- Watch my latest history documentary here:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c3Hq6UaFQqk.html I did have a really nice surprise lined up for today's video, but due to an unforeseen nightmare with my editing software that will have to wait. Luckily I had this backup video waiting in the wings. Please like, subscribe and comment if you enjoyed it and let me know what you'd like to see covered in the future!
It is more than likely Aethelstan learned his Warcraft from Aethelflaed, and probably fought along side her. Aethelflaed stands as an integral part of the Triumvirate , Alfred and Aethelstan, that created England as we know it.
More please! Can not simply get enough of early Saxon, Viking, Celtic history! The lands of Britain and Ireland are full of such rich stories that must be preserved and never forgotten !! Additionally your narration has a rhythmic and soothing tone !
Alex Saavedra: I’ve got some old stories in various branches of my own family that I’m “discovering” courtesy of those tireless bards and scribes of times past and present. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain has some gems and is quite specific about locations. One of my ancestral families is the Tweeds of Cheveley, Cambridgeshire, who were traced by parish records to Essex in the early 1400s. The ODFNB tracks them back as far as Domesday Book and before that in Normandy near Rouen - yet they identify as Britons (specifically Welsh), not Normans, and their surname occurs now and again in records in the form Twyd which is Welsh. Their places of residence suggest that they were Bretons in the employ of Count Alan Rufus, William the Conqueror’s Breton kinsman and knight commander. Alan’s family originated in Vannes, the Welsh-speaking part of Brittany, but Alan had two churches in central Rouen and a forestry and farming settlement named Richemont near the duchy’s eastern border.
Alex Saavedra: I guess you’re of Spanish descent. In the late Roman era, large numbers of Britons settled in two places in Spain: (1) the Diocese of Britonia in Galicia; (2) the Basque Country of Navarre. The latter is particularly striking genetically, because the L21 Y-chromosome is very common there. It cannot be a mere coincidence that the medieval ruling family of Navarre was surnamed Albret and Labrit - admittedly their first known seat of power was further north in Gascony. Alan Rufus’s half-sister whom he brought to England married Enisant (Enisandus) Musard, who has a very Occitan given name and a surname occurring from Bordeaux south and east. One of their daughters was named Garsiena, so I suppose that honoured Enisant’s mother. (Two other daughters were Emma and Adeline, names from Alan’s family.)
It is also important to remember that there is no record of Athelred abusing Aethelflaed, as portrayed in The Last Kingdom. Quite the contrary, they appear to have ruled quite peacefully together. Aethelred was a dedicated ally of Alfred his whole life, and this would have been difficult had he been abusive to Aethelflaed. As a direct descendant, I am duty bound to defend him.
Another great video. The battle of Tettenhall is a long forgotten,but very important turning point in the making of England. I believe that the Norse were travelling between the rivers Severn and Trent when their vanguard was set upon by the Saxons at Woden's field (Wednesfield), then the major battle happened just north of modern Wolverhampton at Tettenhall. I knew none of this until a few years ago(thanks BBC History), but I'd played cricket for Wolverhampton in Tettenhall for years. The address of the cricket club is Danescourt Road. This can't be a coincidence.
Your channel is amazing, I cannot begin to explain how happy I am that I found it. As someone who goes out of their way to investigate claims they hear in documentaries and literature, I truly appreciate that you've taken it upon yourself to do this homework and document it for everyone to enjoy. The artwork and visual evidence is especially great, and your attention to detail, regardless of how minute, is top notch. You likely have a long time subscriber on your hands out of me. Watched a dozen or so far, and I'm pretty hooked. Keep up the tremendous work!
I hope you one day make a whole series about Aethlelflaed. I only discoverer her thanks to The Last Kingdom show and initially thought they were doing some tv pandering making her up or her exploits up. But I've started reading everything I can find on her and I am just shocked her story and amazing deeds into literally making England have all but been erased. We should have movies, books and TV series about her and teaching about her in school. One of the greastest rulers and uniters and we barely knew she existed. Astonishing.
I'd argue she was the most important female figure in English history. The scale of the events she was directly involved in blows my mind. She, her father, her brother, and her nephew created England. Let that sink in for a second. Find me a woman who had her fingerprints on a more important time in history. Just incredible. Everyone should know her name.
thanks man is always nice to see a video about anglosaxon england! i come to love this historical period thanks to the bernard cornwell books about uthred of bebbanburg ;)
Bernard Cornwell deserves a lot of praise for deciding to cover this historical period. Sure, he invents a lot of stuff, particularly in later books, but only after reading his books I became aware of the lesser known parts of the history of the creation of England. Cornwell is probably my favorite historical fiction writer.
Great video as always my friend! As a French, I snob, of course, English history but I make an exception for you. I don't think it's the theme of your channel, but what could be interesting is a short video on how English lost "ae" (since it seems to be a common letter in these ancient names) and what replaced it. Cheers
I've been toying with the idea of doing some shorter videos on a particular theme, rather than my usual narrative ones. This could be a nice subject to start with...
@@HistoryTime I think that's a good idea - it allows you to put out more content that doesn't take as much time as well as talking about important but smaller topics.
As a New Zealander of British descent, I find this history fascinating. My paternal surname is from way South, around Poole, but my ears pricked up when Preston was referenced in the description of the Viking occupation by Ingimundr, as that is where my maternal Grandfather came from. However, my mother believed he was of Welsh descent through his mother's family, and gave me and my brother Welsh names. However again, it was told to me he was an illegitimate child brought up by his mother's older married sister, and his mother was a servant of the local gentry, impregnated by someone at the "big house". More probably the butler than the Lord, I guess! It is little nuances like this that get lost in the big sweep of history.
Danny Alex: to do that properly, it’s necessary to include Pictland, Strathclyde, Ireland and Brittany as well as Gaul and Spain. British kingdoms weren’t confined to southern insular Britain. For example, the Basque Country strongly reflects the British aspect of its history in its DNA.
One thing to say,, You use the word Viking which at this time after the Viking raids Maybe you could use the names Danes and Norse as by this time as in Dane Law from either the estuary of the River Dee or Mersey
I am finding obscure medieval history is just as enthralling as well known events . three cheers to our LADY of the SAXONS , a stout lass of exceptional martial abilities. please bring us more good sir ,cr.
I was born and Live in Chester. Thank you so much. Much of Chester's history of this time is ignored. From The Synod of Chester the First Battle of Chester 603ish to 2nd Battle of Chester you are talking of with the Mercians, This as you suggest with The Mercians loosing influence and power to the power of Wessex and Kent. Would like to hear more from you and even discuss this time with you of lost history of the kingdoms after the Romans to the thugs of the Norman conquest
Women like Aethelflaed, didn't need any women's rights and any modern concepts.She took the power necessary to accomplish the safety of her land and people by shear force of personality.These women appear throughout history and even in recent to times with examples such as Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher.
Very well done. Subscribed. This is going to be a very big history channel. I am very sorry that in my country (the Netherlands) we know very little details of these times. Much is known in Roman times in Roman territory. But after the Romans left, there is a huge gap until the 1200's, spanning a Thousand years of which we know very little.
Always wondered why as a Lancastrian native why I had random Norwegian and Irish ancestry on that DNA test… (no Irish ancestry going back to 1700’s) this video may well of cleared that up 😅
Hmm... I wonder if "holme" is linguistically connected to "hill" "helm" and "helmet". (3/4 through vid it was written on a map some irish/viking words that still existed in place names around the Mercey valley, "holme" was a useful small island). So if correct, I'm thinking the small islands were similar to the mound cultures throughout the rest of the ancient world (with a possible direct link to north American mound building cultures through viking contact). Mounds, or hills near rivers being prime small settlement locations. The hill was the central feature, and became the fortified "helm" as it was built up and improved as the settlement matured over time. This protective structure in diminutive form eventually became an adapted word for the protective structure that goes on the head, the "helmet".
Black country folk today still have that Germanic mercian dialect which in part has fressian heritage. It's not slang it's old English / inglish so when you here it be proud as it's our past speaking.
This is so fascinating. I wonder how often English folks think of themselves as ancestrally Germanic. What a complicated, unbridled history of determination to rule. In a sense, Germanic hegemony succeeded. As Germany is far more successful than England today.
Well God bless the Irish and the Welsh who kept all the right detail of the people who lived during these times!! The West Saxons couldn't a *Woman Warrior and Queen* mentioned anywhere, it might start giving other women ideas.....like reading and thinking, a little sword play, astride instead of the dangerous sidesaddle, they might even start to think that they might be something other than a source of perpetual in-consequence!!
Terrific and compelling story but poor use of graphics made it hard to follow. Graphics should at least represent or highlight the narrative, not distract from it. Every time you mention Chester you zoom in or pan on the same map that doesn't show where Chester is. More often in your videos the graphics are so data rich that, again, it's hard to connect with what you're commenting on. I'm sure I'm just pissing in the wind here but thought the critique might be useful (if it isn't ... ).
It was wednesfield once wodensfield not tenenhall!!! Chester's victory so great gave us the game yes bow today's football as the enemies heads were cut off and kicked around such a victory it was and became an annual event depicted by a pigs bladder kicked around !!! It became so popular by the time of Henry the 8th he tried to ban it as kids had stopped doing archery in its favour !!!! Footballs history.
Wednesfield was once known as wodensfield. After the battle the mercian and those vikings who survived celebrated at Wills hall, known today as willenhall !!!
hi I love your doc's by the way you are better thayourselfhers on history.........Eny way Have to disagree my ancestors of Anglo Saxon left a big lot not only bigger and richer but astonishing master craftsmanship rivals any other found P.S Eny one can see the video of the lot on RU-vid called the Saxon hoard. And you can judge for yourself
I thought they had decided that Celts were more of a linguistic tradition than a geographical one. Seems I heard that said in a documentary. They are a bit hard to pin down once you look at the origins. Archaeology places them across Europe, which blew me away as I always thought that Celts lived in Britain only.
An interesting video, but you seem otherwise too well-educated to be unaware that "comprising" does not take "of" (because comprising means "including", and we do not say "including of"). Thus, "consisting of", but simply "comprising".
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I consider my self a Cestrian though I now live in Canada. I love every word of British history but lament the fact that my old home town in the north of England usually gets only a passing mention when it was in fact a wealthy city of great importance throughout the story of England. A city worth visiting and sadly missed by me for its wealth of stories and ancient architecture .
Watching The Last Kingdom and reading the books have brought her to my attention. I was brought up in the Vale of Evesham and knew the cathedrals in the area, but never heard anything about her.
I cannot help noticing that for centuries Northumbria was allied with Cumbria, Mercia with Wales, and Wessex with Brittany, in each case an Anglo-Saxon polity with a Celtic neighbour. This merits explanation.
So a warrior queen emerges upon the death of her husband the king and fights back the foreigners who invaded their land and broke an agreement with them. Sounds almost Boudician... Would love to see some films made about some of these people and events in this underrepresented time period. Seems like SO much great material to work with. Especially Æthelflæd. Who doesnt like an ancient warrior queen...
Agreed. I am interested in the under reporting of warrior queens and the many women who fought as placeholders for their son’s rightful inheritance or claimants to their thrones/kingdoms in Britain.
dana-zoe gest: There are so many women military commanders! Just selecting from high and late medieval Western Europe, there are Elizabeth de Montfort, Matilda of Canossa, Empress Maud, Black Agnes, Jeanne de Belleville, and many more.
I. Rex: there’s a tendency to report Æthelflæd as “Lady of Mercia” by right of marriage to Ealdorman Æthelred,but in fact she was matrilineally of the royal family of Mercia, and that mattered there, whatever the rulers of Wessex thought. It was her daughter Ælfwynn who was rightful heiress of Mercia but uncle Edward the Elder usurped her.
What Keith said! I just finished season 3 of Last Kingdom and Æthelflæd is a main character. Although so far, she's only been the object of a couple of rescues, her character is being developed as a strong leader. Since the story so far hasn't reached 911 where Æthelflæd takes over she hasn't reached her full historic potential, but there are signs she's going to do great things in future seasons of the show. I am wondering if her notable absence in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle has to do with some bad blood that might erupt between her and her brother Edward. Maybe that's why she died "suddenly" in 918. It does seem suspicious that Æthelflæd dies and Mercia is annexed by Wessex.
Alfred’s name occurs repeatedly in documents in Brittany, over a period of several decades, before his reign. Alfred as king decreed that Bretons were most welcome in Wessex. So I wonder if there’s some important missing history there?
@Urien Rheged The Anglians appeared to have settled in the north eastern area of the Coritani relatively lately and sparingly, if place names in S. Yorks and limited archaeology are anything to go by. Which suggests that they were able to co-exist, to a degree.
Was never really interested in this period of history until I started watching the Vikings and especially The Last Kingdom. And now I can’t get enough of it. This whole time period of England is so fascinating to me! Love it! History Time does a great job!
I am an inuvaluit(eskimo)born and raised in the mackenzie river delta area in northern canada and british history has fascinated even me for the past 50 years and I just turned 60.Absolutely fascinating
@@1966bluemax it should. JRR Tolkien was a professor in Anglo Saxon history. His motivation behind the creation of Middle Earth was to reignite a passion foe English history. e.g the Land Rohan and it's people are a fantasy experiment of who the Anglo Saxons might have become without Norman interference
The Vikings series uses many real characters, but the storyline is is fictional. Ragnar Sigurdsson was born in 765 and is my 35th great-grandfather. Rollo Ragnvaldsson was born in 860 and is my 32nd GGF. The show presents them as brothers, and they weren't related. That said, I enjoyed the show very much.
This incredible lady deserves the title "The Great" like her father Alfred The Great. Her achievements are somewhat criminally overlooked, particularly by the Anglo-Saxons Chronicles, which are so bias to the West Saxon's of Wessex. Thank goodness for other contemporary Irish sources. Which give justice to Aethelflead Lady of The Mercians & Queen of the Saxons. I salute her eternal & glorious memory!!
I was born and brought up in the Wirral in Cheshire. Delighted to find such a comprehensive record of Mercia's Queen Aethelflaeda of Chester and Ingamunda King of the Irish Vikings. My DNA is proof of the Irish Viking/ Anglo Saxon occupation. I have connections to both as well as Roman and Welsh!! Many thanks!
Really weird to read this, as it could have been written by me - same name, born & brought up in the wirral etc. & it seems with similar interests. Have you read the book 'Ingimund's Saga, Norwegian Wirral'? It's one of the few which mention the battle of Bromborough, which is where I grew up.
Do you find yourself conflicted within yourself? Lol. This is amazing, but I can't keep it all straight and I majored in history. You really have to stay with a topic to really master it though.
Wonderful video documentary ! Why doesn't it surprise me that the great deeds of a female warrior, Aethelflaed, wasn't recorded in the annals of the times ? Who did the recording ?....monks ! Most "holy" men of those times (and not only then) were so biased against woman generally, and women rulers in particular, that they invariably got either a very bad press....or weren't mentioned at all - or if we are lucky, are only mentioned fleetingly, as a side line. As an expat Englishman living near Hamburg, Germany, in the former Danish province of Schleswig- Holstein, it has always interested me that so many place names in this region have endings of " -by " and " -Holm ", depicting their Danish roots. In the north of the province there is still today the region called " Angeln", from where our forefathers the Angles came from. Thank you for bringing this little known episode of our history back into our minds. ❤
It was the Anglo Saxon chronicles, recorded in Wessex in Edward's court, which mostly ignore her or mention her briefly, not apparently wanting to be overshadowed by his sister. It is only thanks to the chronicles of other kingdoms, including her rivals, like welsh and irish annals, and the mercian register, that her story was preserved. It is quite telling that welsh and irish chronicles would speak with such admiration of a ruler from another kingdom, like they did of her, even one saying she put the 'fear into edward's enemies' lol and both call her a 'queen' not just 'lady of mercia'. Her death is recorded by them as 'famosissima regina Saxonum' while edward and alfred's death aren't mentioned. That means she must have been quite famous in her time and now we barely know of her. She must have been quite an astonishing woman to have been a renowned and feared queen/female ruler in THOSE times by even her enemies. Gosh, I'd like to have a traveling machine just to see that!
In the Irish Annuls it says Ingimundr met with Æthelflead, There is one possible meeting place in Chester St Johns church which might make sense as there are a collection of Anglo Saxon wheel headed Crosses with scandavian influence inside 7 in total dating to 10c, also there's was a quarry 10c a stone mason school, just below Church adjacent to the groves where scandavian dwelt alongside river Dee. Chester has a huge Viking influence, several large hoard found largest is Castle Esplanade hoard, Viking church decicated to St Olave built around 1050 on lower bridge Street, Viking Street names - crook St and St Olav street. Viking field names in area.Also all around Chester an abundance of Viking finds including Huxley hoard.
>as well as most documents from the middle ages, it is above all else a piece of political writing that never changed. there's loads of questionable history about nearly every war the US has been involved in, and I've witnessed the media lie about multiple things and then that's what ends up on wikipedia or whatever.
I find it kind of bizarre how the West Saxon chronicles leave Aethelflaed out so often. Like, yes, she was the lady of the mercians because of her marriage, but she was also Alfred's daughter. Since the Anglo-Saxon chronicles are partly propaganda by the house of Wessex, what would be better propaganda than that the once mighty kingdom of Mercia needed a woman, the daughter of the great king Alfred, to save them? They could have written about how the mercians would have been crushed without her, about how she learned all of this from her father, about how the house of Wessex is therefore clearly superb to everyone else. Missed opportunity if you ask me...
It was probably more due to political concerns: Mercia would be subsumed into Wessex after her death. Putting too much emphasis on her could have been felt to encourage Mercian separatism. On the other hand, Mercia had a tradition of fairly strong queens, not necessarily ruling instead of kings, but exercising royal authority alongside the king, while Wessex did not, so Wessex sexual mores may have played a role.
snkline: each Queen of Mercia was the daughter of the previous Queen (and King), so it was matrilineal, despite what some say. To become king of Mercia, a man had to marry the Queen of Mercia. Edward the Elder disregarded that and seized the throne of Mercia from his niece Ælfwynn.
Zoe Porphyrogenita this is demonstrably untrue as any simple check on the records would show. Let us take the two most famous Mercian Kings for example: Penda succeeded by his son Peada, Offa succeeded by his son Ecgfrith. Not sure why you are peddling this utter nonsense when it is so easily disproven. (Oh and another correction from a different thread - Empress Maud was not a military commander at all - her General was Robert Fitzroy her half brother. When he was captured she basically had to give up all the gains her side had made in the civil war, including the captured king Stephen, as no one else had the same authority to lead her supporters).
The story of and info gleaned from the Cuerdale Hoard sounds really interesting. Any references? (preferably with a visual or secondarily an audio bias?) I generally read more technical stuff related to other interests until I get kinda burned out. I should diversify my reading, I know, but I keep putting it off until we invent a longer than 24 hour day or find a remedy for humanity's 1/3-ish of our day sleeping disorder ;) Thanks for the upload Pete. Nice to see a well monetized upload from you too. Keep 'em coming. -Jake
Hey Jake! Thanks for the comment. Where are you based? If you are in the UK you can see the Cuerdale Hoard on display in all its glory at the British Museum in London. If not, there should be a fair bit of information on it online. It's also covered in various books on the Viking age in England. Viking Age England by J.D Richards being one.
@@HistoryTime I'm just south of Los Angeles California, so a long way from a long way away. Maybe one day I'll get the chance to visit London and check it out myself. We don't really have the Middle Age historical connection here, but I did catch a spectacular SpaceX Falcon 9 twilight launch and landing from my roof last night, so I guess it's not all that bad living here ;) Thanks for the book reference. -Jake
Aethelflaed always amazed me in becoming a Queen among Mercians in this era, especially given there were powerful male alternatives available (like her brother Edward). She must have had some serious charisma and wit to pull it off!
Chester is rich with so much history, but not so many records! One of three roman superforts, it fell into disrepair until Aethelflaed, and later William the Conquerer. But seeing a video on a segment of Chester's history as a central location in England makes me happier!
Yes, yes oh yes oh yes oh yes. You may have noticed crusades history is another of my passions. So I am very keen to combine Northern Europe with Crusades! I'll do a lengthy series on it eventually.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Brian of Brittany, but not his much more famous brother Alan Rufus, hero of Hastings to the Normans, defender of liberty to the English, source of wealth to the Dutch, and most awesome knight to the French. Nor does it mention their youngest brother Stephen of Landregor, who opened the first English Parliament in 1089.
A remarkable woman, who did more than any of the men of the time. Even her father had given the Danes most of England to save his own kingdom rather than continue fighting, but she attacked instead.
Wow i have to say i read the Uhtred books, Saxon Stories and this battle is in them, bee hives are used in a battle but cant remember if its that one or another. Amazing video, keep it up man i personally cant get enough.
Æthelflæd’s maternal line was of the royal family of Mercia. Her daughter Ælfwynn was designated her heir, but brother Edward deposed her to merge Wessex and Mercia. However, Edward’s intended heir Ælfweard didn’t live long enough to be crowned; instead, Æthelstan, who was brought up in Æthelflæd’s court because of disagreement with Edward, was. Touché!
Very welcome video for this period which does a good job of explaining that the ASC is a Wessex focused artifact. Just one pedantic point - the old english letter "ash" formed from an "a" and an "e" was most likely pronounced (according to the Old English academic books I have read) as the "a" in (modern English) cat, not as an "e" as you most often do. Its a common mistake, for example The Last Kingdom and Vikings consistently get it wrong. So it's not "Ethelred", or Ethelflad", its "Athelred" or "Athelflad". A small point but it drives me crazy. But thanks for a fine video.
I am an American but my family originated in England and Scotland. I’m fascinated with British history. I think they lived in what was East Anglia on the coast. When we did the genealogy test the results were mainly Northern European, including France and Germany but 6% Scandinavian. So these are my people! My state of Kentucky was mainly settled by the Scotch and Irish. That’s why we make bourbon and have horse racing. Bluegrass music is tied to the music of Scotland and Ireland. Lots of similarities!
Thanks for this video! Not to sound like a total chick but I love reading and learning about great women from medieval Europe. Eleanor of Aquitaine is my favorite person to read about! I would love to a video involving her. I mean there's so many angles . Queen to the French King, then the English queen, Duchess of Aquitaine and Poitou. Mother of 2 Kings Richard the lionheart and John I. Not to mention one if of the last great patrons of the original troubadours and even granddaughter to one of the first. I'm fascinated by her and also Joanna of Naples. We can't fathom the extent of how mysogenistic these societies were, being a powerful women in a man's world. I mean this time period is was especially .. Even first born daughters of great Lords or even Kings dates and even years of birth are unknown because the chroniclers found women so insignificant. We do know that other than holding many impressive titles over her long life, including prisoner of her husband Henry II, she basically ruled England while her son Richard I was off on crusades then held for Ransom, she went on a crusade and her lines produced many rules All over Europe. While many contemporary sources of the times weren't very thorough at the same time many were very bias but at least the great men of the times were worth the ink to mark their deeds... Women weren't mentioned outside of marriage, giving birth to boys and anything scandalous, true or not. Basically, I'd love a video involving Eleanor of Aquitaine (or just on her alone) and Henry II, her sons, her first husband Loius vii .... Anything lol Please and thank you!
If you can bear it, could you make some videos about the Welsh records? English scholars tend to dismiss them, a legacy of the arrogance of empire. Cheers!
No plans to dedicate a whole video to them specifically, but I will be using them extensively in upcoming videos on Early Medieval British history. Of particular interest to me is the northern kingdom of Gwynedd. Eventually I'd like to cover all of Gwynedd's history from the formation of the kingdom to the final defeat at the hands of the English.
Well, that's a start. I may have mentioned this before, but you know the Welsh believe they are one of the lost tribes of Israel? I know this sounds fanciful, but isn't it strange that many leaders chose to fight from chariots? Nice vehicles for arid lands or steppes, but not much good you would have thought for muddy, hilly and possibly forested areas. Could this be a desire to honour a folk memory? Anyhow, we're a lot more interesting than the English!
Anglo Saxon...very passionate n enlightenment history which i have been keen...penda THE king of Northumbria was the most powerful ruler in 7TH century in Anglo Saxon England...
History Time Got a bit messy, ended up in A jazz bar with loads of people (including long haired Ozzy Sean) then hopped in a cab to Vauxhall to some house party thing, mental! didn’t get in til about 10 the next day 😅
Pronounced A thel fleed and A thel red and A thel Stan and Mercia is a modern name not Anglo Saxon and the c in Mercia is not s sound but Ch sound old English Mierce meaning border people surrounded by other kingdoms and Wales. Modern name Ethel derrives from AEthel meaning noble/royal and flAE'd means beauty
Literally all historians use the term Mercia and Mercian. I understand that a recent computer game opted to use the Old English title, which is fine. But it's equally fine to use Mercia. There are a multitude of different ways to pronounce Athelstan, Athelflaed and Alfred. All are fine.
I remember as a kid seeing the Gaelic inscription above the Irby post office of ‘Faugh a ballaugh’ - ‘Clear the Way’. Me and my siblings 10% Scandinavean DNA and my cousins the Fryearsons. All Wirral born. The vikings didn’t leave you know, and ignore Michael Wood, Yorkshire hubris, Brunanburh is Bromburgh. 😊
Aethelflaed the Great. Saviour of England. Her father just started the job (10%). Her brother helped a bit too (9%). Her nephew just finished the job (11%). The rest was the Lady of the Mercians.
