1 00:00:08,620 --> 00:00:10,500 In the mid winter of 877, 2 00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:13,340 the existence of England hung on a thread. 3 00:00:13,340 --> 00:00:16,180 The Vikings had triumphed everywhere. 4 00:00:18,980 --> 00:00:23,540 The last surviving Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred, fought a desperate 5 00:00:23,540 --> 00:00:26,380 guerrilla war in swamps of Somerset. 6 00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:32,500 But here, in his darkest hour, he had a dream - 7 00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:38,700 St Cuthbert made a prophecy to him that from this place, 8 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:44,580 his descendants would become kings of all England and lords of Britain. 9 00:00:44,580 --> 00:00:47,980 Alfred took the dream as a mark of destiny. 10 00:00:55,860 --> 00:00:58,300 Alfred beat back the Vikings. 11 00:00:58,300 --> 00:01:00,300 But at the end of his life, 12 00:01:00,300 --> 00:01:04,380 his people still lived in a land torn by war. 13 00:01:04,380 --> 00:01:07,660 At this point in the story it is by no means certain that 14 00:01:07,660 --> 00:01:11,100 Alfred's kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons will survive. 15 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:14,500 Let alone that one England will emerge. 16 00:01:14,500 --> 00:01:19,060 Now Alfred's children continue the family plan, and one of them is 17 00:01:19,060 --> 00:01:23,700 described by a medieval chronicler as "a person of extraordinary 18 00:01:23,700 --> 00:01:27,860 "ability and mental toughness", the planner of one of the most 19 00:01:27,860 --> 00:01:31,260 brilliant military campaigns in the whole of the Dark Ages. 20 00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:35,500 And she's a woman. 21 00:01:35,500 --> 00:01:38,860 It's one of the great, untold stories of British history - 22 00:01:38,860 --> 00:01:41,740 Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians. 23 00:02:39,740 --> 00:02:41,860 This is a family story. 24 00:02:41,860 --> 00:02:44,780 Three generations of the most remarkable, 25 00:02:44,780 --> 00:02:47,820 the most gifted family in our history. 26 00:02:49,820 --> 00:02:51,820 And to pick up the tale, 27 00:02:51,820 --> 00:02:54,820 we need to go back to the last months of Alfred's life. 28 00:02:56,660 --> 00:03:00,820 Here in British Library is a crucial clue to how Alfred hoped to 29 00:03:00,820 --> 00:03:04,780 shape events after his death. 30 00:03:04,780 --> 00:03:11,220 We have been digitizing a lot of our medieval manuscripts in full 31 00:03:11,220 --> 00:03:13,020 and putting them up online. 32 00:03:15,620 --> 00:03:19,140 It's a fantastic idea, isn't it, 33 00:03:19,140 --> 00:03:22,500 that wherever we are in the world, we can click on this. 34 00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:25,460 'We're looking for Alfred's last will.' 35 00:03:25,460 --> 00:03:32,900 Here it is, the Liber Vitae from the New Minster in Winchester. 36 00:03:32,900 --> 00:03:39,180 In this book, we've got a copy the will of King Alfred. 37 00:03:39,180 --> 00:03:43,420 The will starts on 29 verso. That's right. Yes, here we go. 38 00:03:44,500 --> 00:03:49,140 And we can zoom in. 39 00:03:49,140 --> 00:03:51,060 Tremendous! 40 00:03:51,060 --> 00:03:53,780 And here's Alfred's name at the beginning of the will, and 41 00:03:53,780 --> 00:04:00,060 you can really see the individual pen strokes of the scribe. 42 00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:04,700 Alfred Wesseaxona cyng, mid godes gif. 43 00:04:04,700 --> 00:04:08,660 That's absolutely amazing, isn't it, you can see every crinkle! 44 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:11,060 Every stroke of the pen almost! 45 00:04:11,060 --> 00:04:13,820 'And clues here to a bitter family rift.' 46 00:04:14,940 --> 00:04:19,860 And he speaks like we do in wills today. Yeah, absolutely. 47 00:04:19,860 --> 00:04:25,500 So he's disposing the royal property to his chief children - 48 00:04:25,500 --> 00:04:28,340 the sons, Edward and Athelweard get most, 49 00:04:28,340 --> 00:04:29,940 Edward, the future king. 50 00:04:29,940 --> 00:04:33,540 His daughter Aethelflaed who is already married and gone, 51 00:04:33,540 --> 00:04:38,020 so her dowry's been paid, if you like, if we can put it that way. 52 00:04:38,020 --> 00:04:42,020 And "Aethelwold mines brothor suna." 53 00:04:42,020 --> 00:04:43,820 This is his brother's son, 54 00:04:43,820 --> 00:04:47,140 whose dad of course had been king before Alfred. 55 00:04:47,140 --> 00:04:50,260 So he gets Godalming. Yep. 56 00:04:50,260 --> 00:04:56,060 I think this is the first mention of the name of the town Godalming. 57 00:04:56,060 --> 00:05:00,020 And Guildford, and Staining! 58 00:05:00,020 --> 00:05:03,460 That's all he gets, Edward gets about 18 estates. Yeah. 59 00:05:03,460 --> 00:05:06,860 So he might have come out of this meeting where the will was read out 60 00:05:06,860 --> 00:05:09,820 feeling a little aggrieved. Yes. Brilliant. 61 00:05:09,820 --> 00:05:13,060 'So Alfred had cut his nephew from the line of succession 62 00:05:13,060 --> 00:05:16,420 'in favour of his children by his wife Ealhswith.' 63 00:05:16,420 --> 00:05:19,300 And here's Ealhswith, this is his wife, isn't it? 64 00:05:19,300 --> 00:05:22,540 The farm, the estate at Lambourne, 65 00:05:22,540 --> 00:05:25,620 and Wantage, which is where Alfred was born, isn't it? 66 00:05:27,380 --> 00:05:31,140 And Edington where he won his greatest battle. Yep. 67 00:05:31,140 --> 00:05:35,620 It's really quite an interesting psychological document. 68 00:05:35,620 --> 00:05:40,900 He gives these properties that are very important to him and associated 69 00:05:40,900 --> 00:05:45,100 with key events in his life to his wife, which is a very nice touch. 70 00:05:45,100 --> 00:05:47,180 Sentimental? Do you think? 71 00:05:47,180 --> 00:05:49,740 Don't know, you could read it like that, I think. 72 00:05:49,740 --> 00:05:52,900 Well, there's a little touch of that in his character. 73 00:05:52,900 --> 00:05:56,860 He's really trying to nail down the succession, isn't he? 74 00:05:56,860 --> 00:06:04,140 He absolutely is, and particularly for his own family, his own sons. 75 00:06:04,140 --> 00:06:09,460 He wants to make very, very clear what's going to happen, 76 00:06:09,460 --> 00:06:12,420 because there were rival claimants to the throne. 77 00:06:15,580 --> 00:06:17,300 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 78 00:06:43,540 --> 00:06:50,180 With early medieval royal families genealogy conferred legitimacy, 79 00:06:50,180 --> 00:06:56,820 and the West Saxon royal dynasty had a pedigree second to none. 80 00:06:56,820 --> 00:06:59,180 Just look at this. 81 00:06:59,180 --> 00:07:01,020 The wheel of fortune. 82 00:07:01,020 --> 00:07:05,100 This is a later medieval royal genealogical roll, 83 00:07:05,100 --> 00:07:10,660 20 feet of it and more. And in a brilliant piece of graphic design, 84 00:07:10,660 --> 00:07:14,180 it shows you the family tree of the Anglo-Saxon kings. 85 00:07:14,180 --> 00:07:19,140 Here's Aethelwulf, Alfred's father and underneath him, 86 00:07:19,140 --> 00:07:25,300 the four brothers who successively became kings of the West Saxons. 87 00:07:25,300 --> 00:07:28,860 Alfred's the youngest, the last of those kings. 88 00:07:28,860 --> 00:07:33,900 But if you follow the green line down, you can see 89 00:07:33,900 --> 00:07:39,260 how Alfred outflanked the descendants of his older brothers, 90 00:07:39,260 --> 00:07:42,500 and established his own branch of the dynasty, 91 00:07:42,500 --> 00:07:47,300 from which, incidentally, our own queen today is distantly descended. 92 00:07:47,300 --> 00:07:54,300 But the son of King Ethelred, the atheling, Prince Aethelwold, the 93 00:07:54,300 --> 00:08:00,180 man who got Godalming in Alfred's will, is cut out completely. 94 00:08:00,180 --> 00:08:05,020 And in the early middle ages, in the Viking Age, 95 00:08:05,020 --> 00:08:09,380 hell had no fury like an atheling scorned. 96 00:08:12,700 --> 00:08:17,620 And a renegade prince could always find an army to back his cause. 97 00:08:19,060 --> 00:08:21,660 Half of England was under the Danelaw - 98 00:08:21,660 --> 00:08:24,420 ruled by Vikings settled in Alfred's day. 99 00:08:24,420 --> 00:08:27,340 And as soon as Alfred's son Edward took the throne, 100 00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:29,860 his embittered cousin made his move. 101 00:08:33,380 --> 00:08:35,820 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 102 00:09:12,940 --> 00:09:16,060 For the new king, Edward, it was a deadly threat - 103 00:09:16,060 --> 00:09:18,420 Wessex couldn't have two kings. 104 00:09:18,420 --> 00:09:21,260 And to see what happened we have to go back to Cambridge 105 00:09:21,260 --> 00:09:24,540 to the source we have followed through this tale - 106 00:09:24,540 --> 00:09:27,820 the original manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 107 00:09:29,940 --> 00:09:31,980 It's a contemporary narrative now. 108 00:09:31,980 --> 00:09:35,020 It's being written as these events are going on. 109 00:09:35,020 --> 00:09:38,900 Alfred the Great has died in October 899, aged about 50. 110 00:09:40,700 --> 00:09:45,300 Edward is crowned Pentecost, Whitsunday 900. 111 00:09:45,300 --> 00:09:48,620 And no sooner was Alfred dead and Edward crowned 112 00:09:48,620 --> 00:09:51,740 than hungry athelings began to prowl. 113 00:09:51,740 --> 00:09:54,580 Chief among them, Aethelwold. 114 00:09:54,580 --> 00:09:56,460 Here he is in the Chronicle. 115 00:10:00,540 --> 00:10:03,180 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 116 00:10:11,220 --> 00:10:15,220 These were shattering events for the royal family, the redoubtable 117 00:10:15,220 --> 00:10:20,020 Queen Mother, Eadgifu, 60 years later looked back on this time 118 00:10:20,020 --> 00:10:24,740 when she was a little girl, and her father, Sieghelm, the Earl of Kent, 119 00:10:24,740 --> 00:10:30,580 had gone to the war in East Anglia, paying off his debts before he went. 120 00:10:30,580 --> 00:10:37,860 The denouement of the campaign took place on December 13th, 902, 121 00:10:37,860 --> 00:10:42,140 between the Northern Fens and the Devil's Dyke. 122 00:10:46,220 --> 00:10:49,980 With his Viking allies, Prince Aethelwold had struck down all the 123 00:10:49,980 --> 00:10:53,420 way into Wiltshire, plundering and burning. 124 00:10:53,420 --> 00:10:57,900 Then Edward retaliated by attacking Danish territory in East Anglia, 125 00:10:57,900 --> 00:10:59,900 ravaging the countryside. 126 00:11:06,100 --> 00:11:09,900 Between the River Ouse at Huntington and all the way to the fens 127 00:11:09,900 --> 00:11:13,980 in the north around Peterborough, they just burned the land. 128 00:11:13,980 --> 00:11:18,340 Vastatio, depopulatio, they called it. 129 00:11:18,340 --> 00:11:22,700 As far as these massive dykes here in Cambridgeshire, 130 00:11:22,700 --> 00:11:25,940 built in the 7th century to defend the kingdom of the East Angles, 131 00:11:25,940 --> 00:11:28,620 and still a huge obstacle. 132 00:11:28,620 --> 00:11:33,580 Imagine columns of smoke across the horizon, 133 00:11:33,580 --> 00:11:38,620 and somewhere beyond, the Viking army and Danish army 134 00:11:38,620 --> 00:11:42,860 led by Prince Aethelwold and the Danish King Eohric. 135 00:11:47,020 --> 00:11:49,580 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 136 00:11:59,460 --> 00:12:02,500 The Chronicle says the place was called the Holme. 137 00:12:07,100 --> 00:12:11,500 In Anglo-Saxon times, this was the end of the dry land - 138 00:12:11,500 --> 00:12:15,060 from this point, the deep fens stretched across to 139 00:12:15,060 --> 00:12:17,740 Whittlesea Mere and all the way to the Wash. 140 00:12:17,740 --> 00:12:20,700 And somewhere close to where we are standing, 141 00:12:20,700 --> 00:12:23,500 the battle was fought in December 902. 142 00:12:34,780 --> 00:12:38,140 The Bloodbath at the Holme was remembered for generations. 143 00:12:40,380 --> 00:12:43,660 According the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Edward had issued 144 00:12:43,660 --> 00:12:48,980 an order for a general withdrawal for all the units of his army. 145 00:12:48,980 --> 00:12:52,380 But the Kentish detachment who were the vanguard 146 00:12:52,380 --> 00:12:56,780 and the furthest north, refused to obey orders and stayed where 147 00:12:56,780 --> 00:13:00,140 they were, even though the king sent them seven messengers. 148 00:13:01,940 --> 00:13:05,420 They were caught by the Danish army under Prince Aethelwold. 149 00:13:07,420 --> 00:13:11,300 The Kentish nobility were wiped out in the battle. 150 00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:13,820 All their senior men were killed. 151 00:13:13,820 --> 00:13:16,060 But even though the Danes won the battle, 152 00:13:16,060 --> 00:13:18,700 it was their losses that were the most significant. 153 00:13:18,700 --> 00:13:22,260 Their king, Eohric, was killed, several of his big leaders, 154 00:13:22,260 --> 00:13:25,460 a Mercian prince who was fighting on their side, 155 00:13:25,460 --> 00:13:29,340 and most important of all for King Edward, Prince Aethelwold 156 00:13:29,340 --> 00:13:32,060 himself died in the fighting. 157 00:13:32,060 --> 00:13:36,780 The key threat to King Edward as king in Wessex had been removed. 158 00:13:55,940 --> 00:13:59,100 So King Edward had won, but at great cost. 159 00:14:03,460 --> 00:14:05,940 He was still forced to make peace. 160 00:14:05,940 --> 00:14:08,660 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle doesn't admit that, 161 00:14:08,660 --> 00:14:10,740 but battered by his losses, 162 00:14:10,740 --> 00:14:13,380 the king was "compelled by necessity." 163 00:14:17,300 --> 00:14:20,900 He met the leaders of the Danes, not up in the Midlands or the North, 164 00:14:20,900 --> 00:14:23,660 but in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. 165 00:14:26,780 --> 00:14:30,660 The place was on the ancient route from Mercia into Danelaw - 166 00:14:30,660 --> 00:14:32,580 called Ytingaforda. 167 00:14:36,580 --> 00:14:41,300 Here at the ford where the old track crossed the River Ouzel, 168 00:14:41,300 --> 00:14:44,860 they parleyed and Edward gave them silver 169 00:14:44,860 --> 00:14:47,300 and treasure to buy peace. 170 00:14:51,380 --> 00:14:54,220 And above all, to buy time. 171 00:15:11,420 --> 00:15:15,620 "We are living through an age of iron," wrote one churchman. 172 00:15:17,780 --> 00:15:22,860 A succession of savage winters with thick snow and extreme cold 173 00:15:22,860 --> 00:15:25,260 brought famine and misery. 174 00:15:28,380 --> 00:15:32,340 To pay for his army, Edward had to squeeze every last penny 175 00:15:32,340 --> 00:15:34,980 from his starving people. 176 00:15:34,980 --> 00:15:38,100 From Surrey, one tenant wrote to the king... 177 00:15:39,500 --> 00:15:41,620 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 178 00:16:15,340 --> 00:16:19,820 But sometimes in history, ages of iron can be more important 179 00:16:19,820 --> 00:16:21,980 for the future than ages of gold 180 00:16:26,220 --> 00:16:30,060 Now a new character enters the story - 181 00:16:30,060 --> 00:16:34,420 the daughter of Alfred the Great, King Edward's older sister. 182 00:16:35,580 --> 00:16:40,580 The wife of the Lord of Mercia, she was in her 30s. 183 00:16:40,580 --> 00:16:45,420 Her name in Anglo-Saxon, Aethelflaed - noble beauty. 184 00:16:47,220 --> 00:16:51,100 Here she is. And what's interesting about this is, she's still 185 00:16:51,100 --> 00:16:56,700 remembered as a woman of power and of high education and intelligence. 186 00:16:56,700 --> 00:17:00,500 Just listen to this, this is the caption underneath. 187 00:17:00,500 --> 00:17:05,700 "Aethelflaed, la plus sage de toutes femmes seculers." 188 00:17:06,940 --> 00:17:11,100 Was the most wise of all laywomen. 189 00:17:12,260 --> 00:17:17,260 And she ruled the kingdom alongside her brother 190 00:17:17,260 --> 00:17:21,420 with great wisdom and great intelligence. 191 00:17:30,540 --> 00:17:35,900 The eldest child of a king, very conscious of her position in 192 00:17:35,900 --> 00:17:43,780 the dynasty, a daughter very aware of her relationship with her father. 193 00:17:43,780 --> 00:17:49,180 And through marriage to the Mercian Prince, 194 00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:54,460 one might call him, she took what she had learnt 195 00:17:54,460 --> 00:17:59,900 at the court of her father to another court, to the Mercian court. 196 00:18:04,660 --> 00:18:09,500 And she attempted to instil a similar political culture there. 197 00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:20,820 The ancient kingdom of Mercia stretched from Severn to Trent. 198 00:18:20,820 --> 00:18:23,380 It had long been a rival of Wessex, 199 00:18:23,380 --> 00:18:26,300 but they had found common cause against the Vikings. 200 00:18:30,460 --> 00:18:33,460 They fought together, their royals intermarried. 201 00:18:36,460 --> 00:18:38,900 And Aethelflaed had roots here - 202 00:18:38,900 --> 00:18:42,100 her mother was Mercian, and so was her husband, 203 00:18:42,100 --> 00:18:46,180 whom she'd married when she was 16 and by whom she had daughter. 204 00:18:49,260 --> 00:18:51,980 In the early middle ages it was hard for any woman 205 00:18:51,980 --> 00:18:54,300 to take a leading role in events. 206 00:18:54,300 --> 00:18:58,940 But without her, England may never have happened. 207 00:19:01,140 --> 00:19:04,660 And in part, that was because in Mercia 208 00:19:04,660 --> 00:19:07,580 royal women had long had special status. 209 00:19:10,580 --> 00:19:14,940 Women were terribly important transmitters and legitimizers 210 00:19:14,940 --> 00:19:17,500 of male power throughout this period. 211 00:19:19,260 --> 00:19:22,500 Not so much in politics in the formal sense, 212 00:19:22,500 --> 00:19:27,660 because I don't think royal women were invited to devise agendas 213 00:19:27,660 --> 00:19:32,860 for assemblies - that was pretty much a male field - 214 00:19:32,860 --> 00:19:35,820 still less to ride into battle. 215 00:19:35,820 --> 00:19:40,020 But women played a terribly important role in culture, 216 00:19:40,020 --> 00:19:41,620 in the culture of the court. 217 00:19:41,620 --> 00:19:44,660 In fact, you could say that the queen was at the heart of 218 00:19:44,660 --> 00:19:47,180 that culture, alongside the king. 219 00:19:49,900 --> 00:19:54,580 Being educated at Alfred's court must have meant that she 220 00:19:54,580 --> 00:19:58,660 imbibed a kind of training for rulership. 221 00:20:00,300 --> 00:20:04,660 As far as her intellectual training was concerned, 222 00:20:04,660 --> 00:20:07,460 Alfred's biographer was rather keen to stress that it was 223 00:20:07,460 --> 00:20:10,300 the same as her brother's, as Edward's. 224 00:20:14,300 --> 00:20:17,780 Aethelflaed's lost biography is only now being be pieced 225 00:20:17,780 --> 00:20:21,140 together from clues, which are still being uncovered. 226 00:20:21,140 --> 00:20:24,580 Rescued from the accidents of time and war. 227 00:20:24,580 --> 00:20:25,860 But of course, 228 00:20:25,860 --> 00:20:28,860 the history of women as a whole has been erased everywhere. 229 00:20:28,860 --> 00:20:32,180 And perhaps Aethelflaed herself understood that. 230 00:20:32,180 --> 00:20:36,460 For someone in her circle recorded the story of her deeds 231 00:20:36,460 --> 00:20:38,380 for future generations. 232 00:20:40,820 --> 00:20:45,100 The main version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written in Winchester, 233 00:20:45,100 --> 00:20:48,700 tells the story from the point of view of King Edward - 234 00:20:48,700 --> 00:20:52,700 it completely cuts out the story of Aethelflaed, his sister. 235 00:20:53,780 --> 00:20:56,260 What you would really love to have 236 00:20:56,260 --> 00:20:59,300 would be the story from Aethelflaed's point of view, 237 00:20:59,300 --> 00:21:03,580 but astonishingly, embedded in this later manuscript, 238 00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:08,260 is a chronicle written in the Midlands, maybe originally in Latin, 239 00:21:08,260 --> 00:21:11,820 whose central character, whose hero, if you like 240 00:21:11,820 --> 00:21:14,260 is Aethelflaed, the woman. 241 00:21:14,260 --> 00:21:17,220 So following the Annals of Aethelflaed, 242 00:21:17,220 --> 00:21:21,380 we can tell the story of the next 20 years, not only from the point 243 00:21:21,380 --> 00:21:25,460 of view of the Mercians, but from the point of view of the woman. 244 00:21:27,340 --> 00:21:29,860 A short copy of the lost original, 245 00:21:29,860 --> 00:21:32,620 it's a mix of the public and the private. 246 00:21:32,620 --> 00:21:36,140 It starts right on the middle of the page, 247 00:21:36,140 --> 00:21:42,820 with the death of Aethelflaed's mother. "Her Ealhswith forferde." 248 00:21:42,820 --> 00:21:45,660 But then it moves on to her deeds - 249 00:21:45,660 --> 00:21:51,460 starting in 907 with the re-founding of the Roman city of Chester. 250 00:21:51,460 --> 00:21:57,540 907, the city of Chester was restored. 251 00:22:01,380 --> 00:22:04,140 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 252 00:22:16,860 --> 00:22:19,900 With Vikings from the Irish Sea on one side 253 00:22:19,900 --> 00:22:23,340 and the Welsh on the other, if you went from Chester, 254 00:22:23,340 --> 00:22:26,340 you could follow the Roman road network straight to York. 255 00:22:26,340 --> 00:22:30,980 Once you have Vikings who are ruling in York and in Dublin, 256 00:22:30,980 --> 00:22:33,900 Chester would be a natural meeting point for shipping, 257 00:22:33,900 --> 00:22:36,020 and I think that makes it really strategic. 258 00:22:38,380 --> 00:22:41,900 Chester soon became rich on the Irish Sea trade 259 00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:46,260 and to protect it, an Irish source says that Aethelflaed settled 260 00:22:46,260 --> 00:22:50,180 a Viking army as a colony in the North of the Wirral. 261 00:22:51,340 --> 00:22:53,140 Aethelflaed, at that period, 262 00:22:53,140 --> 00:22:56,100 donates land to them so that they might settle. 263 00:22:56,100 --> 00:22:59,740 Whilst one might be tempted to think that could be a little bit fanciful, 264 00:22:59,740 --> 00:23:02,140 it could actually be a good strategic move. 265 00:23:02,140 --> 00:23:06,420 If we remember that the foundations of Viking Normandy was Vikings being 266 00:23:06,420 --> 00:23:10,500 given land on the Seine estuary to defend against other Vikings, 267 00:23:10,500 --> 00:23:15,060 maybe Aethelflaed had a similar idea in mind when she gave Vikings 268 00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:19,740 strategic land at the entrance of the River Dee and Mersey. 269 00:23:21,540 --> 00:23:26,580 The River Dee is over there and over that way is the Mersey. 270 00:23:26,580 --> 00:23:29,860 In the 10th century, people's connections would have 271 00:23:29,860 --> 00:23:31,460 been from here in the Wirral, 272 00:23:31,460 --> 00:23:35,380 across the Mersey to their kin in what was south west Lancashire 273 00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:39,380 and the other side of Merseyside, but much more so with Ireland. 274 00:23:39,380 --> 00:23:41,900 That's where they had come from in 902, 275 00:23:41,900 --> 00:23:44,980 this is where they'd settled from, so their family connections 276 00:23:44,980 --> 00:23:48,460 must have clearly been across the water in Ireland. 277 00:23:48,460 --> 00:23:53,660 This is very characteristic of the Viking period - a disc headed pin. 278 00:23:53,660 --> 00:23:57,260 Probably 9th or 10th century in date, and still sharp! 279 00:23:57,260 --> 00:23:59,980 Cor, I can't believe that. After 1,100 years! 280 00:24:03,860 --> 00:24:07,020 The Vikings, having settled on the Wirral, get a bit impatient 281 00:24:07,020 --> 00:24:09,700 and they get greedy for power. They can see that Chester is 282 00:24:09,700 --> 00:24:12,340 developing into quite an important port. 283 00:24:12,340 --> 00:24:14,300 And they then besiege the town. 284 00:24:18,940 --> 00:24:22,780 We've got accounts of how the people in the town 285 00:24:22,780 --> 00:24:26,820 defended their settlement very vigorously, throwing beer 286 00:24:26,820 --> 00:24:30,500 and beehives over the wall at the attacking Vikings. 287 00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:33,180 And eventually Chester is preserved 288 00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:36,820 and the Vikings are put back into their settlement on the Wirral. 289 00:24:38,940 --> 00:24:42,020 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 290 00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:54,780 And then in 909 she sends an expedition across Viking territory 291 00:24:54,780 --> 00:24:59,220 to rescue the bones of the great Northumbrian saint, Oswald. 292 00:25:03,540 --> 00:25:06,700 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 293 00:25:12,180 --> 00:25:17,180 Bringing his heavenly power to her newly restored city of Gloucester. 294 00:25:18,940 --> 00:25:22,540 We're in the centre of Anglo-Saxon Gloucester here, this is the 295 00:25:22,540 --> 00:25:27,180 meeting place of the streets as you can see - south, east, north, west. 296 00:25:27,180 --> 00:25:32,100 That's the Roman pattern, these main streets go down to the Roman gates. 297 00:25:37,420 --> 00:25:40,780 But what Aethelflaed does, once she has restored the walls, 298 00:25:40,780 --> 00:25:44,460 is create the pattern of streets that go off, 299 00:25:44,460 --> 00:25:48,580 settling burgesses who will provide the garrison, 300 00:25:48,580 --> 00:25:52,700 but also civic life, markets and all that sort of stuff. 301 00:25:52,700 --> 00:25:55,540 And little churches all along. 302 00:25:55,540 --> 00:26:00,100 Michael, Martin, Mary, Cuneburg - good old Anglo-Saxon female saint 303 00:26:00,100 --> 00:26:03,940 down by that gate - and that way, St John's. 304 00:26:06,700 --> 00:26:08,300 It's a political act. 305 00:26:09,580 --> 00:26:13,020 They are re-founding Gloucester, restoring this, 306 00:26:13,020 --> 00:26:18,020 what was in fact a ruined Roman town, with tumbledown walls 307 00:26:18,020 --> 00:26:21,500 and very little inside it except ruined buildings. 308 00:26:21,500 --> 00:26:24,340 The main street plan is Roman, 309 00:26:24,340 --> 00:26:27,780 but the pattern of streets is just like Winchester, I think. 310 00:26:27,780 --> 00:26:31,500 It's an exact match, or at least the eastern half of the street pattern 311 00:26:31,500 --> 00:26:35,780 is an exact match for Winchester and other towns 312 00:26:35,780 --> 00:26:41,940 which Alfred, of course, restored and relayed and created. 313 00:26:41,940 --> 00:26:45,940 And it's partly military and partly commercial. 314 00:26:54,180 --> 00:26:57,460 Here, she built a church where the bones of St Oswald 315 00:26:57,460 --> 00:26:59,820 were placed in a gilded shrine, 316 00:26:59,820 --> 00:27:03,860 where she planned she and her husband would be buried. 317 00:27:06,220 --> 00:27:09,300 These fragments of sculpture, once brightly painted, 318 00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:12,060 came to light in Carolyn's excavations. 319 00:27:19,180 --> 00:27:23,980 Well, we would've seen a great wall there with an arch in the middle, 320 00:27:23,980 --> 00:27:27,300 and a vivid wall painting above it, 321 00:27:27,300 --> 00:27:33,340 with we don't know, certainly with an angle included. 322 00:27:33,340 --> 00:27:38,060 You would go through the archway, up to a high altar 323 00:27:38,060 --> 00:27:42,060 where the relics of St Oswald might have been. 324 00:27:42,060 --> 00:27:44,660 Further still, there was another building, 325 00:27:44,660 --> 00:27:47,860 which was sunk into the ground - it's a crypt. 326 00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:55,380 We can be certain there were pillars holding it up in the middle. 327 00:27:55,380 --> 00:27:58,540 It's very like the Royal Mausoleum at Repton. 328 00:28:08,940 --> 00:28:13,220 It's interesting, isn't it, that it's so small compared with 329 00:28:13,220 --> 00:28:18,020 the great Carolingian churches, which were contemporaries. 330 00:28:18,020 --> 00:28:21,700 It could have been enormous, it could have been very ostentatious. 331 00:28:21,700 --> 00:28:24,300 And they built it small. 332 00:28:24,300 --> 00:28:29,180 Maybe this is...maybe it was the shrine that was important, 333 00:28:29,180 --> 00:28:31,380 and the relics that were important. 334 00:28:31,380 --> 00:28:36,140 And the size and the ostentation were not important. 335 00:28:36,140 --> 00:28:39,940 Humility was a very important virtue to her. 336 00:28:39,940 --> 00:28:43,260 Well, perhaps! I like that, I like that. 337 00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:55,340 But the constant in her life was war. 338 00:28:57,380 --> 00:29:02,620 In 910, Mercia suffered a massive and devastating attack by a huge 339 00:29:02,620 --> 00:29:06,060 Viking army from Northumbria and the Danelaw. 340 00:29:07,980 --> 00:29:12,380 Over midsummer they cut a swathe through the heart of Mercia, 341 00:29:12,380 --> 00:29:16,140 ravaging all the way to the Bristol Avon. 342 00:29:16,140 --> 00:29:20,060 And then they turned up the Severn Valley to make their way home. 343 00:29:24,300 --> 00:29:27,660 Our key source for what followed is a 10th century chronicle 344 00:29:27,660 --> 00:29:29,860 by one of the royal family. 345 00:29:29,860 --> 00:29:34,900 But the only manuscript was destroyed by fire in 1731. 346 00:29:34,900 --> 00:29:38,620 Every so often, you find a little word, a little piece of text. 347 00:29:39,740 --> 00:29:44,860 This is just one small fragment of one medieval manuscript 348 00:29:44,860 --> 00:29:48,100 which was damaged by the fire in 1731. 349 00:29:50,500 --> 00:29:53,460 Someday somebody will come along and actually find which place 350 00:29:53,460 --> 00:29:55,300 and which text it is. 351 00:29:55,300 --> 00:29:57,940 So we've not given up? Never give up hope, Michael! 352 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:05,020 As so often in Anglo-Saxon history, a key source has been lost. 353 00:30:05,020 --> 00:30:08,580 But now with the benefit of new scientific techniques, 354 00:30:08,580 --> 00:30:11,740 the experts are restoring the fragments. 355 00:30:11,740 --> 00:30:15,860 And among them, now just a handful of blackened folios, 356 00:30:15,860 --> 00:30:19,140 is the Chronicle of Ealdorman Aethelweard. 357 00:30:20,980 --> 00:30:24,300 There is a microfilm but of course it's a microfilm of a black 358 00:30:24,300 --> 00:30:29,700 manuscript and therefore in itself the microfilm is also illegible. 359 00:30:31,100 --> 00:30:35,220 We're therefore indebted to an Elizabethan antiquarian, 360 00:30:35,220 --> 00:30:39,940 Henry Seville, who in 1596 did this wonderful printed edition. 361 00:30:39,940 --> 00:30:42,740 It's an absolutely fabulous book, isn't it? Gorgeous. 362 00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:47,460 And the Great War of 910 is described with wonderful 363 00:30:47,460 --> 00:30:49,140 circumstantial detail. 364 00:30:49,140 --> 00:30:52,020 "They went across the river Severn into the western 365 00:30:52,020 --> 00:30:54,700 "district along the Welsh border. 366 00:30:54,700 --> 00:30:57,540 "They devastated and took huge plunder. 367 00:30:57,540 --> 00:31:04,500 "And on their way home, rejoicing in their enormous spoils, 368 00:31:04,500 --> 00:31:08,420 "they were still in the process of crossing the river Severn 369 00:31:08,420 --> 00:31:10,940 "at Quatbridge," he says here. 370 00:31:10,940 --> 00:31:14,700 "Then they were intercepted at this place called Wednesfield." 371 00:31:17,820 --> 00:31:19,620 "In Vuodnesfelda campo." 372 00:31:20,700 --> 00:31:25,340 Which today is right in the middle of the most industrialised district 373 00:31:25,340 --> 00:31:28,060 of the West Midlands, next to Wolverhampton. 374 00:31:38,300 --> 00:31:41,420 The Vikings were caught in line of march. 375 00:31:41,420 --> 00:31:45,140 Aethelweard says the Mercians intercepted them at Wednesfield, 376 00:31:45,140 --> 00:31:48,700 where the Viking vanguard hastily formed a battle line, 377 00:31:48,700 --> 00:31:51,500 waiting for the rest of their army to catch up. 378 00:31:55,340 --> 00:31:58,060 And there, says Aethelweard, the Mercians, 379 00:31:58,060 --> 00:32:01,940 with their West Saxon allies, launched their attack, 380 00:32:01,940 --> 00:32:04,820 and they overwhelmed them in a storm of spears. 381 00:32:10,220 --> 00:32:12,740 Hard to imagine, I know, but the road here, 382 00:32:12,740 --> 00:32:16,460 running along the canal between Wolverhampton and Wednesfield, 383 00:32:16,460 --> 00:32:19,620 is what the Anglo-Saxons called the "ealde street" - 384 00:32:19,620 --> 00:32:23,020 the old highway - which went from the Severn Valley 385 00:32:23,020 --> 00:32:26,100 at Bridgnorth into Danish territory in the East Midlands. 386 00:32:26,100 --> 00:32:31,020 That's why the battle was fought here, in the field of Woden - 387 00:32:31,020 --> 00:32:34,180 a fitting place for a Viking apocalypse. 388 00:32:36,300 --> 00:32:39,580 The fighting ended at Tettenhall near Wolverhampton, 389 00:32:39,580 --> 00:32:41,980 which gave its name to the battle. 390 00:32:50,340 --> 00:32:53,740 Thousands of them were killed, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 391 00:32:53,740 --> 00:32:58,180 Among the dead, two kings and ten major leaders including the seer, 392 00:32:58,180 --> 00:33:00,340 or the soothsayer, 393 00:33:00,340 --> 00:33:03,580 one imagines the Viking equivalent of the army chaplain. 394 00:33:04,980 --> 00:33:08,020 "All of them hastened to the hall of hell," 395 00:33:08,020 --> 00:33:10,740 says Athelweard in his Chronicle. 396 00:33:10,740 --> 00:33:14,500 And the date is interesting. It was the 5th August, 397 00:33:14,500 --> 00:33:18,660 the feast day of St Oswald whose bones Aethelflaed had brought 398 00:33:18,660 --> 00:33:21,700 out of the Danelaw only the previous year. 399 00:33:21,700 --> 00:33:25,780 So she and her generals had tracked the invaders, 400 00:33:25,780 --> 00:33:27,780 and then intercepted them, 401 00:33:27,780 --> 00:33:32,580 and attacked them on the ground and the date of their own choosing. 402 00:33:39,500 --> 00:33:43,940 For Aethelflaed herself the glow of victory was tempered - 403 00:33:43,940 --> 00:33:49,780 her husband of 25 years was dying - suffering from long term illness, 404 00:33:49,780 --> 00:33:52,740 or perhaps from wounds, 405 00:33:52,740 --> 00:33:56,100 Earl Ethelred has been short changed by history. 406 00:33:58,100 --> 00:34:00,980 For as the Mercian Chronicle says, 407 00:34:00,980 --> 00:34:05,380 he was a man of great virtue who had performed many noble deeds. 408 00:34:08,420 --> 00:34:11,660 The Chronicle records the death of her husband, 409 00:34:11,660 --> 00:34:14,980 the Lord of the Mercians, in 911. 410 00:34:14,980 --> 00:34:18,980 Aethelred there the "Myrcna hlaford," the Lord of the Mercians. 411 00:34:18,980 --> 00:34:24,020 And almost immediately afterwards the Chronicle calls her 412 00:34:24,020 --> 00:34:28,700 the Lady of the Mercians - Aethelflaed, "Myrcna hlaefdige." 413 00:34:37,260 --> 00:34:42,060 I think her position is analogous to some Carolingian queens, 414 00:34:42,060 --> 00:34:48,140 when the king was absent, at war or on pilgrimage. 415 00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:55,500 She ran the comitatus, the following, the court. 416 00:34:55,500 --> 00:35:00,460 And when Aethelflaed's husband died, all this was amplified, 417 00:35:00,460 --> 00:35:05,260 and the political relationship that held the Mercian Kingdom together 418 00:35:05,260 --> 00:35:10,260 was between her as a lord, a female lord - 419 00:35:10,260 --> 00:35:15,140 they had to invent, in a way, a new word for this. Lady. 420 00:35:15,140 --> 00:35:17,100 'Myrcna hlaefdige.' 421 00:35:17,100 --> 00:35:21,300 That relationship between her and the leading men of the kingdom 422 00:35:21,300 --> 00:35:27,740 was what enabled the Mercian kingdom to continue and succeed. 423 00:35:30,020 --> 00:35:32,780 So backed by her earls and thegns - 424 00:35:32,780 --> 00:35:36,900 her friends as she liked to call them - she was now partner 425 00:35:36,900 --> 00:35:41,220 in the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons with her younger brother Edward. 426 00:35:43,940 --> 00:35:50,100 Edward the Elder is a good medieval ruler, a good early medieval ruler. 427 00:35:50,100 --> 00:35:54,460 He's an effective early medieval ruler, 428 00:35:54,460 --> 00:35:59,340 he adapts to circumstances and is ruthless where it counts. 429 00:36:01,020 --> 00:36:06,540 Edward experienced a gritty childhood, a gritty youth. 430 00:36:09,060 --> 00:36:13,460 He's experienced the difficulties of his father's reign against 431 00:36:13,460 --> 00:36:19,620 the Vikings, we can imagine him as being dragged along on campaigns. 432 00:36:19,620 --> 00:36:24,220 He's given experience of leadership in the 890s. 433 00:36:26,260 --> 00:36:31,140 Edward brooks no nonsense, and when his cousin Aethelwold, 434 00:36:31,140 --> 00:36:35,140 who had a very, very good claim to the throne after 435 00:36:35,140 --> 00:36:38,900 the death of Alfred, rebelled, Edward responded quickly - 436 00:36:38,900 --> 00:36:41,580 he basically hunts him down. 437 00:36:47,100 --> 00:36:52,940 That's not to say that Edward wasn't a pious ruler in conventional terms. 438 00:36:52,940 --> 00:36:56,540 I mean, he founds the New Minster in Winchester. 439 00:37:02,260 --> 00:37:05,940 This enormous church was a sort of grand statement of 440 00:37:05,940 --> 00:37:10,100 a new dynastic chapter opening up in English kingship. 441 00:37:17,780 --> 00:37:21,660 Edward was a far more complex man than history gives him credit for. 442 00:37:21,660 --> 00:37:25,180 He made law, corresponded with foreign churches, 443 00:37:25,180 --> 00:37:28,540 and he kept up his father's contact with Rome. 444 00:37:31,820 --> 00:37:36,180 Our sources describe large numbers of English crossing the Alps, 445 00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:39,940 risking attacks by brigands and by Saracens, 446 00:37:39,940 --> 00:37:43,540 for the sake of prayer at the shrine of St Peter in Rome. 447 00:37:45,940 --> 00:37:49,020 Some of them, indeed, to end their days here. 448 00:37:51,180 --> 00:37:53,820 The hostels of the Saxon quarter, 449 00:37:53,820 --> 00:37:58,300 still remembered on Roman street signs, can seldom have been busier. 450 00:37:59,700 --> 00:38:04,660 The oldest part of the complex comes from the time of Pope Gregory II 451 00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:10,420 when the king of Wessex, Ina, founded the Schola Saxonum. 452 00:38:10,420 --> 00:38:14,740 Destroyed by fire and restored by Pope Leo IV, who is the Pope 453 00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:18,660 who received Alfred as a little boy. How about that! 454 00:38:21,980 --> 00:38:25,900 Edward sent an Embassy here, headed by his Mercian archbishop, 455 00:38:25,900 --> 00:38:30,340 Plegmund, who had helped King Alfred in his translation programme. 456 00:38:34,260 --> 00:38:38,260 They took gifts and perhaps brought back manuscripts like this 457 00:38:38,260 --> 00:38:42,580 book of psalms later owned by Edward's son Aethelstan. 458 00:38:44,380 --> 00:38:46,940 THUNDER CRACKS 459 00:38:53,820 --> 00:38:58,860 The embassy sent by Edward the Elder in 908 came, we're told, bearing 460 00:38:58,860 --> 00:39:03,380 large sums of money, elemosina, as a gift from the people of England. 461 00:39:04,860 --> 00:39:07,780 So even in the most difficult times of Edward's 462 00:39:07,780 --> 00:39:11,740 and Aethelflaed's fledgling kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, 463 00:39:11,740 --> 00:39:17,420 the English tenaciously and loyally hung on to that link with Rome, 464 00:39:17,420 --> 00:39:21,420 which they felt to an extent defined them. 465 00:39:25,100 --> 00:39:27,780 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 466 00:39:43,780 --> 00:39:46,700 Together, brother and sister now began a joint 467 00:39:46,700 --> 00:39:49,420 offensive against the Vikings of the Danelaw. 468 00:39:51,300 --> 00:39:54,900 One of the bequests, if you like, of Aethelflaed 469 00:39:54,900 --> 00:40:00,700 is her really very active campaigning founding one borough after another. 470 00:40:00,700 --> 00:40:02,780 And if you plot these out on a map, 471 00:40:02,780 --> 00:40:07,340 you can see how her and Edward really cooperated, if you like, to defend 472 00:40:07,340 --> 00:40:13,020 the interests of Mercia and Wessex, and also to strengthen border zones, 473 00:40:13,020 --> 00:40:17,180 to bring areas of strategic significance under their sway. 474 00:40:17,180 --> 00:40:20,020 And so they made a really powerful alliance. 475 00:40:20,020 --> 00:40:22,220 You can really see them working together. 476 00:40:24,580 --> 00:40:27,300 Taking a leaf out of Alfred's book, 477 00:40:27,300 --> 00:40:30,100 the key to her warfare was fortress building. 478 00:40:32,180 --> 00:40:37,540 Some were restored Roman towns, some reused Iron Age hill forts. 479 00:40:37,540 --> 00:40:40,220 And others were built on new sites. 480 00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:45,660 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 481 00:41:21,740 --> 00:41:25,260 And it was Tamworth, the old residence of King Offa, 482 00:41:25,260 --> 00:41:27,380 that meant most to the Mercians. 483 00:41:29,620 --> 00:41:33,500 It was a great rectangle of ditches and earthen ramparts 484 00:41:33,500 --> 00:41:37,500 with a wooden palisade, centring on the church 485 00:41:37,500 --> 00:41:41,460 and with the royal palace, the royal hall, next door to it. 486 00:41:41,460 --> 00:41:45,660 In fact, the main Mercian street is still the high street today. 487 00:41:47,500 --> 00:41:50,300 We're just on the very edge of Mercian territory. 488 00:41:50,300 --> 00:41:54,500 You go across those hills there and you enter the Danelaw. 489 00:41:54,500 --> 00:41:59,740 Aethelflaed, when she came here with her army the summer of 913, 490 00:41:59,740 --> 00:42:04,260 was bringing the war right up into Danish territory. 491 00:42:04,260 --> 00:42:06,060 But even more than that, 492 00:42:06,060 --> 00:42:08,860 it was a great symbolic moment for the Mercians. 493 00:42:08,860 --> 00:42:13,500 As the Chronicle says, she came here with all the Mercians, 494 00:42:13,500 --> 00:42:17,380 meaning all the earls and thegns of the Mercian kingdom. 495 00:42:17,380 --> 00:42:21,020 And she did it with God's help, God's blessing. 496 00:42:22,740 --> 00:42:26,060 We are forgotten, we're seen as a bit of a small market town. 497 00:42:26,060 --> 00:42:27,740 But we know it was an important place 498 00:42:27,740 --> 00:42:30,940 as a political administrative centre right in the heart of Mercia, 499 00:42:30,940 --> 00:42:34,180 so we know it was really an important place. 500 00:42:34,180 --> 00:42:35,700 In Aethelflaed's day, 501 00:42:35,700 --> 00:42:38,980 they'd not forgotten the glorious past of Mercia. 502 00:42:38,980 --> 00:42:41,500 Absolutely no, not at all. 503 00:42:41,500 --> 00:42:45,460 And here in Mercia, royal women had played that role before. 504 00:42:45,460 --> 00:42:48,900 King Offa's queen, Cynethryth, 505 00:42:48,900 --> 00:42:52,100 is the only Anglo-Saxon queen shown on coins. 506 00:42:54,100 --> 00:42:57,180 Do you ever imagine what Aethelflaed might have been like? 507 00:42:57,180 --> 00:42:58,740 I do, actually. 508 00:42:58,740 --> 00:43:02,100 I have this vision of her as being this really strong, warrior woman. 509 00:43:02,100 --> 00:43:05,100 And we know obviously that women in Anglo-Saxon society were 510 00:43:05,100 --> 00:43:08,460 peace-weavers, and I think that she had kind of earned her role. 511 00:43:08,460 --> 00:43:11,460 She knew how to negotiate. It's interesting, isn't it, 512 00:43:11,460 --> 00:43:14,740 that quite a lot of her achievements were by negotiation rather 513 00:43:14,740 --> 00:43:18,380 than by war, although she was still prepared to lead the army. 514 00:43:18,380 --> 00:43:21,020 Absolutely. And she obviously could command the army, 515 00:43:21,020 --> 00:43:23,100 and they were happy for her to lead them. 516 00:43:23,100 --> 00:43:26,620 So I think that's a very unique position for a woman to be in. 517 00:43:28,740 --> 00:43:31,180 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 518 00:43:44,460 --> 00:43:48,260 Leadership in this period really had to be personal 519 00:43:48,260 --> 00:43:51,460 because they were going to spend a lot of face-time with their people. 520 00:43:51,460 --> 00:43:54,940 There wasn't a massive administration that was running things. 521 00:43:54,940 --> 00:43:57,820 A figurehead who would walk in and shake hands at the right time, 522 00:43:57,820 --> 00:44:01,820 you know, she really had to be very active in making negotiations, 523 00:44:01,820 --> 00:44:03,420 planning campaigns, 524 00:44:03,420 --> 00:44:06,500 and being there at the site where things were happening. 525 00:44:09,660 --> 00:44:13,940 Year by year, Aethelflaed's Chronicle faithfully records the 526 00:44:13,940 --> 00:44:16,940 dozen boroughs she rebuilt or founded. 527 00:44:16,940 --> 00:44:19,460 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 528 00:44:34,060 --> 00:44:38,540 Step by step, consolidating Mercian power along the Mersey, 529 00:44:38,540 --> 00:44:41,460 on borders of Wales and the Danelaw. 530 00:44:41,460 --> 00:44:44,860 To some of her older subjects it must have felt like not 531 00:44:44,860 --> 00:44:49,580 so much a building programme, but the rebirth of a kingdom. 532 00:44:52,500 --> 00:44:54,860 It's amazing how the patterns can 533 00:44:54,860 --> 00:44:57,500 have been imposed so long ago, isn't it? 534 00:44:57,500 --> 00:45:01,220 Oh, yes indeed. I mean, we're entering Oxford now through pretty 535 00:45:01,220 --> 00:45:04,940 much exactly the same route that the Anglo-Saxons would have entered it. 536 00:45:04,940 --> 00:45:09,140 How this extraordinary tower, which is both a church tower 537 00:45:09,140 --> 00:45:11,500 and also part of the defensive structure, 538 00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:14,460 and it might even have served as a sort of watchtower - 539 00:45:14,460 --> 00:45:18,060 looking to the north, which is the most vulnerable part of the city. 540 00:45:18,060 --> 00:45:19,580 It's just fabulous, isn't it? 541 00:45:19,580 --> 00:45:23,260 So the main northern ditch of the town running on this side? 542 00:45:23,260 --> 00:45:26,060 Yup, it would originally just have been an earthen rampart, 543 00:45:26,060 --> 00:45:29,700 laced with timbers. And then to reinforce that, 544 00:45:29,700 --> 00:45:32,900 because inevitably as the timbers rot it would have started to 545 00:45:32,900 --> 00:45:35,500 push out, they faced it with stone. 546 00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:38,500 So for the first time really since the Roman period 547 00:45:38,500 --> 00:45:41,500 you would have had a stone walled city. 548 00:45:43,340 --> 00:45:46,980 These were such huge infrastructure projects, and you can't imagine 549 00:45:46,980 --> 00:45:50,460 one person being there all the time in each of these. 550 00:45:50,460 --> 00:45:54,860 But on the other hand, there must be a degree of personal oversight. 551 00:45:54,860 --> 00:45:59,420 In a situation where there are no means of mass media or 552 00:45:59,420 --> 00:46:02,380 communication otherwise, she must have, to some extent, 553 00:46:02,380 --> 00:46:05,580 exerted personal control, personal involvement 554 00:46:05,580 --> 00:46:08,300 and it's really just an extraordinary achievement 555 00:46:08,300 --> 00:46:10,460 to be almost everywhere at once. 556 00:46:14,580 --> 00:46:18,220 Like her father, Alfred, she was also a patron of learning. 557 00:46:18,220 --> 00:46:22,100 Educated in his court, she was literate and cultured. 558 00:46:24,260 --> 00:46:28,860 And Mercia was a centre of scholarship - the key figures 559 00:46:28,860 --> 00:46:32,500 in Alfred's translation programme had been Mercians. 560 00:46:36,500 --> 00:46:42,420 And one Mercian manuscript perhaps even offers us a way into her mind. 561 00:46:47,060 --> 00:46:51,140 It gives us an entrance to a characteristic aspect of their 562 00:46:51,140 --> 00:46:55,620 psychology, which is the tension between worldliness and piety. 563 00:46:58,420 --> 00:47:03,900 Written by the West Saxon saint, Aldhelm, 7th century saint, 564 00:47:03,900 --> 00:47:09,620 very famous writer, and it's about virginity and chastity. 565 00:47:11,380 --> 00:47:14,180 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 566 00:47:14,180 --> 00:47:17,540 'She is to be praised who rejects worldly pleasures 567 00:47:17,540 --> 00:47:21,340 'and represses the carnal desires, for they are worthless.' 568 00:47:23,420 --> 00:47:27,060 In the best of all possible worlds, Aldhelm says, 569 00:47:27,060 --> 00:47:31,820 chastity is the best armour against the wiles of the devil. 570 00:47:34,820 --> 00:47:36,820 Maybe there's a thread here. 571 00:47:36,820 --> 00:47:40,340 Aethelflaed's father, Alfred, according to his biographer, 572 00:47:40,340 --> 00:47:44,100 had given himself up to the pleasures of the flesh when 573 00:47:44,100 --> 00:47:48,100 he was a young man and then felt very guilty about it afterwards. 574 00:47:48,100 --> 00:47:51,620 And thought that the terrible affliction he had, 575 00:47:51,620 --> 00:47:54,820 the bodily affliction that he suffered from all his life, 576 00:47:54,820 --> 00:47:58,980 was punishment, and in the end, renounced sex altogether. 577 00:47:58,980 --> 00:48:03,820 Now Aethelflaed's his eldest child, his beloved first daughter 578 00:48:03,820 --> 00:48:08,420 and after the birth of her first child, her daughter Aelfwyn, 579 00:48:08,420 --> 00:48:11,340 such a difficult birth according to a later story, 580 00:48:11,340 --> 00:48:15,580 that she too renounced sex as a religious vow. 581 00:48:15,580 --> 00:48:18,020 Could there be a thread there? 582 00:48:18,020 --> 00:48:23,020 For all their great achievements as leaders in war and peace, 583 00:48:23,020 --> 00:48:28,980 both of them were battle winners, maybe this intense inwardness 584 00:48:28,980 --> 00:48:33,780 and self-reflection, and anxiety about the body, was an ever present. 585 00:48:36,260 --> 00:48:39,620 But the other ever present was still war. 586 00:48:39,620 --> 00:48:44,980 In 917, brother and sister continued their campaign against the Danelaw. 587 00:48:44,980 --> 00:48:49,220 And Aethelflaed attacked the Danish base at Derby. 588 00:48:52,540 --> 00:48:54,060 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 589 00:49:14,140 --> 00:49:16,460 The Mercian army's broken into the town 590 00:49:16,460 --> 00:49:18,460 and there's fierce fighting going on. 591 00:49:18,460 --> 00:49:21,620 And then the Chronicle says, there right inside the gates, 592 00:49:21,620 --> 00:49:26,020 four of the thegns who were most dear to her were killed. 593 00:49:30,460 --> 00:49:34,660 In the oldest Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry, one of the big themes is 594 00:49:34,660 --> 00:49:39,620 the bond between the lord and his warriors - it's a reciprocal bond. 595 00:49:39,620 --> 00:49:43,380 The lord is generous with land and treasure and hospitality 596 00:49:43,380 --> 00:49:46,940 and affection, friendship, as they said. 597 00:49:46,940 --> 00:49:52,340 And in return, the thegns give their service, their unswerving loyalty, 598 00:49:52,340 --> 00:49:55,260 even laying down their lives for their lord. 599 00:49:55,260 --> 00:49:59,220 And here in the battle for Derby, Aethelflaed's thegns 600 00:49:59,220 --> 00:50:01,780 lay down their lives for their Lady. 601 00:50:07,580 --> 00:50:10,940 The news of her triumphs spread like wildfire. 602 00:50:10,940 --> 00:50:15,740 Early in 918, the Danish army in Leicester submitted 603 00:50:15,740 --> 00:50:18,420 without fighting and chose her as their Lord. 604 00:50:24,100 --> 00:50:27,340 And then from their capital in York, the Northumbrians 605 00:50:27,340 --> 00:50:31,660 sent pledges that they too would bow to the Lady of Mercians. 606 00:50:33,820 --> 00:50:37,500 In north Britain, her reputation now far surpassed her brother. 607 00:50:39,340 --> 00:50:43,940 To the Irish, she was the most renowned queen of the Saxons. 608 00:50:45,540 --> 00:50:48,460 I think that charisma that she had 609 00:50:48,460 --> 00:50:51,140 did cross political boundaries as well. 610 00:50:51,140 --> 00:50:53,140 There's a record of the year 918 611 00:50:53,140 --> 00:50:56,500 that the men of York were willing to submit to her authority. 612 00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:02,660 Which is quite amazing really that so often in the writings, 613 00:51:02,660 --> 00:51:05,820 the Vikings of Northumbria are portrayed as the inveterate 614 00:51:05,820 --> 00:51:09,860 pagans and plunderers, and yet this woman was perhaps able to 615 00:51:09,860 --> 00:51:12,580 offer perhaps a more peaceful solution. 616 00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:17,220 And when new Viking invaders from Ireland occupied the 617 00:51:17,220 --> 00:51:22,020 Tyne valley, she sent ambassadors to the Scots to form 618 00:51:22,020 --> 00:51:25,660 a northern alliance for mutual help and defence. 619 00:51:27,940 --> 00:51:32,740 In 918, the Vikings were defeated at Corbridge on Hadrian's Wall. 620 00:51:32,740 --> 00:51:37,780 And a later Irish source even claims she was there in person. 621 00:51:37,780 --> 00:51:42,300 "Othere, Earl of the Vikings," it says, "fled into a dense wood 622 00:51:42,300 --> 00:51:48,860 "and the queen ordered the wood cut down and all the pagans killed. 623 00:51:48,860 --> 00:51:51,860 "And her fame spread everywhere." 624 00:51:58,700 --> 00:52:01,700 I always get the impression that she felt that she had to do this 625 00:52:01,700 --> 00:52:04,700 lest she be perceived as a weak leader. 626 00:52:04,700 --> 00:52:07,380 She had to make sure she made these shows of strength, 627 00:52:07,380 --> 00:52:11,140 but at the same time, she was a very able communicator, 628 00:52:11,140 --> 00:52:13,500 and used that skill to her advantage too. 629 00:52:16,900 --> 00:52:21,300 But then in June 918, at the height of her power... 630 00:52:21,300 --> 00:52:24,180 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 631 00:52:48,100 --> 00:52:52,060 She was in her late 40s. Of her tomb, nothing survives 632 00:52:52,060 --> 00:52:57,180 save perhaps a broken coffin lid and one tiny fragment of gold. 633 00:53:00,540 --> 00:53:02,420 With Aethelflaed dead, 634 00:53:02,420 --> 00:53:06,740 Edward hurried to Tamworth to bring Mercia under his power, only 635 00:53:06,740 --> 00:53:11,420 to find that the Mercians had chosen a new Lady - her daughter Aelfwyn. 636 00:53:11,420 --> 00:53:14,300 It's the only time in British history that a daughter 637 00:53:14,300 --> 00:53:16,260 succeeded her mother. 638 00:53:18,420 --> 00:53:22,940 The Mercian assembly accepted her daughter in the absence of a son. 639 00:53:24,420 --> 00:53:28,220 I think that may have been because they saw a daughter, 640 00:53:28,220 --> 00:53:31,340 who I also think was likely then to have been married, 641 00:53:31,340 --> 00:53:33,580 but perhaps to another Mercian. 642 00:53:33,580 --> 00:53:40,980 It was a way of maintaining over time Mercian independence. 643 00:53:40,980 --> 00:53:44,540 And it had a chance of succeeding. 644 00:53:52,260 --> 00:53:54,300 Her daughter takes over, 645 00:53:54,300 --> 00:53:57,700 and there is a real sense of independence from Wessex. 646 00:54:00,620 --> 00:54:05,620 This is resolved by Edward marching up to Tamworth and imprisoning her. 647 00:54:08,100 --> 00:54:12,860 Presumably put into a nunnery, but we can't be sure about that, 648 00:54:12,860 --> 00:54:16,980 but judging by the way royal families worked in that period, 649 00:54:16,980 --> 00:54:18,540 that's the most likely outcome. 650 00:54:18,540 --> 00:54:20,940 Yes, they were very ruthless and unsentimental 651 00:54:20,940 --> 00:54:23,540 about royal women and royal daughters, weren't they? 652 00:54:23,540 --> 00:54:25,460 The West Saxons especially. 653 00:54:29,700 --> 00:54:35,300 The elimination of nieces and nephews was not new. 654 00:54:35,300 --> 00:54:40,940 That was another feature of early medieval dynastic politics, 655 00:54:40,940 --> 00:54:44,540 which was played out yet again in 918. 656 00:54:48,860 --> 00:54:53,100 Yet Aelfwyn's fate was rather like that of Charlemagne's nephews - 657 00:54:53,100 --> 00:54:57,140 that's to say, we know nothing about it, 658 00:54:57,140 --> 00:55:01,780 but we have horrible suspicions which may be justified. 659 00:55:23,060 --> 00:55:25,300 Aethelflaed, her chronicle said, 660 00:55:25,300 --> 00:55:29,860 had been a person of extraordinary ability and intelligence who 661 00:55:29,860 --> 00:55:34,940 steered the kingdom strongly justly and calmly. 662 00:55:37,740 --> 00:55:44,660 I think Aethelflaed can indeed be imagined as having the diplomatic 663 00:55:44,660 --> 00:55:48,340 and international role of a king. 664 00:55:48,340 --> 00:55:52,500 Certain people had an interest in editing her out 665 00:55:52,500 --> 00:55:57,340 and this is always in this period true of women, I think. 666 00:55:57,340 --> 00:56:01,820 Their activities and achievements have been underestimated. 667 00:56:01,820 --> 00:56:06,100 Aethelflaed managed to salvage something by commissioning 668 00:56:06,100 --> 00:56:09,460 her own history, as her father had commissioned his, 669 00:56:09,460 --> 00:56:13,300 but also by having such a remarkably high profile. 670 00:56:15,780 --> 00:56:17,900 When Aethelflaed dies, 671 00:56:17,900 --> 00:56:20,780 both she and Edward are at the height of their power. 672 00:56:22,180 --> 00:56:24,540 In the later years of Edward's reign, his power actually 673 00:56:24,540 --> 00:56:27,780 starts to decline and I think that's almost because he doesn't have his 674 00:56:27,780 --> 00:56:31,660 powerful sister, Aethelflaed, still active in Mercia on his behalf. 675 00:56:35,500 --> 00:56:39,980 And that brings us to the last entry in the Chronicle of Aethelflaed. 676 00:56:41,260 --> 00:56:45,180 SPEAKING IN OLD ENGLISH 677 00:56:45,180 --> 00:56:50,100 "For when Edward died, the Mercians chose as his successor 678 00:56:50,100 --> 00:56:55,140 "Aethelflaed's foster son, Athelstan, the son she never had." 679 00:56:57,780 --> 00:57:01,780 And not just as their lord, but their king. 680 00:57:04,380 --> 00:57:08,660 Athelstan was King Edward's first-born, though by a concubine. 681 00:57:08,660 --> 00:57:12,900 And as a boy, he'd been sent to Mercia to be brought up by his aunt. 682 00:57:16,380 --> 00:57:18,100 But when he was five, 683 00:57:18,100 --> 00:57:21,300 his grandfather King Alfred had invested him 684 00:57:21,300 --> 00:57:24,460 with a Saxon sword, belt and cloak, 685 00:57:24,460 --> 00:57:28,180 so it was said, in omen of a kingdom. 686 00:57:34,540 --> 00:57:36,900 These investiture ceremonies are really 687 00:57:36,900 --> 00:57:39,340 the beginnings of medieval knighthood. 688 00:57:39,340 --> 00:57:43,460 They took place round the age of 14, the transition from being a boy 689 00:57:43,460 --> 00:57:46,220 to being a young man, a warrior, a knight - 690 00:57:46,220 --> 00:57:49,860 the word is actually Anglo-Saxon. 691 00:57:49,860 --> 00:57:53,460 Now Alfred the Great couldn't wait that long - he was dying - 692 00:57:53,460 --> 00:57:56,660 so he gives his blessing to his only grandson. 693 00:57:56,660 --> 00:58:01,060 In the world of early medieval royal families, 694 00:58:01,060 --> 00:58:06,540 such a gesture could have meant nothing, but rather like Alfred's 695 00:58:06,540 --> 00:58:11,020 own investiture by Pope Leo, aged five, in Rome, 696 00:58:11,020 --> 00:58:16,380 for Athelstan himself, the ceremony carried the mark of destiny. 697 00:58:21,540 --> 00:58:23,900 Next, how Aethelflaed's foster son 698 00:58:23,900 --> 00:58:26,420 became the first king of all England. 699 00:58:43,460 --> 00:58:46,460 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd