The power of bishoprics, like that at Lichfield, is attested to in the remarkable Gospel Book that survives from there and in the carved angel discovered in 2003: just a fragment of what would have been a lush and vibrant environment. [39] The Mercian rulers built a new minster in Gloucester and, although the building was small, it was embellished on a grand scale, with rich sculpture. [38], On her husband's death in 911, Æthelflæd became Myrcna hlædige, "Lady of the Mercians". No similar offer is known to have been made to Edward. The next year she secured Leicester, and from there made her way towards the prestigious Viking-held city of York. [28], Æthelred's health probably declined at some stage in the decade after Alfred died in 899, and Æthelflæd may have become the de facto ruler of Mercia by 902. [75] Alex Woolf concurs[76] and Pauline Stafford describes Æthelflæd as "the last Mercian queen", referred to in charters in such terms as "by the gift of Christ's mercy ruling the government of the Mercians". [26], At the end of the ninth century, Æthelred and Æthelflæd fortified Worcester, with the permission of King Alfred and at the request of Bishop Werferth, described in the charter as "their friend". [45] Saintly relics were believed to give supernatural legitimacy to rulers' authority, and Æthelflæd was probably responsible for the foundation or re-foundation of Chester Minster and the transfer to it of the remains of the seventh-century Mercian princess Saint Werburgh from Hanbury in Staffordshire. Only then did Mercia's independent existence come to an end.[78]. Wainwright argues that he probably sent his oldest son Æthelstan to be brought up in Mercia, to make him more acceptable to the Mercians as king; Æthelflæd does not appear to have tried to find a husband for her daughter, who must have been nearly thirty by 918. In 913 she built forts at Tamworth to guard against the Danes in Leicester, and in Stafford to cover access from the Trent Valley. She is mentioned in Alfred’s will, where he leaves her an estate plus 100 pounds, while her husband is bequeathed a precious sword. Æthelflæd witnessed charters of Æthelred in 888, 889 and 896. Soon afterwards the English-controlled western half of Mercia came under the rule of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, who accepted Alfred's overlordship. [83], The 1,100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflaed was marked throughout 2018 in Tamworth with a number of major events, including the unveiling of a new six-metre statue,[84] the creation of the town's biggest ever piece of community art,[85] a major commemorative church service, talks, a special guided walk, commemorative ale and an academic conference weekend drawing academics and delegates from all over the world. Millie Brady as Aethelflaed in series four of ‘The Last Kingdom’. As a wife, however, Æthelflæd’s story is all too familiar in terms of royal dynastic marriages. Gloucester History Festival, of which I am president, has arranged talks, exhibitions and events to raise awareness of her place in England’s history. The land was valuable, including most of the city's usable river frontage, and control of it enabled the Mercian rulers to dominate over and profit from the city. Even so, she would constantly pale next to the name of her father, Alfred the Great, who English historians continued to celebrate as scourge of the Danes and saviour of England. In The Last Kingdom, he is depicted as abusive to Lady Aethelflaed, although this may not have been the case in real life. Her caution was rewarded when in that same year, 907, the Wirral Vikings attacked Chester but failed to breach its walls. The most famous are Boudicca, her chariot complete with spiked wheels, and the armoured teenager, Joan of Arc. Stafford sees her as a "warrior queen", "Like ... Elizabeth I she became a wonder to later ages. [51], Æthelflæd had already fortified an unknown location called Bremesburh in 910 and in 912 she built defences at Bridgnorth to cover a crossing of the River Severn. [58] According to a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle strongly sympathetic to Edward the Elder, after Æthelflæd's death "the kings among the Welsh, Hywel and Clydog and Idwal, and all the Welsh people sought to have [Edward] as their lord". [1], In 865 the Viking Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia and used this as a starting point for an invasion. Both sides claimed victory but Ragnall was able to establish himself as ruler of Northumbria. Derby was the first to fall to the English; she lost "four of her thegns who were dear to her" in the battle. She is a medieval marvel, but she has been overshadowed by the men who surrounded her in life – her father, Alfred the Great; her husband, Æthelred of Mercia (a kingdom in what is now central England); and her ultimate successor, her nephew, Æthelstan, ‘the king of the whole of Britain’. Æthelstan took control of it in 927 but after his death in 939 the kingdom was contested until the expulsion of the last Norse king in 954. He may have been misinformed about the position but it is also possible that the tombs were moved from their prestigious position next to the saint, when the couple became less known over time or when tenth-century kings acted to minimise the honour paid to their Mercian predecessors. By this time she is married to Æthelred of Mercia. The first series of eight episodes premiered on 10 October 2015 on BBC America, and on BBC Two in the UK on 22 October 2015. Aethelred was an ambitious leader on The Last Kingdom with the wrong motive, always seeking to become greater by exterminating those around him. And the way in which she used her influence helped to make possible the unification of England under kings of the West Saxon royal house. [22] Mercian scholarship had high prestige at the courts of Alfred and Edward. Millie Brady is a British actress, born in London, England. If King Alfred was great, was Æthelstan even greater? Then, over more than a decade, a coalition of Norse warriors took land in all the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms – except Wessex, which had so far managed to defy them. After her death, west Mercian coin reverses were again the same as those on coins produced in Wessex. Thank you for subscribing to HistoryExtra, you now have unlimited access. [40] It was initially dedicated to St Peter but when Oswald's remains were brought to Gloucester in 909, Æthelflæd had them translated from Bardney to the new minster, which was renamed St Oswald's in his honour. You will shortly receive a receipt for your purchase via email. You're now subscribed to our newsletter. Three Viking kings were reported to have been killed, and as a result, the image of Æthelflæd, warrior queen, bearing three royal swords was born. Born to an Anglo-Saxon king, the Vikings were at the height of their conquering spree in England and she married into a family constantly battling the Vikings who wanted their territory. As the rights of lordship had previously belonged fully to the church, this represented the beginning of transfer from episcopal to secular control of the city. [5] Alfred died in 899 and Edward's claim to the throne was disputed by Æthelwold, son of Alfred's elder brother. In 886 Alfred occupied the Mercian town of London, which had been in Viking hands. In 914 a Mercian army drawn from Gloucester and Hereford repelled a Viking invasion from Brittany, and the Iron Age Eddisbury hill fort was repaired to protect against invasion from Northumbria or Cheshire, while Warwick was fortified as further protection against the Leicester Danes. [36] Æthelred was well enough to witness charters at a meeting of Edward's court in 903, but he did not witness any later surviving charter.[37]. However, she maintained a celebrated reputation – particularly, and surprisingly, under the Normans – with chroniclers going out of their way to laud her military achievements. Many of these cities owe their existence to her efforts. These were the exceptions – women in a man’s world who men followed into battle. As the Danes were ready to offer her their submission, she died (possibly of dysentery) on 12 June 918 and was taken to be buried with her husband at St Oswald’s Priory in Gloucester. In 915 Chirbury was fortified to guard a route from Wales and Runcorn on the River Mersey. Mercia was the dominant kingdom in southern England in the eighth century and maintained its position until it suffered a decisive defeat by Wessex at the Battle of Ellandun in 825. Concerned by the relocation of Viking settlers from the Irish coast to the north-west, Æthelflæd made two plans: on the one hand, she offered land for the Vikings to settle in the Wirral, and on the other instructed that the ancient Roman city of Chester be refortified in case they decided to press southwards into Mercia. When Æthelred died in 911, his wife was declared ‘Lady of the Mercians’ and took over control of the kingdom. A new biography by Tom Holland is imminent [since published in 2019], and she will hopefully attract media attention over the coming year. She invested in church buildings throughout Mercia, particularly in Gloucester, which she transformed from a derelict backwater to a vibrant town. According to Pauline Stafford, "like ... Elizabeth I she became a wonder to later ages". When it came to the true parentage of Aethelflaed of Mercia’s daughter Aelfwynn, The Last Kingdom tore up the history books and introduced some Danish blood into … [3] The situation was transformed the following year when Alfred won a decisive victory over the Danes at the Battle of Edington. He records that she declined to have sex after bearing a daughter because it was “unbecoming of the daughter of a king to give way to a delight which, after a time, produced such painful consequences”. Æthelflæd took advantage of a tradition that granted women in Mercia greater rights. [12] The relics gave the church great prestige as Oswald had been one of the most important founding saints of Anglo-Saxon Christianity as well as a ruling monarch, and the decision to translate his relics to Gloucester shows the importance of the town to Æthelred and Æthelflæd, who were buried in St Oswald's Minster. Instead, it was the battle of Tettenhall (in modern-day Wolverhampton) eight years earlier in 910 that secured her image as victorious warrior queen. Historians consider this unlikely, but she may have sent a contingent to the battle. The version of record as reviewed is: "Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians" (PDF), WikiJournal of Humanities, 1 (1): 1, 2018, doi:10.15347/WJH/2018.001, ISSN 2639-5347, Wikidata Q59649817.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}, This article is about the Lady of the Mercians. Her father fought against the Vikings when Ivar the Boneless led the northerners into Mercia… You can unsubscribe at any time. They returned with the remains of the royal Northumbrian saint, Oswald, which were translated to the new Gloucester minster. The following year, the Vikings conquered East Anglia. There seems to be a problem, please try again. But it is an unfortunate characteristic of historical studies that so many important individuals have been left unexamined, because they have not fitted into the cast of ‘great white men’. In early 918, Æthelflæd gained possession of Leicester without opposition and most of the local Danish army submitted to her. [33] Æthelflæd re-founded Chester as a burh and she is believed to have enhanced its Roman defences by running walls from the north-west and south-east corners of the fort to the River Dee. She may also have translated the relics of the martyred Northumbrian prince Ealhmund from Derby to Shrewsbury. [19] In the view of Ian Walker: "He was a royal ealdorman whose power base lay in the south-west of Mercia in the former kingdom of the Hwicce around Gloucester". The Last Kingdom: Aethelflaed is based on a real person (Image: Netflix) Aethelflaed's character is based on a real-life historical figure who was the daughter of Alfred the Great. For other people called Æthelflæd, see, 9th and 10th-century ruler of Mercia in England. What’s more, she is the only queen in English history to have passed her reign directly to her daughter. The only recorded event took place in 916, when she sent an expedition to avenge the murder of a Mercian abbot and his companions; her men destroyed the royal crannog of Brycheiniog on Llangorse Lake and captured the queen and thirty-three of her companions. Æthelred was the lord of Mercia and the husband of Æthelflæd . [12] Ian Walker describes her succession as the only case of a female ruler of a kingdom in Anglo-Saxon history and "one of the most unique events in early medieval history". The accession of a female ruler in Mercia is described by the historian Ian Walker as "one of the most unique events in early medieval history". Æthelflæd was not content to be simply a bearer of heirs. Æthelred of Mercia was a main character in both The Saxon Stories novel series, and The Last Kingdom television series. It was on to this tumultuous stage that Æthelflæd stepped. By entering your details, you are agreeing to HistoryExtra terms and conditions and privacy policy. While Æthelred’s health deteriorated, Æthelflæd took more responsibility for the military activities of Mercia. She is an actress, known for The Last Kingdom (2015), Jerks (2017) and Die Vaterlosen (2011). Their arrival was accompanied by lavish ceremonies, and the Mercian Register credits Æthelflæd with returning this holy royal saint to English-held land. Gwent in south-east Wales was already under West Saxon lordship but, in the view of Charles-Edwards, this passage shows that the other Welsh kingdoms were under Mercian lordship until Edward took direct power over Mercia. Æthelflæd grew up in a world divided. She is the daughter of Alfred and Ælswith . [65] Æthelflæd died a few months too early to see the final conquest of the southern Danelaw by Edward. [34] Simon Ward, who excavated an Anglo-Saxon site in Chester, sees the later prosperity of the town as owing much to the planning of Æthelflæd and Edward.