Lady of the Mercians

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1:01a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, We're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes.

1:38Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. The latter half of the 9th 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.

2:29But 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 Æthelred took over. Very little is known about Æthelred 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. 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.

3:23Wessex 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 Æthelred took over in Mercia, he and Alfred decided to team up. And in 889, the pair sealed their alliance by having Athelred marry Alfred's oldest daughter, Athelflaed. Athelflaed 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 Athelflaed's early life, one can imagine that her youth had been defined by instability and violence, following her father to various skirmishes with invaders.

4:27She likely knew Athelred from childhood, encountering him in her father's entourage or visiting his palaces in Mercia. No one would have expected Atheflod to become an even more important political figure than her husband. Atheflod 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. After the wedding, Athelflood had to move from her home in Wessex to her husband's palace in Mercia. This wasn't a huge deal for Athelflood.

5:19Her 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 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, 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.

6:17So even though her husband wasn't technically a king at this point, Aethelflaed still needed to fulfill the typical duties of a royal wife. A royal wife was expected to be a peaceweaver, 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.

7:12That was certainly the case in Wessex, where Aethelflaed'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, Mercia allowed more leeway and independence for its queens. Athelflaed 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, using a decrepit Roman fort as the structure's foundation.

8:24They kept on building burrs throughout Mercia over the next decade. Meanwhile, Aethelflaed 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 brus and forts across the kingdom, ensuring that no one in Wessex was more than a day's ride from a place of safety. Meanwhile, Aethelflaed gave birth to a daughter and named her Alfwen, 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.

9:22We can speculate that it's possible she suffered miscarriages or couldn't get pregnant again. William of Malmesbury, an early Anglo-Norman historian, proposed a different theory. that Alfwyn's birth was such a horrific experience that Athelflaude 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, Athelflaude 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 Malmesbury didn't give any sources for this from the period, so Athelflaed's celibacy is likely apocryphal.

10:20Contemporary historians imagine that he might have made it up in order to emphasize Athelflaed'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. After a decade of strengthening, Mercia's defenses, Athelflaed was ready for battle. When the Vikings descended on eastern England in 892, it was clear that her preparation paid off.

11:11After a few years of fighting, Alfred, Athelflaed, and Athelred successfully repelled the invaders with minimal losses. The Viking army disbanded in 896, and Athelflaed 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 899, King Alfred died. Though this was a huge blow both to Athelflaed, 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.

12:07In his will, he commemorated Æthelred by leaving him a sword worth 100 Byzantine gold coins. Alfred's oldest son, Æthelflød'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 Aethelflood, 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, Affelred, 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.

13:00Out 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. 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.

13:58Meanwhile, Athelred's health began to fail, leaving Athelflood 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 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 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. The Norwegians sailed from Scotland and Ireland to the west coast of Mercia.

14:49They approached Aethelflaed for a settlement in the Whirl, near what is now Liverpool. Aethelflaed 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. Æthelflaed defended Chester, leading her army from the ramparts of her burr. In 907, she successfully turned away the Norse and the Danes, representing a huge military victory. And again, this is Aethelflaed on her own, while her husband is ill and incapacitated.

15:39But Aethelflaed'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 Athelflaed at a crossroads. 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, Æthelflaed 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.

16:39And so, she would decide to succeed her husband as the Lady of Mercia and lead the kingdom independently. While Æthelflaed'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, 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 Aethelflaed intelligently wouldn't upset the status quo.

17:44The Mercian nobility also accepted Aethelflaed'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, Athelflaed's nephew, who was raised in Mercia with Athelflaed, was too young to take over the throne. An assembly of noblemen and other members of the elite convened to ratify Athelflaed's rule, so she seemed to have their support. Edward tacitly gave his blessing for his sister's succession, perhaps assuming that Aethelflaed would be a loyal ally. Edward and his sister Aethelflaed would have to work together to take on their most intense military engagement yet.

18:38While the Danes and the Norse had agreed to peace with Mercia and Wessex, Edward and Aethelflaed wanted to shore up their defenses, to guard against future attacks. Edward built a series of forts throughout Wessex, while Aethelflaed did the same in Mercia. Aethelflaed 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.

19:36Finally, that long simmering tension between the Danes and the Saxons overboiled in 917. In the face of Edward and Aethelflaed's military expansion, the Danes tried to fight back, attacking a few of Edward's forts in southeast Wessex. But they failed. Aethelflaed 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, Athelflaed succeeded in recapturing the city.

20:26The Viking armies were reported to be scattered and uncoordinated, vastly outnumbered by Athelflaed's army. Conquering Derby was a massive feat, given that it was such a central Danish stronghold. Not only did Athelflaed 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 Boroughs, and she had captured one of them. Soon, she would take over another. In 918, she invaded Leicester, which yielded to Athelflaed'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.

21:26Unlike Athelflaed, 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 Athelflaed but completely ignored Edward. An Irish source alleged that Athelflaed 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.

22:14But her power would be short-lived. On June 12, 918, Athelflaude died in her palace at Tamworth. She was around 50 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 Aethelflaed 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 Aethelflaed'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.

23:13Welsh 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, Athelflaed'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. It seemed that Aethelflaed's death brought to light some underlying tensions between Wessex and Mercia.

24:02While 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 Aethelflaed was omitted from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, allowing Edward to take credit for fighting off the Danes instead of his sister. After Aethelflaed'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.

24:50It'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, Athelflaed and Elfwin remained, quote, shadowy figures, according to historian Tim Clarkson, and were placed under a conspiracy of silence, according to historian F.T. Wainwright. That said, Athelflaed 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.

25:42Accounts 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. Another of these writers, Henry of Huntingdon, memorialized Athelflaed in a poem that went,

26:17Quite a legacy. That's the story of Athelflaed, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear the story of how King Alfred, Athelflaed's father, made a small mistake that would be remembered for centuries.

26:44What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul a place for real conversation Each episode I sit down with people from all walks of life celebrities thinkers and everyday folks And we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us what shapes us and what gives us hope We get honest about the big stuff identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore loss that changes you purpose when success isn't enough peace when your mind won't slow down faith when it's complicated some guests have answers most are still figuring it out if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

27:42What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

28:18It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step.

29:04And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

29:18What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

29:56Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:15What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

30:51It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step.

31:37And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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.