Æthelstan Half-King (fl. 932 – 956) was an important and influential
Ealdorman
Ealdorman (, ) was a term in Anglo-Saxon England which originally applied to a man of high status, including some of royal birth, whose authority was independent of the king. It evolved in meaning and in the eighth century was sometimes applied ...
of
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
who interacted with five
kings of England
This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Sax ...
, including his adopted son King
Edgar the Peaceful
Edgar ( ang, Ēadgār ; 8 July 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. The younger son of King Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, he came to the throne as a teenager followin ...
. Many of Æthelstan's close relatives were also involved in important affairs, but soon after the death of King
Eadred
Eadred (c. 923 – 23 November 955) was King of the English from 26 May 946 until his death. He was the younger son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Eadgifu, and a grandson of Alfred the Great. His elder brother, Edmund, was killed try ...
in 955, he left his position and became a monk at
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction.
The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It w ...
.
Origins
Æthelstan was the son of
Æthelfrith
Æthelfrith (died c. 616) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death. Around 604 he became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development of the later kingdom of Nor ...
, an Ealdorman who held lands in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lor ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...
, and
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
. His mother was Æthelgyth, daughter of Æthelwulf. His elder brother Ælfstan and his younger brothers Æthelwold and
Ædric or Eadric, were Ealdormen of south and east
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, y ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and central
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
, respectively.
[Hart, 2004] Æthelfrith was an ealdorman in Mercia in the late ninth and early tenth centuries.
Career
Æthelstan seems to have been appointed Ealdorman of East Anglia and other parts by King
Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his fir ...
in about 932. The lands King Æthelstan gave him had mostly been part of the
Danelaw
The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...
which had only been forced out of the area after the
Battle of Tempsford
In 917, the group of Danes who had previously been based in Huntingdon relocated to Tempsford in Bedfordshire, together with other Danes from East Anglia. They built and fortified a new ''burh'' there, to serve as a forward base for attacks on En ...
in
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
fifteen years earlier in 917. Æthelstan's brother Ælfstan inherited his father's ealdormandom but died in 934. Æthelwold became an ealdorman in 940 and Eadric in 942.
[
Æthelstan and his family were supporters of the monastic reforms of ]Saint Dunstan
Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in E ...
which introduced the Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
rule to Glastonbury. Both Glastonbury, and Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames.
The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary.
The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...
, were endowed by Æthelstan.
Æthelstan's wife was named Ælfwynn
__NOTOC__
Ælfwynn () was the ruler of Mercia as the 'Second Lady of the Mercians' for a few months in 918, following her mother's death on 12 June 918. She was the daughter of Æthelred and Æthelflæd, the rulers of Mercia. Her accession was ...
. Her family came from the East Midlands. She was foster-mother of King Edgar of England
Edgar ( ang, Ēadgār ; 8 July 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. The younger son of King Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, he came to the throne as a teenager followin ...
. Ælfwynn's lands would later endow Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539.
The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey ...
, refounded by Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester
Æthelwold of Winchester (also Aethelwold and Ethelwold, 904/9 – 984) was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984 and one of the leaders of the tenth-century monastic reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England.
Monastic life had declined to ...
, Bishop Oswald of Worcester
Oswald of Worcester (died 29 February 992) was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda, who sent him to France to the abbey of Fleury to become a monk. After a number of ye ...
, and Æthelstan's son Æthelwine.
The epithet 'Half-King' is first recorded in Byrhtferth of Ramsey's ''Life of St Oswald'', written between 997 and 1002. Byrhtferth referred to "Ealdorman Æthelstan, whom the elders and all the populace called 'Half-King', since he was a man of such authority that he was said to maintain the kingdom and its rule with his advice to the king". Byrhtferth devoted considerable space to Æthelstan's family, several of whom were buried at Ramsey. The epithet Half-King comes from Byrhtferth's writings. Several members of the family were buried, or reburied, at Ramsey.
The position of Æthelstan and his brothers in the middle of the 10th century has been compared with the similar dominance of the family of Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex ( ang, Godwine; – 15 April 1053) was an English nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great (King of England from 1016 to 1035) and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the ...
in the 11th century. It is possible that Æthelstan's withdrawal to Glastonbury may not have been voluntary. However, the death of Æthelwald in 962 resulted in the family's offices in Wessex passing to their chief rivals, the family of Ealdorman Ælfhere. The result of this was that the two families were roughly equal in influence. Ælfhere's death in the early 970s did not result in a return of the old dominance of Æthelstan's family.
Family
People associated with Æthelstan's family include Ealdorman Byrhtnoth
Byrhtnoth ( ang, Byrhtnoð), Ealdorman of Essex ( 931 - 11 August 991), died at the Battle of Maldon. His name is composed of the Old English ''beorht'' (bright) and ''noþ'' (courage). He is the subject of '' The Battle of Maldon'', an Old ...
, whose defeat at the Battle of Maldon
The Battle of Maldon took place on 11 August 991 AD near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battl ...
is commemorated in verse.
Æthelstan's children included:
* Æthelwald (died c. 962), Ealdorman of Essex, then of East Anglia after his father became a monk. Queen Ælfthryth, daughter of Ealdorman Ordgar
Ordgar (died 971) was Ealdorman of Devon in England. He was a great West Country landowner and apparently a close advisor of his son-in-law Edgar the Peaceful, king of England. His daughter Ælfthryth was King Edgar's third wife and was the moth ...
, who was later the third wife of King Edgar, was first married to Æthelwald.
* Ælfwald, called ''dux'' in charters. He married Elfhild, perhaps the daughter of Ealdorman Elfsige.
* Æthelwig, Ealdorman.
* Æthelsige, became King Edgar's chamberlain
Chamberlain may refer to:
Profession
*Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure
People
*Chamberlain (surname)
**Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...
(died c.986).
* Æthelwine (died 992), Ealdorman of East Anglia after Æthelwald, youngest son of Æthelstan. Chief Ealdorman from 983. He married three times, firstly to Ethelflaed who died in 977, secondly to Ethelgifu (d. 985) and thirdly to Wulfgifu (d. 994).[ Andrew Wareham, Lords and Communities in Early Medieval East Anglia, Institute of Historical Research]
References
Sources
*
* Henson, Donald, ''A Guide to Late Anglo-Saxon England: From Ælfred to Eadgar II.'' Anglo-Saxon Books, 1998.
* Higham, Nick, ''The Death of Anglo-Saxon England.'' Sutton, 1997.
*
* Miller, Sean, "Æthelstan Half-King" in Michael Lapidge Michael Lapidge, FBA (born 8 February 1942) is a scholar in the field of Medieval Latin literature, particularly that composed in Anglo-Saxon England during the period 600–1100 AD; he is an emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, a Fellow ...
et al., ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England.'', 2nd ed. 2014, Wiley Blackwell
* Stenton, Frank, ''Anglo-Saxon England.'' Oxford UP, 3rd edition, 1971.
* William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...
, ''The Kings before the Norman Conquest,'' trans. Joseph Stevenson. Reprinted Llanerch, 1989.
* Williams, Ann, Smyth, Alfred P., and D.P. Kirkby, ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain.'' Seaby, 1991.
External links
* . Retrieved 2007-10-29.
Anglo-Saxons.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aethelstan Halfking
Anglo-Saxon warriors
Earls and ealdormen of East Anglia
10th-century deaths
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