In his lifetime, the first king of England was renowned throughout Europe. But over the centuries, he has been sidelined by history.
For a king who achieved so much, Æthelstan is a remarkably mysterious monarch. It is 1,100 years since he was crowned the first king of England, yet he has remained surprisingly absent from the history books.
While Æthelstan himself may have been largely forgotten, his legacy still looms large. (The "Æ", by the way, is pronounced like the "a" in cat). Not only did he unite several disparate kingdoms to create England, but he built a deep and complex relationship with mainland Europe. At home, he ruled over a diverse kingdom of people with different cultures and identities. He set trends too as the first English monarch to wear a crown – a tradition that continues today.
After he died, however, Æthelstan was soon overshadowed by the legacy of his grandfather, Alfred the Great. In Elizabethan times, he was passed over in the search for English origin stories. In the Victorian era, he was little more than a side note as historians turned to the past to reinforce ideas of empire.
It is time this monarch was better remembered, argues David Woodman, professor of history at Robinson College, University of Cambridge in the UK, and author of a new biography of Æthelstan. This month – September 2025 – marks the 1,100-year anniversary of his coronation, and a closer look at his reign reveals some insightful lessons for those hoping to understand what it means to be English.