to many people today monarchy seems to
be merely a corrosive mixture of
snobbery ceremony and sentiment but it's
far more than that
it's a natural universal form of
government
not all monning's of course they can
just as well be presidents or dictators
but almost everywhere power comes down
to the decisions of one person which is
all that monarchy means and a modern
president or prime minister is a king
for the time being as powerful as any
medieval monarch or Roman
but in Britain or rather in England this
universal fact of monarchy takes on a
special meaning because we still have
our real monarchy it's over 1,500 years
old which means that it's the oldest
functioning political institution in
Europe it's also unique because right
from the beginning the monarchy had a
strong popular element this means that
its history is more than a tale of kings
and queens of royal heroes like king
alfred and henry v and crowned villains
like King John it's also the story of a
dialogue between King and people in
which the English learned to rule
themselves and became the envy and the
example of the world
so this is not another picture book
story of kings and queens instead it's a
real grown-up history of how a monarchy
created a nation it starts where the
monarchy in the nation did the chaos and
the violence of the dark ages
two thousand years ago there was only
one power that counted in the Western
world Rome and Rome became the purest
most absolute monarchy the world has
ever seen and Britain the province of
Britannia was just a tiny part of that
monarchy room brought Britnie
civilization of extraordinary
sophistication and refinement of the
politics that accompanied it was
surprisingly crude all power theory and
usually in practice was in the hands of
the Emperor he was a god on earth whose
task it was to rule and to defend the
Empire the duty of his subjects on the
other hand was to obey and to pay their
taxes the idea that there might be any
limit on what the emperor could do or
that others should have a say in what
got done was simply inconceivable for
400 years
this was the bedrock of life important
it brought peace and prosperity but
already from about 250 AD Roman power
was beginning to crumble
barbarians poured over the Imperial
borders amongst the most dangerous were
Seabourn invaders from Germany which
Rome had never conquered so a great
ringed of fortresses like this one but
Richburg in Kent was built along the
east coast of Britain to repel the
Raiders
but in vain this vast fortress was
overwhelmed and abandoned and its ruins
marked the ruin of Britain or at least
the ruin even the annihilation of
everything that was Roman about Britain
the law the language the literature the
religion all vanished and all legitimate
political authority came to an end for
that had been vested in the Emperor
the collapse of Roman rule opened the
door to a vast influx German people
today they're known as the anglo-saxons
and we know quite a lot about them
because 300 years later a Northumbrian
monk wrote a great book about their
early history that the writers name was
bead and he's the first great English
historian Mead describes it was probably
a mixture a fact and legend how in 449
Hengist and Horsa settled with their
followers in kent other groups under
other leaders soon settled elsewhere we
rightly think of the Norman Conquest as
a great turning point in the history of
England but the Saxon conquest was even
more important because it created the
very idea and reality of England itself
indeed it's scarcely possible to
exaggerate the scale of the Saxon
incursions perhaps two hundred thousand
people flooded into a native population
of only about 2 million proportionately
it's the largest immigration that
England has ever known
moreover as most of the income as were
men they quickly turned from immigrants
into conquerors in many areas of the
country DNA evidence shows that up to
90% of the native male population was
displaced they were driven out or killed
and their women their villages and their
farms taken over by the in comers this
is ethnic cleansing at its most savagely
effective
but it wasn't only blood that changed
the immigrants brought with them a new
language an early form of English they
gave new names to districts villages and
rivers names that we still use today
they even renamed the country itself
Britannia became Engelen and their
political values were as different as
their language but this was a community
without sharp social distinctions and a
people without Kings today the closest
we can come to the world of those early
anglo-saxon settlers is the
reconstructed village of West Stowe in
Suffolk it dates from about 450 ad what
was found here tells us what food they
ate what clothes they wore and what
jewelry they took with them to the grave
above all nothing here suggests that
anyone was much more important than
anyone else we're a long way here from
the exalted autocracy of the Roman
Empire with its huge gap between rich
and poor instead the folk of West Stowe
here seem to have been and essentially
egalitarian people and this
egalitarianism was their great legacy to
the development of kingship in England
nevertheless such communities still
needed leaders especially in times of
war but how did their rise
our earliest sources on the German
people's bead himself and the Roman
historian Tacitus have the answer
they choose their Kings the power even
of the Kings is not absolute or
arbitrary this is the idea of government
by consent in which the leader is chosen
by the people or at least is answerable
to them it was an idea taken by the
anglo-saxons from their homeland in
Germany and transplanted to their new
home in England here it flourished and
became a central part of the English
political experience with powerful
echoes in Magna Carta the Glorious
Revolution and the insistence of those
Englishmen abroad the American
revolutionaries that they would pay no
taxation without representation
this was the beginning of kingship in
England local war leaders chosen by the
people of the district all leaders like
beer wolf hero of the anglo-saxon epic
poem who thanks to his prowess
eventually became king reigned
gloriously for fifty winters and was
given a magnificent funeral hymn though
you get a tan Yatta lay older the yet
people built a pyre for beer wood
stacked it and decked until it stood
Foursquare hung with helmets heavy war
shields gone and over the heights they
kindled the hugest of all funeral fires
flames wrought havoc in the hot bone
house burning it to the court
heaven swallowed the smoker reg sway
ogre
via walls treasures were burn with beer
walls body luckily other war leaders Cam
Kings were not cremated but buried that
is those burials which provide the best
evidence for the origins of monarchy in
England the Morial is often clustered
round even older prehistoric monuments
by reusing these older sites it seems
the new men were demonstrating their
importance to all their people written
and succs Anna like none of these
cemeteries is more impressive than
Sutton Hoo in East Anglia where the
mounds cry on a ridge by the estuary of
the River Devon in 1939 attracted by
some chance finds archaeologists
investigated one of the mounds here what
they found was spectacular an entire
ship had been buried in a Barrow the
body had gone eaten away by the acid
soil but the archaeologists were able to
make out the detail of the Dark Age ship
timbers rivets and all the grave goods
were astonishing
there's been intense debate about who is
buried here but most collars are now
agreed that these mounds are the burial
site of a family called the war fingers
the royal dynasty of the east angles and
this the biggest mound is probably the
burial site of the most important member
of the dynasty a man called red walled
beads history tells us that red world
ruled in East Anglia as one of several
regional leaders in the new england his
power as a warrior and his legendary
wealth made him stand out as a first
amongst equals but was he a true king
sanctified by rituals like coronation he
was certainly a very rich man as his
grave Goods testifying
the gold and garnet jewelry is unequaled
in Europe the shoulder clasps and belt
buckles are unique
from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea
came richly engraved silverware from the
far-off Byzantine Empire classical and
even Christian but the barrel also
contained objects which are even more
intriguing
i pattern-welded sword of the finest
steel of the kind we find named and
celebrated in the epic poetry of the
time
you
the ceremonial helmet was far more piece
of military hardware for in later times
the saxon word for crown was killer l or
helmet of the kin
most intriguingly the burial included a
decorated whetstone polished from the
harvest rock was this perhaps a kind of
royal sceptre these are more than the
grave Goods of just a rich man their
regalia the symbols of a ritualized
monarchy and they include many objects
the sceptre there if that's what it is
the sword and the helmet that were later
on to figure in real coronation rituals
it's clear that red world here is much
more than just an elected war leader
he's a real king like Henry the eighth
theme like Henry he's fond of music and
he's buried with a liar like Henry he's
a discerning patron of the Arts and he's
got a court craftsman who's able to make
the finest jewelry in Europe and like
Henry he delights in the weaponry and
the accoutrements of the warrior world
but red walls grave Goods also shows
something else
he had contacts beyond just the world of
the North Sea he reached out into
Christian France and beyond that to the
surviving Roman Empire in Byzantium
because red wool here is an English King
on the cusp of a new world the world of
Christian monarchy
England at the turn of the 6th century
the world of red world his fellow
regional Kings was rich strange and
bloody it was people with monsters and
Dragons miracle-working swords and kings
all claimed descent from wooden chief of
the anglo-saxon pagan gods periodic by
Gaia or military prowess one of these
petty kings would make himself first
amongst equals or even overlord of most
of Inc one of the most successful was
Ethelbert king of Kent Ethelbert
prestige derived from his access to the
material and cultural riches across the
channel for there unlike here Roman
institutions have not disappeared with
the political collapse of the Empire the
territory have been conquered by another
Germanic people the Franks who gave
their name to France but under Frankish
rule Roman society
language and literature and Roman
Christianity had all survived
the result was a glittering prospect for
ambitious anglo-saxon King like
Ethelbert and he determined to grab a
share of it by marrying a Frankish
princess and in that marriage two
different contrasting worlds the Anglo
Saxon and the room were to meet the
princess's name was Bertha and she came
to England in about 580 ad her arrival
began a process which would transform
the nature of English kingship because
Bertha was a Christian brought up in a
Christian court her husband Ethelbert
gave her the little romano-british
Church of Sint Maartens at Canterbury to
worship Him it wasn't long before
Bertha's Frankish family got a letter
telling them that the people of England
wish to be converted to the Christian
faith
the man who wrote the letter was Gregory
bishop or Pope of Rome he was a great
man in a great office for the Pope's
were already claiming to be as not only
distant Peter but of the Roman emperors
as well
Gregory's power was different of course
it consisted not of legions of soldiers
but of regiments a priests and monks but
they were organized with all the old
Roman respect for discipline hierarchy
efficiency and law now
Bertha's marriage to Ethelbert presented
Gregory with the opportunity to launch a
new Roman conquest of England for
Christianity and his chosen General in
the campaign was an Italian monk of good
family named Agustin the party landed in
597 ad beed tells us that a Gustin
approached the king singing a litany and
bearing a silver cross as his standard
fearing that Agustin might possess
magical powers Ethelbert insisted that
the encounter take place in the open air
but the meeting itself was all
courteousness
on both sides the pagan King Ethelbert
wasn't immediately convinced even so he
allowed the mission to stay and start
its work in Kent
Ethelbert was playing a subtle political
game he was well aware of the advantages
which had accrued to the Franks after
their conversion to Christianity but he
needed to be convinced that it would
work for him for the political risks of
conversion were enormous
so in effect he was inviting Agustin to
market test Christianity Agustin got to
work right away with a mission based
here in Bertha's little Church of st.
Martin's Canterbury
within a few months a Gustin was
claiming success with a mass baptism at
Christmas the mission built itself a new
much grander Church as its headquarters
here at Santa gustin's Canterbury soon
even Ethelbert himself was convinced and
he was to be buried here with all the
pomp that the Roman Church could muster
the King had been converted but it was
not the fear of hell that convinced
Ethelbert it was politics for
Christianity enhanced his kingship with
two things which were very attractive to
Dark Age roomin ideas about power and
Roman ways doing things
but the Roman Church borrowed much more
from the Roman Empire than just ceremony
like Rome it used Latin it had an
elaborate system of law and
administration and it built in stone but
above all it was ruled by a monarch the
Pope who claimed like the Emperor's
absolute and divinely ordained Authority
he even used one of the imperial titles
Supreme Pontiff now all this the church
made available to Ethelbert now that he
converted to Christianity could the Old
English idea of elective kingship
survive these new trappings of Imperial
and divine authority of the power that
went with from now on English kings
presented themselves not as pagan
warlords of but as the successors of the
Emperor's and the new kings of Israel
literate godly and divinely ordained but
despite this new elevated rhetoric of
Christian kingship the life of the
typical anglo-saxon King we may
nasty brutish and short the England was
still divided into a clutch of regional
monarchies to the north they the kingdom
of Northumbria to the south were the
kingdom's oppresses Sussex and Kent
strolling across the Midlands was mercy
to the stage next power play in the
story of the English monarchy in the
year of our Lord 757 the kingdom Mercia
was murdered at second - near Tamworth
in Staffordshire The Chronicle tells us
that he was treacherously killed by his
own household at night in shocking
fashion
the King's remains were brought to
Repton here and buried in this mausoleum
of the Mercian Kings it was another
spectacular royal funeral like those at
Sutton Hoo our son - gustin's Canterbury
and you can still see behind me here one
of the alcoves where the richly jeweled
relic Riz once stood but there's a
wicked twist to this story because the
man who organized this splendid funeral
was perhaps also the man behind the
murder certainly he was the one who
profited from it he's one of the
Forgotten heroes of English history a
man who operated on a European scale and
dominated the England of his day his
name is offer king of Mercia the kingdom
of Mercia had formed the Marches a
frontier district of England where the
Saxons fought with the Welsh from here
offers predecessors and pushed their
influence south and east right down
Watling Street to London the rich
pickings of Kent and Essex effectively
they were the Lords of the cross England
highway
a-five like other anglo-saxon Kings
offer had to exert control through brute
military power but he also aimed to
recreate the absolute autocratic
authority of the Christian Roman Empire
and here at bricks worth Church in
Northamptonshire which offer enlarged
and beautified we have a spectacular
insight into offers vision for although
the church is anglo-saxon it looks Roman
with its round arches of Roman brick and
its lofty wall crowning a prominent Hill
bricks worth is an appropriately
bombastic monument to the zenith of
mercian power
offers room and style autocracy brooked
no opposition he was determined to
extend his power over the other English
kingdoms and he was ruthless in his
methods
dynasty's which had lasted for centuries
disappeared
Sussex which had once held sway across
the whole of southern England was swept
away
even the kingdom of Kent where Ethelbert
had established the English tradition of
Christian monarchy was abolished
nothing impressed at Kings image honest
subjects more than the coins with which
they bought their daily bread offer was
the first English King to stamp his name
on his currency here it is with a
portrait of the King which echoes
manuscript images of the biblical King
David and most astonishing of all here
is his name on a new gold coinage model
on coins from the fabulous east the
front of all wealth but with offers
names stamped in the middle of the
copied Arabic inscription
the greatest symbol of the Kings
imperial power is this offers Dyk 64
miles long and a continuous earthwork
barrier along his frontier with Wales it
is a work of almost still in contempt
for the wealth
this was the largest civil engineering
project since the Romans fully
comparable in scale to Hadrian's war and
the Dyke is more than a monument it's
evidence
proof that offer could mobilize enough
man part building offer was bidding for
Imperial status with a fortification of
an imperial guy
finally it's m87 offer attempted to
ensure the survival of his magnificent
vision by having his son anointed king
offer was creating a dynasty which could
inherit his power and status and in line
with offers Imperial pretensions this
was the first Christian royal
consecration we know of in England in
which the whole panoply of the church
was deployed to declare that the boy was
God's anointed his father's
unchallengeable successor but it was
also an English ceremony invoking older
royal traditions that went back to
Sutton boom and beyond
for the boy was investing not the crime
but with a royal helmet
with this consecration investiture of
his son offer was confident the future
both of his house and of mercian power
seemed secure
but it was not to be the author seems to
have behaved more like the godfather of
a Mafia family than the ruler of the
legitimate state indeed
the English were to remember him more
for the Kings that he murdered them for
the kingdom that he built the result was
that within 20 years of his death in 796
the greater Mercian Dominion that he'd
created had dissolved back into what was
then the usual state of England a
patchwork of smaller rival kingdoms
kingdoms that were about to undergo the
Severus Tavor deals invasion
four and a half centuries after the
Angles and Saxons have begun to Rhea the
English coast they found themselves in
turn invaded by pirates from further
north the Vikings Vikings came from
Scandinavia and their effect on England
was devastating
drawn by plunder for three generations
their warriors had attacked courts and
monasteries of England almost destroying
the English in the process
but by the 1860s their success had
suggested new opportunities to the
Viking leaders once mere raiders they
now determined on permanent conquest one
by one the anglo-saxon kingdoms fell
until only one remained Wessex now the
Viking leader Guthrum aim to make Wessex
his own
his opponent was like all successful
anglo-saxon Kings a man of action and a
warrior but this king of Wessex was more
indeed he's just about unique in
medieval history he was an intellectual
a writer a man whose very words have
come down to us for the first time in
our history we can hear the genuine
voice of an English king his name was
Alfred double Quentin on English they is
e'en eminent or leaden pastor Alice and
on English parody book we loom murdered
be worded a coelom onion of an heater
and two Alcon bishops cooler on mineral
richer Willie on guff from the Vikings
assault on Alfred's Kingdom reached a
climax in the window at eight seven
eight
Guthrum surprised Alfred and drove him
from his Hall Chippenham in Wiltshire
the Saxon King was forced to flee to the
marshlands of Somerset to athelney it
was the nadir of his fortunes later in
one of his writings
Alfred probably recalled his predicament
on dhaumya Sun fulness on that mood we
are o parven and on them AR fathom in
the midst of prosperity the mind is
elated and in prosperity a man forgets
himself your son fool Nessa one for y it
is service in hardship he's forced to
reflect on himself even though he be
unwilling Incheon they are hey doula
athelney means royal island and alfred
fled here because it was an island it's
difficult to find in the middle of the
marshes and the water which floods the
friend land in winter makes it difficult
to attack but at the same time it allows
for easy communication by boat with the
rest of Wessex we should imagine Alfred
sending out such messengers as he
plotted and planned the counter-attack
the winter turned into spring at last
after several months he was ready he
sent out the call to arms
across the showers of weddings the
message Ram calling the people to their
traditional assembly points one of them
was here in the district of Swanberg in
the veil of beauty beneath my feet is
the prehistoric burial mound known
locally a swan Brad hump doesn't look
much but it's got his own place in the
history of England because this for
centuries was actually the center of the
local community it was here that the
people came once a month for the MOOC or
assembly of what was known as the
hundred of swan brand here in the
presence of the Kings Reeve or Bailey
the people received the King's justice
out in the open air
the King's wreath was a royal official
responsible for law and order taxation
and the administration of justice and
his hundred court relied as English
government would do for the next
thousand years on the distinctively
English idea the jury a collection of
local people some quite humble who took
part as a matter of course in the local
administration of justice and government
above the level of the hundred Wessex
was divided into Cheyenne's Hampshire
Wiltshire Somerset and Dorset they were
run by royal officials not local
magnates in the same way as the hundreds
so twice a year the people would come to
receive the King's justice on the one
hand and to make their concerns known to
the Kings officers on the other
in we're sexy rough-and-ready
egalitarianism at the earliest settlers
had developed into kind of partnership
between the king and people this
partnership
unlike what happened in the rest of
Europe hadn't been hijacked by the
leading landowners and alfred was well
aware of its importance because this
partnership the sense of all being in it
together made it easier for alfred to
make heavy demands on his people as the
invasion crisis deepened in contrast to
offer of Mercia Alfred's kingship
combined Christian Roman Authority with
the traditional participation of the
anglo-saxon folk that bit Elka the man
cannot work on any enterprise without
resources but in the case of the King
the resources and tools with which he
has to rule that authority have his
lands fully manned that he hover is
non-full Hornet what do without these
tools no King may make his ability known
his craft of a cooler
Alford's call to arms went out it was
the test of his style of kingship and
across west six in their Shire 100
courts his people who responded
Alfred's army assembled at a prehistoric
Barrow in Wiltshire where his
grandfather's celebrated the final
victory over the British people of corn
but the muster didn't just evoke Wessex
his glorious past
Alfred's campaign was also a kind of
crusade for his call to arms coincided
with Easter the Feast of the
resurrection and the parallel between
Alfred's recovery from defeat and Christ
victory over death wasn't lost on his
truest
when they saw the King receiving him not
surprisingly as if one restored to life
after suffering such great tribulations
they were filled with immense joy
from there the army advanced to a place
called Le Oak the traditional site of
another West 600 court
they're in the woods they made camp in
the morning they would march out to meet
gothram and his Vikings military experts
have calculated that this was probably
the site of the battle we can't know for
certain as there'd be no systematic
excavations but Charles fines have
turned up remains of the right period
some of them heavily mutilated this
isn't surprising because the battle was
both savage and bloody both sides had
too much at stake
for it to be anything else Gus room knew
that for his takeover of the kingdom of
Wessex to succeed he had to kill Alfred
outright as for Alfred and the men of
Wessex they knew that this was probably
their last chance of Independence if
Gotham won the Viking takeover of
England would be
on the brow of the hill above Eddington
Guthrum station the front rank for the
shilling world
outfits men were forced to attack
fighting fiercely with a compact shield
wall against the entire Viking army he
persevered resolutely for a long time
at length he gained the victory through
God's will he destroyed the Vikings with
great slaughter
Alfred had established himself as a
great war leader at the head of the
Shires and Wessex were saved for the
time being at least
but the future of the rest of England
still hung in the balance
Eddington in eight seven eight kick
alfred had vanquished an enemy would
threaten the very existence of his
kingdom but winning a battle wasn't the
same as winning the war to do that
Alfred had to put all Wessex on a
full-time war footing he created a navy
with bigger and better ships and he
reorganized the army to enable him to
put troops into the field almost anytime
most effective of all was the chain of
fortresses he built across his kingdom
to deny the Vikings passage
Winchester the capital was one of the
first and their true significance was
much greater than their defensive
capability these birth fortresses
weren't private castles owned by some
Lord or Bishop and man by his retainers
instead they were fortified communities
founded by the king and defended by his
people and as unfitted intended from the
beginning they quickly became real towns
boosting trade and with it taxes as a
result the King got rich and his people
grew prosperous whilst the word borough
as we pronounce it today started to
assume its modern meaning as well of a
self-governing urban community under
royal patronage of the first and
greatest of those royal patrons was
Alfred himself
the birds were so important and Alfred
that their names often replace the names
of the money errs on the reverse of his
coins this one displays monogram of the
mint at London for London was the birth
of birds as the Viking tide ebbed in
England Al Fateh pushed forward beyond
his kingdoms traditional frontiers but
it was his capture Andrey fortification
of the City of London that marked new
direction in his kingship
London was already the largest town and
the commercial powerhouse of England it
had been the jewel in King offers crown
now the jewel was Alfred's and the
prestige that went with it
so following his capture of the city and
its refor typic a shoe in 886 Alfred
inflated his title and his ambition
hitherto he'd only been king of the West
Saxons now he called himself King at the
angles and the Saxons could acclaim for
alpha to be king of all the English
before behind
for that's how he's described in this
vital document this is that frif dot
Alfred pin and booth room King and s the
peace treaty
Alfred made with gothram which
formalized Viking control of eastern
England but in the treaty Alfred
describes himself as king of all the
English not ruled over by the Danes
Alfred in fact ruled only part of
England but already there's the
beginning here of a national political
idea and Alfred's books tell the same
story
it was Alfred who commissioned the
National Book of record the anglo-saxon
chronicle is called anglo-saxon not only
because of its subject matter but
because of its language for unlike the
Chronicles produced elsewhere in Europe
it's written not in Latin but in the
vernacular Anglo Saxon this means that
it's not written by churchmen for church
men instead it's a king talking to his
people in the language that they
understand and his people talking to
themselves and there's no doubt that
this use of anglo-saxon the vernacular
the language of the people is a
deliberate policy of
consciousness-raising on ARF it's part
because not only does Alfred himself
make many such translations into
anglo-saxon he also in the letter which
introduces the past for care tells us
why we they're on that if they order
when de we - we should turn into the
language that we can all understand
certain books which are the most
necessary for all men to know for the
older model so that all the Freeborn
young men now in England who have the
means to apply themselves to it may be
set to learning until the time that they
can read English writings properly
English give it our Adam when Alfred
died in 899 he still ruled over only
part of England but his legacy was to be
the permanent unification of the country
the actual work was the task of his sons
and
grandsons but it was Alfred who in the
crucible of the Viking invasions had
forged an idea of England that was more
than simply cultural or linguistic it
was political or rather uniquely in
Europe at the time it was a combination
of
in the years after his death his
successes pushed back the Vikings taking
over all the land they had settled and
as they did so they created shires on
the Wessex pattern across the whole of
England up to the Humber and this
political geography is with us today the
creation of England was almost complete
but the house of Wessex did not stop
there in two generations English kings
had established their lordship over the
whole of the rest of Britain over Wales
Scotland and the Western Isles it was
time for them to celebrate
here Jaeger was here was Edgar Lord of
the English hallowed to King Albert
under at Aikman Chester the ancient city
jester yep whose modern sons the island
dwellers have called us bath
about 70 years after Alfred's death his
great-grandson Edgar came here to Bath
for what was probably his second
coronation he'd already been crowned as
king of the English but meantime he'd
established his authority over all
Britain hence the choice of Bath for
another bigger ceremony for in Bath
there was a unique combination of a
Christian Abbey next door to the largest
the most impressive ruins of Roman
Britain it was an incomparable setting
for Edgar's coronation as king of the
first British Empire 10th century style
let thy most sacred unction flow upon
his head and descend into his heart and
enter his soul and let him by the grace
be worthy of the promises which the
victorious Kings have obtained that in
this present life he may reign with
happiness and finally attained to their
fellowship in the kingdom of heaven
receive this ring the seal of the holy
faith the strength of thy kingdom and
the increase of thy power whereby thou
mayst learn to drive back thy foes with England and the unity of England ever be
triumph destroy heresies unite those challenged
whom thou has conquered and bind them you
firmly to the Catholic faith
unlike Saxon kings of an earlier age
Edgar was invested with a crown not a
helmet and the service conducted by his
archbishop deliberately compared the
king
Christ this coronation was so
spectacular that when in 1910 more than
a thousand years later the King Emperor
George v was eager to emphasize his
Imperial status he turned to Edgar's
coronation surface as one of his models
he was right to do so his kingship was
the lineal descendant of Edgar's and of
Alfred's and that participate rhe
monarchy which had been first pioneered
in England over millennium before out of
the chaos of post-roman Dark Age Britain
the English had created the world's
first nation-state one king
one country one church one currency one
language and a single unified
representative national administration
never again in England would sovereignty
descend to the merely regional level
never again
despite disagreements and troubles Wars
and even revolutions would the idea of