Aethelflaed, Queen of the Mercians: Brutal Leader or Peace-Seeker?

As the oldest daughter of Alfred the Great, it could be said that Aethelflaed was born into greatness. Contemporary chroniclers and English historians generally agree that she fulfilled this potential. Sharing power with her husband, Aethelred, Lord of Mercia, and ruling independently after his death, Aethelflaed commanded wide respect across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Written documents from the time presented her as, primarily, a canny negotiator and seeker of peace. Using alternative evidence, some historians have concluded that she was a brutal and aggressive military force. Why this divergence exists is worth considering, as is the question of which perspective, if either, is more accurate to the reality of Aethelflaed’s reign.

Sometime around 870 CE, Alfred the Great was blessed with his first child, Aethelflaed. At the time, England was suffering the most aggressive Viking campaigns to have ever occurred. Fifty years of raids and offensives from the Danes had culminated in the descent of the “Great Heathen Army” into England in 865 CE. The army found great success against the various Saxon forces, first conquering York, then slowly but steadily the rest of the North and East of England. Among the defeated English were the Mercian forces.

Aethelflaed was exposed to a great deal of political fluctuation in her early life. Alfred ascended the throne in 871 CE in a fractured and weakened Anglo-Saxon landscape. The kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and parts of Mercia were all under the control of the Vikings. His dominion, the kingdom of Wessex, was the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, but even this land found itself under constant attack.

One particularly damaging offensive from the Danes in Chippenham in 876 CE forced Alfred into hiding, and he spent the next couple of years rallying troops and lords loyal to Wessex. Then in 878 CE, Alfred led an army to victory at Edington and pushed through to Chippenham, defeating a Viking army led by warlord Guthrum. The Viking was baptized and a set of treaties were signed defining the boundaries of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking kingdoms. Despite this success, the following decade would continue to be marred by conflict between the two groups.

Amidst this political strife, Alfred was consolidating his power by building a family, in other words producing a number of suitable heirs for the future. Around four years after the birth of Aethelflaed, Alfred’s wife Ealhswith gave birth to their second child and first son. He would succeed Alfred as king of the English after his father’s death as Edward the Elder.

Whilst every English king first and foremost sought sons who could stabilize the succession, daughters could prove extremely useful political tools through the process of marriage. Such was the fate of Aethelflaed, who was married to Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians, in the mid-880s CE.

That Alfred’s oldest daughter was married to a Mercian lord is indicative of the importance of the Wessex-Mercian alliance in this volatile period. Mercia encompassed a huge swath of land and had been the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom throughout much of the 7th and 8th centuries. The battle of Ellendun in 825 CE reconfigured this dynamic and the kingdom ceded power to Wessex. But the two became an important, united front against the Vikings in the coming decades.

Historians know little about the origins of Aethelred, but it is believed that he was promoted to the title of Lord of the Mercians rather than succeeding through family lineage. He was a vital ally of Alfred. He forced the Welsh kingdoms of Gwent and Glyswising to submit to Alfred as a leader through his “might and tyrannical behavior” according to Alfred’s biographer Asser. At the time of their marriage, there was a considerable chasm in age between the seasoned leader Aethelred and the teenage Aethelflaed. Nevertheless, they soon made a formidable team against the Vikings in the north.

As leaders during a time of great volatility, the key strategy and priority of Aethelred and Aethelflaed was to consolidate the boundaries of their territory against Danish invasion. Into 900 CE, the most surefire way to achieve this was through the spread and strengthening of Christianity within their domain. In contrast to much of the political machinations of the Middle English period, this strategy was often recorded in written sources. Consequently, we are offered insight into the importance of Aethelflaed in this political initiative.

One charter from the 890s CE decreed the creation of a church in Worcester and was issued jointly by Aethelred and Aethelflaed. The Mercian queen was recorded as the official witness for similar charters created in 888, 889, and 896 CE. This was an uncommon responsibility for a woman. The 901 CE charter depicted above recounts Aethelred and Aethelflaed bequeathing land and a golden chalice to the shrine of St Mildburg in a church in the west of Mercia.

But whatever power Aethelflaed may have wielded in the late 9th century, it was in the coming decades that she would accumulate influence unlike any other woman of her era. Aethelred’s health declined around 901 CE, leaving Aethelflaed to reign increasingly independently.

The primary defensive tactic taken against the Viking forces in Mercia was fortifying and strengthening the land. This was achieved through the “burh” system. Burhs were fortified settlements, developed as a connected network intended to block Viking offensives and act as administrative centers.

In the 9th century, Aethelred and Aethelflaed had already begun the process of establishing and strengthening burhs throughout Mercia, such as in the fortification of Worcester and the founding of the Priory of St Oswald in 889 CE. Yet it was after the turn of the century when Awthelflaed undertook this task with new vigor. The Mercian Register, a set of annals concerned with Mercian affairs recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tells us that new fortresses were constructed at Scergeat, Bremesbyrg. and Bridgnorth in the early 900s CE.

Some of these burhs have little surviving record, but there are clues that Aethelflaed was the driving force behind the new fortifications in Mercia. One burh in Chester, established in the late 900s CE, had a tower built on the city walls named “Bonewaldesthorne” after one of Aethelflaed’s most beloved knights. The fort in Bremesbyrig was attributed to Aethelflaed in the Mercian Register. Crucially, Aethelred is not mentioned.

But the best evidence for Aethelflaed’s leadership in this period is that she maintained power following her husband’s death in 911 CE. Soon after being widowed, Aethelflaed began appearing in documents independently, referred to as the “Lady of the Mercians.”

Looking at it now, Aethelflaed seems the obvious successor to Aethelred. He left no close male relatives and was not part of a larger Mercian royal dynasty. Maintaining a strong alliance between Wessex and Mercia was vital to the health of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and Aethelflaed was the sister of the newly appointed Edward of Wessex as well as the daughter of a Mercian lady.

Yet, as a woman, her accumulation of power was nonetheless deeply unusual in the Middle English context. Widowed women of high status typically entered into an abbey, or were even killed, as their newfound independence was seen as threatening. That Aethelflaed was accepted as the leader of Mercia, seemingly with little opposition, is demonstrative of the great respect she had earned before Aethelred’s death.

Importantly, chronicles often presented her as an intelligent leader who sought peace through negotiation. The Irish Chronicle wrote that Aethelflaed’s “fame spread in all directions” due to her “own cleverness.” It also praised her success in “making peace with the people of Alba and the Britons.” This was arguably in line with normative constructions of gender in the period. The Old English freothwebbe translates to “peace-weaver” and was often used to refer to the wives of leaders of opposing tribes who would negotiate peace between them. The focus in much of the contemporary literature on Aethelflaed’s canniness, rather than aggression or military might, appears designed to fit her into this mold.

The idea of Aethelflaed as a peaceful leader who chose compromise over violence seems partially accurate. One of her first actions as an independent leader of Mercia was to surrender all the land spanning from London to Oxford to her brother Edward. This savvy decision showed deference to the new king of Wessex but also freed up the Mercian forces from the responsibility of defending that land so they could prioritize the defense of the midlands.

Another well-recorded example of Aethelflaed’s political canniness came soon before her death. After capturing Derby in 917 CE, she entered negotiations with the powerful Vikings of York, led by the pagan Ragnall. In promising to be rid of this unpopular king, the Vikings agreed to submit to her overlordship, a major political coup.

More generally, contemporary chronicles and records tended to focus on Aethelflaed’s accomplishments as a defensive, rather than aggressive, leader. This was clear in her successes in establishing defensive burhs. Yet Aethelflaed’s abilities as a tactician have also been noted by historians through her promotion of a strong political identity in Mercia. Historian Nick Higham has argued that Aethelflaed played an important role in encouraging a separate and distinct political identity by establishing cults of Mercian saints in newly conquered regions. When Aethelflaed reinforced the important burh of Tamworth to use as a protective base, she also ensured the rebuilding of churches destroyed by the Danes, which she brandished with her own image. In a study of a collection of wills and charters, Julia Crick surmised that Aethelflaed was the only woman of her time to grant, rather than “gift,” estates to political allies.

Whilst these achievements were no doubt impressive, they obscure the degree to which Aethelflaed was also a courageous, and sometimes brutal, leader. Aethelflaed’s prioritization of the burh system was also part of a strategic offensive strategy. She led a series of attacks on the Vikings in the 900s CE along the borders of Mercia in a movement to expand Anglo-Saxon territory. She fortified new land and established bases in locations such as Stafford and Warwick as she went along.

As she became a more independent leader, Aethelflaed became increasingly aggressive in her campaigns. Following a Viking attack on Mercia in the late 900s CE, Aethelflaed and Edward retaliated in a bloody battle. In 909 CE, an army led by the siblings launched a five-week campaign against the Vikings in Northumbria. When the Vikings sought retaliation and raided towns as far south as Avon, the joint Mercia and Wessex forces, led by Aethelflaed, annihilated the forces and killed three Viking Kings: Ingwaer, Eowils, and Halfdan.

One of Aethelflaed’s boldest offensives came in the seizing of Scargeat. According to the Mercian Register, the land was in very close proximity to a Viking stronghold. A Danish army quickly responded and was brutally repelled in 913 CE.

The Mercian Register recounts how in 916 CE an army overseen by Aethelflaed was sent to “punish” the king of Brycheiniog for the murder of a beloved abbot named Egbert. The idea of “revenge” or anger as a motivation for aggressive action appears quite out of step with the “peace-weaver” image sometimes associated with Aethelflaed.

The Mercian leader became even more aggressive in the coming years, striking the “Five Boroughs” (the five most powerful towns in Viking territory) in 917 CE. The year before she died, the Danes in York also acquiesced to her power.

Aethelflaed died at the height of her political power in 918 CE in Tamworth, and was carried over seventy miles to be buried with her husband in St Oswald’s Minster in Gloucester. Being laid to rest  next to the king-turned-Saint Oswald reflects the great respect and honor felt for Aethelflaed upon her death. The Irish Annal recording her death declared her the famosissima regina Saxonum, “renowned Saxon queen.”

Without opposition, Aethelflaed’s daughter Aelfwynn was appointed Queen of the Mercians. Wary of the power of the kingdom as established by his sister, Edward marched north and deposed his niece soon after her accession. It is unknown to historians what happened to Aelfwynn thereafter, but it is most likely that she took the conventional path of Anglo-Saxon women of great power, and entered holy orders.

Aelfwynn’s fate only goes to underscore the exceptional circumstances of her mother’s life. To this day historians have struggled to find another Anglo-Saxon queen who held so much influence or played such a pivotal political role. Even the importance has sometimes been contested. Whilst the Mercian Register and Irish Annals help us to understand Aethelflaed’s importance within Anglo-Saxon history, West-Saxon records made a concerted effort to attribute her successes to Edward, and rarely mention the queen as anything other than a wife or sister. It seems that even supporters struggled with the oxymoron of Aethelflaed, peace-maker and brutal fighter. The Mercian Register constantly switched between referring to her as “Queen,” “Lady,” and “Lord” in their records. One thing can be sure, whatever her title, Aethelflaed certainly earned her place in the annals.