Alfred's grandson Aethelstan fulfils the family plan & creates a kingdom of all Engl&. Travelling from Devon to Cumbria, Scotland & Rome, Michael Wood tells the tale of Aethelstan's wars, his learning & his lawmaking, showing how he created a national coinage & traces the origin of the English Parliament to the king's new assembly politics. But there's also a dark side, with later legends that the king had his brother drowned at sea. In his last desperate struggle, Aethelstan defeated a huge invasion of Vikings & Scots in what became known as the Anglo-Saxon ' Great War'.