The first English monarch: Aethelstan, king of Wessex and England 924-939

英国第一位君主：埃塞尔斯坦，威塞克斯和英格兰国王 924-939

• 批准号: AH/D500060/1
• 负责人: Sarah Rosamond Irvine Foot
• 金额: $ 3.78万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FD500060%2F1
• 关键词: first; English; monarch; Aethelstan; king

This research will lead to the completion of a life of the Anglo-Saxon king ?thelstan He was the grandson of Alfred the Great and succeeded in 924 to the throne of Wessex (whose power then extended over the midlands as far as the Humber). His greatest achievement was to conquer the independent kingdom of Northumbria and thereby to become the first king to rule all of England. He retained that power despite opposition from Saxons and Norsemen until his death in 939. ?thelstan's reign marks an important period in the shaping of English identity, but there has never been a major study of his life. Since there is currently considerable interest in the historic roots of Englishness and the relationship between regional and national identities, a life of the first king of the English is firmly. Academic studies of aspects of his rule and of contemporary continental developments (the rise of the Ottonians in Saxony, of ducal families in France and the weakening of the Carolingian royal family) provide a comparative background for a full-scale study. ?thelstan was a major player on a European stage, with a dynastic strategy that saw his numerous half-sisters married into the Carolingian and Robertian families in West Frankia, the ducal house of Saxony, and into Burgundy and Aquitaine; his court offered refuge to exiles from the Carolingian royal house, from Brittany, Flanders and from Norway. These European contacts brought new ideas about royal and imperial leadership and about monastic reform to his court. Seeing his actions in wide perspective produces a more rounded assessment of ?thelstan's significance. My aim is to write the first biography of ?thelstan, whose reputation has been overshadowed in popular and professorial imaginations by that of his grandfather. The objective is to revise previous judgments by setting the king's achievements in wider contexts: British and European, religious and |cultural as well as political and military. I intend to show the significance of the reign in terms of the shaping of a unified England and the strengthening "of nascent ideas of English identity. Writing a biography of an early medieval figure poorly-represented in conventional narrative sources presents its own problems and it is not plausible to hope to reveal insights into ?thelstan's personality. The study does, aim, however, to trace the various influences on his actions and to situate his deeds in an informed understanding of contemporary political and cultural developments in Britain and Western Europe. It draws on a wide range of source-material ranging from charters (documents granting land and privileges, whose witness-lists reveal much about the composition of his court), coins ?thelstan was the first English king to be depicted wearing a crown) to law-codes. It makes use also of contemporary continental materials, together with manuscript-books associated with the king. At the front of a copy of Bede's Lives of St Cuthbert that ?thelstan commissioned for the saint's community (then in Chester-le-Street) is a full-page portrait of the crowned king making his gift to St Cuthbert. The book's overall objective is to demonstrate ?thelstan's significance as an individual and to contextualise his life against the backdrop of its age. The book will be published in the prestigious Yale University Press series, 'English Monarchs'. These volumes are widely and effectively marketed in Britain, the US and world-wide to Anglo-lexic audiences. Publishing in this series ensures that the limits of the research will be disseminated to a wide general as well as academic audience. ?thelstan's will no longer be neglected. Disseminating to a wide, trans-Atlantic, readership an informed and nuanced understanding of this previously little-known pre-Conquest king will help to recast popular understanding of the origins of England and its early medieval location within a wider world.

这项研究将完成盎格鲁-撒克逊国王的一生？他是阿尔弗雷德大帝的孙子，并于924年继承了威塞克斯的王位(他的权力后来延伸到中部，直到亨伯河)。他最大的成就是征服了独立的诺森布里亚王国，从而成为统治整个英格兰的第一位国王。他不顾撒克逊人和北欧人的反对，一直保留着这一权力，直到939年去世。？他的统治标志着英国人身份形成的一个重要时期，但从来没有人对他的生平进行过重大研究。由于目前人们对英语的历史根源以及地区和国家认同之间的关系有相当大的兴趣，英国第一位国王的生活是坚定的。对他统治的方方面面和当代大陆发展的学术研究(萨克森奥托尼人的崛起，法国公爵家族的崛起，加洛林王室的衰落)为全面研究提供了一个比较的背景。？瑟斯坦是欧洲舞台上的一位重要人物，他的王朝战略使他的众多同父异母姐妹嫁给了西弗兰基亚的卡罗林王朝和罗伯蒂安家族，以及勃艮第和阿基坦大区；他的宫廷为来自布列塔尼、佛兰德斯和挪威的卡罗林王朝王室的流亡者提供庇护。这些欧洲人的接触给他的宫廷带来了关于皇家和帝国领导以及修道院改革的新想法。从更广泛的角度看他的行为，可以更全面地评估他的意义。我的目标是写他的第一本传记，他的声誉在大众和专家的想象中被他祖父的声誉蒙上了阴影。目的是通过将国王的成就放在更广泛的背景下--英国和欧洲、宗教和文化以及政治和军事--来修正以前的判断。我打算展示统治在塑造一个统一的英格兰和加强“英格兰身份认同的新生观念”方面的重要意义。写一本中世纪早期人物的传记，在传统的叙事来源中很难被代表，这本身就存在问题，而且希望揭示出对塞尔斯坦个性的洞察是不可信的。然而，这项研究的目的是追踪对他行为的各种影响，并将他的事迹置于对英国和西欧当代政治和文化发展的知情理解中。它使用了广泛的原始材料，从宪章(授予土地和特权的文件，其证人名单揭示了他的宫廷的许多组成)，钱币--这是第一个被描绘成戴着皇冠的英国国王--到法律法规。它还利用了当代大陆的材料，以及与国王有关的手稿书籍。在一本贝德的《圣卡斯伯特传》的前面，有一整页的肖像，画的是这位加冕国王向圣卡斯伯特赠送礼物。这本书的总体目标是展示斯坦作为一个人的重要性，并将他的生活置于那个时代的背景下。这本书将在著名的耶鲁大学出版社系列丛书《英国君主》中出版。这些书在英国、美国和世界各地面向英语词汇受众进行了广泛而有效的销售。这一系列的出版确保了研究的局限性将被广泛地传播给普通和学术受众。？这些国家将不再被忽视。向大西洋彼岸的广大读者传播对这位以前鲜为人知的征服前国王的知情和细致入微的理解，将有助于在更广泛的世界内重塑人们对英格兰起源及其中世纪早期位置的普遍理解。

项目成果

Aethelstan: The First King of England

埃塞尔斯坦：英格兰第一位国王

• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: Foot Sarah

England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947)

十世纪的英格兰和欧洲大陆：纪念威廉·莱维森（1876-1947）的研究

• 作者: Rollason, David (University Of Durham);Leyser, Lecturer In Medieval History Conrad (University Of Manchester);Williams, Hannah
• 通讯作者: Williams, Hannah

Athelstan: England's first monarch

阿塞尔斯坦：英格兰第一位君主

• 作者: Sarah Rosamond Irvine Foot (Author)