welcome back to biographics I'm your host Cosmic horror madman Eric Malachite and today we're talking about a man who was not only king of Wes but who also eventually conquered all of ancient Britain today's script was written by Ru Alexander so be sure to show him some love in the comments and let us know whether you think athl Stan's Empire was handed to him by his daddy or if he earned it himself let's get to it in the past we have already looked at the life of Alfred the Great The King Of wesex Who repelled
the Viking Invasion and proclaimed himself the king of the Anglo-Saxons afterward we studied the tale of his son and Heir Edward the Elder who continued his father's Viking bashing ways further fortified his position and even added new territories to his kingdom so if you want to get the picture in full maybe watch those two videos first if you haven't already seen them the goal both Alfred and Edward had in mind was obvious to unite England under their rule but although both men were instrumental in laying the foundations to accomplish this neither one lived long enough
to see their ambition fulfilled instead that honor went to Edward's son and the final subject in our little Trilogy athlan the first king of England athlan was born Circa 894 ad the eldest son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife ewin his early life is pretty much a mystery to us since medieval chroniclers were rarely interested in talking about kids even when they were The Offspring of royalty therefore we have no choice but to push the clock forward 30 years to 924 ad when Edward the Elder bought the farm at faren and Athlon
became the new king that is to say he became the new king of Mercia not King of the Anglo Saxons like his father before him but that was only part of Edward's Kingdom Wessex went to athlon's half brother Alward we don't know much about athlon's mother ewin but we do know that she died young way before her husband who married two more times after that and had a bunch more kids unsurprisingly some of them weren't too keen on the idea of Athlon becoming the new Undisputed ruler over the Anglo-Saxons so they contested his claim to
the throne back then the king did not have the final say over who succeeded him as the new ruler he could name an heir in his will if he wanted to but the decision still had to be approved by a cancell called a Witten which consisted of the most prominent noblemen and clergy in the land and even if he could there is nothing Solen to suggest that Edward would have wanted Athlon to succeed him other than the fact that he was his eldest son in fact some have suggested that Edward wanted alw to take over
his kingdom since he grew up at his father's Court whereas the king sent Athlon to Mercia to live with Edward's sister Ethel fled but this is mainly speculation the point is that Athlon had no trouble being recog recognized as king and mercus since he had strong roots there but not so much in Wessex where his two stepmothers wielded considerable influence and naturally wanted their own Sons to become king this had all the makings of a classic Royal Rumble with the winner earning the opportunity to become the new tribal Chief but before they could face off
and combat fate intervened and decided to play its Joker card in athl Stan's favor just two weeks after the death of Edward the Elder Alward followed him into the great unknown he shuffled off his mortal coil he died is what we're trying to say with his main competition gone Athlon was able to enter Wessex with his army pretty much unopposed and Proclaim himself King but he was still not immediately accepted he still had another half brother named Edwin the younger sibling of alw who could have made a play for the throne so he had to
be taken care of as well right the most common version of the story says that Athlon captured Edwin years later and sent him a drift on the sea in a small boat with no provisions maybe he drowned or maybe he starved to death but either way Edwin was never seen again other accounts say that The Pretender to the throne fled England voluntarily after a failed rebellion and spent the rest of his days in France with no more challenges to overcome Athlon had a clear path to the kingship he still had a few more Step Brothers
but they were too young to be considered a threat so they got to live yay them his coronation had been delayed by over a year but on September 4th 925 ad he was finally crowned the new king of the Anglo-Saxons at Kingston upon [Music] temps truth be told athlon's grip on Wessex remained tenuous for years to come and certain noblemen still would have preferred someone else as their King perpetuating a rumor that athlon's mother echin had been Edward's concubine not his wife thus making her son an illegitimate bastard however Athlon paid little mind to such
nonsense he knew that none of those who opposed him were a serious threat although there was a report of one nobleman named Alfred hatching a plan to Blind Athlon thus making him ineligible for kingship it never happened though and there were no other reports of serious internal threats to his rule to come from Winchester thus Athlon was able to divert his attention early on to the ultimate goal that he shared with his father and grandfather becoming the king of England this was actually surprisingly easy to accomplished for Athlon but only because his predecessors already did
so much of the work for him first his grandfather repelled the Viking Invasion captured the Western half of meria and turned wesex into the most powerful Kingdom in the British Isles then his father conquered East Anglia and the rest of mercio which in his day were Danish territories while also getting the Welsh Kings to recognize his authority and swear allegiance to him all that was really left for Athlon to conquer was North Umbria the kingdom in the north of England and there was more more good news for Athlon because North Umbria wasn't exactly what you
would call a united front against him by default the person in charge was whoever ruled yorvik AKA Scandinavian York the biggest and most powerful Kingdom in the North in this case that would be citric cage but he was not looking for an open conflict with the Anglo-Saxons details are scarce on the occasion but in 926 ad citric and Athlon met at Tamworth for a little get together and the two struck a tenuous alliance with citric even marrying a sister to seal the deal what athlon's ultimate goal with this Union was we cannot say because just
a year later fate once again weaved its web in his favor citric died and Athlon saw a vacancy sign on the throne of York well almost a cousin of Citrix named Guth sailed across the Irish sea with a fleet from the kingdom of Dublin to try and claim the throne for himself but he was easily repelled by the Anglo-Saxon army with York in his hands Athlon controlled North Umbria never before had the grasp of a southern King reached so far into the North and with the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms also under his domain Athlon had become
too powerful for any other king to challenge according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle they quickly fell in line and recognized athlon's Authority First Howell king of West Wales and Constantine King of the Scots and Owen king of Monmouth and aldred the son of Adolf of brambra and with covenants and Oaths they ratified their agreement in the place called EMT on the fourth day before the IDS of July and renounced all idolatry and afterward returned in peace once everyone had sworn falty to him Athlon adopted a new title Rex angelorum King of the [Music] English finally Athlon
held domain over all of England or engeland as it became known in the following centuries but now that he had conquered what he wanted wanted to conquer he needed to start actually governing his kingdom What followed was s years of Peace during which the king focused on diplomacy and reform one new issue that he had to deal with was simply the size of his extended Dominion the bigger a kingdom gets the harder it is to govern like the monarchs who came before him Athlon ruled with the help of the Whitten his King's Council as well
as local Representatives known as Alderman however Athlon still saw the need for a more centralized government instead of holding Gatherings whenever it was the most convenient at the time as was common practice at the time the king mainly used Wessex as his base of operations and made everyone else come to him which you know besides being practical it was also a power move to remind everyone who was in charge like his grandfather Alfred the Great Athlon was an enthusiastic lawgiver who enacted many new policies throughout his land it seems that his main areas of Interest
were crime and social welfare theft was a particular pet peeve of his so he passed more stringent laws that targeted it while also focusing his attention on poverty-stricken regions of his kingdom where lawlessness and robbery had become common place at the same time the king decided to show leniency toward young offenders it was the law in wesex that children as young as 10 could be condemned for theft and the crime could carry with it a capital punishment when Athlon passed his new laws he specified that all those under the age of 13 would be spared
from execution no matter their crimes but he still thought that was too cruel and Savage so he later bumped it up further to 15 years athlan also saw it as his duty as the king and the duty of all Nobles and officials to look after the vulnerable on Christmas Eve 9:32 ad he issued a new Charter that made it a legal requirement to care for the poor land owners were obligated to ensure that no one would starve on their lands otherwise they would be fined and the proceeds would go to charity one way or another
they would have to provide the needy with food actions like these came from athlon's Deep piety and his belief that being a good Christian and being a good King went hand inand to show his devoutness Athlon made a vow not to get married or have any children and he kept that vow all his life although this is speculation this course of action may have actually helped stabilize his kingdom since after his death his stepbrother Edmund the first took the throne when athlan originally fought alw for control of Wessex Edmund was too young to throw his
hat in the ring but by the time Athlon died Edmund was raring to go if he had had competition for from one of athlon's children it was likely that another Power struggle would have ensued besides being Pious Athlon was a keen biophile he collected rare books and manuscripts but he also often gave them out as gifts to his allies or the churches under his domain before long his reputation as a man of letters had begun attracting Scholars and academics from Continental Europe to cross the sea in come study at his court speaking of international relations
Athen relied on diplomacy to establish connections with the kingdoms across the channel this mainly consisted of marrying off his half sisters to Noble European families with one of them idith even getting to marry Otto the first the future Holy Roman Emperor in exchange some noble families sent their own Sons to be fostered at athlon's court it seems however that athlon's diplomatic overtures did not also extend to the kingdoms of his own little island after a few years of peaceful Reign Athlon thought to himself that King of the English sounded good but king of all Britain
sounded even better for reasons which are lost to history in 934 ad athlan decided to invade Scotland it may have been because the King of Scotland Constantine II stopped paying tribute to him or it could be that this was something that athlan always planned on doing and was simply waiting for the right time either way athlan gathered a large army which was said to include four Welsh Kings and 13 Earls and marched up north unfortunately the military campaign is almost completely left out of the historical record we know that it happened but we do not
have details on any of the battles that ensued the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that this year went King athlan into Scotland both with a land force and a naval Armament and laid waste a great part of it other later chroniclers offered a bit more information and said that athlan returned to the South Victorious after only a short while so it didn't take long for him to make the Scottish King submit Constantine was then present as a witness during the signing of a charter acknowledging the authority of athlan which means that he traveled to Wessex alongside
the English king and may have even left his son behind at athan's court as a hostage the king's coinage as well as poets and chroniclers started referring to athlan around this time as rex todus braner the king of the whole of Britain however it would not be long before athelstan's overlordship would be tested once more and what would become without a doubt not only his toughest challenge but also the defining moment of his legacy in 937 ad the other smaller kingdoms were getting fed up with how Athlon was string around like he was of the
Walk but on their own there was little they could do about it other than start an angry letter Campaign together however maybe they stood a chance the first step to this budding Alliance took place when athan's one-time Foe and Challenger for the throne of York guf died and was succeeded by a son Olaf gor's son as the king of Dublin Olaf turned his attention to his father's greatest failure not being able to conquer York and set off to write a wrong his first alley was the AFF forementioned Constantine II of Scotland he made for an
obvious candidate he already showed that he was unhappy under the Yoke of athlan and that he was willing to go to war against him it's true that he didn't do much but at least he tried according to one Chronicle Olaf even married Constantine's daughter to solidify their allegiance the last member of their little triumvirate was awne king of Strath so once they gathered their armies together they marched South to challenge the so-called King of the whole of Britain fortunately for athlan they first had to pass through North Umbria and Mercia to reach Wessex so he
had advanced notice of their impending Invasion and had time to muster his army the two signs met in battle at brunin one of the most pivotal battles in English History unfortunately once again and details of the actual fighting are scarce and those that are provided come to us courtesy of chroniclers who lived hundreds of years after the fact truth be told we do not know for certain where brunin B even was it is unlikely that athl Sten would have waited for the opposing Army to reach him in wesx since they plundered and set fire to
all the villages they encountered on the way what's the point in fighting to save your kingdom if half of it is just smoldering ashes now Athlon charged and faced his enemy head on most likely somewhere in the North north of England Cheshire county is often put forward as a likely candidate possibly in the town of banur but this is just one of multiple possibilities there is only one thing we can say for certain about the Battle of brunin BR with the help of his Heir and younger half brother Edmund athlan opened up a major can
of whoopass every medieval Chronicle that mentions the war says that the anti- aalan alliance suffered a decisive defeat and was routed after sustaining heavy casualties multiple Kings princes and Earls perished in the fight including Constantine's son and two of athl Stan's nephews the closest thing we have to a contemporary account of the battle is a poem recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle King athlan Lord of nobles dispenser of treasure to men and his brother also Prince Edmund won by the swords Edge undying glory in battle round brunin bur they clothed The Shield wall hewed the Lindenwood
Shields with hammered swords the people of the Scots and the Pirates fell doomed the field grew dark with the blood of men never yet in this land before this by what books tell us and our ancient sages was a great Slaughter of a host made by the edge of the sword since the Angles and Saxons came hither from the East invading Britain over the broad seas and the proud as salance Warriors eager for Glory overcame the Britains and won a [Music] country although the battle of runen B came to Define athlon's Reign and is regarded
as one of the greatest military conflicts in British history how much of a personal Triumph it was for the Anglo-Saxon King is still a matter Up For Debate some see it as a pck victory where Athlon won the battle but ultimately lost the war his main enemy King Olaf survived the battle and made it back across the sea to Dublin where he was able to assemble a new Army and bite his time maybe he knew something we don't because Athlon although he was still in his early 40s at this point returned home to Wessex a
weakened man we aren't sure exactly what happened maybe he sustained an injury during combat maybe he encountered a debilitating illness either way less than 2 years later King athlan died at glower on October 27th 939 ad as per his own wish he was not buried at Winchester alongside his father and grandfather but rather at mesbury Abbey where he also buried his two nephews who fell in battle following athl Stan's death death things quickly went to pot for his kingdom as we said he did not have any children so he was succeeded on the throne by
his half brothers first Edmund then edred both sons of Edward the Elder and his third wife IDU going by his actions at the Battle of Brun andur Edmund had already proven himself a capable leader and Warrior even though he was only 18 years old when he took the throne even so right off the bat he found himself swimming against the current what followed over the next decade and a half was a game of hot potato with the kingdom of York the men in the north never truly wanted or accepted a southern King Athlon may have
forced his way into their Kingdom but as soon as he was gone the people of York voted for yit and broke off from the rest of the Anglo-Saxons by choosing Olaf as their new king obviously Olaf was thrilled with this new development he left the cousin in charge of Dublin and sailed the sea once more to North Umbria where he took control but he was no spring chicken either and he died in 941 ad 2 years after athlan thus all ing Edmund to bring North Umbria under Southern control once more but then Edmund died too
and the north went back to the Vikings and younger brother edred then spent his Reign trying to regain control of North Umbria ultimately athlan left behind a divisive Legacy he achieved something that had never been done before something that one could easily argue was a crucial moment in the history of the British Isles and yet he is nowhere near as well known as his grandfather or even his father for that matter some historians feel that athlan was almost handed his achievement thanks to the efforts of Alfred and Edward and that almost anyone in his position
would have been able to attain the same goal others however consider that athl Stan's accomplishment and his victory at brunenberg are enough to solidify his place as one of the founding fathers of England I hope you learned something today and if you enjoyed this video be sure to deploy your likes comment who your favorite British king is and be sure to share this video with someone who loves learning about British history history True Crime and the glory of Rome I'm Eric Malachite and I'll see you next time space cowboy
