by Mayv 'SpearBourne' Amaia

Created on: November 29, 2009   Last Updated: April 27, 2012

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was a ruler, military strategist, and skilled diplomat of the late ninth and early tenth centuries.

Aethelflaed's father, Alfred the Great, would become the first to style himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, a precursor to the title of King of England.

Her mother was Ealhswith, daughter of Aethelred Mucil, Ealdorman, or Lord, of the Gaini, a former kingdom of early Anglo-Saxons who settled northern Lincolnshire during the sixth century; after the eighth century, Gaini ealdormen, or lords, were subservient to the kings of Mercia.

Aethelflaed was born sometime after her parents' marriage in 868 but before her father became King of Wessex in 871. Wessex was the most powerful kingdom in England at the time.

As king, Alfred recruited clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales, as well as from abroad as part of an ambitious effort to revive learning as Charlemagne had done in France a century earlier.

He established a court school to educate not only his own children and the sons of nobles, but all intellectually promising boys, regardless of birth. He also wanted those holding offices of authority to be literate, even in an age when few were.

Aethelflaed and her five younger siblings were taught to read and write in both English and Latin, memorised Psalms, and learned the liberal arts. She was described as gifted, not only in schooling but other areas as well.

Between 865 and 878, Vikings from the Danelaw in northern and eastern England repeatedly attacked, overrunning many of the English kingdoms, including Northumbria, Eastern Mercia, and East Anglia. These campaigns even threatened the very existence of Wessex.

Aid rendered to Alfred by the kingdom of Mercia during this time did not go unnoticed. Because dominion over Mercia by Wessex would seem more like conquest, Alfred gave his first-born daughter in marriage to Aethelred, who, in turn, stepped down as cyning (king) and accepted the title of Ealdorman, or Lord, of the Mercians. This allowed Mercia to retain some autonomy while still being under the dominion of Wessex.

Since much of Western Mercia had not fallen under Danish control and remained strong, this was a prudent move on Alfred's part.

In 883, while Aethelflaed journeyed to Mercia for her wedding, the Danes attacked her and her party, perhaps hoping to sabotage the alliance between Wessex and Mercia. The joining together of two such strong kingdoms would eventually help lead to an end to the repeated invasions and attacks of these

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