Chapter VIII

Summary

In the year from our Lord's incarnation 924, the king of the West Saxons, Edward the Elder, died. His first-born son, Æthelstan, succeeded him on the throne and was consecrated as king by Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury, at Kingston.

In the second year of his reign he gave his sister in marriage in great splendour to King Sihtric of the Northumbrians, who was born of the Danish race. But Sihtric died after a year and Æthelstan expelled Guthfrith, Sihtric's son and added the kingdom of Northumbria to the West Saxon Kingdom. [Æthelstan] also conquered in battle and put to flight the kings of the whole of Albion, namely Hywel, king of the West Welsh, Constantine, king of the Scots, and Wer, king of the Gwenti. They all, when they saw they could not resist his strength, sought peace with him and, swearing an oath of allegiance, made a firm treaty with him.

Furthermore, the kingdoms of Kent and of the South Saxons and many areas of the East Saxon kingdom had by now been made subject to the West Saxon kingdom by Ecgbert, Æthelstan's great-grandfather. Similarly, through Ecgbert's grandson Alfred, London, with the territories surrounding it and parts of the Mercian kingdom, were subject to West Saxon rule. Then Edward the Elder, son of Alfred and father of Æthelstan, gained parts of East Saxony, East Anglia, Northumbria and the whole province of Mercia, and accepted the surrender of the kings of the Scots, the Cumbrians, and other peoples.

Thus King Ecgbert, his son Æthelwulf, Æthelwulf's four sons, who in turn succeeded him – namely Æthelbald, Æthelberht, Æthelred and Alfred, and Alfred's son, Edward the Elder – while they did not achieve absolute monarchy over England, nevertheless they prepared the way for that monarchy and established its boundaries. Then Æthelstan, as possessor not only of the territories which his forefathers had made ready for him but also of those which he had added to them, sed et eorum quae ipse prudentia simul et fortitudine adiecerat possessor primus Anglorum totius Angliae monarchiam gloriose optinuit.

Anno uero regni sui .x. rebellauit aduersus eum Scottorum rex Constantinus, moxque rex Adelstanus classica manu perualida et equestri exercitu non modico in Scotiam profectus, maxima eam ex parte depopulatus est. Vnde ui compulsus rex Constantinus filium suum cum dignis muneribus obsidem illi dedit, pacem reddintegrauit.