Aethelstan

Aethelstan is a young son of Edward, raised amid the uncertainty of his birth and the shifting politics of Wessex. He is thoughtful and somewhat unproven, more comfortable with study and prayer than with the sword, and he watches the men around him for clues about what kind of ruler—or man—he might become.

Harry Gilby plays him with a quiet, watchful intelligence rather than swagger, so his uncertainty about his legitimacy reads as genuine anxiety rather than plot mechanics. The show lets him grow up in real time, and Gilby tracks that shift from tentative boy to someone weighing duty against desire with real subtlety.