Æthelflæd: Lady of the Mercians

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt Lewis kicks off Gone Medieval’s special series of podcasts about Medieval Queens with a look at Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians who ruled Mercia in the Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith, and played a pivotal role in defending Mercia against Viking invasions and expanding its territory.

In this episode, Matt is joined by prize-winning writer and historian Annie Whitehead, to find out more about this extraordinary woman who ruled independently in a male-dominated era, and helped lay the foundation for a unified England.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a fan of the podcast, I've got some exciting news for you. We're publishing a book.
0:04.7	If you've ever wondered, who was the third man on the moon? Why was a pigeon a hero in the
0:09.6	American army? And wasn't Napoleon really all that small? Then the history hit
0:14.0	Marcelini will have the answer. It's available for pre-order now and will be published on
0:18.5	the 28th of September. Pre-order from your favourite bookshop or visit historyhit.com forward slash
0:24.6	book. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. For our special series this month
0:35.9	on Medieval Queenship, there was one person who really jumped into my mind. We know that the Medieval
0:41.8	English were repulsed by the idea of female rule, right? That's why this lady really stands
0:47.7	out amongst an impressive crowd. She was an Anglo-Saxon queen, regnant in the Kingdom of Mercia.
0:54.3	And I'm delighted to be joined by author and historian Annie Whitehead, who's written amongst other
0:58.6	things, Mercia, The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom. So who better to speak to about the incredible
1:04.0	Ethel fled Lady of the Mercians? Welcome to Gone Medieval Annie. Thank you. It's lovely to be here.
1:09.1	It's great to have you on. I can't wait to get stuck into learning more about Ethel fled.
1:13.4	I was born and grew up in the Kingdom of Mercia. So I have always been aware of Ethel fled,
1:17.2	but maybe don't know her as well as I would like to, so keen to learn more. I'm always happy to talk
1:22.3	about her. To start us off with then, what do we know about Ethel fled's early years? Who are
1:29.2	her parents and when is she born? We actually know very little about her early years. We do know
1:35.4	that she was the eldest of the siblings amongst her family. Her parents were Alfred the great
1:41.1	of whom everybody's heard and his wife, Elswith, who was in fact a Mercian and we're told that she
1:47.9	was the daughter of a very high-ranking Mercian nobleman. We don't know when she was born. We might
1:55.2	assume that she was born in Winchester, which was the capital of her father's kingdom. And it's
2:01.3	usually supposed that she was born around 869, 870 because we perhaps tend to work backwards
	...

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