Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 272, the

end of the age of Atholflad. This show is ad-free due to member support and as a way

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Trying to tell the story of Atholflad is a bit like trying to study gravity. We know

we're indirectly by the impressions that she left and the political shifts that happened around

her. We can see the impact that she left both on our lands and in the devotion of her subjects.

And so in many respects, we know Atholflad through her shadow. And the size and strength of this

shadow and the military feats that we get glimpses of seem to far outstrip the picture of Atholflad

that's painted in the Chronicle. Especially the picture that's painted in the copy made in

Wessex during the reign of her brother, Edward, which essentially paints no picture at all.

But the fact that we're able to do this, the fact that we know the name Atholflad today

and we know her to have been a power in her own right even though the kingdom or her father

seems to have tried to downplay her rule. Tells me that she was truly a heavyweight. And for the

last few years, she'd been getting stronger. But despite her influence, we can't escape the fact

that much of what she's been doing is likely left out of the record. And so instead, we have to

study her through the impact that she left. And one of the places that she left some of the biggest

impacts was at Chester. And it's through studying the story of Chester that we can get one of the

clearest pictures of Atholflad and her power and skill as a ruler. It was at Chester where we saw

the Irish sources referring to Atholflad as Queen of the Anglo-Saxons. And it was there where her

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