Gone Medieval - Æthelflæd: Lady of the Mercians

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

Matt Lewis kicks off Gone Medieval’s special series of podcasts about Medieval Queens with a look at Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians who ruled Mercia in the Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith, and played a pivotal role in defending Mercia against Viking invasions and expanding its territory. In this episode, Matt is joined by prize-winning writer and historian Annie Whitehead, to find out more about this extraordinary woman who ruled independently in a male-dominated era, and helped lay the foundation for a unified England.This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians including Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code MEDIEVAL. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here > You can take part in our listener survey here. If you’re enjoying this podcast and are looking for more fascinating Medieval content then subscribe to our Medieval Monday newsletter here: https://insights.historyhit.com/signup-form Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world, to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. For our special series this month on medieval queenship, there was one person who really jumped into my mind. We know that the medieval English were repulsed by the idea of female rule, right? That's why this lady really stands out amongst an impressive crowd. She was an Anglo-Saxon queen regnant in the kingdom of Mercia. I'm delighted to be joined by author and historian Annie Whitehead, who's written, amongst other things,

Mercia, the rise and fall of a kingdom. So who better to speak to about the incredible Ethel fled, Lady of the Mercians? Welcome to gone medieval, Annie. Thank you. It's lovely to be here. It's great to have you on. I can't wait to get stuck into learning more about Ethel fled. I was born and grew up in the Kingdom of Mercia. So I have always been aware of Ethel fled, but maybe don't know her as well as I would like to. So I'm keen to learn more. I'm always happy to talk about her. To start us off with then, what do we know about Ethel Fled's early years? Who were her parents and when is she born?

We actually know very little about her early years. We do know that she was the eldest of the siblings amongst her family. Her parents were Alfred the Great, of whom everybody's heard, and his wife, Elswith, who was, in fact, a Mercian. And we're told that she was the daughter of a very high-ranking Mercian nobleman. We don't know when she was born. We might assume that she was born in Winchester, which was the capital of her father's kingdom. And it's usually supposed that she was born around 869, 870,

because we perhaps tend to work backwards from when we think she was married and work out a reasonable age. And also if we say that Alfred and his wife were married in around 868, then it makes sense that the eldest child would have been born within a year or two of the marriage. So that's really all we know, unfortunately, about her early childhood. So, yes, we have to make an awful lot of assumptions, unfortunately, even though, bizarrely, we do have a contemporary record. So it's rather interesting.

It's just one of the many paradoxes about her life. And we tend to think that it's kind of exclusive to women that we don't know too much about them in this period. But it's true of men as well. There's quite a lot of fairly high-profile men that we just don't know when they were born or where they were born, nothing about their childhoods recorded. So I guess Ethel Fled is fitting into that pattern.

I think so. Occasionally we get hints where we might get told where a marriage took place, but very rarely we're told when or where the children are born. And we're lucky in that we've got a biography of Alfred, which was written by a Welsh monk called Asa, who was actually invited by Alfred to come and chart his life. So it's about as contemporary as we get. Unfortunately, by the time he wrote the section about Alfred's children, Aflbad was already married. So while we know what happened to the other children, we don't know, because I'll say she'd already grown up and gone away to be married and was living in Mercia. There is a suggestion that she wasn't always living in Wessex when she was a child. And this is an understanding

or an interpretation of something that Asa wrote, where he was talking about how the younger children were educated. And he mentions that two of them were at all times fostered at the royal court, as if to say that some others weren't. Now, this is a bit of a dubious interpretation. If she was sent somewhere else for part of her education and upbringing, then Mercia would absolutely have been the obvious choice because her mother was a Mercian. Her paternal aunt, Alfred's sister, was married to, at the time, the King of Mercia. So there's a strong connection there. So again, we're not sure. Mercia would have been a possibility. I could actually, if you'd like, just read the passage that Asa wrote about the children,

and it's the most detail, really, that we have about royal children at this time. So it's quite interesting. And it's very conversational as well, because the passage starts with, as I was saying, sons and daughters were born to him by his wife. I must point out, Asa never ever names Alfred's wife, which is interesting, considering he must have known her really well. It says Athlflad the first born, and after her, Edward. Then Ethel Yeva, that's a daughter, for those who struggle with the Anglo-Saxon names, are very confusing,

followed by Elthrith, another daughter, and finally Appleweir, a son. And there's a very touching point here, he says, leaving aside those who were carried off in infancy by an untimely death and who numbered dot, dot, dot. It's not clear the number in the original manuscript, but it's a very poignant tale that clearly there were lots of miscarriages or infant death. So it gives us a real strong impression of a real-life family. It says Ethel fled when the time came for her to marry was joined in marriage to Athawed, Eldermen of the Mercians. Ethel Yeva, devoted to God through her holy virginity, subject and consecrated to the rules of monastic life,

entered the service of God. So we know what happened to her. Ethel Weed, the youngest, that's the youngest son, was given over to training in reading and writing under the attentive care of teachers, in company with all the nobly born children of virtually the entire area and a good many of lesser birth as well.

So this gives us an idea that there's a local school where people are coming in. In this school, books in both languages, that is to say, in Latin and English, were carefully read. They also devoted themselves to writing to such an extent that even before they had the requisite strength for manly skills,

and then in brackets, hunting, that is, and other skills appropriate to nobleman, they were seen to be devoted and intelligent students of the liberal arts. and this, we come to the interesting bit, Edward and Althrift were at all times fostered at the royal court under the solicitous care of tutors and nurses, and then he goes on to explain about them. So that interpretation that because they were at all times fostered at royal court suggests that the others weren't, but I think it's more to do with the fact that the others

were perhaps literally going to school every day. It's a very touching portrait of a family. It's just unfortunate that we don't know about Applefled's upbringing and we aren't told by this particular biographer, the name of her mother, which is another problem with the history of women in this period. Yeah, absolutely. But it does paint a really touching picture, as you say, of Alfred the Great with his wife and his kids around it. And he's thinking about how do I educate them and how do I make them fit to follow in my footsteps kind of thing. Exactly. And of course, as we know, Alfred was very keen on education and he did a lot of work himself translating works from Latin. So, yes, the education was clearly high on his mind. So we have to assume that applied to his eldest daughter as well.

It's interesting to think that Ethel fled may have spent some time in Mercia when she was growing up, but we know that's where she will end up after she's married. What was the relationship like between Wessex and Mercia at this time? So they're part of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, but we've also got Vikings invading. As far as the relationship to her kingdom, because it really depends who you ask. So the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is our main source, and it is pretty much contemporary at this point. And it is at times quite scathing about Mercia. It points out that the kings have paid the Danes to go away.

And obviously we know that they were doing that in Wessex as well. And the idea that the Mercians were constantly asking the West Saxons for help. So it very much paints the picture that Mercia is the junior partner in an alliance, or the weaker partner in an alliance. I'm not sure that's necessarily true, but we get this, what I would call propaganda. After Athafled's uncle, King Burgred, was forced to flee when the Vikings came in and took over Repton,

there was a king called Chowulf. And he's described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as being nothing but a foolish king's thane, who basically ceded Mercia to the Vikings and became their puppet. But we know that's not actually true because there are coins known as the two emperors. There's a bit of court case recently where two metal detectorists have been taken to court because they didn't declare the treasure that they'd found.

So these two emperor coins, they're in the name of Cherwolf and Alfred, and seemed to suggest that these two kings were actually working in complete and equal partnership. And as for the foolish king's theme bit, Chirlwulf was the second of that name. And there's a strong argument to be made for saying that he was actually a descendant of a previous king, Chirlwolf the first. So far from being an idiot nobleman who just signed away the kingdom to the Vikings, it actually looks from the numismatic evidence and what we know about his potential lineage, that he was a legitimate king working an equal partnership with the West Saxons. So always have to be a little bit careful about bias in sources.

Obviously, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles commissioned by Alfred. It's been written in Wessex, so we have to be mindful of that. And what do we know about Ethel Fled's marriage? Do her and her husband make quite a good team? We don't know much about the marriage and her activities, up to the point where when we read between the lines and put various sources together, we find that around about 902, he became ill. We don't know the nature of this illness. It obviously didn't stop him ruling. He was incapacitated in some way. I think that's fair to say. And so he stayed alive and lingered. We don't know how ill he was for another eight and nine years or so.

He had been very active in the campaign against the Danes and he's named in the sources as fighting alongside our and Athaflead's brother Edward when he became old enough to fight. So there's the three of them working very much together as a triumvirate. And then all of a sudden his name disappears from the sources. We've got other sources, not hugely reliable, but do corroborate this idea that he was ill and that she was working on his behalf. There's an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that just says that in 907,

Chester was restored and it doesn't say by whom. They're not naming Atterrad anymore. Why not? Chances are that he is ill by this time. And so we have to assume that it was she who was fighting the Vikings or sending her forces to fight the Vikings. And we have an Irish source which, as I say, is not hugely reliable. It's fantastic fun.

It gives loads of detail. It reads a little bit more like a saga than a chronicle. And it gives loads and loads of information. about this campaign in Chester and it says that they call him the king of the Saxons, but we know he was Lord of the Mercians, that he is sick and in disease to the point of death, but he's directing his wife as to what she should do. So clearly he's trusting her to act in his stead. So it's very interesting. And as I say, the Irish animal, we have to take with a bit of a grain of salt, but the fact that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that this thing was going on in Chester as well.

When we put the two together, it seems quite likely that's what was happening. In the year before her husband died, we can see her actually building a borough, a fortified town in a place called Bremesborough. We're not entirely sure where that is or was. But clearly, she's behaving in quite a queenly fashion, even while a husband's still alive. So obviously there's a partnership going on there. I think it's fair to say. I think it's fascinating enough to think about her acting as a regent. So, you know, my history home, I guess, is probably the Wars of the Roses, where we get someone like Margaret of Banjou making a bid for Regency powers when Henry the 6th is ill. and everyone is utterly disgusted at the mere thought of a woman being in control even as regent.

So to think that Ethel fled was doing this kind of 600 years earlier is fascinating to me. But then she goes and one-ups that because when her husband dies, she manages to take over the kingdom of mercy. How does that happen? We don't actually know. So obviously we've got this indication that she's been ruling in his stead while he's still alive. We do know that there was a mercy in council, which, was instrumental in electing kings later on in the 10th century. So they elected Athelstan as their king in Mercia

before he became king in Wessex, and they did that later on when the kingdom was divided in the 950s. So we have to assume that they elected, because at this time, kingship, queenship, whatever, rulership, for want of a better word, was not automatically hereditary. In practice, it was, but in theory, the council, the Wittan had to elect the ruler. So she's not taken over the kingdom by force, that's for sure. We have to assume that they were happy with her leadership and that there was some kind of

formal acknowledgement of it. To us like she's done her probation period as regent and they're willing to accept her as ruler now. She's done a good enough job. Yes. And I guess probably, you know, she's plenty of experience, plenty of understanding of how her husband had expected the kingdom to be ruled. So she was able to pick up the reins quite easily. easily. And she uses this title that we know her by, Lady of the Mercians. How is that arrived at and what does it mean? We don't know. And we could actually probably do a whole separate podcast on what that word queen actually means, queenship, lady, is there a difference? Asa, that biographer at Alfred the Great, gives us a wonderful and very dubious story about why women in Wessex, or the

Kingdom of the West Saxons weren't given the title of Queen. And he actually blames a Mercian woman who apparently, I love this story, I'll tell it very briefly, she was married to the King of the West Saxons and she apparently was very envious of his counsellors. So she contrived to poison one of them, but she accidentally poisoned the king as well. And for her punishment, she was banished. She was sent abroad to the court of the Emperor Charlemagne and quite fittingly died a miserable death in poverty, I think Asa adds as well. And he says, this is the reason why women aren't called queen. It's actually very unlikely to be true.

We think her husband actually died in battle. And the man who then took over the reins in my six happened to be Alfred's grandfather. So you can start to see why Asa might have wanted to play down this kingship. I actually think that king was a Mercian that he was installed as a puppet of offer. he was his son-in-law. So again, we're writing a history of a great king of Wessex. We don't want to allude to the fact that at one time Wessex might have actually been ruled by the Mercians. But it's very interesting. I said, Asa didn't name Alfred's wife, and she was never called Queen. There is some element that women in Wessex are not called Queen, but she was

remembered as the dear lady of the English. And Edward, when he became king after Alfred's death almost immediately had to fight off a rebellion from his cousin. So he would have had to make sure that his credentials of being thrown worthy were as good as they could get. And so obviously the fact that his mother was lady was good enough. So we have to assume that this title, lady and indeed lord, does actually mean something. So Aphabad in Wessex is remembered as an elderman. But in the Worcester archive there's a regnal list which actually names him as a king. So it seems that at some point the Mercians regarded him as a king. So it may just be semantics. Whether we call her a queen, whether we call her a lady, whether there was a difference.

The Welsh and the Irish analysts called her a queen. So clearly that was the only name that they had for her. Lord and Lady, it's actually Schlafford and Lefdhafterger, literally means loaf giver. The onus on the person in charge, as it were, is to provide for their people. And all the kings were actually Lord King. So this Lord Lady, it actually confers some kind of status and it elevates this couple above being a mere nobleman and his wife. And the Mercians called her Lady. And they were happy with that title. So I think it means something. It really does. Yeah. I think I'm most familiar with it, probably from the anarchy when Empress Matilda gets to the point of almost being crowned

and she designates herself or the title that she plans to use is Lady of the English. And I think that's her by the 12th century probably avoiding the word queen because that now has connotations of being the wife of a king. You know, a queen is a very specific role that everybody understood. So she avoids that and sort of uses this Lady of the English, which is harking back to this Anglo-Saxon idea. but it sounds like perhaps that wasn't exactly what Ethel Fled was doing, that Lady meant something in its own right at that time.

She wasn't simply saying I'm not a King's wife, that Lady was a very specific role for her to have. It is, that's a very interesting point. They sign themselves as Lord and Lady. So clearly they're happy with that. What actually meant at the time it's difficult to know. As I say, we could have a whole separate conversation on this idea of Queen because some King's wives,

witness charters as Regina, literal translation, Queen, we can't get away from that, but some didn't witness charters at all. So we don't really know what kind of agency a lot of these Queen consorts had and how they were regarded. Alfred's wife never witnessed any charters. We don't know why she wasn't given the title of Queen, but other King's consorts were in Wessex and Merseus, so it's a very grey area. I could talk for hours on just that one subject. It is really difficult to pinpoint. Hello, host of Dan Snow's History at Podcast here.

History isn't just dates and facts. It's about the incredible stories that shape our world. Three times a week on my podcast, my expert guests and I bring you extraordinary stories of heroism, discovery, mystery and power. Expect tales of lost tombs, daring escapes, power-hungry rulers, and those determined to bring them all down. If you're a history lover or just looking for a good tale,

you want to check out Dan Snow's History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. To get back to some of the juicy stuff that Athelfled does, how important is she to the resistance against the Vikings, particularly with her brother Edward? Oh, massively. So at the beginning, as I said, Alfred was working alongside Ethelred and Edward as soon as he was old enough to fight. But by the turn of the century, there's only brother and sister left.

Alfred died. Edwards being stretched very thinly. As I mentioned, he almost immediately faced a revolt by his cousin, who actually had the Northumbrian Vikings backing him, and he was minting coins in his own name. So it was a real threat to Edward's kingship, and obviously he's got a bit of bother with the Vikings in the southeast as well. And the campaign of borough building that brother and sister embarked upon

was really planned, it was strategic, each of them securing certain areas, allowing the other to push forward. And at this point, they're the only two left fighting, really. So it was massively important that these two worked together because divided, they stood no chance at all. Whereabouts do we see Ethel Fled being particularly active then? I mean, as I mentioned, I'm from the Kingdom of Mercia, I'm from Warburhampton, so we have the battle. of Tetanel takes place not far from where I grew up. What kind of areas do we see Ethel fled actually coming into contact with the Vikings? Okay, so 907 in Chester. There's a lovely story about a Viking called Ingermund who apparently did a deal with her that he would settle in the

area and then nagged on that and got a bit troublesome. And she dealt with that. According to the Irish source, even doing things like throwing bees and beer and all sorts at the Vikings just to get rid of them. It's a fascinating piece. Teton Hall in 910 is a year before her husband died and I've not found anything outside of the last kingdom that suggests that she was actually there. I think it's more likely that Edward was actually leading the combined forces at Tetonhall. But interesting, that same year, as I mentioned earlier, she built this fortified town at Bremesborough. There's a document, it's an annal that's been inserted into the main stock of the Anglosaxon Chronicles, and it's called the Mercyon Register.

And what survives of it, and I say that because it might have been part of a much longer document, chronicles her activity between 902, which is roundabout when her husband fell ill, and then obviously up to her death. And it doesn't mention that she was at Tetonhall, but it does focus on the borough building. I'll give you a list. So 9-10, she built at Breesborough, and there's a definite pattern emerging. 9-12, she builds at a place called Sheargett, which is possibly Herefordshire. Then Bridge North, on the 7th. 913, Townworth and Stafford.

9-14, Edsbury, which is Mersey, Cheshire area, and then later in the same year, Warwick. 9-15, she's building in Cherbury, just east of Offers-Dike, and a place called Weirdborough, possibly, again, near the dike and both of those potentially Shropshire. 916, she's sending an army into Wales. That's a little bit of a side issue. That's not Dane or Viking related. That's apparently because an abbot who was dear to her was killed. And then in 917, we get the big one,

The Taking of Derby, where we're told that she lost four Thanes who were dear to her in the fighting. 9-18, she peacefully obtained. So maybe that suggests that the others weren't quite so peaceful. Lester and the people of York said that they would submit to her if she would lend them aid. So when you plot all these locations on a map, it is absolutely fascinating because what you find is that she's building a little ring around Free Mercia and she's staying quite close to home and then she pushes up into the north-west so she's looking maybe to secure.

the Mersey, the Welsh border, because obviously the Norse Vikings from Dublin are also becoming a pest at this point. And once she's done all that, she then comes round and it's Darby and it's Lester in the East Midlands, part of the five boroughs where the Vikings have built these towns. When you plot the same for Edwards' activities, you find an almost mirror image. So he's been a bit of beginning, he's in Essex, he's in the home counties, he's building a similar ring, and then he comes up to Stanford, and it's almost like a pincer movement where he's coming up into the East Midlands, she's coming down into the East Midlands, so it's all seemingly very planned, very strategic, and it's absolutely fascinating to overlay these patterns on a map. It's striking how

they secure their homelands and then they push in this pincer movement. And it's incredible to find two royal siblings working so closely and so well together in a coordinated fashion. We tend to think about royal siblings just fighting each other all the time and scrapping. But these two seem to have been incredibly close and incredibly good at what they were doing. When her husband died, Edward did take London and Oxford under his direct control, but he left the rest of Mercia under his sister's command and under her rule. And, yeah, Yeah, there's no evidence that they had a falling out. They must have been very close.

I think personally, really must have liked each other. Because although these were desperate times, when her husband died, Edward could have put somebody else in charge. You know, he probably had the power to do that, but he didn't. And I think it speaks volumes for their relationship, definitely, yeah. And so we've made Ethel fled a regent, which is incredible. We've made her, what we might call today, a queen regnant, which is even more incredible.

Can we go even further? Do we know whether Ethel Fled ever fought on a battlefield? I always feel like I upset so many people when I say this, but I don't believe she fought. We just don't have any evidence of women warriors in England at this time. We have, as I read earlier, so much detail from Assa about the siblings' education, but there's nothing there to suggest

that these royal daughters were being taught to fight. We do know from a slightly later source that Edward made sure his own daughters were highly educated, but the detail we're given about that is that they learnt to read, they learned to write, they learnt to sew and embroider, which set them up beautifully for lives as royal wives or religious women, but again, nothing about fighting. Asa tells us about the noble pursuits, hunting, etc, and we have to assume this includes weapons training, but there's nothing there that suggests that the girls were given. the same rounded education, should we say. Perhaps her husband taught her to fight, it's possible,

but why would he have done? I think that's a question we have to ask. We don't have any archaeological evidence. There is a grave, which was actually excavated in Mercia, that seems to show a female skeleton buried with a spear. The skull has a puncture wound, very likely made by a weapon, but that is late fifth, early sixth century. So whatever's going on then, we cannot say that the same was true four or five hundred years later. We've got nothing along the lines

of the famous Viking Beaker warrior woman who was excavated. I think what she did was that she rode to these various locations. We actually have a charter that she issued from one of the boroughs that she was building at Weirbra and we know that her daughter was with her at that time because she's a witness to that charter. I think she's there. She's in

discussion with her leading alderman. We don't even have much information about who they were, unfortunately. We don't have much in the way of names. I suspect she stayed away from the fighting. I can't see her actually up close and personal in a shield wall. It's this whole absence of evidence of absence. But until we have more concrete proof, somebody digs up a 10th century grade that clearly shows a female warrior or some lost document that says, oh, I was at that battle. I struggled to believe it. I'm sorry, I know that's not a popular opinion, but that's what I believe. I think it's fine. I think she's more than impressive enough without turning up on a battlefield as well. She's clearly achieving an awful lot in what she is

doing. I don't think we can hold not fighting against her. She's definitely a trailblazer. Yeah, absolutely. and I wanted to just touch on as well how much of an influence you think Ethel Fled was on Athelstan so this is Edward's son who will become remembered as the first king of the English but he kind of grew up in Mercia around his aunt Ethel fled didn't he? It's interesting we actually do only have one written source that says that she brought him up so this is William of Malmesbury and he says

that Alfred made Athelstan a knight which is anachronistic. There were no such things at that time. Gave him a scarlet cloak and a diamond-studied belt and a sword with a golden scabbard. But all of this very much as if he was the chosen air. I'm not sure how much we can believe of that because there were a lot of people during Apple Stan's lifetime

who thought he was anything but there was a lot of mud slung about about the status of his parents' marriage, whether they were in fact married, whether his mother was a noble woman or whether she was a common prostitute, and that there's all sorts of stories about that. But William & Marbley also says that Alfred provided that Atholstan should be educated in the court of Ethelphled. So again, we go back to this idea that education is so important.

I see no reason to disbelieve it. We have other sources that sort of pinpoint Athelstan as being in Mercia, and certainly he was much more popular in Mercia than he was in West Six. He was not universally accepted in West Six. And even after he became king, he still had a lot of bother from his half-brothers. So I think we have to assume that the story is true, that she, having been well-educated herself, because her father was obviously big on education,

then pass that on to Appelstan, and that as soon as he was old enough, he was joining her and her elderman in the field of battle. We know that he was then fighting with his father later on after Uttlflad died. So there's no reason to disbelieve it, and I think she was probably hugely influential. I think he was probably sent as quite a small boy as well because he was quite young when his father married again

and had a lot more children. I think Edward had 13 children by three wives, women and said this idea that Aftelstan's mother was a Mercian herself and he was probably sent away at quite a young age so there's every chance when we remember that these are real people real families and there are some things that don't change over the centuries and she probably became a substitute mother for him that's my take on it yeah and I mean there can't have been many better places to learn what he needed to learn to go on to have the impressive career that Atholstan had than to learn it at Ethel Fled's side. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's no question

that whenever fighting was going on, he was there. Why would he not have been? So, yeah, a really good grounding for him. So, I mean, unfortunately, we have to bring Ethel Fled's brilliant and hugely impressive life to an end at some point. When does Ethel Fled die? And what happens in the aftermath of her death in Mercia? Right. It's June 12, 918, at Tamworth, fairly recently liberated. I think Tamworth 913 and it's known as the capital of Mercia, although Repton stakes that claim as well, so we have to be a bit diplomatic. In a way, she couldn't possibly have died a worse time because she's really at the peak of her accomplishments. She's, as I say, successfully liberated Tamwer, Derby, Lester, the people of York had come to her.

Cap in hand will submit to you if you will help us against this new wave of Vikings. she was riding high and then she died and we've no idea what caused her death. I did hear a theory a while ago that she was actually murdered to put a stop to her success. When I think about it, I think it's highly unlikely that an assassin would have got past her guards. If we say that she was born 869, 870, she's going to be around about 50. and she must have been quite tired, I think. Yes, the noble men and women had a much better life than your average Joe, but she's been constantly fighting.

I think she would have been pretty exhausted. So she may just a diet of natural causes, I don't know, heart attack, possibly. What happened afterwards was interesting because Edward essentially then steamed in and took over. He carried on the fight. He carried on the borough building program. He built boroughs in Fellwall in 919 and then Nottingham and Bakewell in 920.

So he's still up in the North West. Whether he's shoring these places up against the Vikings or a Mercian backlash is an interesting point because I don't think the Mercians were particularly happy about the fact that he took over. How would you assess Ethel fled's legacy. I mean, to me, she's a name I've always known as this impressive female ruler of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. But if she's sometimes overshadowed by her dad who is credited

with stopping the Vikings, by her nephew who becomes the first king of the English, how significant is what she achieved and the role that she played in both of those stories? It's fascinating because I left a little bit out of that story because whilst Edward did steam in and take over. He didn't do that immediately. And in theory and in practice for a while, she was actually succeeded by her daughter. She only had the one child and the Merseon register makes it very clear that child or daughter, Elfwin, was deprived of all rightful authority. What we're told is that he took her into Wessex. We've no idea what happened to her. But the Mercians were clearly so happy to have a woman in charge and then for her daughter to succeed her. And this is

incredible. And a woman ruler did not succeed a woman ruler again in England until the Tudor period. It's unprecedented and it wasn't replicated for a long time. Edward, I think, was in a much stronger position by that point because unlike at the beginning of reign when he was really fighting battles on all fronts. By this point he had adult sons who A were in a position to help him fight and B were perhaps looking for inheritance. That's what happened. He initially gave Mercia to Athelstan and Wessex to another of his sons who conveniently died a short while after but we won't go into that. So Effafed was absolutely instrumental in pushing the Danes back and recovering free Mercier and I think the Mercians part

is so often downplayed and particularly hers. The main portion of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle doesn't even name her, it just calls her Edward's sister. And if we can look at it, that the Mersean register was being written and compiled in Mercia. And the main part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, we can almost view it as a court circular that is describing how fabulous Edward is and it's glossing over the Mercy and contribution, it actually bigs up Edward towards the end of his reign when actually the wheels had started to fall off a little bit, but they don't mention that. Her legacy is incredibly important. We've got this woman ruler who's succeeded by a woman ruler, albeit briefly, and the fact remains, I don't believe that Edward could have done it without her. It's that simple.

And what a phenomenal woman she must have been, given that she had. no role model to step up and do what she did that's incredible when in a world where men fight and and men rule and men lead it's almost as if she's saying no one's done this before but i will and that's an incredible achievement it really is yeah we so often think there would be no england as we know it today without alfred the great but we maybe need to think a bit more in terms of no england as we know it without edward and his brilliant sister athelphled Absolutely, yeah. And to counter out this idea that, yes, Wessex was, to use the phrase, the last kingdom, in the way that it wasn't invaded or settled by the Vikings when all the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were.

But without Mercy and assistance, cooperation, partnership, it wouldn't have survived. It just wasn't. The part they played was absolutely huge. Yeah. And I mean, she's really set down a marker for queenship. You know, we're talking about. about medieval queenship, well here is perhaps the pinnacle. Really early on in the idea of queenship in the British Isles, she has set a marker that no one else would come even close to for centuries after her life. She really is a remarkable individual, isn't she? She is. And I think that tendency for mercy and women to step up, it didn't finish with her, although after her death, slightly before her death, it depends how we define her status. If we say she was a queen, then the

Queendom, the kingdom ended with her. But the history of strong mercy and women didn't. It's interesting. You mentioned Wolverhampton. We have an incredibly powerful Mercian family in the 11th century, the matriarch of which was a lady called Wolveran who actually founded Wolverhampton. And has a big statue outside St Peter's Church that I know really, really well. Yeah. And her family was absolutely astoundingly influential and increasingly influential and, not all blood relatives of hers, some married in, but within that extended family, you've got the likes of Lady Godiva, and if you ask me if I think she did, no she didn't, I don't believe the story about the Naked Horse Ride, but we've also got another Queen

Regent Elfieva of Northampton is part of that family. She married Knute, she had two sons by him. She was sent off to Norway to rule part of Kinneets' empire for him, ostensibly in the name of her son as a regent, but a powerful woman. And then after Kinite's death, got embroiled in a fascinating propaganda war with Emma of Normandy, where the two royal widows were fighting for their son's rights to the throne. And our fever won out. I think Ethel fled's legacy is partly the Mercians thought we may not have our own kings and queens anymore, but that doesn't mean we're going to just sit down quietly and let somebody else tell us what to do.

Yeah, I like that. Mercy and women are incredible, and not much changes, because they still are, if you ask me. Thank you so much for joining us, Annie. It's been great to talk about such a fascinating and incredible and important character to history who perhaps often gets glossed over. So thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for inviting me. I'd love talking about her, as you can probably tell. You can grab Annie's book, Mercia, The Rise and, fall of a kingdom to find out more about this part of Anglo-Saxon history and Ethel Fled's place in it. And check out the rest of Annie's books too while you're on. There's a new episode of Gone Medieval on Tuesday, so please do join us next time for more on the greatest millennium in human history. Don't forget to also subscribe or follow us wherever you get your podcast from and to tell all your friends and family that you've

gone medieval. If you get a moment, please do drop us a review or rate us anywhere that you listen to podcasts. It really does help new listeners to find us out. And if you're enjoying this and you'd like a bit more medieval goodness in your life, you can subscribe to our Medieval Monday's newsletter by following the links in the show notes below. Anyway, I'd better let you go. I've been Matt Lewis and we've just gone medieval with history hits.