Edward the Elder: King of the Anglo-Saxons, Forgotten Son of Alfred

Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons between c.899-924, succeeded to the throne following the death of his father Alfred the Great. It was therefore Edward's destiny to follow in the wake of the most famous Anglo-Saxon king of them all. In turn, Edward was followed by his son Æthelstan, the man that historians think of as the first Anglo-Saxon able to call himself the First King of England. Against these notable individuals, Edward has been largely overlooked, but his contribution to Anglo-Saxon England has been dramatically underplayed. In fact, he can be considered one of the key monarchs that shaped the future English state and the course of English medieval history. He cemented the advances made by his father, and then paved the way for the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a united realm. Edward deserves to be better remembered, not for being the son of a great king, but in his own right. For this reason, an assessment of his life and reign is overdue. No individual historian has yet taken up the chance of devoting a book specifically about him. His sister Æthelflaed, has arguably a larger profile than Edward, and has more written about her. But it was Edward who sat on the throne at a crucial time for Wessex and the birth of England.