Everyone knows Alfred the Great, but far fewer know his grandson Æthelstan—the man who became the first true King of England. He united Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria under one crown, claimed the title Rex Anglorum, and won the legendary Battle of Brunanburh in 937 AD, a clash so decisive it forged England itself. Yet history almost erased him completely.

Was it doubts over his legitimacy? Whispers of royal scandal? The fact he died without heirs? Or did his towering achievements make later monarchs uncomfortable? Some say he was deliberately forgotten. Others argue his reign was too perfect to believe.

This episode of Crown & Kingdom: The Kings of England dives into the extraordinary rise of England’s forgotten first king—from Alfred’s symbolic blessing and his brother Ælfweard’s mysteriously brief reign, to foreign princes studying at his court and the blood-soaked triumph at Brunanburh. Discover why this Anglo-Saxon ruler was hailed abroad as “Emperor of the West,” yet nearly lost to English memory.

Anglo-Saxon England | Medieval History | Viking Age | Battle of Brunanburh 937 | English Monarchy Origins | First King of England | Wessex Dynasty | Mercia Conquest | Northumbria Unification | Rex Anglorum | Alfred the Great | Medieval Warfare | Anglo-Saxon Chronicle | Royal Succession | 10th Century Britain | Early Medieval Politics | Forgotten Kings | English Unification | British History Podcast