There are a plethora of kings in England that sources claim were the ‘first’ king of England like:
• Egbert who established the first pan Anglo-Saxon hegemony/kingdom but lost much of his influence returning England back to square one
• Alfred the great who proclaimed to be King of the Anglo Saxons (English)
•Æthelstan who reclaimed York from the Danes, bringing the last of the Anglo Saxons away from Dane rule and into a unified Saxon realm
• William the Conqueror because he set the stage for the melding of Norman and Anglo Saxon cultures that resulted in a more recognisable idea of the English identity instead of English being an almost entirely Germanic culture
•Henri II who was the first to proclaim himself King of England instead of King of the English
•Or other important kings who I’m sure I’m forgetting
But which one of these would you call the actual first king? I’m sure there is not one correct answer but I’m curious as to the general consensus for the ‘first’ King of England.
Generally speaking, Æthelstan is regarded as the first king of England, rather than the first king of "the English." Although there's certainly room for argument.
[t]he first person to take the title "King of the English" was Æthelstan, who was crowned in 927. There are arguments over who exactly was the "actual" first king of all England, dating back to Alfred the Great, but Alfred and his son Edward the Elder (Æthelstan's father) never ruled the entire country. Æthelstan's successors, including his brother Edmund I and a succession of rulers descended from Edward the Elder and Edmund I, controlled England until the reign of Æþelræd Unræd(1) when Sweyn Forkbeard briefly ruled, and again once Æþelræd regained the throne. Æþelræd's son Edmund Ironside briefly ruled the kingdom until his defeat by Cnut of Denmark, when he was reduced to Wessex, which Cnut took over upon Edmund's death. Cnut's successors ruled England until 1042, when there was a brief "Saxon restoration" led by Æþelræd's son Edward the Confessor and his successor Harold Godwinson; Harold of course was killed at Hastings.