King alfred the great of england daughter

Here we look at the career of the determined ruler of Mercia, Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, who battled Vikings, built forts and founded towns.

This piece is part of a series on women leaders, alongside The Empress Matilda and Margaret of Anjou.

What does the name Athelflaed mean?

Her Old English name means &#;Noble Beauty&#;. It is sometimes also written as Aethelflaeda, Ethelflada or Ethelfled.

Her name and fame had faded into obscurity, but in recent years, she has been rediscovered by historians such as Tim Clarkson and popular culture.

Athelflaed now has her own Ladybird book, featured in TV historian Janina Ramirez’s children’s adventure story ‘Way of the Waves’ and has enjoyed a dramatic re-imagining in the ‘Last Kingdom’ TV series, played by Millie Brady. She has also been featured in creative local Place Branding for the Tamworth area.

Aetheflaed&#;s England

Our story is set roughly 1, years ago. The Anglo-Saxons are now Christians, building fine churc

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Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians

The eldest child of the King Alfred of Wessex, Æthelflæd was thought to have been a strong, independent and well educated lady. During her early years, Æthelflæd witnessed her father take back large swathes of England from the Vikings (Danes), starting with the famous battle of Edington in Wiltshire, a key turning point in the Anglo-Saxon campaign against the Vikings.

As Æthelflæd reached her teens, her father had begun to push the Vikings out of south eastern England and began to reclaim territory for both his own kingdom of Wessex and his nordlig ally of Mercia.

Mercia itself had not been a proper, independent kingdom for many years. The eastern part of its territory had long been in direkt control of the Danish Vikings, with the remaining western part of the kingdom being effectively a puppet of the Vikings. However, when Æthelred (not to be confused with Lady Æthelflæd, whom this article is about!) became ruler of western Mercia in , he de

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Æthelflæd

This article is about the Lady of the Mercians. For other people called Æthelflæd, see Æthelflæd (name).

Ruler of Mercia in England from to

Æthelflæd (c.&#; – 12 June ) ruled as Lady of the Mercians in the English Midlands from until her death in She was the eldest child of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith.

Æthelflæd was born around at the height of the Viking invasions of England. By , most of England was under Danish Viking rule – East Anglia and Northumbria having been conquered, and Mercia partitioned between the English and the Vikings – but in that year Alfred won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington. Soon afterwards the English-controlled western half of Mercia came under the rule of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, who accepted Alfred's overlordship. Alfred adopted the title King of the Anglo-Saxons (previously he was titled King of the West Saxons like his predecessors) claiming to rule all Anglo-S