man and poet.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30This is Athelstan's courtly circle, his intellectual bodyguard
0:17:30 > 0:17:34around him in the potentially hostile atmosphere of Winchester.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39But looking over his shoulder at that moment
0:17:39 > 0:17:42is his father's next chosen heir...
0:17:42 > 0:17:43Prince Edwin.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47"Eadwin Cliton" -
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Prince or Atheling Edwin, his half brother.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54If Athelstan HAD agreed not to marry,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57and not to beget heirs in becoming king,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01then this is the heir apparent.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06And Edwin will play a very dramatic role in the story that follows.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14For the moment, Athelstan's rule was secure.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17But the next year, 927,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21the politics of Britain changed with dramatic speed.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Athelstan now armed for war across the whole of Britain,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57wrote his court poet, Petrus,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00spear-headed by his armour bearing thegns...
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Sihtric of Northumbria had rejected
0:19:07 > 0:19:10the king's sister and renounced Christianity, but then died.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20And when his kinsmen came over from Dublin to claim their kingdom,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Athelstan invaded Northumbria and drove them out.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32And now he sends ambassadors to the kings of the Scots
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and the Strathclyde Welsh,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37calling them to a peace conference in Cumbria.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41This is Eamont Bridge.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45This is where Athelstan met Constantine, the King of the Scots,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Owain, the King of the Strathclyde Welsh and the Cumbrians.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52And Ealdred and Uhtred, the Lords of Bamburgh -
0:19:52 > 0:19:56the Anglo-Saxon rulers of northern Northumbria.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions kings of Wales too,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03the Kings of Gwent and Hywel Dda of Dyfed, the future law-giver.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05Maybe they came here too.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Here the Northern kings acknowledged Athelstan
0:20:18 > 0:20:20as the supreme king of Britain.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25It was a turning point in British history.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41Guided by God-given dreams, as well as by realpolitik,
0:20:41 > 0:20:46Athelstan was determined that this would be a Christian empire.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Before the kings parted, they went to a little village called Dacre.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56So why did Athelstan bring the kings of Britain
0:20:56 > 0:20:59out to this lonely valley above Ullswater?
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Well, the answer is that!
0:21:02 > 0:21:03RELIGIOUS CHANTING
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Dacre was an Anglo-Saxon monastery from the 7th century.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13It's mentioned by Bede, Saint Cuthbert was supposed
0:21:13 > 0:21:16to have performed one of his miracles here.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20So they came here because it was a sacred place.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22And it was on this spot
0:21:22 > 0:21:26that they would have performed their solemn oaths against idolatry,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31deofolgeld, and made their pact of peace.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Writing back to the royal family in Winchester,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41his court poet was jubilant -
0:21:41 > 0:21:45"Letter, wing your way back to the palace,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49"King Athelstan lives, glorious through his deeds.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52"This England is now complete."
0:21:58 > 0:22:00ITALIAN SAT NAV VOICE SPEAKS
0:22:03 > 0:22:08So Athelstan had power, but what he still wanted was legitimacy.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17That summer, 927, he sends an embassy to Rome
0:22:17 > 0:22:21with his Archbishop Wuflhem and the famous Welsh king Hywel Dda.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The new Archbishop was to receive his spiritual authority
0:22:29 > 0:22:30from the Pope himself.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41And the Pope would give his blessing to Athelstan's Christian empire.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47The king is fired up now by his own sense of history,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51his awareness that he is guiding great events.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57The ancient Roman historians had spoken of a "tripartite world" -
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Europe, Africa and Asia, with Britain beyond the edge.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10Now, Athelstan would claim to rule the world of Britain -
0:23:10 > 0:23:13a Christian empire with the authority of St Peter.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18THUNDER CRACKS
0:23:21 > 0:23:24Athelstan's pan-British embassy to Rome
0:23:24 > 0:23:26will have spent two or three months here
0:23:26 > 0:23:31and then begun the return journey in the new year of 928.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35And, over the next six years, a revolution will take place
0:23:35 > 0:23:39in English government, as far reaching - if not more so -
0:23:39 > 0:23:41than the Angevins and the Tudors.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43This is the moment
0:23:43 > 0:23:47for Athelstan's visionary "kingdom of all the English".
0:23:55 > 0:23:57When the embassy returned,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Athelstan held a Great Easter council in Exeter.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03"The sacred flame" he said,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06"has blown across the tripartite world
0:24:06 > 0:24:08"in this third year of my reign,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12"which there is now no doubt is gifted by God."
0:24:16 > 0:24:19And so he began his project with laws on charity
0:24:19 > 0:24:22and a ferocious clamp down on crime.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29And he's already moving fast...
0:24:30 > 0:24:33..it's as if he thought he didn't have much time
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and was desperate to turn his ideas into reality.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44No biography has survived for him as it has for Alfred,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47so his story has to be pieced together from fragments -
0:24:47 > 0:24:50inscriptions, burnt manuscripts.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55And one key aspect of his revolution in government
0:24:55 > 0:24:59is revealed in an unlikely source - the King's Land Grants.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Although it's only a land document - I say only -
0:25:02 > 0:25:06but it gives us a vision of his kingdom at that moment, doesn't it?
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Yes, I think the point about these royal diplomas
0:25:09 > 0:25:14is that any one of these on its own is interesting up to a point.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18From a historian's point of view, the interest of these documents
0:25:18 > 0:25:21is completely transformed when you put them all together.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Because these charters are dated, because they are localised,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30you can begin to see how the king moves
0:25:30 > 0:25:33from one part of the country to another.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36So yes, these are the documents that represent
0:25:36 > 0:25:40the first flush of enthusiasm for this new kingdom of the English.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45And in this new kingdom,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49the King demanded control and wanted feedback.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52So he travelled constantly, holding regular gatherings
0:25:52 > 0:25:54of local and national leaders.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03One of these was held in November 931 at Lifton, in Devon.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43There must be 100 or so people named in this charter.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45One imagines, certainly, that there would have been
0:26:45 > 0:26:49two, three, four hundred people present at the meeting.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51- Maybe thousands? - Even more, yes, yes.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54The bishops are certainly not going to be travelling on their own.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02So many hundreds of people needed to be fed and temporarily housed,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05from support staff to the King himself.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09You can begin here with "Ego Athelstanus" so you have...
0:27:09 > 0:27:13"I, Athelstan, King of Britain", he's called there.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17Then you have "Ego Wulfhelm" - he's the Archbishop of Canterbury.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Here, in the far west of Devon, were Viking earls from the Danelaw,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26feasting with the kings of Wales.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30And then, most interestingly,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33you have "Ego Hywel subregulus" -
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Welsh sub-king.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38So, the Welsh kings have come down to Lifton in Devon in November
0:27:38 > 0:27:42and are acknowledging Athelstan as the supreme king of Britain,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45- are they, Simon? - That is certainly the impression
0:27:45 > 0:27:48that this Charter of Athelstan is creating, yes.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51- As I say, whether... - Whether they saw it that way...?!
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Whether they see it that way is quite another matter.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02The world had changed.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06A whole new agenda was on offer,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09which was this notion of consensus, of collaboration
0:28:09 > 0:28:11of assemblies as the place
0:28:11 > 0:28:13where you shape policy together.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20It had to be happening in assemblies beyond the court in the shires,
0:28:20 > 0:28:22in the hundreds.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27And, in these places, landowners and royal agents...
0:28:27 > 0:28:32communed with each other and came to share an ideology
0:28:32 > 0:28:37which bound the king and his people together as divinely approved.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46So in the mundane record of the King's journeys,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50you can glimpse the growth of English government
0:28:50 > 0:28:52and even the origins of Parliament.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01Law-making is one of the most important aspects of assembly functions.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Athelstan makes laws on a large scale.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14There's clearly also a good deal of give-and-take,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17of general discussion between the King and his great men.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21There's one instance in one of Athelstan's law codes
0:29:21 > 0:29:26where he says... There are complaints about disorder, and he says,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29"My councillors have said that I have suffered this too long" -
0:29:29 > 0:29:32and there's clearly a sense there of give-and-take...
0:29:32 > 0:29:34The councillors putting up a point,
0:29:34 > 0:29:36making a complaint, and the King responding.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46He apologies for the state of the nation -
0:29:46 > 0:29:49"My councillors say I have borne it too long."
0:29:49 > 0:29:52But then he sends a messenger,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54following on the latest law-making session.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20We all grew up with the idea that Simon de Montfort
0:30:20 > 0:30:22is the founder of the English Parliament,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26but you're suggesting we should look much further back in time.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Legislation...
0:30:28 > 0:30:32political discussion, consensual politics,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35the sort of thing that goes on in 13th century politics,
0:30:35 > 0:30:37And you can trace, I think,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40a clear line through, in terms of the history of large assemblies,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43straight through from Athelstan to the 13th century Parliament.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47Of course, a lot changes, but there is a clear line of continuity.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58And to see how this all worked at grassroots,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01we've come to a borough built by Alfred the Great
0:31:01 > 0:31:03and especially favoured by Athelstan.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08We're just outside the little town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12on the northern edge of the West Saxon kingdom in Anglo-Saxon times.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Just over the Avon into Gloucestershire, that's Mercia.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20And from at least as far back as the 14th century,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23the townsfolk here have believed
0:31:23 > 0:31:26that these fields were given to the town by King Athelstan.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33And believe it or not, even today, these fields,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35known as "the King's Heath",
0:31:35 > 0:31:38are administered by King Athelstan's court.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47To help enforce his laws,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51all freemen had to swear a solemn oath of loyalty to him.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53GAVEL BANGS
0:31:53 > 0:31:55Oh, yea, oh, yea, oh, yea.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59All persons come forward to do your business in a peaceful manner.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04- WOMAN:- Warden and freemen of Malmesbury,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08King Athelstan's feast day court was held in the old courthouse
0:32:08 > 0:32:11on Tuesday the 12th June 2012
0:32:11 > 0:32:14before M Westmecott - warden -
0:32:14 > 0:32:17O Pike, NOJ Pike...
0:32:17 > 0:32:20To break your oath was treason to the king.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24The Warden's Oath -
0:32:24 > 0:32:26"You shall swear that you will well and truly
0:32:26 > 0:32:29"execute the office of warden of this corporation.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34"You shall maintain, support and uphold all the rights,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38"liberties, immunities, privileges, and franchises, of the corporation."
0:32:40 > 0:32:42APPLAUSE
0:32:43 > 0:32:47So Athelstan's subjects were bound by the sworn oath
0:32:47 > 0:32:52in village tithings and the courts of hundred and shire.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55So it's wonderful seeing these ancient English traditions
0:32:55 > 0:32:57still in action, isn't it?
0:32:57 > 0:32:59The warden and free burgesses of Malmesbury
0:32:59 > 0:33:02have a direct link to Athelstan...
0:33:02 > 0:33:05via the 500 acres that he gave us
0:33:05 > 0:33:10in recognition of our assistance in his fight with the Danes.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13So there's the direct link, you can't get away from that.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18The king, in a nutshell, was creating an allegiance,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22to his person but most of all to his law -
0:33:22 > 0:33:25a key idea in English history.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Athelstan also fixed England's physical frontiers.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Across the Tamar, the Cornish, too,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47now became part of England for the first time.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51And 40 years on from Alfred's Viking wars,
0:33:51 > 0:33:56Athelstan overhauls his defensive network of boroughs.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59He closes some down and turns others into centres
0:33:59 > 0:34:00of trade and civic life.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08In Exeter, he restored the Roman walls, laid out streets
0:34:08 > 0:34:11and housing plots, encouraging merchants to settle.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20But markets need outlets.
0:34:28 > 0:34:34Athelstan granted to Exeter the old Roman port on the River Exe,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37a place as he put it, "known to the locals as Toppesham."
0:34:40 > 0:34:41Morning!
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Salmon fisherman.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49Those boats are for salmon fishing, a grant of Topsham to Exeter
0:34:49 > 0:34:51in the 10th century mentions these fisheries.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53They're still doing it!
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Topsham would grow rich on Exeter's trade -
0:34:59 > 0:35:03wool from Devon, tin and silver from Cornwall.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10So, trade came with the revival of the English town.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15In Athelstan's time,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18it was said the standard of living started to rise,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20there was plenty in the shops.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25But markets must have money.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47The only authority for the currency now was the King,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50who took a cut of the profits of each mint.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55By the end of the 10th century, nowhere in Southern England
0:35:55 > 0:35:57was more than 15 miles from a mint.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03And the English people were getting used to living in a money economy.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16We have here a very nice example from Chester.
0:36:16 > 0:36:17In this particular case,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21we have the name of the King surrounding a cross on one face...
0:36:23 > 0:36:25And we have him being called
0:36:25 > 0:36:27"Athelstan Rex To Br" -
0:36:27 > 0:36:31"Athelstan, the King of all Britain."
0:36:31 > 0:36:33- "The King of all Britain"?- Yes.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36And then on this other coin, which is from Winchester,
0:36:36 > 0:36:41we see again this same title - Athelstan Rex To Br.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43King of Totius Britanniae -
0:36:43 > 0:36:44all Britain.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Completely the other side
0:36:46 > 0:36:47of the kingdom
0:36:47 > 0:36:50but yet using the exact same title, and of course the same title
0:36:50 > 0:36:53that is used in his charters and in certain other documents.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57The fact that we see it coming through in both types of source
0:36:57 > 0:37:00really does indicate that someone at the top of the food chain
0:37:00 > 0:37:03is issuing a command that it's got to change,
0:37:03 > 0:37:05that we've all got to start singing from the same hymn sheet
0:37:05 > 0:37:08in terms of what we're calling the King.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10DRAMATIC MUSIC
0:37:14 > 0:37:16So Athelstan was a man in a hurry -
0:37:16 > 0:37:20his first six years saw great practical achievements.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24But culture and learning would also play a key role in nation building.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31His grandfather Alfred had begun the revival of education
0:37:31 > 0:37:34and Athelstan took it to the next level.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39You can't put together a collection like this
0:37:39 > 0:37:42for any other Anglo-Saxon King.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44He obviously liked books,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and he saw books as a useful tool
0:37:49 > 0:37:52for him to make his connections
0:37:52 > 0:37:54and to establish his networks and so on.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59And in his books, you can see too
0:37:59 > 0:38:02how learning was to be a tool of kingship.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Well, here you have an extraordinary inscription
0:38:08 > 0:38:13indicating that this gospel book was given by King Athelstan
0:38:13 > 0:38:15to the church of Canterbury.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18Very fancy titles here -
0:38:18 > 0:38:22Athelstan Anglorum Basileos et Curagulua.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26This is all fancy words used in order to express kingship.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33"Athelstan, King of the English and Ruler of the whole of Britain."
0:38:34 > 0:38:36He's King, not only of the English,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40but also of the whole of Britain, which is an extraordinary claim.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46When Athelstan was a boy,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50his grandfather had urged him to follow the path of learning.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56And his own book of psalms hints at his personal interests,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58with its added paintings,
0:38:58 > 0:39:02its religious calendar, and its private prayers.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06At the end, perhaps most surprisingly,
0:39:06 > 0:39:08a series of texts in Greek -
0:39:08 > 0:39:12The Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer and so on.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19You can get a real sense of the King as an intellectual, dare one say it.
0:39:22 > 0:39:28One writer he especially admired was the 7th century saint Aldhelm,
0:39:28 > 0:39:33to whom it was said Athelstan "devoted himself body and soul".
0:39:34 > 0:39:36And this manuscript of Aldhelm
0:39:36 > 0:39:38was written by one of the King's scribes.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44What you're looking at is 10th century scholarship.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Almost every word, every phrase, is being glossed,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53ie - explained and commented on.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58And through this manuscript there are thousands of these.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03And perhaps the choice of text
0:40:03 > 0:40:07also tells us about the unmarried king himself -
0:40:07 > 0:40:13its message that self-control, purity of mind, chastity
0:40:13 > 0:40:18is a victory for a man as great as victory in battle.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25That even a warrior hero must fight his inner demons.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34The king spent Christmas 932 at Amesbury in Wiltshire.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38And then, out of the blue...
0:40:38 > 0:40:39comes this...
0:40:45 > 0:40:50In this year, 933, King Athelstan ordered his brother Edwin
0:40:50 > 0:40:52to be drowned at sea.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Many later legends grew up about the drowning of Prince Edwin.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08It was said that Athelstan had been turned against his brother
0:41:08 > 0:41:12by a wicked cup-bearer, that the councillors of England
0:41:12 > 0:41:16had tried Edwin in London and drowned him off London Bridge,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20and even better, that Athelstan had deliberately and cruelly
0:41:20 > 0:41:24had Edwin set afloat in the middle of the sea
0:41:24 > 0:41:26in a rotten boat with no oars.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34What we know is that Edwin is buried at St Bertin in Flanders.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37And there, a chronicler told how
0:41:37 > 0:41:40"King Edwin had drowned at sea,
0:41:40 > 0:41:44"fleeing across the Channel after upheavals in his kingdom."
0:41:52 > 0:41:57Later legends said that Edwin had been unjustly accused of rebellion.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02That afterwards, weighed down by guilt, Athelstan did public penance.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08- Cor, that's magnificent, isn't it? - It is beautiful.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11And that he founded a church where prayers
0:42:11 > 0:42:15would be offered for his brother's soul and his own sins.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18And the foundation of all of this, obviously,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22was the original church that burnt down, founded by Athelstan here.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26So, King Athelstan, in 934, founded the church here,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28which was then called Middleton,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30as a penance for the death of his brother,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34who he believed was plotting against him.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36And he felt so guilty about it,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40that the legend is that he actually built the church here on this site.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43And, as we can see in the paintings,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47he is very much offering the church to the abbot.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51Possibly Athelstan had behaved in ways which he then regretted.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55Strangely enough, in the Irish law codes,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58there is a punishment of being...
0:42:58 > 0:43:03set to sea in a boat with no oars.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08It's actually a legal punishment for homicide of brothers, amazingly.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12- Wow.- And it's obviously a way in which you don't want
0:43:12 > 0:43:17- to have the blood on your hands of actually executing somebody.- Yeah.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21So you set them to sea, and if God allows them to come back to land,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25- then fine, and if not, it's done with.- Yes.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27So there's an eerie shadow behind the tale, isn't there?
0:43:27 > 0:43:29Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37So the succession crisis after his father's death
0:43:37 > 0:43:39had come back to haunt him.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Athelstan's hard-won authority had been shaken.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47THUNDER CRACKS
0:43:51 > 0:43:54The next spring, Constantine, King of the Scots
0:43:54 > 0:43:56renounced his allegiance.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03And Athelstan now raised a great army
0:44:03 > 0:44:06to punish Constantine and bring him back into the fold.
0:44:08 > 0:44:14"934 - here for Athelstan cyning in on Scotland".
0:44:16 > 0:44:18From Winchester on the 28th May,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20they rode to Nottingham
0:44:20 > 0:44:22and then up into Northumbria.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26HE READS OLD ENGLISH
0:44:26 > 0:44:29"With a land army."
0:44:29 > 0:44:31HE READS OLD ENGLISH
0:44:31 > 0:44:32"With a navy."
0:44:38 > 0:44:42On the 1st of July, as the English fleet moved up the east coast,
0:44:42 > 0:44:46the land army stopped at Chester-le-Street on the River Wear,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48the shrine of Saint Cuthbert.
0:44:50 > 0:44:56Athelstan came here with his grand army from all over Britain.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58He came into the little church on this spot
0:44:58 > 0:45:02and the priests opened Saint Cuthbert's coffin...
0:45:02 > 0:45:06so the King could actually touch the preserved body
0:45:06 > 0:45:09and wrap it in beautiful embroideries
0:45:09 > 0:45:10that he'd brought with him.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17Athelstan's grandfather Alfred had had a vision of Saint Cuthbert
0:45:17 > 0:45:21in his moments of direst danger in the marshes of Somerset.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Cuthbert had prophesied that Alfred's descendants
0:45:24 > 0:45:27would become kings of all England and rulers of Britain.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32That had now happened, and Athelstan had come to this place
0:45:32 > 0:45:36to say thank you and to ask the saint for his help
0:45:36 > 0:45:38in the wars that lay ahead.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44And then he invaded Scotland,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48plundering the lands of the Scots and Picts.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51A Northumbrian chronicle says, "they attacked Dunfoeder".
0:45:53 > 0:45:56Dunnottar Castle on the coast south of Aberdeen.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03In early August, they reached the shores of the Moray Firth,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05and the fleet went on to Caithness
0:46:05 > 0:46:08the northern-most point of the British mainland.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13There had been nothing like it
0:46:13 > 0:46:16since the expedition of the Roman General Agricola.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Faced by such a show of force,
0:46:27 > 0:46:32Constantine submitted to Athelstan and came back with him into England.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44But across the British Isles, voices of opposition were growing.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48In Wales, a poet now called
0:46:48 > 0:46:49for the "King of Kings"
0:46:49 > 0:46:50to be overthrown.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55And for the English to be driven out of Britain where
0:46:55 > 0:46:59they had come as landless wanderers 400 years before.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05It is a prophetic poem, in which it is hoped
0:47:05 > 0:47:09that there would be an alliance between the peoples of what,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13I suppose we would term the fringes of the isles of Britain.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18To push the English out of England.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23The idea is that this alliance of Britons, Vikings, and the Irish
0:47:23 > 0:47:25will push them out again and make them
0:47:25 > 0:47:28once more roamers of the high seas.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52HE READS IN OLD WELSH
0:47:55 > 0:47:59The muse foretells the Men of Wessex will see England burn.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04When the great battle comes,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07their dead will be packed too tight to fall.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16And in summer 937, the moment came.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22That August, a huge Viking fleet left Dublin
0:48:22 > 0:48:24under King Anlaf Guthfrithson,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27whose kinsmen Athelstan had driven from York ten years before.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34The Scots and Strathclyde Welsh came overland under King Constantine.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41Northumbrian sources say the Viking fleet of 615 ships
0:48:41 > 0:48:42landed in the Humber.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46There, in their chief city of York,
0:48:46 > 0:48:48the Northumbrians joined the invaders.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54Suddenly, Athelstan's northern empire had collapsed.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06The axis of the war was probably the Great North Road.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13The allies now began to devastate the lands to the south,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15to draw Athelstan to them.
0:49:17 > 0:49:22That autumn, you have to imagine columns of refugees fleeing away
0:49:22 > 0:49:27from the smoke as the allies - the Scots and the Norse Irish -
0:49:27 > 0:49:29devastated the land south of the Humber.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38"They ravaged everything with incessant plundering raids,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41"driving out the peasants
0:49:41 > 0:49:43"and setting fire to their fields.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47"Such was the barbarians' mounted strength."
0:49:51 > 0:49:55As autumn turned towards winter, Athelstan still didn't move.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58And now the moneyers in Nottingham and York
0:49:58 > 0:50:01stopped putting the King's name on their coins,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04uncertain how events would turn out.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09And in England, voices were raised against the king...
0:50:11 > 0:50:14"In his youth he was fearless and bold, it was said,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19"but he now let precious time slip by in inaction,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21"while they destroyed everything."
0:50:33 > 0:50:36But still, Athelstan refused to be drawn.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41One later legend says
0:50:41 > 0:50:45that he came back to the little chapel of Saint Katherine at Milton
0:50:45 > 0:50:47to pray for God's help.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53And as for what Athelstan might have spoken
0:50:53 > 0:50:55on this spot at that moment...
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Well, a prayer survives, attributed to him.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00A prayer before battle,
0:51:00 > 0:51:06in which he asked God to let him fight well and act manfully,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08and he begs that his enemies
0:51:08 > 0:51:13will be destroyed like Pharaoh's army before the people of Israel.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15At the end of the prayer,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18were a series of dreadful maledictions
0:51:18 > 0:51:21against a hostile king and his kingdom -
0:51:21 > 0:51:25"Tear them apart, oh, Lord, smash them into dust."
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Aggression, anger, a sense of betrayal -
0:51:31 > 0:51:33whoever composed that prayer,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36sounds as if he was contemplating a fight to the death.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40RELIGIOUS SINGING
0:51:42 > 0:51:47Alone in his private chapel, he prayed on his most sacred relic -
0:51:47 > 0:51:52a fragment of the True Cross set in a rock crystal.
0:51:55 > 0:52:00Meditating on his past sins and the sins which would inevitably come
0:52:00 > 0:52:03with the slaughter of thousands in war.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Such were the tensions between being an Anglo-Saxon warrior king
0:52:11 > 0:52:13and a pious Christian man.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18There's a later tradition that Athelstan
0:52:18 > 0:52:21wore his cross relic around his neck in his battles,
0:52:21 > 0:52:27literally arming his soul and protecting his body
0:52:27 > 0:52:31with one of the most potent relics in the whole of Christendom.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Then, with the armies of Wessex and Mercia, Athelstan attacked.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33But where Brunanburh was is still a mystery.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41We'll never know for sure what happened in 937,
0:53:41 > 0:53:46but my guess is that it was on this stretch of this road
0:53:46 > 0:53:50that the great war of the 10th century came to its climax.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08The news spread across the northern world.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14"The battle was immense lamentable and horrible",
0:54:14 > 0:54:16they said in Ulster.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20"It was a black day for the Scots", they said.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22"More savage than anything on record."
0:54:23 > 0:54:25" He smashed those fierce kings",
0:54:25 > 0:54:27wrote a Frankish poet,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31"and by God's will trod on their proud necks".
0:54:34 > 0:54:37There were those who'd criticised his war leadership,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41but as one of his courtiers wrote long afterwards,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45"He was experienced and far-sighted,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48"and very hard to overcome in any conflict."
0:54:49 > 0:54:50And so it had proved.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56And even 50 years on,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59the English still called it "The Great War".
0:55:06 > 0:55:10Athelstan had saved his crown, but in his books
0:55:10 > 0:55:14are perhaps hints of the troubling aftermath for him as a Christian.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20They contain inscriptions in which Athelstan,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23A - records that he is the donor of the book,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27but B - then, yes, asks anybody looking at the inscription
0:55:27 > 0:55:31to bear him in mind in their prayers.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41"You who come after me, I ask you for a moment to pray for my soul.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46"In future times, remember me and forgive me my sins."
0:56:01 > 0:56:03The war had united the West Saxons and Mercians
0:56:03 > 0:56:05in a great national achievement,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07though it would be a while yet
0:56:07 > 0:56:11before the Northumbrians felt part of the new England.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13As for the Scots and Welsh,
0:56:13 > 0:56:14they are still negotiating
0:56:14 > 0:56:18their relationship with Athelstan's successors.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25He'd started as a compromise candidate, a caretaker king,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28but he had carried through the family plan
0:56:28 > 0:56:32of his grandfather Alfred - the creation of an English kingdom
0:56:32 > 0:56:35with governance and justice,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37law and learning...
0:56:37 > 0:56:42shires, towns and workable institutions.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50He had done as his grandfather asked him.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55He had followed the path of wisdom and yet like the old pagan heroes,
0:56:55 > 0:56:59fought with all his might against the demons.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06As a man, it was said, "He was affable and courteous"
0:57:06 > 0:57:09"and beloved by his people, who admired his courage and humility.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14"But he was like a thunderbolt to his enemies
0:57:14 > 0:57:16"by his invincible steadfastness."
0:57:19 > 0:57:20BELL TOLLS
0:57:26 > 0:57:30Athelstan died in 939 in his mid-40s -
0:57:30 > 0:57:33maybe worn out by the job.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35An Irish writer called him
0:57:35 > 0:57:38"The roof tree of the honour of the Western world."
0:57:40 > 0:57:42Athelstan's funeral took place
0:57:42 > 0:57:45at the very end of October or early November 939,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48and he was buried here in Malmesbury...
0:57:49 > 0:57:52..close to his personal saint, Aldhelm.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59He'd reigned for 14 years only, but he'd set a path for the future.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04Building on what his grandfather and his father and aunt had done,
0:58:04 > 0:58:09he'd made real the England that Alfred had dreamed,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12and for all the ups and downs of our history ever since,
0:58:12 > 0:58:18Athelstan's visionary kingdom of the English would endure
0:58:18 > 0:58:20and of course it still does.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd