Æthelstan or Athelstan 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 first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the "greatest Anglo-Saxon kings". He never married and had no children; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I.
Æthelstan presenting a book to St Cuthbert, an illustration in a manuscript of Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert, probably presented to the saint's shrine in Chester-le-Street by Æthelstan when he visited the shrine on his journey to Scotland in 934. He wore a crown of a similar design on his crowned bust coins. It is the oldest surviving portrait of an English king and the manuscript is the oldest surviving made for an English king.
Statue in Tamworth, Staffordshire of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, with her young nephew Æthelstan
Silver penny of King Æthelstan
A sixteenth-century painting in Beverley Minster in the East Riding of Yorkshire of Æthelstan with Saint John of Beverley
Edward the Elder was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æthelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred's elder brother and predecessor, Æthelred I.
Portrait miniature from a thirteenth-century genealogical scroll depicting Edward
A page from the will of Alfred the Great, headed Testamentum in a later hand, which left the bulk of his estate to Edward
Silver pseudo-coin brooch found at the Villa Wolkonsky in Rome. It is based on a coin of Edward the Elder and is probably contemporary.
Silver penny of Edward the Elder
