In her book The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great, Joanna Arman delves into the life of this enigmatic Anglo-Saxon woman, who was recognised by contemporaries as a diplomat, military leader and ruler - things to which women of her times were not credited. And yet by all accounts, fact reads much better than fiction. I am looking forward to reading this when finally released.
Book Blurb:
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, while in fiction 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 and fascinating image of the "Lady of the Mercians." A skilled diplomat who forged alliances with neighboring territories, she was a shrewd and 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.
Read more here:
@ Female First - 10 things you didn't know about Aethelflaed by Joanna Arman
@ Medieval Archives - review of The Warrior Queen
@ Litera Scripta - Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians by Kaylin Oldham
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