chapter 24._

ALSO IN: _R. Pauli, Life of Alfred the Great._

_Asser, Life of Alfred._

See, also, NORMANS, and EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL.

ENGLAND: A. D. 901. Accession of the West Saxon king Edward, called The Elder.

ENGLAND: A. D. 925. Accession of the West Saxon king Ethelstan.

ENGLAND: A. D. 938. The battle of Brunnaburgh.

Alfred the Great, dying in 901, was succeeded by his son, Edward, and Edward, in turn, was followed, A. D. 925, by his son Athelstane, or Æthalsten. In the reign of Athelstane a great league was formed against him by the Northumbrian Danes with the Scots, with the Danes of Dublin and with the Britons of Strathclyde and Cumbria. Athelstane defeated the confederates in a mighty battle, celebrated in one of the finest of Old-English war-songs, and also in one of the Sagas of the Norse tongue, as the Battle of Brunnaburgh or Brunanburh, but the site of which is unknown. "Five Kings and seven northern Iarls or earls fell in the strife. ... Constantine the Scot fled to the north, mourning his fair-haired son, who perished in the slaughter. Anlaf [or Olaf, the leader of the Danes or Ostmen of Dublin], with a sad and scattered remnant of his forces, escaped to Ireland. ... The victory was so decisive that, during the remainder of the reign of Athelstane, no enemy dared to rise up against him; his supremacy was acknowledged without contest, and his glory extended to distant realms."

_F. Palgrave, History of the Anglo-Saxons,