Category: Chapter Seven

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Trying to tell the story of AEthelflaed is like trying to study gravity. We know her indirectly, by the impressions she left and the political shifts that happen around her. We can see the impact she left both on her lands, and in the devotion of her subjects.

And so in many respects, we know AEthelflaed through the shadow she left in her wake. And the size and strength of these political and military feats seem to far outstrip the picture of AEthelflaed that is painted in the Chronicle – particularly the picture painted in the copy made in Wessex during the reign of her brother Edward… which essentially paints no picture at all.

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For the last several years, the Anglo Saxons had been on a true war footing. AEthelflaed and Edward had been showing skill and audacity in the field, and it had paid dividends. Under their leadership, the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of the south had been taking the fight to the Danish controlled lands and were seizing massive portions of key territories.

But the Northmen weren’t about to take this assault on their newly won lands lying down. Scandinavian fleets from across the sea, as well as large armies surging from the Five Boroughs and Northumbria, were mustering to challenge the Anglo Saxon gains in the south.

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There’s an entry from the Irish Fragmentary annals that caught my attention. It talks about the defeat of Hroald and Ohter at the hands of AEthelflaed… and it specifically gives credit to AEthelflaed for this battle, and then goes on to say that following that victory her fame spread in all directions.

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Wessex and Mercia have had a busy decade. Both kingdoms militarized their borders, fought off invasion forces, and even took the offensive and marched into neighboring kingdoms. And even though the Chronicle is mysteriously tight lipped on all of these fights, it’s clear that way more than just construction work was going on at all of the burhs.

There were battles being waged. Battles that largely went unrecorded for some reason… but battles nonetheless. We know this because other sources from that time tell us that real blood, sweat, and tears were going into the acquisition and defense of these border shires.

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AEthelflaed, Lady of Mercia, and her brother, King Edward, had been bringing the fight to the Danes… they had been stretching their borders into Danish controlled lands and they haven’t just been on the offense… they’ve been winning. When an army was raised out of Leicester in 913 for the express purpose of countering the Mercian advance, AEthelflaed and the Fyrd of Mercia defeated them. And they did so, even though Leicester was fighting alongside their Northampton allies.

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O potent elfleda! Maid, men’s terror!
You did conquer nature’s self; worthy
The name of man! More beauteous nature’s form of
A woman; but your valour shall secure
Man’s higher name. For name you only need
Not sex to change: unconquerable queen,
King rather, who such trophies have obtained!
O virgin and virago both farewell!
No caesar yet such triumphs hath deserved
As you, than any, all, the Caesar’s more renowned!

That’s a translation of a Latin praise poem for AEthelflaed. It was included in the writings of the 12th century scribe, Henry of Huntingdon.

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The Battle of Tettenhall, as we discussed last episode, remains a mystery to us. We aren’t certain of the circumstances that started the battle, exactly where the battle took place, nor which Anglo Saxon leaders actually fought in it. But one thing scholars agree upon is that Mercia and Wessex won a resounding victory – and that this victory meant that the Danes were in for more war.

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There is so much that the Chronicle hides from us after the death of Alfred. Edward’s apple seems to have fallen fairly far from the tree, because the record his court produces during his reign is spare even by Anglo Saxon standards. But even with all of its contradictory statements and black holes, the Chronicle couldn’t hide the fact that a storm was coming.

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