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Statue of King Aethelstan
King Aethelstan (r. 924-939) became ruler of the growing West Saxon kingdom in 924 and spent his 15-year reign establishing hegemony over Britain. Today, he is recognised as the first king of England. His finest hour came in 937 when he defeated a grand invasion of Britons, Scots and Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburh, a conflict known to contemporaries as ‘the great war’.
The statue of Aethelstan is in St John's Minster Church, Beverley, Yorkshire. Aethelstan travelled to Beverley in 934 while on his way to invade Scotland, praying for victory at the shrine of St John of Beverley, an 8th-century bishop, and when he returned after the triumphant campaign, he conferred lands and privileges upon the church. The statue portrays Aethelstan with a moustache and crown, holding a sword in one hand and a scroll in another, highlighting both his martial and literary prowess. Built in 1781 by William Collins, it is one of two baroque statues flanking the archway into the choir of the church, the other being St John of Beverley.
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Original image by Smabs Sputzer. Uploaded by Michael McComb, published on 09 April 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
