"Athelstan's charters are the most important memorial of his government... [T]he king himself was inclined to leniency. In what seems to be the last of his laws, he exempts all persons under fifteen from the death penalty "because he thought it too cruel to kill so many young people and for such small crimes as he understood to be the case everywhere". It is this suggestion of a humane mind in revolt against the grimmer aspects of government which raises Athelstan's laws above the commonplace."
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Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed. 1971), p. 354
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%86thelstan
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Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (c. 894 – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the "greatest Anglo-Saxon kings".
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