Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky 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 eight hundred and sixty seven, 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.

But the puppet king didn't last long on the throne.

Just a few years later, in eight hundred and seventy nine, he disappeared.

In the face of that power vacuum, a high ranking English military official named Fulred 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 eight hundred and eighty three, after he was said to have taken power.

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 eight hundred and seventy and eight seventy one, 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 Ethelred took over in Mercia, he and Alfred decided to team up, and in eight hundred eighty nine, the pair sealed their alliance by having Athelred Mary Alfred's oldest daughter, athel Flood.

Athel Flood was born around eight hundred and seventy, right when the Viking invasions were picking up steam, making her much younger than her husband.

While there's almost no historical record of athel Flood'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, encountering him in her father's entourage or visiting his palaces in Mercia.

No one would have expected Athel Flood to become an even more important political figure than her head husband.

Athel Flood would become the most powerful person in the Kingdom, ruling over Mercia independently starting in nine hundred and eleven, one of only two women recorded as doing so before the Norman conquest of England.

I'm Danish sports and this is noble blood.

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.

Athelred had seeded control over Mercia to Alfred, his father and lie law, who called himself the King of the Anglo Saxons.

This is one of the first times anyone had used the term Anglo Saxon, 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 fourth century, except for the ones living in areas under Viking control.

So even though her husband wasn't technically a king at this point, Athel 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, 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.

Historian Tim Clarkson described royal wives in Wessex as quote low profile, nearly invisible, but unlike other parts of medieval England, Murcia allowed more leeway and independence for its queens.

Ethel Flood was deeply involved in governing Mercia from the beginning of her marriage.

Arriving in Gloucester at around eight eighty, 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, Using a decrepit Roman fort as the structure's foundation, They kept on building burrs throughout Mercia over the next decade.

Meanwhile, Ethel Flood 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 brahs and forts across the kingdom, ensuring that no one in Wessex was more than a day's ride from a place of safety.

Meanwhile, Afflflood gave birth to a daughter and named her Alfwyn 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.

William of Malmsbury, an early Anglo Norman historian, proposed a different theory, that Alfwin's birth was such a horrific experience that Affelflood pledged celibacy for the rest of her life.

In ten ninety nine, William of Malmsbury wrote, quote from the difficulty experienced in her first or rather only labor.

Athel Flood, 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.

Now, William of Malmsbury didn't give any sources for this from the period, so athel Flood's celibacy is likely apocryphal.

Contemporary historians imagine that he might have made it up in order to emphasize athel Flood's moral purity.

That said William was a monk at Malmsbury 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 Anna represents a rare example of a medieval queen putting her foot down and deciding for herself what her reproductive future might look like.

After a decade of strengthening Mercia's defenses, athel Flood was ready for battle.

When the Vikings descended on eastern England in eight hundred ninety two, it was clear that her preparation paid off.

After a few years of fighting, Alfred afa Flood and Athelred successfully repelled the invaders with minimal losses.

The Viking army disbanded in eight hundred and ninety six, and Athlflood was finally able to enjoy a period of peace in Wessex and Mercia.

But this period of peace didn't last long.

In October of eight hundred and ninety nine, King Alfred died.

Though this was a huge blow both to Athel Flood 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 one hundred Byzantine gold coins.

Alfred's oldest son, athel Flood'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 ethel Flood, or, as I'll call them by their made up couple name with absolutely no historical accuracy, the Athols.

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 eight hundred and nineties don't mention any of Edward's military successes.

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 athel Flood officially recognized Edward's authority.

However, within Mercia, many charters never mentioned Edward at all, leading some historians to suggest that Ethelred operated Mercia more or less as an independent kingdom.

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

Meanwhile, Athelred's health began to fail, leaving athel Flood 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 nine hundred and two, when athel Flood had to administer a land grant without her husband.

The last record of Athelred's involvement in politics comes two years later, in nine hundred and four.

In nine hundred and two, there were more invasions into England.

This time by Norwegians rather than the Danish Vikings who were giving the English Saxon's trouble.

In the ninth century, the Norwegians sailed for from Scotland and Ireland to the west coast of Mercia.

They approached Ethel Flood for a settlement in the world, near what is now Liverpool.

Athel Flood hesitantly agreed, but imagined that long term peace would be impossible.

She fortified a nearby burr, 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 Floed defended Chester, leading her army from the ramparts of her bur In nine hundred and seven, she successfully turned away the Norse and the Danes, representing a huge military victory.

And again this is ethel Flood on her own while her husband is ill and incapacitated.

But athel Flood's triumph was tempered by her ailing husband, convalescing still in Mercia, whose health was only worsening by the day.

Finally, in nine hundred and eleven, Athelred died.

He was buried at Saint Oswald's Church in Gloucester, which he and his wife had founded right after their wedding.

This left Athel Flood at a crossroads.

Traditionally, noble widows retired from their rules in government, however limited, those rules 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.

While ethel Flood's decision to rule over Mercia was merely unprecedented, there hadn't been an independent female ruler over an English kingdom since the seventh 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 quote 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, 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 athel 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 athel 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 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 athel Flood 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 ethel Flood wanted to shore up their defenses to guard against future attacks.

Edward built a series of forts throughout Wessex, while ethel Flood did the same in Mercia.

Athel Flood put special attention on establishing her rule on western Mercia, much of which had been seized by the Vikings in the eight seventies or settled by the Norse coming from Ireland.

After building a few birds in the west in nine hundred twelve and thirteen, 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.

Finally, that long simmering tension between the Danes and the Saxons over boiled in nine hundred and n seventeen in the face of Edward and ethel Flood's military expansion.

The Danes tried to fight back, attacking a few of Edward's forts in southeast Wessex, but they failed.

Athel Fled 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.

That said, athel Flood succeeded in recapturing the city.

The Viking armies were reported to be scattered and uncoordinated, vastly outnumbered by athol Flood's army.

Conquering Derby was a massive feat given that it was such a central Danish stronghold.

Not only did athel Flood conquered 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 Boroughs, and she had captured one of them.

Soon she would take over another.

In nine hundred eighteen, she invaded Leicester, which yielded to athel Flood'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 Boroughs, Stamford, but he struggled a little more than his sister.

Unlike athel Flood, 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 athel Flood, but completely ignored Edward.

An Irish source alleged that Ethel Flood had even managed to ally with Elba, 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 twelfth, nine hundred eighteen, Athel Flood died in her palace at Tamworth.

She was around fifty years old and appeared to have died unexpectedly of natural causes.

Her body was taken to Gloucester to be buried next to her husband.

After Athel Flood 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 ethel Flood'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 quote the most famous queen of the Saxons, and did not report her brother or her father's death.

Welsh chronicles also noted her death but ignored edwards, suggesting that she had made an impression far beyond her kingdom, more so than some of the men in her family.

Curiously, ethel Flood'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 victory in Derby or Lester, even though they were crucial in consolidating the English Saxon kingdoms fifty years after her death.

It seemed that ethel Flood'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 ethel Flood was omitted from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, allowing Edward to take credit for fighting off the Danes instead of his sister.

After ethel Flood's death in June of nine hundred and nineteen, 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 deposed Alfwynn and took her to Wessex, gaining control of Mercia.

It's unclear what happened to alf Winn 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 tenth century English history, athel Flood and alfwin remained quote shadowy figures according to historian Tim Clarkson, and were placed under a conspiracy of silence.

According to historian FT Wainwright, that said Atha Flood 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 eleventh century by historians like William of Malmsbury mentioned earlier in the episode.

Another of these writers, Henry of Huntingdon, memorialized Athol Flood in a poem that went heroic Athol Flood 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 Athol Flood.

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.

After a skirmish with the Vikings in eight hundred seventy eight, 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 wheatcakes 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.

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.

Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey.

Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Melaney.

The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer rima il KLi 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.