The Warrior Queen The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed Daughter of Alfred the Great eBook Joanna Arman
Download As PDF : The Warrior Queen The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed Daughter of Alfred the Great eBook Joanna Arman 
Æthelflæd, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, has gone down in history as an enigmatic and almost legendary figure. To the popular imagination, she is the archetypal warrior queen, a Medieval Boudicca, renowned for her heroic struggle against the Danes and her independent rule of the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. In fiction, however, she has also been cast as the mistreated wife who seeks a Viking lover, and struggles to be accepted as a female ruler in a patriarchal society.
The sources from her own time, and later, reveal a more complex, nuanced and fascinating image of the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. A skilled diplomat who forged alliances with neighbouring territories, she was a shrewd and even ruthless leader willing to resort to deception and force to maintain her power. Yet she was also a patron of learning, who used poetic tradition and written history to shape her reputation as a Christian maiden engaged in an epic struggle against the heathen foe.
The real Æthelflæd emerges as a remarkable political and military leader, admired in her own time, and a model of female leadership for writers of later generations.
The Warrior Queen The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed Daughter of Alfred the Great eBook Joanna Arman
I enjoyed this book, but there are a few things I think potential purchasers should be aware of. I think it would be most helpful to those reading this to explain what the book is not. Since very little historical evidence of Aethelflaed exists, there isn’t a lot in this book about Aethelflaed specifically. A lot of the book examines the historical record that exists of the time to make educated guesses about what she was most likely like, what influenced her, and made her who she was. The book is written more for people who are really beginners in the topic as opposed to people who have studied the era. That’s not a dig at the author or the book, I’m only saying that to let folks know this isn’t a book that people with a lot of knowledge on the era would likely enjoy because it probably won’t tell them anything they don’t know. I have studied the era some, but I’m still pretty new to it, so I didn’t mind the recap, and the bibliography section is an excellent source for where to go for more information. I think the book is very valuable because it can be difficult for those who want to learn more to find a book that isn’t too heavy for lay people to take in and enjoy. While I was looking for one of the heavier books, I’m not disappointed. Of note, I found it a bit annoying that the next to last chapter was about Empress Matilda who lived 200 years later, only for the author to conclude she was nothing like Aethelflaed. Honestly, I don’t give a flying flip about Empress Matilda. I didn’t buy a book about Empress Matilda. She was irrelevant to the Aethelflead’s life other than Matilda just being a VERY distant relative of Aethelflaed, and if she had nothing in common with her then WHY waste a chapter on her? I had to take off one star because there were so many typos in the book, and that’s not something I usually get bent out of shape over. It’s certainly something I wouldn’t usually take off a star for in 99% of cases. There were just so many of them in this book. If that kind of thing bothers you, I’d skip this book because if it’s something that was bad enough to bother me, then you’ll be driven nuts by it. It’s clear the author knows what she’s talking about, but her editor failed her.Product details
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The Warrior Queen The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed Daughter of Alfred the Great eBook Joanna Arman Reviews
First posted on the Uk site a few minutes ago
This is a remarkable and rich book on Aethelflaed, daughter and eldest child of King Alfred, and which in many respects adapted his policies in Mercia, first together with her husband and/or in his name and then on her own for seven years and up to AD 918, following her husband’s death.
Although not the first recent book about her, it is probably one of the most clearly written and easily readable. It is also hugely entertaining (or, at least, it was for me) for several reasons.
The first half of the book is largely a summary of the reign and achievements of her father which largely draws on existing works, and on Richard Abels’ in particular. There are obvious reasons for doing so, with the main one being that Aethelflaed was “every inch her father’s daughter”, as the author demonstrates very convincingly throughout the book.
The second half of the book shows to what extent she continued her father’s policies in Mercia. Together with her little known brother Edward (the Elder) who became King of Wessex after Alfred’s demise, they started to conquer territories lost to the Danes – most of the Eastern part of Mercia for the sister and East Anglia for the brother.
One feature that is well described is that despite having repulsed and defeated the invasions, the situation was initially rather precarious at the death of Alfred as Aethelwold (Alfred’s nephew) made his bid for power, failed to become King in Wessex but managed to do so in Danish Northumbria and established himself at York before being killed in battle against Edward some three years later. Aethelflaed’s position was even more fragile since her husband - Lord Aethelred’s - was at least a decade older than her and affected by illness.
Another feature that comes across rather well is that Aethelflaed must have been somebody with a rather exceptional personality. She was one of the only women in the Anglo-Saxon times to be chosen by the witan to rule a kingdom, even if she never seems to have formally been crowned. She led armies into battle and won victories against both the Hiberno-Norse and the Danes settled in the Danelaw. She founded fortified burghs, just like both her father and brother and these, in addition to their defensive role, became also markets and economic centres. She also, like her father, promoted reading, learning and a revival of the Church and church building, among other feats.
A third major feature of this book is the author’s comparisons between what little is known of her through the scanty historical records – she did not have her “biographer”, unlike her father – with the various legends and ways she has been presented up to modern times. In addition to Victorian times, Joanna Arman alludes several to Bernard Cornwell’s characters in his Warrior’s Chronicles (now renamed the Last Kingdom series) and shows how the novelist has somewhat slanted and modified the record to make room for his hero Uthred. For instance, Lord Aethelred was a rather powerful and successful warlord and was neither a coward nor incapable and so was Edward the Elder. There is no evidence that either were jealous or envious of Aethelflaed, although there might have been some rivalry between the siblings.
There would be quite a lot more positive things to say about this book, including an interesting discussion about the sources, a nice set of illustrations and a useful genealogical tree of the House of Cerdic. However, I believe that the above should be enough to convince other readers of how much I appreciated this book. Five stars.
I enjoyed this book, but there are a few things I think potential purchasers should be aware of. I think it would be most helpful to those reading this to explain what the book is not. Since very little historical evidence of Aethelflaed exists, there isn’t a lot in this book about Aethelflaed specifically. A lot of the book examines the historical record that exists of the time to make educated guesses about what she was most likely like, what influenced her, and made her who she was. The book is written more for people who are really beginners in the topic as opposed to people who have studied the era. That’s not a dig at the author or the book, I’m only saying that to let folks know this isn’t a book that people with a lot of knowledge on the era would likely enjoy because it probably won’t tell them anything they don’t know. I have studied the era some, but I’m still pretty new to it, so I didn’t mind the recap, and the bibliography section is an excellent source for where to go for more information. I think the book is very valuable because it can be difficult for those who want to learn more to find a book that isn’t too heavy for lay people to take in and enjoy. While I was looking for one of the heavier books, I’m not disappointed. Of note, I found it a bit annoying that the next to last chapter was about Empress Matilda who lived 200 years later, only for the author to conclude she was nothing like Aethelflaed. Honestly, I don’t give a flying flip about Empress Matilda. I didn’t buy a book about Empress Matilda. She was irrelevant to the Aethelflead’s life other than Matilda just being a VERY distant relative of Aethelflaed, and if she had nothing in common with her then WHY waste a chapter on her? I had to take off one star because there were so many typos in the book, and that’s not something I usually get bent out of shape over. It’s certainly something I wouldn’t usually take off a star for in 99% of cases. There were just so many of them in this book. If that kind of thing bothers you, I’d skip this book because if it’s something that was bad enough to bother me, then you’ll be driven nuts by it. It’s clear the author knows what she’s talking about, but her editor failed her.
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