Women did not have as hard a time in Anglo-Saxon high
society as they were to do in later ages. An example of the respect that was
shown to high-born women is Aethelflaed, the eldest daughter of King Alfred of
Wessex. She was to have a major impact on developments in England, especially
after her father’s death in 899.
King Alfred the Great is renowned for having fought off the
threat from Danish invaders and turned the tide of what had looked like
inevitable defeat. However, Alfred only ruled in Wessex, which was the south
and south-west of England. Between his kingdom and the Danelaw (the eastern
part of England that was ceded to the Danes) lay the larger kingdom of Mercia.
Were Mercia to fall, Wessex would again be threatened.
The Lady Aethelflaed
Alfred left his daughter the large sum of one hundred pounds
and a royal estate. She had already been married for several years, her husband
being Ethelred of Mercia. The couple proved to be effective joint rulers of
Mercia, with Aethelflaed playing an active role in decision-making when it came
to defending the kingdom.
Ethelred did not enjoy good health, which placed greater
burdens on Aethelflaed; these were increased even further when Ethelred died in
911. Aethelflaed now took over the role of sole ruler, being known as “The Lady
of the Mercians”. Although there is no evidence that she took a direct fighting
role in any battles against the Danes, she certainly planned campaigns and
inspired her troops to greater efforts.
Alfred had been succeeded in Wessex by his son Edward, who
joined his sister in campaigning against the Danes. Together they forced the
Danes north to the River Humber and freed East Anglia.
Aethelflaed had learned an important lesson from her father,
which was to defend territory that had been won by building fortified towns
that would act not only as population centres but be places of refuge for
farmers in the area should danger threaten. These “burhs” were established
throughout Mercia and would form the basis of “boroughs” that exist to the
present day. Among them were Tamworth, Warwick, Runcorn and Stafford.
As Aethelflaed’s armies moved north they captured the
Dane-held cities of Derby and Leicester and she was on the point of taking
York, the Danish capital, when she died in 918.
Aethelflaed’s legacy
Aethelflaed’s doughty spirit was to live on in her nephew,
Edward’s son Athelstan. Edward so admired his sister that he sent his son to be
brought up by her and gain an apprenticeship in statecraft. The training and
example were to pay dividends, in that Athelstan would later unite the kingdoms
of England and be entitled to claim the honour of being the first king of
all-England.
Aethelflaed’s name is not often brought up in discussions
about where the roots of England lie. However, perhaps the Lady of the Mercians
deserves to be better remembered as one of the group of remarkable people who
saved England from foreign dominance in the 8th/9th
centuries.
© John Welford
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