Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie and this is Episode 270.

War in the Five Burrows.

This show is ad-free due to member support and is a way of thanking members for keeping

the show independent.

I offer members only content including extra episodes and rough transcripts.

You can get instant access to all the members extras by signing up for membership at the

British History Podcast.com for about the price of a lot tape or month and thank you very

much to Andrea, Henry and Gregory for signing up already.

There's an entry in the Irish fragmentary annals that caught my attention.

It talks about the defeat of hold and otter at the hands of Atholflad and it specifically

gives credit to Atholflad for this battle and then goes on to say that following that victory,

her fame spread in all directions.

It's nice to have some further confirmation that Atholflad wasn't just a noble, she

was also a war leader.

And considering that people were singing praise poems about her for centuries later, I suspect

that the annals were right and that her fame did spread in all directions.

But the part of the entry that really stood out to me was what followed it.

Quote, Atholflad, through her own cleverness, made peace with the men of Alba and with

the Britons, so that whenever the same race should come to attack her, they would rise

to help her.

If it were against them that they came, she would take arms with them.

...