Where England Began

On September 4, 925, Aethelstan was crowned King of the Anglo Saxons by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Kingston upon Thames. He was the first King of England. From the article:

"King Athelstan
The most notable of the Saxon kings crowned in Kingston was Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great and first King of England.

He was crowned here on 4th September 925 in a ceremony which laid the foundations for our modern coronation service. Athelstan first greeted his people in the marketplace before entering a church, which was probably wooden, and probably stood on the site of our present All Saints Church. Athelstan was the first King to be ordained with a crown placed on his head, rather than a helmet.

For the first time the coronation service laid out the responsibilities the king and his people had to each other, and the Christian hymn Te Deum was sung as it is now. The coronation ‘ordo’ compiled for Athelstan was used for subsequent coronations through to the coronation of our Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Athelstan went on to become the first true King of England, as it was during his reign that regional kingdoms were united as one nation. As King of the English from 927, he was the first English king to conquer northern Britain. Athelstan was a particularly successful soldier and defeated a combined army of Scots and Vikings at the battle of Brunanburh in 937."