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.

If nothing else, Æthelstan's story overturns the centuries-long notion that England was originally a homogeneous culture, says Woodman. It's a misconception that still resurfaces today, but the truth was very different.

Æthelstan was the grandson of perhaps the most famous king of the early medieval period, Alfred the Great. Alfred was known for his battles with the Vikings, and for decisively defeating the Danes in the 9th Century. Through his tussles with the Danes, he was able to establish influence in parts of the former rival kingdom of Mercia, which stretched from the midlands to the east of England, expanding his kingdom up from Wessex, in the south of England.

"It's Alfred's son, Edward, Æthelstan's father, who conquered East Anglia from the Danes," says Sarah Foot, dean of Christ Church College and former regius professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Oxford. Edward the Elder, as he was known, used a new form of warfare that created fortress towns to take and hold large swathes of enemy territory. "And Edward died as king all the way up to the River Humber [in East Yorkshire]." By then he had earned the title he inherited from Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons. Edward's deeds set the stage for his son.

Æthelstan, born around the year 894AD, was next in this line of kings and continued the family tradition of expanding the kingdom.

In 924AD Æthelstan became king when his father Edward died. There is some suggestion that Æthelstan's half-brother, Ælfweard, was initially king of Wessex when Edward died, while Æthelstan was made king of Mercia. "Whatever the case, Ælfweard died within a month – we don't know in what circumstances – and Æthelstan then naturally became sole king........

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