The Kingdom of the English: The Wars of Athelstan, Edmund and Eadred, 927–959

Paul Hill’s four-volume military and political history of early England includes this third part. It explores the rise of Æthelstan, the first-born son of Edward the Elder and grandson of Alfred the Great. His reign expanded the English kingdom thanks to his aunt Æthelflæd and his father. Æthelstan’s prestige had much to do with his own extraordinary ability. Courts across Europe felt the king’s influence through carefully planned marriages, while he firmly stamped his authority at home.

This volume traces the challenges in Æthelstan’s reign after he established power in the north in 927. It also explores the mystery surrounding his half-brother Edwin’s unusual death. But it also looks at the great military campaigns of the time. Hill’s volume examines the English campaign in Scotland in 934 and the Brunanburh encounter in 937. So too is the passionate history of the hunt for the battle site. Also told is a fresh account of the campaigns and fortunes of the king’s brothers Edmund and Eadred who succeeded Æthelstan in turn.

The kingdom was by no means secure though. The warrior kings came again. Hill’s narrative portrays the deeds of the evocatively named Eric ‘Bloodaxe’ of York and the bitter end of an independent Viking northern kingdom that had so bedevilled the kings of the south. Were the fields of Britain finally consolidated into one (as one chronicler said) or was there more trouble ahead?