Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

==== Reform and formation of England (899–978) ====
[[File:Edward the Elder coin imitation silver brooch Rome Italy c 920.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Silver brooch imitating a coin of [[Edward the Elder]], c. 920, found in Rome, Italy. [[British Museum]].]]
During the course of the 10th century, the West Saxon kings extended their power first over Mercia, then into the southern Danelaw, and finally over Northumbria, thereby imposing a semblance of political unity on peoples, who nonetheless would remain conscious of their respective customs and their separate pasts. The prestige, and indeed the pretensions, of the monarchy increased, the institutions of government strengthened, and kings and their agents sought in various ways to establish social order.<ref name="Keynes, Simon 2001">Keynes, Simon. "Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons."." Edward the Elder: 899 924 (2001): 40–66.</ref> This process started with [[Edward the Elder]] – who with his sister, [[Æthelflæd]], Lady of the Mercians, initially, charters reveal, encouraged people to purchase estates from the Danes, thereby to reassert some degree of English influence in territory which had fallen under Danish control. [[David Dumville]] suggests that Edward may have extended this policy by rewarding his supporters with grants of land in the territories newly conquered from the Danes and that any charters issued in respect of such grants have not survived.<ref>Dumville, David N. Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: six essays on political, cultural, and ecclesiastical revival. Boydell Press, 1992.</ref> When Athelflæd died, Mercia was absorbed by Wessex. From that point on there was no contest for the throne, so the house of Wessex became the ruling house of England.<ref name="Keynes, Simon 2001" />

Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son [[Æthelstan]], whom Keynes calls the "towering figure in the landscape of the tenth century".<ref>Keynes, Simon. King Athelstan's books. University Press, 1985.</ref> His victory over a coalition of his enemies – [[Constantine II of Scotland|Constantine]], King of the Scots; [[Owain ap Dyfnwal (fl. 934)|Owain ap Dyfnwal]], King of the Cumbrians; and [[Olaf Guthfrithson]], King of Dublin – at the [[battle of Brunanburh]], celebrated by a poem in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', opened the way for him to be hailed as the first king of England.<ref>Hare, Kent G. "Athelstan of England: Christian king and hero." The Heroic Age 7 (2004).</ref> Æthelstan's legislation shows how the king drove his officials to do their respective duties. He was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for the law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent difficulties which confronted the king and his councillors in bringing a troublesome people under some form of control. His claim to be "king of the English" was by no means widely recognised.<ref>Keynes, Simon. "Edgar, King of the English 959–975 New Interpretations." (2008).</ref> The situation was complex: the [[Norse–Gaels|Hiberno-Norse]] rulers of Dublin still coveted their interests in the [[Scandinavian York|Danish kingdom of York]]; terms had to be made with the Scots, who had the capacity not merely to interfere in Northumbrian affairs, but also to block a line of communication between Dublin and York; and the inhabitants of northern Northumbria were considered a law unto themselves. It was only after twenty years of crucial developments following Æthelstan's death in 939 that a unified kingdom of England began to assume its familiar shape. However, the major political problem for [[Edmund I|Edmund]] and [[Eadred]], who succeeded Æthelstan, remained the difficulty of subjugating the north.<ref name="Dumville, David N 1992">Dumville, David N. "Between Alfred the Great and Edgar the Peacemaker: Æthelstan, First King of England." Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar (1992): 141–171.</ref> In 959 [[Edgar, King of England|Edgar]] is said to have "succeeded to the kingdom both in Wessex and in Mercia and in Northumbria, and he was then 16 years old" (ASC, version 'B', 'C'), and is called "the Peacemaker".<ref name="Dumville, David N 1992" /> By the early 970s, after a decade of Edgar's 'peace', it may have seemed that the kingdom of England was indeed made whole. In his formal address to the gathering at Winchester the king urged his bishops, abbots and abbesses "to be of one mind as regards monastic usage . . . lest differing ways of observing the customs of one Rule and one country should bring their holy conversation into disrepute".<ref>Regularis concordia Anglicae nationis, ed. T. Symons (CCM 7/3), Siegburg (1984), p.2 (revised edition of Regularis concordia Anglicae nationis monachorum sanctimonialiumque: The Monastic Agreement of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation, ed. with English trans. T. Symons, London (1953))</ref>

Athelstan's court had been an intellectual incubator. In that court were two young men named [[Dunstan]] and [[Æthelwold of Winchester|Æthelwold]] who were made priests, supposedly at the insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in 939.<ref name="Gretsch, Mechthild 2009">Gretsch, Mechthild. "Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks." The English Historical Review 124.510 (2009): 1136–1138.</ref> Between 970 and 973 a council was held, under the aegis of Edgar, where a set of rules were devised that would be applicable throughout England. This put all the monks and nuns in England under one set of detailed customs for the first time. In 973, Edgar received a special second, 'imperial coronation' at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], and from this point England was ruled by Edgar under the strong influence of Dunstan, Athelwold, and [[Oswald of Worcester|Oswald]], the Bishop of Worcester.