Æthelfæd 'Warrior Lady of the Englisc Mercians"

Aethelflaed : "Lady of the Mercians"
AD 872 – AD 918

Æthelfæda daughter of Alfred The Great, King of Wessex, "The Warrior  Lady of the Mercian Englisc.

There seems to have been only one woman, or well known woman in our  recorded history who held executive power in England, during the period  we are looking at, eg the Anglo-Danish Wars, and her name was Æthelflæd,  daughter of Alfred the Great king of Wessex and sister of Edward the  Elder.

Not since Budica, had a woman fought on the field of battle like  Æthelflæd, "Lady of the Mercian Englisc". As King Alfred the Great's  eldest daughter she was brought up in a time of war, and turbulent years  for both her father and her folk, her people, the Englisc. Her father  had to fight to preserve the very future and destiny and identity of  England.

Æthelflæd was born c. AD 872, and although her father and mother  intended her to enter a Nunnery, she was far to interested in Military  Operations and tactics used against the Danes, not for her the  conventional retreat for young princesses – nunnery. Instead if she had  to enter the service of her God, then she would enter the service of her  country and her folk, and since her father dotted on her as he did with  all his children, he didn't force her to enter a life of Christian  faith, so she grew up in the life of Politics, and Military tactics.

And so along with her brother Edward the Elder she was destined to play a  vital role in defence of England her country, and the Englisc her folk  against increasing Danish incursions into Englands last free Englisc  Kingdom and beyond, Mercia and Wessex, or perhaps I should say Englisc  Mercia, since Northern Mercia by that time was already within the  Danelaw. She was eight years of age at the time of her father's great  victory over the Danes at Eddington, and by adult hood, she had grown as  strong in body as she was in her mind. As soon as she was of  marriage-able age around 15 years of age she was joined in matrimony to  Ethelred Alderman of Mercia, to whom Alfred had entrusted the defence of  London in 886 AD. It is said that while she and her escort were  travelling to Mercia, they were attacked by a large warband of Danes,  perhaps in an attempt to sabotage the alliance between the two houses.  It is said, since there is not much evidence for such an attack, and  perhaps it is safe to say, that Ethelred would have gone to Wessex for  the Marriage? Anyway, it is said that, though half of her escort was  killed in the first attack, Æthelflæd made use of an old ditch or trench  as a defence against the further Danish attacks, and subsequently  defeated the Danes in her first Battle. Of course this may be an action  after her husband has passed during her campaigns against the Danes, we  can not say for sure.

On her husbands death not long after his battle with the Danes at  Tettenhall, being heaverly wounded and dying of his wounds, or may be  before his death, she found her self elevated to the status of "Lady of  the Mercians" and she, and as was expected she did more than live up to  her new Status in the Eyes of not only the Mercian Englisc, but of all  the Englisc folk. Her sex did not detract from her authority, and the  loyalty of her military household was beyond question.

The records of her campaigns are sketchy and not complete, some speak of  Danish forces surrendering to her, after a hard struggle, she strove to  re-conquer the Mercian lands that had been taken during conquest of  Ivar the Boneless, or Ingvar the Boneless, but she campaigned beyond  Mercian Lands, she took Derby, but not without a hard struggle, in which  it is recorded the streets of that town ran with much blood. In AD 916  she even campaigned in Wales, when the Welsh raided into Mercian Englisc  lands and murdered an Englisc Abbot, she launched a lightning campaign  worthy of any Commander into Welsh lands, killing many and capturing the  wife of the king of Brycheniniog along with thirty three others who  were known to be family of the said king, gaining Welsh submission and  peace.

But her real fame rests on the campaigns she and her brother Edward  launched to drive the Danes out of England, or at least to gain their  submission and confine them to a well defined and restricted area. The  fortresses which she and her brother Edward built between AD 910 and AD  916 drew a firm offensive line against the Danes, and ensured the  frontier and protected vulnerable areas. In the begining of AD 917 a  great offensive was launched between the two of them Æthelflæd and  Edward, which changed the nature of the struggle. With defences secure a  war of attrition began. By the end of AD 917 England as far North as  Welland had been recovered.

Though Æthelflæd's role was subordinate to her brother's, it was  crucial, in AD 918 she gained control of the town of Leicester and in  the same year her power was farther increased by the formal promise of  allegiance from the leading men of the province dependent on York. But  before Æthelflæd had a chance to exploit this offer of annexing southern  Northumbria she died at Tamworth on June 12 AD 918 aged around 48 years  of age.

On her death Edward occupied Tamworth and the whole of Englisc Mercia  submitted to him. For six months Æthelflæd's daughter Ælfwynn was  allowed to hold some nominal position but in December of AD 918 she was  deprived of all authority among the Englisc Mercians and carried off to  Wessex. Mercia became a mere province of Edward's Kingdom. It was scant  reward for his sister's work, but perhaps it was the logical result of  Alfred's plans to unite all the Englisc in one Nation State. Æthelflæd  was a worthy successor to her Father's mantle. In her lifetime she had  made possible the reconquest of the Danish Midlands. She was a strong  and formidable Military commander and tactician, worthy of her father  and brother, even worthy of many commanders we may speak of today,  Æthelflæd ruled the Mercian Englisc for eight years. By her death she  had paved the way for the unification of England under Wessex.

Rightly the Mercian Englisc seem to have had a reverence for Æthelflæd,  which being the woman she was, and the strength and leadership she gave  to her people, the Mercian Englisc is not surprising, I'm sure we should  have the same reverence for her, and we should since she did her shear  to bring into being what her father began, and that was the birth of one  Nation, and one Englisc Nation State, under one King.

After Æthelflæd's death the rule of Mercia was passed onto her daughter  Ælfwynn Born c.(AD 920). When she joined her illustrious mother as "Lady  of the Mercians" in AD 918 at her Mother's passing, she succeeded to  the throne for awhile before Ælfwynn was conducted, it seems as a  captive of her uncle Edward and sent to a Monestery in Wessex, while her  uncle Edward the "Elder" continued his campaign against the Danes.
After the abduction of her daughter, we do not hear anything more of the  Warrior "Ladie of the Mercians" Æthelfæd: our Noble Beauty, Warrior  Princess and diplomat Æthelflæd again, or at least, perhaps, not as much  as either her Father, Alfred the Great, or her Brother Edward The  Elder, but I hope in some small way, I have rectified that wrong, and  put Æthelflæd back where she belongs at the top along side her Father,  Brother and her nephew Æthelstan.

And personally as a proud Engliscman, I would have followed Æthelflæd to  hell and back, since she was more than a Woman, she was a true Warrior  Englisc Woman and worthy of an Engliscman's loyalty and love.

Harold Godwinsson.

I have continued my research on Æthelflæd, and I have added it to this  new Blog of mine. But this isn't just for us Proud Engliscmen, but also,  and perhaps most of all, for the Englisc Ladies on this site to show  them what perhaps they can achieve for Englisc Womanhood in England's  present struggle for survival and Identity.