MICHAEL WOOD, TV Presenter and Historian
England: New Developments in the Reign of King Athelstan (925-39), the Founder of the Medieval English State
Date/Time: 25th November 2009, 18:00
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There is still a strong opinion among the common people that no one ruled the English state with more learning, or more justly’, so wrote William of Malmesbury of Athelstan in the 1120s. In this illustrated talk Michael Wood looks at recent scholarship, new discoveries, and some intriguing speculations, concerning ‘the greatest figure in British history to lack a biography’. The talk will include reference to Athelstan’s patronage of St Cuthbert and his restoration of Wearmouth and the role of Bede in the minds of the tenth century empire-builders. It will also offer a fresh look at the greatest unsolved mystery of the period -the location of the tenth century ‘Great War’, the battle of Brunanburh.
Michael Wood is known internationally as the maker of nearly one hundred documentary films on historical subjects, the latest being ‘The Story of India’ and this summer’s ‘Beowulf’. He is working on a full length study of Athelstan’s life and times, and his most recent publications in this area are ‘Stand Firm against the Monsters’ in Lay Intellectuals in Carolingian Europe, edited by Janet Nelson (CUP 2007) and ‘A Carolingian Scholar in the court of King Aethelstan’ in England and the Continent in the Tenth Century ed David Rollason (Brepols 2009) He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an ambassador for the Wearmouth-Jarrow World Heritage application.
