Stepping Back into Saxon England: Æthelflæd’s Daughter

 

Annie Whitehead and Helen Hollick are two amazing historians and authors, so I was thrilled when Annie told me about their joint blog tour. Saxon England may be a little distant for some of my readers, but, trust me, it's worth the trip!

Welcome Annie!

~ Samantha 

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Æthelflæd’s Daughter

A Guest Post by Annie Whitehead

I’m delighted to be Samantha’s guest today as part of the Stepping Back into Saxon England tour with Helen Hollick. Recently I was talking to someone about the enduring popularity of the Tudors and why it should be so. I think the fascination is partly to do with two things: a king executing his queens is unique in English history, and women succeeding women to the throne is something which had never happened before and has not happened since, unless you count Anne’s succeeding William and Mary.

Well, I say it hadn’t happened before. It did, once, albeit briefly.

I’ve written a great deal about Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, in my novel To Be A Queen, and both my nonfiction books, Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom and Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England. She was the daughter of Alfred the Great, and she was born at a time when ‘Viking’ incursions were not only a major nuisance, but had already seen two kingdoms - East Anglia and Northumbria - fall pretty much permanently under Danish control. Only the very top part of Northumbria, some of Mercia and the whole of Wessex were still under English rule. Alfred, and later his son, Edward, began working alongside Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians and, when a concerted joint effort pushed the invaders out of London, the alliance was sealed by the marriage of Alfred’s daughter Æthelflæd to Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians.

We don’t have much information for the early years of their marriage, except the details of the continuing campaign against the Danes. Around the year 902, however, the chronicles stop mentioning Æthelred’s name and the Irish annals make it clear that he was suffering from some kind of illness, which prevented him from fighting but did not stop him giving strategic advice to his wife. This gives me the impression that by this stage, this was one amazing power couple, happy to support and protect each other - she looking after him while he was ill and he being happy to delegate to a ‘mere’ woman.

History records - and yes, it’s a bit of a spoiler - that after this protracted illness she ended up ruling alone. That’s also worth a moment’s pause. Only once before had a woman ruled an English kingdom, and it didn’t end well. Seaxburh, queen of Wessex, was the only Anglo-Saxon woman to be included on a regnal list. She ruled for somewhere between one and two years in the seventh century but as a later chronicler said, the men of the kingdom would not go to war under the leadership of a woman. I think ‘war’ is the clue here. It’s likely that she was actually ruling as regent for her son during a time of conflict over the succession. At any rate, her rule was not long, and was not successful.

Æthelflæd, on the other hand, ruled Mercia for seven years on her own and in that time she worked in partnership with her brother Edward to wrest occupied Mercia out of Danish hands, building defensive towns called burhs, and famously taking Derby with her troops and losing in the fighting ‘four thegns who were dear to her.’ Derby was one of the strategically important ‘Five Boroughs’ of the Danelaw (the other four being Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham and Leicester). By the time she died at Tamworth, their work was almost done.

From beyond the grave though, she pulled off another remarkable feat. Her daughter Ælfwynn succeeded her.

We know virtually nothing of Ælfwynn’s life, not even her year of birth, but we do know that she witnessed a charter of her mother’s, issued at Weardbyrig (unidentified but possibly in Shropshire) in 915, when Æthelflæd was in the midst of her intense burh-building programme. Even if Ælfwynn had been born late in the marriage – and it seems unlikely that she would have been conceived after her father fell ill in around 902 – she probably wouldn’t have been on campaign with her mother if she was still tiny. Most likely she was a young adult at the very least. Given that it would have been far safer for her to remain in the Mercian heartland, there could well have been a specific reason for her presence at Weardbyrig, that of watching and learning from her mother, with the intention that one day she would take over.

But if she was already a young woman, why had she remained unmarried? Again, I think it might be because she was being groomed to take over the country and keep it in Mercian hands. It’s said that her mother raised the future King Athelstan in Mercia but she clearly didn’t consider him her heir and, when she died, the Mercian council declared for Ælfwynn. We know this because, like Seaxburh all those years ago, her tenure was short-lived. Her uncle Edward, who’d been happy for his sister to rule, wasn’t so accommodating when it came to her daughter and according to the annal known as the Mercian Register, she was ‘deprived of all authority’. Thus they clearly believed that she was rightful ruler.

We don’t know what happened to her after that, other than that she was probably taken into Wessex. A later charter speaks of a holy woman called Ælfwynn, but there is no proof at all that this was the same woman. Like so many before and after, she simply disappeared off the pages of history.

But we should not overlook that very important point. In Mercia in 918 a remarkable thing happened: a woman ruler was succeeded by a woman ruler. This would not happen again until the time of the Tudors.

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About the Author:

Annie has written three novels set in Anglo-Saxon England. To Be A Queen tells the story of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians. Alvar the Kingmaker is set in the turbulent tenth century where deaths of kings and civil war dictated politics, while Cometh the Hour tells the story of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia. All have received IndieBRAG Gold Medallions and Chill with a Book awards. To Be A Queen was longlisted for HNS Indie Book of the Year and was an IAN Finalist. Alvar the Kingmaker was Chill Books Book of the Month while Cometh the Hour was a Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month.

As well as being involved in 1066 Turned Upside Down, Annie has also had two nonfiction books published. Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom (Amberley Books) will be published in paperback edition on October 15th, 2020, while her most recent release, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Pen & Sword Books) is available in hardback and e-book.

Annie was the inaugural winner of the Dorothy Dunnett/HWA Short Story Competition 2017.

Connect with Annie: 

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Breathing Life into Medieval Characters: Guest Post by Annie Whitehead

Happy Book Release Day to Annie Whitehead! It is great to have Annie on my blog today to discuss her new book, Alvar the Kingmaker, and what sparked her interest in the medieval era.

~ Samantha

Guest Post by Annie Whitehead: Breathing Life into Medieval Characters

I decided that I wanted to write stories when I was about eight. I have been interested in history since I was about eight or nine. It was only when I was an undergraduate in London in the 1980s that I realised I wanted to write about history.

My first two historical novels both came about because of a single sentence. In the case of To Be a Queen, the story of Alfred the Great’s daughter Aethelflaed, it was a sentence about her husband. My tutor said of Ethelred of Mercia that “Nobody knew exactly where he came from.” I suddenly had a vision of this guy riding onto the pages of history out of some unknown hinterland. I wanted to write his story and, in a way, I have. Although of course the real story was that of his wife: daughter of a king, wife of a man with the powers of a king (albeit a sub-king); a woman who led her army into battle against the Vikings.

My second novel was born when I read a paper written by that same tutor. It was about Aelfhere, earl of Mercia in the 10th century, and in a little footnote there was mention of a widow who had been deprived of her lands following his death. It’s the only known reference to this woman and the supposition is that she was Aelfhere’s wife. Hmm… Why did we not know more about her? This became part, although not the whole, of the story in Alvar the Kingmaker. A central theme, yes, but there was more which needed to be told.

You see, my Anglo-Saxons are not the Anglo-Saxons of Middle Earth. They are not mystical, magical or mythical, but rather they are medieval. My stories don’t contain elves, or monsters like Grendel. The ‘Dark Ages’ covers a period of over 500 years. To lump all the Anglo-Saxons together would be like saying the Tudors were a lot like us.

I wanted my characters to be real, not caricatures.

I wanted to portray these people as, well, people.

There are many stories to be found within Anglo-Saxon history, aside from the invasions of, first, the Angles and Saxons themselves, then the Vikings and the Normans. This was a society which produced the most exquisite artwork (eg the Lindisfarne Gospels), the most intricately worked jewelled weaponry (eg the Staffordshire Hoard) a few hundred years even before the period in which my books are set.

There was sophisticated local and central government, and law codes were regularly updated. Huge chunks of my lecture time when I was a student were taken up with discussion about whether pre-Conquest England was already feudal, or whether the Normans introduced it.

So... I had my ambition to write. I had my stories. And I knew my stuff. Ask me the names of any king between AD 600-1066  and I could oblige. Ask me who invaded whose lands at any given period and why, and I could tell you.

Just one problem.  I quickly discovered that I didn’t know how people lived; what they ate for breakfast, what they wore, how they built their houses and ships, which animals they reared and what type of crops they farmed.

It’s all very well having a chapter plan but not so great if you can’t actually describe what’s happening in every scene. I learned that knowing about history and having the information required to write an historical novel are not the same thing.

Luckily for me, I had contacts within the ‘industry’ who were more than happy to help, or knew someone who could. I immersed myself in my early medieval world, finding out about looms, textiles, cooking methods, flour production, and I even learned how flammable flour dust can be (a fact which served me well in one particular passage in ‘Queen’.)

I then learned that a writer needs to include only about 10% of that research in their books. For me, the art of writing an historical novel is a subtle blend, requiring equal measures of: the story, the characters, the history, and the details. When the blend is right, it should be possible to have the reader not just dip into it, but  become fully submerged without those precious parts separating at any point.

About the Author 

Annie Whitehead is a history graduate who now works as an Early Years music teacher. Her first novel, To Be A Queen, was long-listed for the Historical Novel Society’s Indie Book of the Year 2016. Her new release, Alvar the Kingmaker, is available now. She is currently working on the novel which was a prize-winning entry in the Mail on Sunday Novel Writing competition and which she was encouraged by judge Fay Weldon to complete.

Connect with Annie on Facebook or on her blog!  

Annie's Books

Aethelflaed, the ‘Lady of the Mercians’ was the daughter of Alfred the Great. She was the only female leader of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Born into the royal house of Wessex at the height of the Viking wars, she is sent to her aunt in Mercia as a foster-child, only to return home when the Vikings overrun Mercia. In Wessex, she witnesses another Viking attack and this compounds her fear of the enemy. 

She falls in love with a Mercian lord but is heartbroken to be given as bride to the ruler of Mercia to seal the alliance between the two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 

She must learn to subjugate her feelings for her first love, overcome her indifference to her husband and win the hearts of the Mercians who despise her as a foreigner and twice make an attempt on her life. 

When her husband falls ill and is incapacitated, she has to learn to rule and lead an army in his stead. Eventually she must fight to save her adopted Mercia from the Vikings and, ultimately, her own brother.

Get To Be A Queen by Annie Whitehead

In 10th Century England,nobleman Alvar knows that securing the throne for the young and worthy King Edgar will brand him as an oath-breaker. As a fighting man, he is indispensable to the new sovereign, but his success and power gain him deadly, murderous enemies amongst those who seek favour with the king. Alvar must fight to protect his lands, and his position, and learn the subtle art of politics. He must also, as a man of principle, keep secret his love for the wife of his trusted deputy. Civil war erupts, and Alvar once again finds himself the only man capable of setting a new king upon the throne of England, an act which comes at great personal cost. His career began with a dishonourable deed to help a good king; now he must be loyal to a new king, Aethelred, whom he knows will be weak, and whose supporters have been accused of regicide. Can he bring about peace, reconcile with his enemies, and find personal happiness, whilst all the time doing his duty to his loved ones? And what of the fragile Queen, who not only depends upon him but has fallen in love with him? Aelfhere (Alvar) of Mercia was known to the chroniclers as the "The blast of the mad wind from the Western territories" but also as "The glorious earl." This is his story.

Get Alvar the Kingmaker by Annie Whitehead on Amazon.

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