Æthelstan: the king who made England

HistoryExtra podcast

HistoryExtra

History

4.3 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Æthelstan was crowned in Kingston upon Thames 1100 years ago, in AD 925. He went on to extend his authority far beyond his initial powerbase of Wessex and Mercia to become the first king of England. David Musgrove talks to Professor David Woodman, author of The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom, to hear why we should remember Æthelstan's reign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:34.6	Welcome to the History Extra podcast. Hope the festive period is treating you well.
0:39.2	1,100 years ago, in 925 AD, Aethelstown was crowned in Kingsen-upon-Thames.
0:45.4	He went on to extend his authority far beyond his initial power base of Wessex and Mercia
0:50.4	to become the first king of England.
0:52.8	David Musgrove spoke to Aflstan's biographer,
0:55.3	Professor David Woodman, to hear why we should remember Athelstan's reign. He began by asking David
1:00.7	about an article he'd written for the September 2025 issue of BBC History magazine, which is
1:06.1	available to read on the History Extra app and at history extra.com. You start your article by talking about
1:12.6	a singularly unimpressive stone in Kingston-upon-Thames, which sits in the middle of a roundabout
1:18.3	in a commuter town to London. Why? Well, it's a stone quite as you say, Dave, that not many
1:24.7	people would know about its significance. And what it represents
	...

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