Edward the Elder and the Making of England

by Harriet Harvey Wood

Three men have been credited with being the first king of England – Alfred the Great, his son Edward the Elder and Edward’s son and Alfred’s grandson, Athelstan. It is an undoubted fact that, were it not for the work of Alfred, there might never have been the possibility of an English kingdom in the sense that we now understand it. It is also true that Athelstan was the first explicitly to rule over an English kingdom in roughly its present shape and extent. What, then, was the contribution of Edward to the evolution of what his son was to inherit? As a child, he saw his father at the lowest point of his fortunes; as a boy, he grew up under the constant threat of further Danish invasion. Edward came to adulthood in the knowledge that it was his responsibility to safeguard his country. By his death, he was undoubtedly the most powerful and respected ruler, not only in England but in western Europe, and he achieved this through both martial and legislative prowess. Edward built on his father’s work but he immeasurably expanded it, and the chroniclers who wrote in the centuries which immediately followed his death remembered him as ‘greatly excelling his father in extent of power’. Edward the Elder succeeded Alfred as king of the Anglo-Saxons; he died as king of the English. And yet virtually nothing has been written about him. Until now. While biographies of Alfred and studies of the achievements of Athelstan pour from the press, Edward is forgotten. Yet he was the first ruler to leave behind him the possibility of a united England, a country in which men thought of themselves as English, speaking a language which all would have described as English, which had never existed in quite this form before. Anyone looking to fully understand and appreciate the making of medieval England must look to understand and appreciate Edward the Elder and his reign.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Biography

356 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2018

Reviews

[Vincent Chenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title would more aptly have been "Edward the Elder and many Significant Others in the Making of England". Interesting but for a book of that length not enough of Edward unfortunately.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, on a period of which my prior knowledge was limited to say the least. From the outset the author accepts that the hard evidence available is limited, and does not attempt to claim otherwise as the narrative progresses, acknowledging the various theories put forward by Dark Ages historians without bias.

The overall aim of the author was to restore Edward the Elder to his rightful place amongst English monarchs of old such as King Arthur or Canute, and the story presented here is indeed of a king deserving of such a place. Definitely made me want to learn more, highly enjoyed and look forward to reading more on this subject going forward.

[Peter Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I think we can all agree, writing 353 pages about Edward the Elder is a tall order. This isn't an academic book that is tightly written, with every word having value. It's not like Sarah Foot's work, which has a wonderfully precise style. Instead it meanders a bit, but it is nice to see a phrase like 'when Offa was safely below ground.' However, if the wording had been edited down, though, and the book kept more to Edward, then it could have been half the size and that would not have been a totally bad thing.

Like many books about a figure to whom the surviving sources have been less than kind, this takes in a lot of other people. It begins by talking about Offa and his imperium, the situation under Alfred and what happened to the children of Edward after his death. So obviously quite a bit of this book isn't about Edward the Elder, but is more a general history, similar but in no way nearly as good as Max Adam's Ælfred's Britain. It covers a lot of ground, but doesn't go into things too deeply (Higham and Hill: Edward the Elder is the one for that). For instance where it mentions a charter of Æthelbald's in 749 regarding the three common burdens, other authors would elaborate and say it was issued at Gumley and those operating at Ninja level would add S92 in brackets. In fairness she does give a few charter numbers here and there, but not consistently and you get the feeling that they were added because they were recorded in the book HHW was using for research and that she hadn't gone looking for any.

Reading this, you get the impression that HHW isn't an Anglo-Saxonist as such, but has an interest in parts of the period. She makes quite a few assumptions and there will be conclusions that you will disagree with. HHW says that the building of Offa's dyke would have required the constant presence of Offa, which seems rather implausible. One of the joys of having builders in is that once you've told them what you want doing and made them a cup of tea, you can leave them to it. I doubt that Offa would have done much more than instruct and inspect occasionally whilst he got on with the business of running a kingdom and bumping off sundry kings of East Anglia. She also scouts the possibility that Æthelræd of Mercia was a son of Burgred, but doesn't seem aware of his links to the Hwicce, as these aren't commented on. HHW doesn't rate Æthelwold, seeing him as a probable disaster if he had grasped the crown. However, anyone who can flee Wessex at short notice, rock up in York and be recognised as a king (coin evidence, discounted by HHW), raise a fleet somehow, arrive in Essex and persuade the East Anglian Danes and (probable) Mercian exiles to fight for him certainly had something going for them, in addition to obviously great powers of persuasion. The highlight of this book was the account of a couple of prominent law cases involving land shenanigans. Here HHW's writing style added life and made for a great read.

This book required better editing. Edward and Æthelflæd are labelled as being Mercian by birth at one point (whereas they are correctly regarded as West Saxon throughout, otherwise), and we are given two different dates for the battle of Holme. The paragraphing could have been improved, too, as it looks like a solid wall of text in many places. Other things that could have been added would include: maps, timelines, genealogical tables, a full bibliography (books are mentioned in the text that aren't cited there) and most importantly an index.

This is a very easy read and would make a decent entry level book for this period, especially if someone knows little about it. However, Aelfred's Britain by Max Adams is a far better history of this time in general and isn't that far behind on Edward in particular, either.

[Blair Hodgkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about a little-remembered monarch who truly deserves to be better known and not just as "the king between Alfred and Athelstan". There is scarce evidence from the period to really get to know just what kind of man Edward was--was he fun? Was he tender or flinty? What Harriet Harvey Wood does here though is takes what records there are from his period and the succeeding centuries and shows how he capitalized on the gains made by his father, Alfred the Great, and applied his own skill as a warrior, strategist and administrator to work toward an England larger and more united than ever before.

[Frank Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic and history of the book was interesting. The book itself, was longer than it should have been. In the early chapters the author spent more time complaining about the lack of source material and what she had to do to compensate for the lack that telling any history. Thus, it took longer than I was happy with before the historical part started in earnest. Based on the early part of the book, I would give it a low rating, however the book does improve. The historical narrative was informative and was mostly written well. The book unfortunately was too repetitive and felt as if the author tried too hard to fill out the book. All of the important and interesting material could have been included in a book half the size.

[Pam Shelton-Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating work about a man so important to his time, yet nearly forgotten by history. The Victorian obsession with Alfred brought that king some limelight, but left his son, Edward, and grandson, Athelstan, both deserving of notice, in the shade. I always like the discussion of the available sources so that we have a benchmark with which to evaluate the evidence at hand. The author does a great job in setting the stage on which Edward entered and exited history. I would have liked some maps and some genealogical tables to help keep a lot of the important personages straight, but overall I really enjoyed this glimpse of the past.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part focuses on Alfred the Great, when Edward was young, which is probably needed but feels a bit much detail for those who know the previous reign already.

Comes into its own later when it gets into Edward's rule and makes a convincing case that he, rather than Athelstan, has a good case to be called the first king of England.

[Stefanos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed description, with a great deal of inevitable, educated speculation, of the time and work of Alfred's son. In fact, it gives a good overview of the period since Offa and goes into a deep analysis of a number of issues during Edward's reign.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that makes a difficult to grasp subject easily understandable - however, I felt that the book did drag on a bit and sometimes felt more like an essay than a history book.

[Walter King · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a remarkable achievement to have brought to life a king and a reign of which so little is known, but her inferences from what is known build an interesting and convincing picture

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm probably giving this a score based on how bad the last book was proofread and edited, plus that I usually find kindle books have little or no soul in them and it's hard to connect... maybe that's why the paperback and hardback will never die out? Unrelated, but interesting thought...
I really enjoyed this, though. Regardless of what I read before or after, this book was very well written, coherent and interesting, with so much fact filtered out - like the way some books go on about how much the kings' clothes or his wedding or coronation cost in breakdown... none of that here. Probably because there isn't any information about such things like there are about the plantagenet kings or any later monarchs. In fact, in the midst of fighting battle upon battle against the great viking army, there probably wasn't time to be measured up for a new cloth of gold outfit? There is little known about our subject, as is confessed by the author, more known about his father and son, but what we do know shows a man who was a charismatic and able leader, a man with the ability to work in concert with his sister, build upon his father's ideas, pass skills he learned to his son, and simultaneously push the Dane and Norse holdings back so far that virtually everything we know as England was under his suzerainety before his death. A united country to pass to his son, who completed those little jobs needed, completing what could possibly have been an 'accidental' unification, or a planned one, depending on how you look at it.
The writing takes you into the mind of the warlord, the administrator, the father and brother, the history as to what was happening just prior to his reign, and without knowledge of what was to happen 160 years later (though there was a danish incursion and takeover before the Normans, with Cnut and his father, but that's still far in the future, as well!). Indeed, you wonder whether he, his father (Alfred) and son (Athelstan) would have bothered uniting the country if they'd known what would happen, and how their achievements would have made them such a glittering prize for other warlords to want.
Who knows? The book is interesting, it makes you think, it's written in a way that any layman can appreciate and enjoy, and it shows how the country of England, which stretched far into Scotland at that point, developed as an autonomous nation long before the hoardes of Norse-cum-French of Normandy (another of the Viking takeovers, and thus making the viking takeover complete) came and took over, with their line of kings, ignoring those before as less than.
This book shows just how wrong they were.

[Arlen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this account of one of England's early kings to be quite interesting. The author bravely develops a history of his life and accomplishments based mostly on indirect evidence since very little written history of Edward's life exists. Based on how "England" existed before, during and after Edward's reign, I believe the author's conclusion that he should be given considerable credit for how England came to be a united entity rather than a group of separately ruled kingdoms. The book could have been enhanced and, I believe, made more readable (particularly for those outside the UK) with an occasional map showing the locations of lands acquired by Edward, battle sites, etc. This is the reason for my rating of 3 stars instead of 4. For those watching the Netflix series "The Last Kingdom" this book is a great fact checker for the progression of kings, their conflicts with the Danes, and the Dane leaders themselves.

[Mr Simon Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough material for a book

This book describes the uniting of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms under Alfred, Edward and Athelstan. As stated at the beginning, there is little evidence from Edward's reign. Most of this book is about the history before and after, making suggestions of what might have happened. What little there is, is repeated to drag out the book.
I learned about Anglo-Saxon England but it could have been more concise in a shorter text.

[Ryan McDermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth Reading

The author did a good job of explaining the lack of primary sources from Edward's reign. He also does well in reconstructing Edward's reign from tangential evidence before, during, and after his reign.

[Johanna Keim]

Did not finish

[Barry Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Reads like a historical novel.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review can be found here:

https://rulersconquerersandbastards.w...