Athelstan in the early years of his reign conducted naval operations in the Channel to intercept Norse and Danish piracy threatening English merchants. The Chronicle records naval activity under Athelstan establishing English maritime supremacy around the coasts. This naval policy, building on Alfred and Edward's foundations, made Athelstan the first English king to exercise meaningful control over the southern seas and reduce coastal raiding to manageable levels during his reign.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
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