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longshortandlarge t1_iw1hrju wrote

Reply to comment by Gemmabeta in TIL that the 1st King of England made a law that said everyone had to be in bed by 8pm by PoppedUrMomsCherry

The "English" were not recently conquered. Alfred the Great and Wessex were English (Anglo-Saxon/Anglish) and simply united the disperate English Kingdoms. More accurate to say "peoples of the recently conquered territories" or something like that.

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listyraesder t1_iw1vu47 wrote

Alfred the Great wasn’t the first King of England. His grandson Æthelstan was the first and it was he who finally united the kingdoms.

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goyboysotbot t1_iw1yyly wrote

Alfred united the kingdoms in spirit. The sibling monarchs, Edward of Wessex and Æthelflæd of Mercia united the kingdoms by sword. Æthelstan stood on their shoulders and died childless. Not a bad king, but only the first by a technicality.

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MansfromDaVinci t1_iw31atw wrote

Alfred was not the first to hold the position of a sort of English high king, at the very least Egbert, Offa and Penda held similar power and there were other Bretwalda. Æthelstan was certainly the first to unite the kingdoms of England but it's possible Vortigern, Riothamus, or Ambrosius Aurelianus held the lands that became England and Wales earlier

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TigBiddiesMacDaddy t1_iw29gnp wrote

How funny would it be, that after all of this… it turns out King Arthur was real, was the one to unite all of England and be it’s first king, and he was buried one foot below where the Queen is currently buried?

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goyboysotbot t1_iw29wwf wrote

We all know the first ruler of a united England was the forefathers of Gwent and pretenders to Rome, the emperors of the briefly lived Gallic Empire.

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KingDarius89 t1_iw58pf4 wrote

I recall reading a book about the history of England that spent a chapter or two on the story of King Arthur, basically saying that they did their best to try and gloss over that he was Welsh because they were in the process of conquering Wales at the time, heh.

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mooses51 t1_iw4szyy wrote

Æthelstan still conquered jorvik. I get that his dad and aunt did more but you really can't call jorvik a technicality.

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goyboysotbot t1_iw4t683 wrote

We all know his dad and aunt could have finished the job. It was for politics that they didn’t. What politics, we can only speculate. But I’m willing to bet that it had something to do with Edward’s hot head and his failed attempt to usurp his sister’s throne.

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mooses51 t1_iw4u0ms wrote

His dad most likely killed his aunt as he invited her to a feast and she died at like 35 right before it. Also if I remember correctly that made mercia go into rebellion as he also deposed her daughter a few months after so the reason he didn't conquer jorvik is because he pissed off the mercians. If he wouldn't have done that then yeah he probably could have. You say technicality I say failed from poor decisions.

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goyboysotbot t1_iw4xcy6 wrote

I never heard about the Mercian rebellion. But that would make sense. The Vikings had their own problems but it wasn’t a rebellion but a lack of leadership. I guess Æthelstan had a more stable situation all around

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mooses51 t1_iw4y0fh wrote

Yeah it was in chester. Edward died a few days after putting it down so probably from battle wounds but that's my own conjecture.

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goyboysotbot t1_iw4y6eh wrote

He was kind of a shit. I think it’s fair to consider both him and his father a king of England but I’m glad he never officially held the title.

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Gemmabeta t1_iw1p688 wrote

The second sentence of that section notes that the ruling was particularly fiercely enforced by William the Conqueror, to deal with any English malcontent.

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