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Æthelflæd of WESSEX #50562

ABT 870 - 12 JUN 918

AKA: Æthelflæd of MERCIA

Personal Information

  • BIRTH: ABT 870
  • DEATH: 12 JUN 918

Notes

Æthelflæd (c. 870 - 12 June 918) ruled as Lady of the Mercians in the English Midlands from 911 until her death in 918. She was the eldest child of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith.

Æthelflæd was born around 870 at the height of the Viking invasions of England. By 878, most of England was under Danish Viking rule - East Anglia and Northumbria having been conquered, and Mercia partitioned between the English and the Vikings - but in that year Alfred won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington. Soon afterwards the English-controlled western half of Mercia came under the rule of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, who accepted Alfred's overlordship. Alfred adopted the title King of the Anglo-Saxons (previously he was titled King of the West Saxons like his predecessors) claiming to rule all Anglo-Saxon people not living in areas under Viking control. In the mid-880s, Alfred sealed the strategic alliance between the surviving English kingdoms by marrying Æthelflæd to Æthelred.

Æthelred played a major role in fighting off renewed Viking attacks in the 890s, together with Æthelflæd's brother, the future King Edward the Elder. Æthelred and Æthelflæd fortified Worcester, gave generous donations to Mercian churches and built a new minster in Gloucester. Æthelred's health probably declined early in the next decade, after which it is likely that Æthelflæd was mainly responsible for the government of Mercia. Edward had succeeded as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 899, and in 909 he sent a West Saxon and Mercian force to raid the northern Danelaw. They returned with the remains of the royal Northumbrian saint Oswald, which were translated to the new Gloucester minster. Æthelred died in 911 and Æthelflæd then ruled Mercia as Lady of the Mercians. The accession of a female ruler in Mercia is described by the historian Ian Walker as "one of the most unique events in early medieval history".

Parents

Family 1 :

Husband: Æthelred of MERCIA

  • MARRIAGE: ABT 886
Note:

Children:

  1.   Ælfwynn of MERCIA #77069
 
 

                                               _Egbert WESSEX _______+
                                              | (0770 - 0839)        
                        _Æthelwulf WESSEX ___|
                       | (.... - 0857)        |
                       |                      |_Redburga of FRANCIA _
                       |                                             
 _Alfred WESSEX _______|
| (0847 - 0899) m 0868 |
|                      |                       _Oslac UNKNOWN _______
|                      |                      |                      
|                      |_Osburh OSLACSDOTTER _|
|                                             |
|                                             |______________________
|                                                                    
|
|--Æthelflæd of WESSEX 
|  (0870 - 0918)
|                                              ______________________
|                                             |                      
|                       _Æthelred MUCEL _____|
|                      |                      |
|                      |                      |______________________
|                      |                                             
|_Ealhswith of MERCIA _|
  (0852 - 0902) m 0868 |
                       |                       ______________________
                       |                      |                      
                       |_Eadburh of MERCIA ___|
                                              |
                                              |______________________
                                                                     

Source References