Editing Æthelstan (section)

=== King of the English ===
[[File:British Isles 10th century.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|Map of the British Isles in the early tenth century]]

Edward the Elder had conquered the Danish territories in east Mercia and East Anglia with the assistance of Æthelflæd and her husband Æthelred, but when Edward died the Danish king [[Sihtric Cáech|Sihtric]] still ruled the Viking Kingdom of York (formerly the southern Northumbrian kingdom of [[Deira]]). In January 926, Æthelstan arranged for his only full sister to marry Sihtric. The two kings agreed not to invade each other's territories or to support each other's enemies. The following year Sihtric died, and Æthelstan seized the chance to invade.{{Efn|Some historians believe that Sihtric renounced his wife soon after the marriage and reverted to paganism,{{Sfnm|1a1=Hart|1y=2004|2a1=Thacker|2y=2001|2p=257}} while others merely state that Æthelstan took advantage of Sihtric's death to invade.{{Sfnm|1a1=Foot|1y=2011|1p=18|2a1=Stenton|2y=1971|2p=340|3a1=Miller|3y=2014|3p=18}} In the view of Alex Woolf, it is unlikely that Sihtric repudiated her because Æthelstan would almost certainly have declared war on him.{{Sfn|Woolf|2007|pp=150–151}} }} [[Gofraid ua Ímair|Guthfrith]], a cousin of Sihtric, led a fleet from [[Dublin]] to try to take the throne, but Æthelstan easily prevailed. He captured York and received the submission of the Danish people. According to a southern chronicler, he "succeeded to the kingdom of the Northumbrians", and it is uncertain whether he had to fight Guthfrith.{{Sfn|Foot|2011|pp=12–19, 48}} Southern kings had never ruled the north, and his usurpation was met with outrage by the Northumbrians, who had always resisted southern control. However, at [[Eamont Bridge|Eamont]], near [[Penrith, Cumbria|Penrith]], on 12 July 927, King Constantine II of [[Kingdom of Alba|Alba]], King [[Hywel Dda]] of Deheubarth, Ealdred of Bamburgh, and [[Owen I of Strathclyde|King Owain of Strathclyde]] (or Morgan ap Owain of Gwent){{Efn|According to William of Malmesbury it was Owain of Strathclyde who was present at Eamont, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says Owain of Gwent. It could have been both.{{Sfnm|1a1=Foot|1y=2011|1p=162 n. 15|2a1=Woolf|2y=2007|2p=151|3a1=Charles-Edwards|3y=2013|3pp=511–512}} }} accepted Æthelstan's overlordship. His triumph led to seven years of peace in the north.{{Sfnm|1a1=Higham|1y=1993|1p=190|2a1=Foot|2y=2011|2p=20}}

Whereas Æthelstan was the first English king to achieve lordship over northern Britain, he inherited his authority over the Welsh kings from his father and aunt. In the 910s Gwent acknowledged the lordship of Wessex, and Deheubarth and Gwynedd accepted that of Æthelflæd; following Edward's takeover of Mercia, they transferred their allegiance to him. According to William of Malmesbury, after the meeting at Eamont Æthelstan summoned the Welsh kings to Hereford, where he imposed a heavy annual tribute and fixed the border between England and Wales in the Hereford area at the River Wye.{{Sfnm|1a1=Stenton|1y=1971|1pp=340–41|2a1=Foot|2y=2011|2p=163}}{{Efn|William of Malmesbury's report of the Hereford meeting is not mentioned in the first volume of the Oxford History of Wales, ''Wales and the Britons 350–1064'' by Thomas Charles-Edwards.{{Sfn|Charles-Edwards|2013|pp=510–519}} }} The dominant figure in Wales was Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, described by the historian of early medieval Wales [[Thomas Charles-Edwards]] as "the firmest ally of the 'emperors of Britain' among all the kings of his day". Welsh kings attended Æthelstan's court between 928 and 935 and witnessed charters at the head of the list of laity (apart from the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde), showing that their position was regarded as superior to that of the other great men present. The alliance produced peace between Wales and England, and within Wales, lasting throughout Æthelstan's reign, though some Welsh resented the status of their rulers as under-kings, as well as the high level of tribute imposed upon them. In ''[[Armes Prydein|Armes Prydein Vawr]]'' (The Great Prophecy of Britain), a Welsh poet foresaw the day when the British would rise up against their Saxon oppressors and drive them into the sea.{{Sfn|Charles-Edwards|2013|pp=497–523}}

According to William of Malmesbury, after the Hereford meeting Æthelstan went on to expel the Cornish from [[Exeter]], fortify its walls, and fix the Cornish boundary at the [[River Tamar]]. This account is regarded sceptically by historians, however, as Cornwall had been under English rule since the mid-ninth century. Thomas Charles-Edwards describes it as "an improbable story", while historian John Reuben Davies sees it as the suppression of a British revolt and the confinement of the Cornish beyond the Tamar. Æthelstan emphasised his control by establishing a new [[Bishop of Cornwall|Cornish see]] and appointing its [[Conan of Cornwall|first bishop]], but Cornwall kept its own culture and language.{{Sfnm|1a1=Charles-Edwards|1y=2013|1p=432|2a1=Davies|2y=2013|2pp=342–343|3a1=Foot|3y=2011|3p=164|4a1=Stenton|4y=1971|4pp=341–342}}

[[File:Silver penny of King Aethestan (YORYM 2000 623) obverse.jpg|thumb|Silver penny of King Æthelstan]]

Æthelstan became the first king of all the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and in effect overlord of Britain.{{Sfn|Foot|2011|p=20}}{{Efn|The situation in northern Northumbria, however, is unclear. In the view of [[Ann Williams (historian)|Ann Williams]], the submission of Ealdred of Bamburgh was probably nominal, and it is likely that he acknowledged Constantine as his lord, but Alex Woolf sees Ealdred as a semi-independent ruler acknowledging West Saxon authority, like Æthelred of Mercia a generation earlier.{{Sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=1991c|1pp=116–117|2a1=Woolf|2y=2007|2p=158}} }} His successes inaugurated what [[John Maddicott]], in his history of the origins of the English Parliament, calls the ''imperial phase'' of English kingship between about 925 and 975, when rulers from Wales and Scotland attended the assemblies of English kings and witnessed their charters.{{Sfn|Maddicott|2010|pp=7–8, 13}} Æthelstan tried to reconcile the aristocracy in his new territory of Northumbria to his rule. He lavished gifts on the minsters of [[Beverley Minster|Beverley]], [[St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street|Chester-le-Street]] and [[York Minster|York]], emphasising his Christianity. He also purchased the vast territory of [[Amounderness]] in Lancashire, and gave it to the [[Archbishop of York]], his most important lieutenant in the region.{{Efn|In the view of Janet Nelson, Æthelstan had limited control over the north-west, and the donation of Amounderness in an area which had recently attracted many Scandinavian immigrants to "a powerful, but far from reliable, local potentate" was "a political gesture rather than a sign of prior control."{{Sfn|Nelson|1999b|pp=116–117}} }} But he remained a resented outsider, and the northern British kingdoms preferred to ally with the pagan Norse of Dublin. In contrast to his strong control over southern Britain, his position in the north was far more tenuous.{{Sfnm|1a1=Higham|1y=1993|1p=192|2a1=Keynes|2y=1999|2p=469}}