Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 263, Apple

Flag and England. This show is ad-free due to members of work and as a way of thanking

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a secret Santa that the second year running has bought gift memberships for several

members of the BHP community who are in need. I'm really lucky to be part of a wonderful

and generous community like this, so thank you to all the people who make efforts big and

small to make the world a better place. You're amazing. And speaking of amazing people,

you can meet some of them at 2pm this Sunday at the Georgian on Berra High Street in London.

And you really should come if you can. I can't tell you how fantastic the BHP community

is. Everyone's just lovely. Okay, so when we left off last episode, war had come to

Mercia. Ingemond and his Scandinavian allies abandoned their peace treaty and were seeking

to expand their borders. But according to the Irish annals, it wasn't Athel Red Lord

of Mercia who was organizing the defenses. It was Athelflad, queen of the Saxons.

Now, as we discussed in the last couple episodes, we're in a period where our accounts diverge

and many of the Anglo-Saxon accounts pretty much erase Athelflad and instead devote

most of their attention to her little brother, King Edward. But that's not the case for

the Irish and Welsh sources. Nor is it the case for the Mercian Register and thus for

those surviving copies of the Chronicle which draw from the Mercian Register. And while

the Mercian Register being Mercian might have caused to hype Mercian leaders, you have

to really wonder why they would focus on Athelflad rather than Athelred. That is, unless

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