Lady of the Mercians

Æthelflæd's father was Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and he married her to the leader of Mercia to seal an alliance. But Æthelflæd's husband would become sickly, and she would become a formidable leader in her own right. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/noblebloodtales — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250840578/anatomyalovestory' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250861016/immortalityalovestory' See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dana Schwartz?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Speaker 01

  Haven't gotten around to earning your degree yet? Don't panic. Southern New Hampshire University has what you need. Over 200 online degree programs, no set class times, some of the lowest online tuition rates in the country, and career-focused courses that help you learn actual skills, not random facts you'll forget right after graduation. So take a breath, no need to stress. You just found Southern New Hampshire University. Visit SNHU.edu/degree today. That's SNHU.edu/degree.

• 0:34Speaker 02

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 1:04Dana Schwartz?

  Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Listener discretion advised. The latter half of the ninth century was a chaotic time in England, which was at that time divided into a number of smaller kingdoms. In 867, Vikings from Denmark landed in Mercia, a kingdom that comprised much of the English Midlands. The Vikings conquered the eastern parts of Mercia and soon invaded the rest of the territory, dividing the area into two parts, displacing the current ruler and installing a puppet king.

• 1:48Dana Schwartz?

  But the puppet king didn't last long on the throne. Just a few years later, in 879, he disappeared. In the face of that power vacuum, a high-ranking English military official named Ethelred took over. Very little is known about Ethelred before he reached the throne, and it's sort of unclear how exactly he got the job. It doesn't seem like he had any noble lineage. He appeared in the written record at around 883, after he was said to have taken power.

• 2:28Dana Schwartz?

  But it wasn't just Mercia that was under attack by the Vikings. Wessex, another kingdom that included much of England's south coast at that time, was also dealing with Viking invasions. Wessex was led by a man named Alfred, and throughout 870 and 871, Alfred had been fighting off the Vikings with mixed results, winning some battles but having trouble keeping the invading forces at bay in the long term. So soon after Athelred took over in Mercia, he and Alfred decided to team up.

• 3:08Dana Schwartz?

  And in 889, the pair sealed their alliance by having Athelred marry Alfred's oldest daughter, Athelflood. Athelflood was born around 870, right when the Viking invasions were picking up steam, making her much younger than her husband. While there's almost no historical record of Athelflood's early life, one can imagine that her youth had been defined by instability and violence, following her father to various skirmishes with invaders. She likely knew Athelred from childhood,

• 3:50Dana Schwartz?

  encountering him in her father's entourage or visiting his palaces in Mercia. No one would have expected Athelflood to become an even more important political figure than her husband. Athelflood would become the most powerful person in the kingdom, ruling over Mercia independently, starting in 911, one of only two women recorded as doing so before the Norman conquest of England. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

• 4:28Dana Schwartz?

  After the wedding, Ethel Flood had to move from her home in Wessex to her husband's palace in Mercia. This wasn't a huge deal for Ethel Flood. Her mother was Mercian, so she had family in the area, and her husband preferred to stay in the southwest area of Mercia, around the cities now named London and Gloucester, which wasn't too far away from where she grew up. Still, she had to adjust to married life. Ethelred had ceded control over Mercia to Alfred, his father-in-law, who called himself the "King of the Anglo-Saxons." This is one of the first times anyone had used the term Anglo-Saxon,

• 5:14Dana Schwartz?

  and in doing so, Alfred, sometimes also known as Alfred the Great, asserted that he ruled over all of the English Saxons, by which he meant the Saxons who had immigrated from what is now Germany to England around the 4th century, except for the ones living in areas under Viking control. So even though her husband wasn't technically a king at this point, Ethel Flood still needed to fulfill the typical duties of a royal wife. A royal wife was expected to be a "peace weaver" or "frothweb" in Old English. The term was meant to encapsulate the feminine art of political maneuvering.

• 6:00Dana Schwartz?

  Just like weaving fabric, a royal wife was expected to weave bonds between her and her husband's allies by hosting dinners in the feasting hall and conducting herself well when visiting palaces throughout the kingdom. Usually, a royal wife's duties would have ended there. English-Saxon wives were considered subordinate to their husbands and were largely excluded from military and political life. That was certainly the case in Wessex, where Ethel Flood's mother was almost completely shut out of governance. She wasn't even referred to as queen.

• 6:43Dana Schwartz?

  Historian Tim Clarkson described royal wives in Wessex as, quote, "low-profile, nearly invisible."

• 6:54Dana Schwartz?

  But unlike other parts of medieval England, Mercia allowed more leeway and independence for its queens. Athelfled was deeply involved in governing Mercia from the beginning of her marriage. Arriving in Gloucester at around 880, the city was in shambles after battling with the Vikings, with collapsed columns from the Roman era all over the city. So together, the newlyweds got to work on building a burr, or a multi-purpose fortification that served as a defensive fortress, an administrative center, and a hub for trade,

• 7:38Dana Schwartz?

  using a decrepit Roman fort as the structure's foundation. They kept on building burrs throughout Mercia over the next decade. Meanwhile, Athelfled worked with her husband to reallocate land, offer privileges to churches, and confer grants across the region. You know, general governance. Their campaign fit in neatly with Alfred's attempt to shore up the defenses of Wessex. He also built a number of burrs and forts across the kingdom, ensuring that no one in Wessex was more than a day's ride from a place of safety.

• 8:22Dana Schwartz?

  Meanwhile, Athelfled gave birth to a daughter and named her Alphwyn, or Elf-Friend. This ended up being her only child, which is a bit strange, given that there was probably pressure to produce a male heir and secure the line of succession. We can speculate that it's possible she suffered miscarriages or couldn't get pregnant again.

• 8:49Dana Schwartz?

  William of Malmesbury, an early Anglo-Norman historian, proposed a different theory: that Alphwend's birth was such a horrific experience that Athelflood pledged celibacy for the rest of her life. In 1099, William of Malmesbury wrote, quote, "From the difficulty experienced in her first, or rather only, labor, Athelflood ever after refused the embraces of her husband, protesting that it was unbecoming for the daughter of a king to give way to a delight which in time produced such painful consequences."

• 9:30Dana Schwartz?

  Now, William of Malmesbury didn't give any sources for this from the period, so Athelflood's celibacy is likely apocryphal. Contemporary historians imagine that he might have made it up in order to emphasize Athelflood's moral purity. That said, William was a monk at Malmesbury Abbey, a monastery in Wessex with historic ties to the royal family, and it's possible that this story was passed down to him and it was truthful. Fact or fiction, this anecdote represents a rare example of a medieval queen putting her foot down and deciding for herself what her reproductive future might look like.

• 10:15Dana Schwartz?

  After a decade of strengthening Mercia's defenses, Athelflood was ready for battle. When the Vikings descended on eastern England in 892, it was clear that her preparation paid off. After a few years of fighting, Alfred, Athelflood, and Athelred successfully repelled the invaders with minimal losses. The Viking army disbanded in 896, and Athelflood was finally able to enjoy a period of peace in Wessex and Mercia.

• 10:52Dana Schwartz?

  But this period of peace didn't last long. In October of 899, King Alfred died. Though this was a huge blow, both to Athelflood, his daughter, and Athelred, his son-in-law and closest military ally, they were perhaps relieved to find that, unlike many medieval kings living through long periods of war, he survived decades of battle and had lived long enough to die of disease in his own bed. In his will, he commemorated Athelred by leaving him a sword worth 100 Byzantine gold coins.

• 11:36Dana Schwartz?

  Alfred's oldest son, Athelflood's brother Edward, succeeded to the throne of Wessex, becoming king of the Anglo-Saxons, adopting the title his father invented. It was unclear exactly what this meant for Athelred and Ethelflood, or as I'll call them by their made-up couple name with absolutely no historical accuracy, the Athels. Some historians believe that Alfred preferred his son-in-law Athelred to his actual son Edward, since the court-produced records of the Viking battles in the 890s don't mention any of Edward's military successes.

• 12:20Dana Schwartz?

  Out of loyalty to Alfred, Athelred was willing to accept a subordinate title and treat Mercia as a part of the English-Saxon kingdom, rather than as an independent state. But Athelred seemed to distance himself from Wessex after Alfred's death. In documents from the Wessex court, Athelred and Athelflood officially recognized Edward's authority. However, within Mercia, many charters never mentioned Edward at all, leading some historians to suggest that Athelred operated Mercia more or less as an independent kingdom.

• 13:04Dana Schwartz?

  It seems that the Athels wanted to have it both ways, maintaining a close alliance between Wessex and Mercia without ceding too much of their power.

• 13:17Dana Schwartz?

  Meanwhile, Athelred's health began to fail, leaving Ethel Fled to deal with governing Mercia largely on her own. There's no record of what his illness might have been or when it began, but the first record of his declining health was in 902, when Ethel Fled had to administer a land grant without her husband. The last record of Athelred's involvement in politics comes two years later, in 904. In 902, there were more invasions into England, this time by Norwegians rather than the Danish Vikings, who were giving the English Saxons trouble in the 9th century.

• 14:02Dana Schwartz?

  The Norwegians sailed from Scotland and Ireland to the west coast of Mercia. They approached Ethel Fled for a settlement in the Whirl, near what is now Liverpool. Ethel Fled hesitantly agreed, but imagined that long-term peace would be impossible. She fortified a nearby borough, Chester, and stationed her army there, eventually kicking out the Norse. The Norse tried to fight back and retake the city by teaming up with the Danes. Ethel Fled defended Chester, leading her army from the ramparts of her borough.

• 14:42Dana Schwartz?

  In 907, she successfully turned away the Norse and the Danes, representing a huge military victory. And again, this is Ethel Fled on her own while her husband is ill and incapacitated. But Ethel Fled's triumph was tempered by her ailing husband, convalescing still in Mercia, whose health was only worsening by the day. Finally, in 911, Athelred died. He was buried at St. Oswald's Church in Gloucester, which he and his wife had founded right after their wedding. This left Ethel Flood at a crossroads.

• 15:27Dana Schwartz?

  Traditionally, noble widows retired from their roles in government, however limited those roles were, to become abbesses, or to live out the rest of their lives at a peaceful estate. But on the heels of her military victory in Chester, Ethel Flood had larger ambitions. She had put so much effort into ruling over Mercia and was essentially functioning as its de facto ruler in the years before her husband's death. And so, she would decide to succeed her husband as the Lady of Mercia and lead the kingdom independently.

• 16:08Dana Schwartz?

  While Ethel Flood's decision to rule over Mercia was nearly unprecedented—there hadn't been an independent female ruler over an English kingdom since the 7th century—it didn't seem that controversial. Her subjects supported her rule, and some of them even called her their queen, even though she was considered the "Lady of Mercia." It's unclear whether or not she chose that title for herself, but being the Lady of Mercia instead of the Queen was strategic. It placed her on a lower rung than her brother Edward, who was the King of the Anglo-Saxons,

• 16:51Dana Schwartz?

  and it mirrored her late husband, who was considered the Lord of Mercia, all of which suggested that Ethel Flood intelligently wouldn't upset the status quo. The Mercian nobility also accepted Ethel Flood's succession without a single recorded objection. There weren't any obvious alternatives. None of the Mercian royal family's eligible heirs seemed interested in the role, and Edward's son, Ethel Flood's nephew, who was raised in Mercia with Ethel Flood, was too young to take over the throne. An assembly of noblemen and other members of the elite convened to ratify Ethel Flood's

• 17:35Dana Schwartz?

  rule, so she seemed to have their support. Edward tacitly gave his blessing for his sister's succession, perhaps assuming that Ethel Flood would be a loyal ally. Edward and his sister Ethelfled would have to work together to take on their most intense military engagement yet. While the Danes and the Norse had agreed to peace with Mercia and Wessex, Edward and Ethelfled wanted to shore up their defenses to guard against future attacks. Edward built a series of forts throughout Wessex, while Ethelfled did the same in Mercia.

• 18:17Dana Schwartz?

  Ethelfled put special attention on establishing her rule on western Mercia, much of which had been seized by the Vikings in the 870s, or settled by the Norse coming from Ireland. After building a few burrs in the west in 912 and 13, she focused on protecting Mercia from the Danish who had settled in the east. Edward had already repurposed his rule on a few areas in the southeast, taking over some Viking strongholds in Essex, which raised the Danes' alarm bells.

• 18:56Dana Schwartz?

  Finally, that long simmering tension between the Danes and the Saxons over-boiled in 917. In the face of Edward and Ethelfled's military expansion, the Danes tried to fight back, attacking a few of Edward's forts in southeast Wessex. But they failed. Ethelfled took the opportunity to invade Derby, which had been ruled by the Danes since she was born. This wouldn't be easy. Because it had been ruled by the Danes so long, many of Derby's residents had been born and raised under Danish rule and would want to fight for their hometown the way they knew it.

• 19:40Dana Schwartz?

  That said, Athelflood succeeded in recapturing the city. The Viking armies were reported to be scattered and uncoordinated, vastly outnumbered by Athelflood's army. Conquering Derby was a massive feat, given that it was such a central Danish stronghold. Not only did Athelflood conquer Derby itself, but the regions around it, adding a large swath of land to her territory. Danish Mercia had five main towns, called the Five Burrows, and she had captured one of them. Soon, she would take over another. In 918, she invaded Leicester,

• 20:25Dana Schwartz?

  which yielded to Athelflood's authority without a fight, suggesting she had a pretty fearsome reputation by this point. Edward, fighting the Danes in the southeast, managed to capture another of the Five Burrows, Stamford, but he struggled a little more than his sister. Unlike Athelflood, whose reputation had allowed her to take control of Leicester without any bloodshed, Edward had to blockade the Danish fortresses at Stamford for six weeks before they folded. Similarly, the Danish colony of York offered to pledge their loyalty to Athelflood, but completely ignored Edward.

• 21:10Dana Schwartz?

  An Irish source alleged that Athelflood had even managed to ally with Alba, a kingdom in what is now Scotland, and Strathclyde, a kingdom in northern England, against the Norse, even further expanding her military might, and indicating that she was both an incredible warrior and also a diplomat. But her power would be short-lived. On June 12th, 918, Athelflood died in her palace at Tamworth. She was around 50 years old and appeared to have died unexpectedly of natural causes.

• 21:52Dana Schwartz?

  Her body was taken to Gloucester to be buried next to her husband. After Athelflood had put decades of her life into expanding and protecting Mercian territory, with no obvious heir to the throne, Mercia was under threat yet again. News of Athelflood's death spread throughout Mercia and Wessex and also made its way to Ireland and Wales. The Annals of Ulster in Ireland described her in an obituary as "the most famous queen of the Saxons" and did not report her brother or her father's death.

• 22:32Dana Schwartz?

  Welsh chronicles also noted her death but ignored Edward's, suggesting that she had made an impression far beyond her kingdom, more so than some of the men in her family. Curiously, Athelflood's death was almost entirely ignored by chroniclers in Wessex, aside from a brief mention, even though it was where she was born. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the court-produced record of events in Wessex, never referred to her military victories in Derby or Leicester, even though they were crucial in consolidating the English-Saxon kingdoms 50 years after her death.

• 23:13Dana Schwartz?

  It seemed that Athelflood's death brought to light some underlying tensions between Wessex and Mercia. While the two kingdoms were united in fighting against the Danes, Mercia's rising power and independence could have made the kingdom less subordinate to Wessex. This could be why Athelflood was omitted from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, allowing Edward to take credit for fighting off the Danes instead of his sister.

• 23:46Dana Schwartz?

  After Athelflood's death in June of 919, her daughter Alfwyn took over as the Lady of Mercia, the only example in early medieval England of a woman inheriting the throne from her mother. But only a few months later, Edward deposed Alfwyn and took her to Wessex, gaining control of Mercia. It's unclear what happened to Alfwyn after her deposition, and she too was ignored in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Her brief rule wasn't even mentioned. Given that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is among the most important accounts of 10th-century English history,

• 24:31Dana Schwartz?

  Athelflood and Alfwyn remained "shadowy figures," according to historian Tim Clarkson, and were placed under a "conspiracy of silence," according to historian F. T. Wainwright. That said, Athelflood shows up in other early medieval sources, like the Mercian Register, Chronicles of the Life of Alfred, Annals of Ireland and Wales, and the charters that she issued. Accounts of her ambitious rule were also probably passed down orally before being put into writing in the 11th century by historians like William of Malmesbury, mentioned earlier in the episode.

• 25:16Dana Schwartz?

  Another of these writers, Henry of Huntingdon, memorialized Athelflood in a poem that went: "Heroic Athelflood, great in marital fame, A man in valor, woman though in name. Heroes before the Mercian heroine quailed, Caesar himself to win such glory failed." Quite a legacy. That's the story of Athelflood, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear the story of how King Alfred, Athelflood's father, made a small mistake that would be remembered for centuries.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 26:51Speaker 04

  I'm like a kid when I play music and I make music and I'm constantly asking questions. You know, whether it's an instrument I haven't played or it's a melody that seems foreign. You know, there's every night you play a show and it's the same set, but it's not the same show. At a certain point, your brain kind of goes on autopilot. When I'm in the studio or if I'm making music, that's where that curiosity kind of comes back, you know? I haven't lost it yet, but I'm also on my sophomore album, so, and you, you obviously are an expert here.

• 27:17Speaker 03

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by my friend, John Legend. How does music actually enter your mind?

• 28:19Speaker 05

  I'm not sure why or how the music comes to me, but I think people who love music and write music, our brains are just filled with music.

• 28:28Speaker 03

  Right.

• 28:29Speaker 05

  Like, we have listened to so much music. We've been a part of so much music. I think of the story that I want to tell, the mood that I want to create with the music, start playing chords, see where they lead me.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Sometimes, I'm just not even thinking about music, right? And I hear this little thing, and I go, oh, that could be this.

• 28:50Speaker 05

  You know, you just have to be ready for when the inspiration hits.

• 28:53Speaker 03

  And it comes.

• 28:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 29:04Dana Schwartz?

  After a skirmish with the Vikings in 878, King Alfred fled a battle to the Somerset Levels, a marshy area in southwest England, in order to hide and recover. He turned up at a cottage where a peasant woman took him in without recognizing that he was the king. She was baking some wheat cakes by the fire and asked Alfred to keep an eye on them as she attended to some other chores. But Alfred, with so much on his mind, given that he was trying to protect Wessex from the Vikings, forgot about the cakes and accidentally let them burn. When the woman returned and discovered the burnt cakes, she scolded Alfred, who was duly humiliated.

• 29:49Dana Schwartz?

  The story is likely a legend, appearing in the written record over a century after Alfred's death. It seems to be a medieval English version of "stars, they're just like us", reassuring the listener that even kings can sometimes get distracted. The story became a staple of English folklore. There's even a mushroom named "King Alfred's Cakes", because they're chalky and black, like burnt cakes.

• 30:28Dana Schwartz?

  Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sander, Amy Height, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Reema Ilkayali, and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 31:09Speaker 06

  Hey, it's Lunchbox from the Bobby Bones Show. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability, and it starts with a great deal on an all-wheel-drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla Sedan with the latest features in tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or an adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops, while Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade-in. Get a deal today and great value tomorrow. Shoptoyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 31:47Speaker 07

  Small businesses are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities, and drive growth. That's why Chase for Business helps small business owners like you by offering personalized guidance and digital tools that can help your business grow. With our guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more at chase.com/business. Chase for Business: Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., member FDIC. Copyright 2026 J.P. Morgan Chase and Company.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm Nile Rodgers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country, meeting some of today's coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series, on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 32:53Dana Schwartz?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.