Athelstan was an English king. He was born in 895 and died in 940. He succeeded his father, Edward the Elder, in 925 and extended his kingdom by defeats over the Welsh of Devon, Cornwall and Wales and defeating the Northumbrian Danes and their northern and Irish allies at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.
Athelstan's law codes strengthened royal control over his large kingdom; currency was regulated to control silver's weight and to penalise fraudsters. Buying and selling was mostly confined to the burhs, encouraging town life; areas of settlement in the midlands and Danish towns were consolidated into shires. Overseas, Athelstan built alliances by marrying four of his half-sisters to various rulers in western Europe. He also had extensive cultural and religious contacts; as an enthusiastic and discriminating collector of works of art and religious relics, he gave away much of his collection to his followers and to churches and bishops in order to retain their support. Athelstan died at the height of his power and was buried at Malmesbury; a church charter of 934 described him as 'King of the English, elevated by the right hand of the Almighty ... to the Throne of the whole Kingdom of Britain'. Research Athelstan
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