0:00:08 > 0:00:10In the mid winter of 877,
0:00:10 > 0:00:12the existence of England hung on a thread.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15The Vikings had triumphed everywhere.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23The last surviving Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred, fought a desperate
0:00:23 > 0:00:26guerrilla war in swamps of Somerset.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32But here, in his darkest hour, he had a dream -
0:00:32 > 0:00:38St Cuthbert made a prophecy to him that from this place,
0:00:38 > 0:00:44his descendants would become kings of all England and lords of Britain.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Alfred took the dream as a mark of destiny.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Alfred beat back the Vikings.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59But at the end of his life,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04his people still lived in a land torn by war.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07At this point in the story it is by no means certain that
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Alfred's kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons will survive.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14Let alone that one England will emerge.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Now Alfred's children continue the family plan, and one of them is
0:01:18 > 0:01:23described by a medieval chronicler as "a person of extraordinary
0:01:23 > 0:01:27"ability and mental toughness", the planner of one of the most
0:01:27 > 0:01:30brilliant military campaigns in the whole of the Dark Ages.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35And she's a woman.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38It's one of the great, untold stories of British history -
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41This is a family story.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Three generations of the most remarkable,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47the most gifted family in our history.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51And to pick up the tale,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54we need to go back to the last months of Alfred's life.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Here in British Library is a crucial clue to how Alfred hoped to
0:03:00 > 0:03:04shape events after his death.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10We have been digitizing a lot of our medieval manuscripts in full
0:03:10 > 0:03:12and putting them up online.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18It's a fantastic idea, isn't it,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22that wherever we are in the world, we can click on this.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'We're looking for Alfred's last will.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:32Here it is, the Liber Vitae from the New Minster in Winchester.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38In this book, we've got a copy the will of King Alfred.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43- The will starts on 29 verso. - That's right.- Yes, here we go.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48And we can zoom in.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Tremendous!
0:03:50 > 0:03:53And here's Alfred's name at the beginning of the will, and
0:03:53 > 0:03:59you can really see the individual pen strokes of the scribe.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04Alfred Wesseaxona cyng, mid godes gif.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08That's absolutely amazing, isn't it, you can see every crinkle!
0:04:08 > 0:04:10Every stroke of the pen almost!
0:04:10 > 0:04:13'And clues here to a bitter family rift.'
0:04:14 > 0:04:19- And he speaks like we do in wills today.- Yeah, absolutely.
0:04:19 > 0:04:25So he's disposing the royal property to his chief children -
0:04:25 > 0:04:28the sons, Edward and Athelweard get most,
0:04:28 > 0:04:29Edward, the future king.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33His daughter Aethelflaed who is already married and gone,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37so her dowry's been paid, if you like, if we can put it that way.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41And "Aethelwold mines brothor suna."
0:04:41 > 0:04:43This is his brother's son,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46whose dad of course had been king before Alfred.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49- So he gets Godalming.- Yep.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55I think this is the first mention of the name of the town Godalming.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59And Guildford, and Staining!
0:04:59 > 0:05:03- That's all he gets, Edward gets about 18 estates.- Yeah.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06So he might have come out of this meeting where the will was read out
0:05:06 > 0:05:09- feeling a little aggrieved. - Yes.- Brilliant.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12'So Alfred had cut his nephew from the line of succession
0:05:12 > 0:05:16'in favour of his children by his wife Ealhswith.'
0:05:16 > 0:05:18And here's Ealhswith, this is his wife, isn't it?
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The farm, the estate at Lambourne,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and Wantage, which is where Alfred was born, isn't it?
0:05:26 > 0:05:30- And Edington where he won his greatest battle.- Yep.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35It's really quite an interesting psychological document.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40He gives these properties that are very important to him and associated
0:05:40 > 0:05:44with key events in his life to his wife, which is a very nice touch.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Sentimental? Do you think?
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Don't know, you could read it like that, I think.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Well, there's a little touch of that in his character.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56He's really trying to nail down the succession, isn't he?
0:05:56 > 0:06:03He absolutely is, and particularly for his own family, his own sons.
0:06:03 > 0:06:09He wants to make very, very clear what's going to happen,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12because there were rival claimants to the throne.
0:06:15 > 0:06:16SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:06:43 > 0:06:49With early medieval royal families genealogy conferred legitimacy,
0:06:49 > 0:06:56and the West Saxon royal dynasty had a pedigree second to none.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Just look at this.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00The wheel of fortune.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04This is a later medieval royal genealogical roll,
0:07:04 > 0:07:1020 feet of it and more. And in a brilliant piece of graphic design,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13it shows you the family tree of the Anglo-Saxon kings.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Here's Aethelwulf, Alfred's father and underneath him,
0:07:18 > 0:07:24the four brothers who successively became kings of the West Saxons.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Alfred's the youngest, the last of those kings.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33But if you follow the green line down, you can see
0:07:33 > 0:07:38how Alfred outflanked the descendants of his older brothers,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42and established his own branch of the dynasty,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46from which, incidentally, our own queen today is distantly descended.
0:07:46 > 0:07:53But the son of King Ethelred, the atheling, Prince Aethelwold, the
0:07:53 > 0:07:59man who got Godalming in Alfred's will, is cut out completely.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04And in the early middle ages, in the Viking Age,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09hell had no fury like an atheling scorned.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17And a renegade prince could always find an army to back his cause.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Half of England was under the Danelaw -
0:08:21 > 0:08:24ruled by Vikings settled in Alfred's day.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26And as soon as Alfred's son Edward took the throne,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29his embittered cousin made his move.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:09:12 > 0:09:15For the new king, Edward, it was a deadly threat -
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Wessex couldn't have two kings.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20And to see what happened we have to go back to Cambridge
0:09:20 > 0:09:24to the source we have followed through this tale -
0:09:24 > 0:09:27the original manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31It's a contemporary narrative now.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34It's being written as these events are going on.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38Alfred the Great has died in October 899, aged about 50.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44Edward is crowned Pentecost, Whitsunday 900.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48And no sooner was Alfred dead and Edward crowned
0:09:48 > 0:09:51than hungry athelings began to prowl.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Chief among them, Aethelwold.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Here he is in the Chronicle.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:10:10 > 0:10:14These were shattering events for the royal family, the redoubtable
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Queen Mother, Eadgifu, 60 years later looked back on this time
0:10:19 > 0:10:24when she was a little girl, and her father, Sieghelm, the Earl of Kent,
0:10:24 > 0:10:30had gone to the war in East Anglia, paying off his debts before he went.
0:10:30 > 0:10:37The denouement of the campaign took place on December 13th, 902,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41between the Northern Fens and the Devil's Dyke.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49With his Viking allies, Prince Aethelwold had struck down all the
0:10:49 > 0:10:53way into Wiltshire, plundering and burning.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Then Edward retaliated by attacking Danish territory in East Anglia,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59ravaging the countryside.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Between the River Ouse at Huntington and all the way to the fens
0:11:09 > 0:11:13in the north around Peterborough, they just burned the land.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Vastatio, depopulatio, they called it.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22As far as these massive dykes here in Cambridgeshire,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25built in the 7th century to defend the kingdom of the East Angles,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28and still a huge obstacle.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Imagine columns of smoke across the horizon,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38and somewhere beyond, the Viking army and Danish army
0:11:38 > 0:11:42led by Prince Aethelwold and the Danish King Eohric.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:11:59 > 0:12:02The Chronicle says the place was called the Holme.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11In Anglo-Saxon times, this was the end of the dry land -
0:12:11 > 0:12:14from this point, the deep fens stretched across to
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Whittlesea Mere and all the way to the Wash.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20And somewhere close to where we are standing,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23the battle was fought in December 902.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37The Bloodbath at the Holme was remembered for generations.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43According the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Edward had issued
0:12:43 > 0:12:48an order for a general withdrawal for all the units of his army.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52But the Kentish detachment who were the vanguard
0:12:52 > 0:12:56and the furthest north, refused to obey orders and stayed where
0:12:56 > 0:12:59they were, even though the king sent them seven messengers.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05They were caught by the Danish army under Prince Aethelwold.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10The Kentish nobility were wiped out in the battle.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13All their senior men were killed.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15But even though the Danes won the battle,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18it was their losses that were the most significant.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Their king, Eohric, was killed, several of his big leaders,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25a Mercian prince who was fighting on their side,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28and most important of all for King Edward, Prince Aethelwold
0:13:28 > 0:13:31himself died in the fighting.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36The key threat to King Edward as king in Wessex had been removed.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58So King Edward had won, but at great cost.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05He was still forced to make peace.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle doesn't admit that,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10but battered by his losses,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13the king was "compelled by necessity."
0:14:16 > 0:14:20He met the leaders of the Danes, not up in the Midlands or the North,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23but in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30The place was on the ancient route from Mercia into Danelaw -
0:14:30 > 0:14:32called Ytingaforda.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40Here at the ford where the old track crossed the River Ouzel,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44they parleyed and Edward gave them silver
0:14:44 > 0:14:46and treasure to buy peace.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53And above all, to buy time.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15"We are living through an age of iron," wrote one churchman.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22A succession of savage winters with thick snow and extreme cold
0:15:22 > 0:15:24brought famine and misery.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32To pay for his army, Edward had to squeeze every last penny
0:15:32 > 0:15:34from his starving people.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37From Surrey, one tenant wrote to the king...
0:15:39 > 0:15:41SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:16:14 > 0:16:19But sometimes in history, ages of iron can be more important
0:16:19 > 0:16:21for the future than ages of gold
0:16:25 > 0:16:29Now a new character enters the story -
0:16:29 > 0:16:34the daughter of Alfred the Great, King Edward's older sister.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40The wife of the Lord of Mercia, she was in her 30s.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Her name in Anglo-Saxon, Aethelflaed - noble beauty.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Here she is. And what's interesting about this is, she's still
0:16:50 > 0:16:56remembered as a woman of power and of high education and intelligence.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Just listen to this, this is the caption underneath.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05"Aethelflaed, la plus sage de toutes femmes seculers."
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Was the most wise of all laywomen.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16And she ruled the kingdom alongside her brother
0:17:16 > 0:17:21with great wisdom and great intelligence.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35The eldest child of a king, very conscious of her position in
0:17:35 > 0:17:43the dynasty, a daughter very aware of her relationship with her father.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48And through marriage to the Mercian Prince,
0:17:48 > 0:17:54one might call him, she took what she had learnt
0:17:54 > 0:17:59at the court of her father to another court, to the Mercian court.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09And she attempted to instil a similar political culture there.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20The ancient kingdom of Mercia stretched from Severn to Trent.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23It had long been a rival of Wessex,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26but they had found common cause against the Vikings.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33They fought together, their royals intermarried.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38And Aethelflaed had roots here -
0:18:38 > 0:18:41her mother was Mercian, and so was her husband,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45whom she'd married when she was 16 and by whom she had daughter.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51In the early middle ages it was hard for any woman
0:18:51 > 0:18:53to take a leading role in events.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58But without her, England may never have happened.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04And in part, that was because in Mercia
0:19:04 > 0:19:07royal women had long had special status.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Women were terribly important transmitters and legitimizers
0:19:14 > 0:19:17of male power throughout this period.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Not so much in politics in the formal sense,
0:19:22 > 0:19:27because I don't think royal women were invited to devise agendas
0:19:27 > 0:19:32for assemblies - that was pretty much a male field -
0:19:32 > 0:19:35still less to ride into battle.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39But women played a terribly important role in culture,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41in the culture of the court.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44In fact, you could say that the queen was at the heart of
0:19:44 > 0:19:46that culture, alongside the king.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54Being educated at Alfred's court must have meant that she
0:19:54 > 0:19:58imbibed a kind of training for rulership.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04As far as her intellectual training was concerned,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Alfred's biographer was rather keen to stress that it was
0:20:07 > 0:20:10the same as her brother's, as Edward's.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Aethelflaed's lost biography is only now being be pieced
0:20:17 > 0:20:20together from clues, which are still being uncovered.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Rescued from the accidents of time and war.
0:20:24 > 0:20:25But of course,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28the history of women as a whole has been erased everywhere.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31And perhaps Aethelflaed herself understood that.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36For someone in her circle recorded the story of her deeds
0:20:36 > 0:20:38for future generations.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The main version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written in Winchester,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48tells the story from the point of view of King Edward -
0:20:48 > 0:20:52it completely cuts out the story of Aethelflaed, his sister.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55What you would really love to have
0:20:55 > 0:20:58would be the story from Aethelflaed's point of view,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03but astonishingly, embedded in this later manuscript,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07is a chronicle written in the Midlands, maybe originally in Latin,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11whose central character, whose hero, if you like
0:21:11 > 0:21:13is Aethelflaed, the woman.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16So following the Annals of Aethelflaed,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20we can tell the story of the next 20 years, not only from the point
0:21:20 > 0:21:25of view of the Mercians, but from the point of view of the woman.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29A short copy of the lost original,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32it's a mix of the public and the private.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35It starts right on the middle of the page,
0:21:35 > 0:21:42with the death of Aethelflaed's mother. "Her Ealhswith forferde."
0:21:42 > 0:21:45But then it moves on to her deeds -
0:21:45 > 0:21:51starting in 907 with the re-founding of the Roman city of Chester.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57907, the city of Chester was restored.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:22:16 > 0:22:19With Vikings from the Irish Sea on one side
0:22:19 > 0:22:22and the Welsh on the other, if you went from Chester,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25you could follow the Roman road network straight to York.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30Once you have Vikings who are ruling in York and in Dublin,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Chester would be a natural meeting point for shipping,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35and I think that makes it really strategic.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41Chester soon became rich on the Irish Sea trade
0:22:41 > 0:22:45and to protect it, an Irish source says that Aethelflaed settled
0:22:45 > 0:22:49a Viking army as a colony in the North of the Wirral.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Aethelflaed, at that period,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55donates land to them so that they might settle.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Whilst one might be tempted to think that could be a little bit fanciful,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01it could actually be a good strategic move.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06If we remember that the foundations of Viking Normandy was Vikings being
0:23:06 > 0:23:10given land on the Seine estuary to defend against other Vikings,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14maybe Aethelflaed had a similar idea in mind when she gave Vikings
0:23:14 > 0:23:19strategic land at the entrance of the River Dee and Mersey.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26The River Dee is over there and over that way is the Mersey.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29In the 10th century, people's connections would have
0:23:29 > 0:23:31been from here in the Wirral,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34across the Mersey to their kin in what was south west Lancashire
0:23:34 > 0:23:38and the other side of Merseyside, but much more so with Ireland.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41That's where they had come from in 902,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44this is where they'd settled from, so their family connections
0:23:44 > 0:23:48must have clearly been across the water in Ireland.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53This is very characteristic of the Viking period - a disc headed pin.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Probably 9th or 10th century in date, and still sharp!
0:23:56 > 0:23:59- Cor, I can't believe that. - After 1,100 years!
0:24:03 > 0:24:06The Vikings, having settled on the Wirral, get a bit impatient
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and they get greedy for power. They can see that Chester is
0:24:09 > 0:24:11developing into quite an important port.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13And they then besiege the town.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22We've got accounts of how the people in the town
0:24:22 > 0:24:26defended their settlement very vigorously, throwing beer
0:24:26 > 0:24:30and beehives over the wall at the attacking Vikings.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32And eventually Chester is preserved
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and the Vikings are put back into their settlement on the Wirral.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:24:49 > 0:24:54And then in 909 she sends an expedition across Viking territory
0:24:54 > 0:24:58to rescue the bones of the great Northumbrian saint, Oswald.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:25:11 > 0:25:16Bringing his heavenly power to her newly restored city of Gloucester.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22We're in the centre of Anglo-Saxon Gloucester here, this is the
0:25:22 > 0:25:26meeting place of the streets as you can see - south, east, north, west.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31That's the Roman pattern, these main streets go down to the Roman gates.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40But what Aethelflaed does, once she has restored the walls,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44is create the pattern of streets that go off,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48settling burgesses who will provide the garrison,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52but also civic life, markets and all that sort of stuff.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55And little churches all along.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Michael, Martin, Mary, Cuneburg - good old Anglo-Saxon female saint
0:25:59 > 0:26:03down by that gate - and that way, St John's.
0:26:06 > 0:26:07It's a political act.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12They are re-founding Gloucester, restoring this,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17what was in fact a ruined Roman town, with tumbledown walls
0:26:17 > 0:26:21and very little inside it except ruined buildings.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23The main street plan is Roman,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27but the pattern of streets is just like Winchester, I think.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31It's an exact match, or at least the eastern half of the street pattern
0:26:31 > 0:26:35is an exact match for Winchester and other towns
0:26:35 > 0:26:41which Alfred, of course, restored and relayed and created.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45And it's partly military and partly commercial.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Here, she built a church where the bones of St Oswald
0:26:57 > 0:26:59were placed in a gilded shrine,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03where she planned she and her husband would be buried.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08These fragments of sculpture, once brightly painted,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11came to light in Carolyn's excavations.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23Well, we would've seen a great wall there with an arch in the middle,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26and a vivid wall painting above it,
0:27:26 > 0:27:32with we don't know, certainly with an angle included.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37You would go through the archway, up to a high altar
0:27:37 > 0:27:41where the relics of St Oswald might have been.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Further still, there was another building,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47which was sunk into the ground - it's a crypt.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54We can be certain there were pillars holding it up in the middle.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58It's very like the Royal Mausoleum at Repton.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12It's interesting, isn't it, that it's so small compared with
0:28:12 > 0:28:17the great Carolingian churches, which were contemporaries.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21It could have been enormous, it could have been very ostentatious.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23And they built it small.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28Maybe this is...maybe it was the shrine that was important,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30and the relics that were important.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35And the size and the ostentation were not important.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Humility was a very important virtue to her.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42- Well, perhaps! - I like that, I like that.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55But the constant in her life was war.
0:28:56 > 0:29:02In 910, Mercia suffered a massive and devastating attack by a huge
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Viking army from Northumbria and the Danelaw.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Over midsummer they cut a swathe through the heart of Mercia,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15ravaging all the way to the Bristol Avon.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19And then they turned up the Severn Valley to make their way home.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Our key source for what followed is a 10th century chronicle
0:29:27 > 0:29:29by one of the royal family.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34But the only manuscript was destroyed by fire in 1731.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38Every so often, you find a little word, a little piece of text.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44This is just one small fragment of one medieval manuscript
0:29:44 > 0:29:47which was damaged by the fire in 1731.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Someday somebody will come along and actually find which place
0:29:53 > 0:29:54and which text it is.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57- So we've not given up? - Never give up hope, Michael!
0:29:59 > 0:30:04As so often in Anglo-Saxon history, a key source has been lost.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08But now with the benefit of new scientific techniques,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11the experts are restoring the fragments.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15And among them, now just a handful of blackened folios,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18is the Chronicle of Ealdorman Aethelweard.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23There is a microfilm but of course it's a microfilm of a black
0:30:23 > 0:30:29manuscript and therefore in itself the microfilm is also illegible.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34We're therefore indebted to an Elizabethan antiquarian,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39Henry Seville, who in 1596 did this wonderful printed edition.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42It's an absolutely fabulous book, isn't it? Gorgeous.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47And the Great War of 910 is described with wonderful
0:30:47 > 0:30:48circumstantial detail.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51"They went across the river Severn into the western
0:30:51 > 0:30:54"district along the Welsh border.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57"They devastated and took huge plunder.
0:30:57 > 0:31:04"And on their way home, rejoicing in their enormous spoils,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08"they were still in the process of crossing the river Severn
0:31:08 > 0:31:10"at Quatbridge," he says here.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14"Then they were intercepted at this place called Wednesfield."
0:31:17 > 0:31:19"In Vuodnesfelda campo."
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Which today is right in the middle of the most industrialised district
0:31:24 > 0:31:27of the West Midlands, next to Wolverhampton.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40The Vikings were caught in line of march.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44Aethelweard says the Mercians intercepted them at Wednesfield,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48where the Viking vanguard hastily formed a battle line,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51waiting for the rest of their army to catch up.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And there, says Aethelweard, the Mercians,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01with their West Saxon allies, launched their attack,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04and they overwhelmed them in a storm of spears.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Hard to imagine, I know, but the road here,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16running along the canal between Wolverhampton and Wednesfield,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19is what the Anglo-Saxons called the "ealde street" -
0:32:19 > 0:32:22the old highway - which went from the Severn Valley
0:32:22 > 0:32:25at Bridgnorth into Danish territory in the East Midlands.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30That's why the battle was fought here, in the field of Woden -
0:32:30 > 0:32:33a fitting place for a Viking apocalypse.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39The fighting ended at Tettenhall near Wolverhampton,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41which gave its name to the battle.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53Thousands of them were killed, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57Among the dead, two kings and ten major leaders including the seer,
0:32:57 > 0:32:59or the soothsayer,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03one imagines the Viking equivalent of the army chaplain.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07"All of them hastened to the hall of hell,"
0:33:07 > 0:33:10says Athelweard in his Chronicle.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14And the date is interesting. It was the 5th August,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18the feast day of St Oswald whose bones Aethelflaed had brought
0:33:18 > 0:33:21out of the Danelaw only the previous year.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25So she and her generals had tracked the invaders,
0:33:25 > 0:33:27and then intercepted them,
0:33:27 > 0:33:32and attacked them on the ground and the date of their own choosing.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43For Aethelflaed herself the glow of victory was tempered -
0:33:43 > 0:33:49her husband of 25 years was dying - suffering from long term illness,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52or perhaps from wounds,
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Earl Ethelred has been short changed by history.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00For as the Mercian Chronicle says,
0:34:00 > 0:34:05he was a man of great virtue who had performed many noble deeds.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11The Chronicle records the death of her husband,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14the Lord of the Mercians, in 911.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Aethelred there the "Myrcna hlaford," the Lord of the Mercians.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23And almost immediately afterwards the Chronicle calls her
0:34:23 > 0:34:28the Lady of the Mercians - Aethelflaed, "Myrcna hlaefdige."
0:34:36 > 0:34:41I think her position is analogous to some Carolingian queens,
0:34:41 > 0:34:47when the king was absent, at war or on pilgrimage.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55She ran the comitatus, the following, the court.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00And when Aethelflaed's husband died, all this was amplified,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04and the political relationship that held the Mercian Kingdom together
0:35:04 > 0:35:09was between her as a lord, a female lord -
0:35:09 > 0:35:14they had to invent, in a way, a new word for this. Lady.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16'Myrcna hlaefdige.'
0:35:16 > 0:35:20That relationship between her and the leading men of the kingdom
0:35:20 > 0:35:27was what enabled the Mercian kingdom to continue and succeed.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32So backed by her earls and thegns -
0:35:32 > 0:35:36her friends as she liked to call them - she was now partner
0:35:36 > 0:35:40in the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons with her younger brother Edward.
0:35:43 > 0:35:49Edward the Elder is a good medieval ruler, a good early medieval ruler.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54He's an effective early medieval ruler,
0:35:54 > 0:35:59he adapts to circumstances and is ruthless where it counts.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06Edward experienced a gritty childhood, a gritty youth.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13He's experienced the difficulties of his father's reign against
0:36:13 > 0:36:19the Vikings, we can imagine him as being dragged along on campaigns.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23He's given experience of leadership in the 890s.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30Edward brooks no nonsense, and when his cousin Aethelwold,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34who had a very, very good claim to the throne after
0:36:34 > 0:36:38the death of Alfred, rebelled, Edward responded quickly -
0:36:38 > 0:36:41he basically hunts him down.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52That's not to say that Edward wasn't a pious ruler in conventional terms.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56I mean, he founds the New Minster in Winchester.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05This enormous church was a sort of grand statement of
0:37:05 > 0:37:09a new dynastic chapter opening up in English kingship.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21Edward was a far more complex man than history gives him credit for.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24He made law, corresponded with foreign churches,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28and he kept up his father's contact with Rome.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Our sources describe large numbers of English crossing the Alps,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39risking attacks by brigands and by Saracens,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43for the sake of prayer at the shrine of St Peter in Rome.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Some of them, indeed, to end their days here.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53The hostels of the Saxon quarter,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58still remembered on Roman street signs, can seldom have been busier.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04The oldest part of the complex comes from the time of Pope Gregory II
0:38:04 > 0:38:10when the king of Wessex, Ina, founded the Schola Saxonum.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Destroyed by fire and restored by Pope Leo IV, who is the Pope
0:38:14 > 0:38:18who received Alfred as a little boy. How about that!
0:38:21 > 0:38:25Edward sent an Embassy here, headed by his Mercian archbishop,
0:38:25 > 0:38:30Plegmund, who had helped King Alfred in his translation programme.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37They took gifts and perhaps brought back manuscripts like this
0:38:37 > 0:38:42book of psalms later owned by Edward's son Aethelstan.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46THUNDER CRACKS
0:38:53 > 0:38:58The embassy sent by Edward the Elder in 908 came, we're told, bearing
0:38:58 > 0:39:03large sums of money, elemosina, as a gift from the people of England.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07So even in the most difficult times of Edward's
0:39:07 > 0:39:11and Aethelflaed's fledgling kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons,
0:39:11 > 0:39:17the English tenaciously and loyally hung on to that link with Rome,
0:39:17 > 0:39:21which they felt to an extent defined them.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Together, brother and sister now began a joint
0:39:46 > 0:39:49offensive against the Vikings of the Danelaw.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54One of the bequests, if you like, of Aethelflaed
0:39:54 > 0:40:00is her really very active campaigning founding one borough after another.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02And if you plot these out on a map,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06you can see how her and Edward really cooperated, if you like, to defend
0:40:06 > 0:40:12the interests of Mercia and Wessex, and also to strengthen border zones,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16to bring areas of strategic significance under their sway.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And so they made a really powerful alliance.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21You can really see them working together.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26Taking a leaf out of Alfred's book,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29the key to her warfare was fortress building.
0:40:31 > 0:40:37Some were restored Roman towns, some reused Iron Age hill forts.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39And others were built on new sites.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:41:21 > 0:41:24And it was Tamworth, the old residence of King Offa,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27that meant most to the Mercians.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33It was a great rectangle of ditches and earthen ramparts
0:41:33 > 0:41:37with a wooden palisade, centring on the church
0:41:37 > 0:41:40and with the royal palace, the royal hall, next door to it.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45In fact, the main Mercian street is still the high street today.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49We're just on the very edge of Mercian territory.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54You go across those hills there and you enter the Danelaw.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59Aethelflaed, when she came here with her army the summer of 913,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03was bringing the war right up into Danish territory.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05But even more than that,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08it was a great symbolic moment for the Mercians.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13As the Chronicle says, she came here with all the Mercians,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17meaning all the earls and thegns of the Mercian kingdom.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20And she did it with God's help, God's blessing.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25We are forgotten, we're seen as a bit of a small market town.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27But we know it was an important place
0:42:27 > 0:42:30as a political administrative centre right in the heart of Mercia,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33so we know it was really an important place.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35In Aethelflaed's day,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38they'd not forgotten the glorious past of Mercia.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41Absolutely no, not at all.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45And here in Mercia, royal women had played that role before.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48King Offa's queen, Cynethryth,
0:42:48 > 0:42:51is the only Anglo-Saxon queen shown on coins.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Do you ever imagine what Aethelflaed might have been like?
0:42:56 > 0:42:58I do, actually.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01I have this vision of her as being this really strong, warrior woman.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04And we know obviously that women in Anglo-Saxon society were
0:43:04 > 0:43:08peace-weavers, and I think that she had kind of earned her role.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11- She knew how to negotiate. - It's interesting, isn't it,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14that quite a lot of her achievements were by negotiation rather
0:43:14 > 0:43:17than by war, although she was still prepared to lead the army.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Absolutely. And she obviously could command the army,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22and they were happy for her to lead them.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26So I think that's a very unique position for a woman to be in.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Leadership in this period really had to be personal
0:43:47 > 0:43:51because they were going to spend a lot of face-time with their people.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54There wasn't a massive administration that was running things.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57A figurehead who would walk in and shake hands at the right time,
0:43:57 > 0:44:01you know, she really had to be very active in making negotiations,
0:44:01 > 0:44:03planning campaigns,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06and being there at the site where things were happening.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Year by year, Aethelflaed's Chronicle faithfully records the
0:44:13 > 0:44:16dozen boroughs she rebuilt or founded.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:44:33 > 0:44:38Step by step, consolidating Mercian power along the Mersey,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41on borders of Wales and the Danelaw.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44To some of her older subjects it must have felt like not
0:44:44 > 0:44:49so much a building programme, but the rebirth of a kingdom.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54It's amazing how the patterns can
0:44:54 > 0:44:57have been imposed so long ago, isn't it?
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Oh, yes indeed. I mean, we're entering Oxford now through pretty
0:45:00 > 0:45:04much exactly the same route that the Anglo-Saxons would have entered it.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08How this extraordinary tower, which is both a church tower
0:45:08 > 0:45:11and also part of the defensive structure,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and it might even have served as a sort of watchtower -
0:45:14 > 0:45:17looking to the north, which is the most vulnerable part of the city.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19It's just fabulous, isn't it?
0:45:19 > 0:45:22So the main northern ditch of the town running on this side?
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Yup, it would originally just have been an earthen rampart,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29laced with timbers. And then to reinforce that,
0:45:29 > 0:45:32because inevitably as the timbers rot it would have started to
0:45:32 > 0:45:35push out, they faced it with stone.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38So for the first time really since the Roman period
0:45:38 > 0:45:41you would have had a stone walled city.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46These were such huge infrastructure projects, and you can't imagine
0:45:46 > 0:45:50one person being there all the time in each of these.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54But on the other hand, there must be a degree of personal oversight.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59In a situation where there are no means of mass media or
0:45:59 > 0:46:01communication otherwise, she must have, to some extent,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05exerted personal control, personal involvement
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and it's really just an extraordinary achievement
0:46:07 > 0:46:10to be almost everywhere at once.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Like her father, Alfred, she was also a patron of learning.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Educated in his court, she was literate and cultured.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28And Mercia was a centre of scholarship - the key figures
0:46:28 > 0:46:32in Alfred's translation programme had been Mercians.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42And one Mercian manuscript perhaps even offers us a way into her mind.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50It gives us an entrance to a characteristic aspect of their
0:46:50 > 0:46:55psychology, which is the tension between worldliness and piety.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03Written by the West Saxon saint, Aldhelm, 7th century saint,
0:47:03 > 0:47:09very famous writer, and it's about virginity and chastity.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:47:13 > 0:47:17'She is to be praised who rejects worldly pleasures
0:47:17 > 0:47:21'and represses the carnal desires, for they are worthless.'
0:47:23 > 0:47:26In the best of all possible worlds, Aldhelm says,
0:47:26 > 0:47:31chastity is the best armour against the wiles of the devil.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Maybe there's a thread here.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Aethelflaed's father, Alfred, according to his biographer,
0:47:39 > 0:47:43had given himself up to the pleasures of the flesh when
0:47:43 > 0:47:47he was a young man and then felt very guilty about it afterwards.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51And thought that the terrible affliction he had,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54the bodily affliction that he suffered from all his life,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58was punishment, and in the end, renounced sex altogether.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Now Aethelflaed's his eldest child, his beloved first daughter
0:48:03 > 0:48:08and after the birth of her first child, her daughter Aelfwyn,
0:48:08 > 0:48:10such a difficult birth according to a later story,
0:48:10 > 0:48:15that she too renounced sex as a religious vow.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Could there be a thread there?
0:48:17 > 0:48:22For all their great achievements as leaders in war and peace,
0:48:22 > 0:48:28both of them were battle winners, maybe this intense inwardness
0:48:28 > 0:48:33and self-reflection, and anxiety about the body, was an ever present.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39But the other ever present was still war.
0:48:39 > 0:48:44In 917, brother and sister continued their campaign against the Danelaw.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48And Aethelflaed attacked the Danish base at Derby.
0:48:52 > 0:48:53SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:49:13 > 0:49:16The Mercian army's broken into the town
0:49:16 > 0:49:18and there's fierce fighting going on.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21And then the Chronicle says, there right inside the gates,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25four of the thegns who were most dear to her were killed.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34In the oldest Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry, one of the big themes is
0:49:34 > 0:49:39the bond between the lord and his warriors - it's a reciprocal bond.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42The lord is generous with land and treasure and hospitality
0:49:42 > 0:49:46and affection, friendship, as they said.
0:49:46 > 0:49:51And in return, the thegns give their service, their unswerving loyalty,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54even laying down their lives for their lord.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58And here in the battle for Derby, Aethelflaed's thegns
0:49:58 > 0:50:01lay down their lives for their Lady.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10The news of her triumphs spread like wildfire.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15Early in 918, the Danish army in Leicester submitted
0:50:15 > 0:50:18without fighting and chose her as their Lord.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26And then from their capital in York, the Northumbrians
0:50:26 > 0:50:31sent pledges that they too would bow to the Lady of Mercians.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37In north Britain, her reputation now far surpassed her brother.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43To the Irish, she was the most renowned queen of the Saxons.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48I think that charisma that she had
0:50:48 > 0:50:50did cross political boundaries as well.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52There's a record of the year 918
0:50:52 > 0:50:56that the men of York were willing to submit to her authority.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02Which is quite amazing really that so often in the writings,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05the Vikings of Northumbria are portrayed as the inveterate
0:51:05 > 0:51:09pagans and plunderers, and yet this woman was perhaps able to
0:51:09 > 0:51:12offer perhaps a more peaceful solution.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16And when new Viking invaders from Ireland occupied the
0:51:16 > 0:51:21Tyne valley, she sent ambassadors to the Scots to form
0:51:21 > 0:51:25a northern alliance for mutual help and defence.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32In 918, the Vikings were defeated at Corbridge on Hadrian's Wall.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37And a later Irish source even claims she was there in person.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41"Othere, Earl of the Vikings," it says, "fled into a dense wood
0:51:41 > 0:51:48"and the queen ordered the wood cut down and all the pagans killed.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51"And her fame spread everywhere."
0:51:58 > 0:52:01I always get the impression that she felt that she had to do this
0:52:01 > 0:52:04lest she be perceived as a weak leader.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06She had to make sure she made these shows of strength,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10but at the same time, she was a very able communicator,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and used that skill to her advantage too.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20But then in June 918, at the height of her power...
0:52:20 > 0:52:23SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:52:47 > 0:52:51She was in her late 40s. Of her tomb, nothing survives
0:52:51 > 0:52:56save perhaps a broken coffin lid and one tiny fragment of gold.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02With Aethelflaed dead,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06Edward hurried to Tamworth to bring Mercia under his power, only
0:53:06 > 0:53:11to find that the Mercians had chosen a new Lady - her daughter Aelfwyn.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13It's the only time in British history that a daughter
0:53:13 > 0:53:15succeeded her mother.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22The Mercian assembly accepted her daughter in the absence of a son.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27I think that may have been because they saw a daughter,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30who I also think was likely then to have been married,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33but perhaps to another Mercian.
0:53:33 > 0:53:40It was a way of maintaining over time Mercian independence.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44And it had a chance of succeeding.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53Her daughter takes over,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57and there is a real sense of independence from Wessex.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05This is resolved by Edward marching up to Tamworth and imprisoning her.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12Presumably put into a nunnery, but we can't be sure about that,
0:54:12 > 0:54:16but judging by the way royal families worked in that period,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18that's the most likely outcome.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20Yes, they were very ruthless and unsentimental
0:54:20 > 0:54:23about royal women and royal daughters, weren't they?
0:54:23 > 0:54:25The West Saxons especially.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34The elimination of nieces and nephews was not new.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40That was another feature of early medieval dynastic politics,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44which was played out yet again in 918.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Yet Aelfwyn's fate was rather like that of Charlemagne's nephews -
0:54:52 > 0:54:56that's to say, we know nothing about it,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01but we have horrible suspicions which may be justified.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24Aethelflaed, her chronicle said,
0:55:24 > 0:55:29had been a person of extraordinary ability and intelligence who
0:55:29 > 0:55:34steered the kingdom strongly justly and calmly.
0:55:37 > 0:55:44I think Aethelflaed can indeed be imagined as having the diplomatic
0:55:44 > 0:55:47and international role of a king.
0:55:47 > 0:55:52Certain people had an interest in editing her out
0:55:52 > 0:55:56and this is always in this period true of women, I think.
0:55:56 > 0:56:01Their activities and achievements have been underestimated.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Aethelflaed managed to salvage something by commissioning
0:56:05 > 0:56:09her own history, as her father had commissioned his,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12but also by having such a remarkably high profile.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17When Aethelflaed dies,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20both she and Edward are at the height of their power.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24In the later years of Edward's reign, his power actually
0:56:24 > 0:56:27starts to decline and I think that's almost because he doesn't have his
0:56:27 > 0:56:31powerful sister, Aethelflaed, still active in Mercia on his behalf.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39And that brings us to the last entry in the Chronicle of Aethelflaed.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH
0:56:44 > 0:56:49"For when Edward died, the Mercians chose as his successor
0:56:49 > 0:56:54"Aethelflaed's foster son, Athelstan, the son she never had."
0:56:57 > 0:57:01And not just as their lord, but their king.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08Athelstan was King Edward's first-born, though by a concubine.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12And as a boy, he'd been sent to Mercia to be brought up by his aunt.
0:57:16 > 0:57:17But when he was five,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20his grandfather King Alfred had invested him
0:57:20 > 0:57:24with a Saxon sword, belt and cloak,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27so it was said, in omen of a kingdom.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36These investiture ceremonies are really
0:57:36 > 0:57:38the beginnings of medieval knighthood.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43They took place round the age of 14, the transition from being a boy
0:57:43 > 0:57:45to being a young man, a warrior, a knight -
0:57:45 > 0:57:49the word is actually Anglo-Saxon.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Now Alfred the Great couldn't wait that long - he was dying -
0:57:53 > 0:57:56so he gives his blessing to his only grandson.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00In the world of early medieval royal families,
0:58:00 > 0:58:06such a gesture could have meant nothing, but rather like Alfred's
0:58:06 > 0:58:10own investiture by Pope Leo, aged five, in Rome,
0:58:10 > 0:58:16for Athelstan himself, the ceremony carried the mark of destiny.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23Next, how Aethelflaed's foster son
0:58:23 > 0:58:26became the first king of all England.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd