Æthelstan or Athelstan: The First King Of All England: The First ENGLISC KING!
King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first
wife, Ecgwynn. Historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings. He never married, and was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund.
Athelstan passed a law to spare children under 15 from the death penalty
The warrior English King Athelstan (Æthelstan) surveys the aftermath of the crushing English victory at Brunanburgh.
Athelstan brought about English unity by ruling both Mercia and Wessex. He consolidated the English state by convincingly defeating an invasion by Vikings, Scots, Irish, and the men of Strathclyde at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. He overcame the Scandinavian kingdom based in York and increased English power on the Welsh and Scottish borders.
The tomb of King Athelstan in Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, England.
Name: King Athelstan
Born: c.895
Parents: Edward the Elder and Ecgywn
House of: Wessex
Ascended to the throne: July 17, 924
Crowned: September 4, 925 at Kingston-upon-Thames, aged c.30
Married: Unmarried
Children: None
Died: October 27, 940 at Gloucester
Buried at: Malmesbury
Reigned for: 16 years, 3 months, and 10 days
Succeeded by: his half brother Edmund
Æthelstan centralised government; he increased control over the production of charters and summoned leading figures from distant areas to his councils. These meetings were also attended by rulers from outside his territory, especially Welsh princes, who thus acknowledged his overlordship. More legal texts survive from his reign than from any other tenth-century king; they show his concern for social order and especially for the threat posed to it by widespread robberies. His legal reforms built on those of his grandfather, Alfred the Great. Æthelstan was one of the most religious West Saxon kings, and was known for collecting relics and founding churches. Almost in a sense a 'warrior monk' he died childless and un-married. As with Elizabeth I some centuries later, he may have seen himself married to the English nation.
King Harold: He reigned from 6th Jan 1066-14th Oct 1066. The very last Saxon King who was famously defeated at The Battle of Hastings by the forces of William the Conqueror from Normandy. He marched his troops north to face King Harald Hardrada of Norway and his own brother Tostiq and defeated them at The Battle Of Stamford Bridge. Three days later, William landed in Sussex so Harold's troops were forced to march the long journey back down; Tired from the previous battle they were outnumbered by William's forces and tricked into moving down from the hill they stood on as the French pretended to retreat back! His claim to the throne resulted from his sister's marriage to the previous King Edward The Confessor; He was made Earl Of Anglia in 1045. The battle of his defeat is displayed on the Bayeux Tapestry.
When Edward the Confessor died childless and the Witan (a national council of leading nobles and spiritual leaders) gave Harold Godwinson the throne, William was so angry he invaded England. He believed Harold had promised him the throne.
At the Battle of Hastings; 14th October 1066 King Harold lost. Harold was outnumbered, his troops were exhausted as they had just marched from the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York where they had defeated the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada and when the Normans pretended to run away Harold’s army moved down from the safety of their hill.
When Edward the Confessor died childless and the Witan (a national council of leading nobles and spiritual leaders) gave Harold Godwinson the throne, William was so angry he invaded England. He believed Harold had promised him the throne.
At the Battle of Hastings; 14th October 1066 King Harold lost. Harold was outnumbered, his troops were exhausted as they had just marched from the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York where they had defeated the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada and when the Normans pretended to run away Harold’s army moved down from the safety of their hill.
The Bayeux Tapestry, ordered for William by his brother, then shows King Harold being hit in the eye with an arrow.
William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the style William II. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.
In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by his childless cousin Edward the Confessor. There were other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson, who was named the next king by Edward on the latter's deathbed in January 1066. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066, in London. He made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 William's hold on England was mostly secure, allowing him to spend the majority of the rest of his reign on the Continent.
In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by his childless cousin Edward the Confessor. There were other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson, who was named the next king by Edward on the latter's deathbed in January 1066. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066, in London. He made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 William's hold on England was mostly secure, allowing him to spend the majority of the rest of his reign on the Continent.
Domesday is our most famous and earliest surviving public record. It is a highly detailed survey and valuation of all the land held by the King and his chief tenants, along with all the resources that went with the land in late 11th century England. The survey was a massive enterprise, and the record of that survey, Domesday Book, was a remarkable achievement. There is nothing like it in England until the censuses of the 19th century.
In 1085 England was again threatened with invasion, this time from Denmark. William had to pay for the mercenary army he hired to defend his kingdom. To do this he needed to know what financial and military resources were available to him.
It tells us all kinds of things, most importantly:
It was a form of local government, and this is what William depended on. He formed an alliance with the freemen of the shire to run the country, based upon their autonomous local governance, through the agency of the sheriff who formed the natural link between shire and king.
The created a dynamic tension between the lords, the shire and the king, which sometimes erupted into resentment from the earls, as in the revolt of Edwin and Morcar or the Revolt of the Earls in 1075.
It is also possible to see that the Domesday Book commissioners were themselves basically confused about what a manor actually was - we can see their concept of a manor changing throughout the book.
What the Domesday Book shows is that the Norman barony had taken over the role of the English thegns in Anglo-Norman England. The two are almost interchangeable: both held land in return for service (mainly military), both had sub-tenants and both owed their ultimate position, and therefore their allegiance, to the king. In many cases, all that had happened was that the barons had been inserted as an extra social layer between the English king and the English thegnly class.
In 1085 England was again threatened with invasion, this time from Denmark. William had to pay for the mercenary army he hired to defend his kingdom. To do this he needed to know what financial and military resources were available to him.
It tells us all kinds of things, most importantly:
- Who owned the land before 1066.
- Who owned the land at the time of Domesday in 1086.
- How it changed hands.
- What that land was worth, and what manors it was associated with.
- How many peasants (called bordars and villani) tended that land.
It was a form of local government, and this is what William depended on. He formed an alliance with the freemen of the shire to run the country, based upon their autonomous local governance, through the agency of the sheriff who formed the natural link between shire and king.
The created a dynamic tension between the lords, the shire and the king, which sometimes erupted into resentment from the earls, as in the revolt of Edwin and Morcar or the Revolt of the Earls in 1075.
It is also possible to see that the Domesday Book commissioners were themselves basically confused about what a manor actually was - we can see their concept of a manor changing throughout the book.
What the Domesday Book shows is that the Norman barony had taken over the role of the English thegns in Anglo-Norman England. The two are almost interchangeable: both held land in return for service (mainly military), both had sub-tenants and both owed their ultimate position, and therefore their allegiance, to the king. In many cases, all that had happened was that the barons had been inserted as an extra social layer between the English king and the English thegnly class.
ThreAt of the Danes!
In this year people said and declared for a fact that Cnut king of Denmark, son of King Swegn, was setting out in this direction and meant to conquer this country... When William, King of England, found out about this, he went to England with a larger force of mounted men and infantry from France and Brittany than had ever come to this country, so that people wondered how this country could maintain all that army.
And the King had all the army dispersed all over the country among his vassals, and they provisioned the army each in proportion to his land. Cnut the Holy was the son of Swegn Estrithson. He had threatened England in earlier years, when he supported Hereward at Ely and raided York in 1075. Now, with his father dead and his elder brother installed on the throne of Denmark, he was seriously looking towards England as a forum for his dynastic ambitions.
And the King had all the army dispersed all over the country among his vassals, and they provisioned the army each in proportion to his land. Cnut the Holy was the son of Swegn Estrithson. He had threatened England in earlier years, when he supported Hereward at Ely and raided York in 1075. Now, with his father dead and his elder brother installed on the throne of Denmark, he was seriously looking towards England as a forum for his dynastic ambitions.
Canute IV of Denmark.
As the grandnephew of Canute the Great, who ruled England, Denmark and Norwayuntil 1035, Canute considered the crown of England to be rightfully his. He therefore regarded William I of England as a usurper. In 1085, with the support of his father-in-law Count Robert and Olaf III of Norway, Canute planned an invasion of England and called his fleet in leding at the Limfjord.The fleet never set sail, as Canute was preoccupied in Schleswig due to the potential threat of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, with whom both Denmark and Flanders were on unfriendly terms. Canute feared the invasion of Henry, whose enemy Rudolf of Rheinfelden had sought refuge in Denmark.
The warriors of the fleet, mostly made up of peasants who needed to be home for the harvest season, got weary of waiting, and elected Canute's brother Olaf (the later Olaf I of Denmark) to argue their case. This raised the suspicion of Canute, who had Olaf arrested and sent to Flanders. The leding was eventually dispersed and the peasants tended to their harvests,[2] but Canute intended to reassemble within a year.
Death.
Before the fleet could reassemble, a peasant revolt broke out in Vendsyssel, where Canute was staying, in early 1086. Canute first fled to Schleswig, and eventually to Odense. On 10 July 1086, Canute and his men took refuge inside the wooden St. Alban's Priory in Odense. The rebels stormed into the church and slew Canute, along with his brother Benedict and seventeen of their followers, before the altar. According to chronicler Ælnoth of Canterbury, Canute died following a lance thrust in the flank. He was succeeded by Olaf as Olaf I of Denmark.