Who was King Athelstan?
Athelstan was the first king of all the English and grandson of Alfred the Great. He reigned between 925 and 939 and was a distinguished and courageous soldier who pushed the boundaries of the kingdom further than anyone had done before.
In the year 926 A.D., the legendary Grand Assembly at
York, was said to have been held by King Athelstan’s
half brother Prince Edwin, wherein the great traditions
of symbolic and operative masonry were constituted,
revived, or organized, and a new code of laws for the
governing of the Craft instituted.
Under Athelstan, law codes strengthened royal control
over his large kingdom. Currency was regulated to
control silver’s weight and to penalise fraudsters.
Buying and selling was largely confined to the burghs,
encouraging town life. Areas of settlement were
consolidated into shires.
Athelstan died in 939 at the height of his power, and
was buried in Malmesbury Abbey. He had been an
ardent supporter and endower of the Abbey, and it is
fitting that he should be buried there, although in
subsequent years the body was removed and only a
14th century tomb remains.
Athelstan was known to be a great supporter of the
Craft known as masonry and this is well documented in
the Regius Manuscript (or Halliwell manuscript) of
1390, the Cooke MS of 1450 and the Lansdowne
Manuscript, dated 1590 to name but a few.