𝑳𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏
Good moaning, one and all. I greet you well.
This post is for those of you of Anglo blood, or any combination thereof, since the great Athelstan is as much a part of your history as mine.
His name has largely disappeared from the general knowledge thanks to the effort of modern educators to belittle and re-write England's long, long past for the benefit of latter-day "inclusive", multi-culti teaching.
But when I was at school, junior school, taught by teachers who had gone through a world war (sometimes two world wars), Athelstan's was a name to conjure with. The very founder of England, the creator of the English state which - with much change to be sure - exists to this day.
We knew all about Alfred the Great, his mighty daughter Aethelflaed ("The Lady of the Mercians" ), and Athelstan's defeat of England's enemies, in one fell swoop, at the Battle of Brunanburh.
For centuries, though Saxons had called themselves English, though the term derives from their Angle relatives, and everybody agreed that they lived in a country called England, none of them had ever lived in a formal, unified state - or kingdom - called England. They did after Brunanburh.
Now the English histories of the time, and certainly English kings, might seem to look upon the Viking Danes who had caused so much havoc more gently than they might deserve to the modern mind. This largely appears to be because in the Danes the English saw a kindred people, who spoke an obviously related language, with whom, before the migration and conquest of what who become England, they had a close neighbourly relationship on the Cimbric Peninsular they shared - DNA testing repeatedly shows no ethnic differences between Danish, North German and English populations.
These Danes quickly became English, and their next generations fought off subsequent Viking incursions with as much vigour as Athelstan, Aethelflaed and Alfred had fought against them. (It is, incidentally, because of the need of Englishman and Dane to understand one another that our language began to simplify from the heavy-going synthetic language it had been into the analytic language we speak today.)
By sword, diplomacy and astute thinking - he did not persecute the Danes - Athelstan, of the House of Wessex, made England.
In this respect I account him our greatest mediaeval king, with the Norman son of the Conqueror, Henry I a close second (battle hardened, politically brilliant - most of the time - Henry gave the estranged English back a stake in their own country and its new monarchy by marrying an authentic English princess - though that term wasn't in use at that time - belonging to the House of Wessex, Edith of Scotland, quickly renamed Matilda to suit Norman tastes).
Have a good day, folks - and to those to whom it applies, remember your great once-upon-a-time king. Maybe an ancestor of yours fought at his side..?
Congratulations to @heavyO and @chitchatjf. Your questions were chosen for tonight’s Ask Greg and the Panelists.
@heavyO Have you ever gone to a high school reunion?
@chitchatjf Which movie would you most like to see remade with YOU playing the main character?
Congratulations to @SGKusmertz. Your question was chosen for tonight’s Ask Greg and the Panelists
In a crisis, are you the go to person, or do you fall apart?
