Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians by Margaret C. Jones

Author:Margaret C. Jones [Jones, Margaret C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Military, Biography & Autobiography, General, Europe, history, Great Britain, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Royalty, Royalty
ISBN: 9781526733979
Google: j8OIDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
Published: 2018-08-30T23:46:41.719916+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Alfred’s Daughter

‘Daughters whose fathers have been actively engaged throughout childhood in promoting their achievements and encouraging their self-reliance and assertiveness are more likely to succeed in leadership roles traditionally held by males.’138

‘I could not as my father’s daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on.’139

What was it like for Aethelflaed to grow up as the eldest child of a man of tireless energy and enthusiastic scholarship, who defeated Vikings in battle and reformed his kingdom? Aethelflaed’s father had defended his people of Wessex from a ruthless enemy, fighting his way back from exile to a crucial victory. He might not, as later generations believed, have either burned a peasant woman’s cakes or spied on a Danish camp disguised as a minstrel. But he had contrived an effective defence system for Wessex and the adjoining kingdoms, promoted learning across Wessex, translated classic religious texts, founded abbeys and presided over a cosmopolitan court that welcomed scholars and other foreign visitors from across Western Europe. He took a keen interest in the upbringing of his children, his daughters as much as his sons, and particularly in that of Aethelflaed, his first-born. It was an upbringing that had to leave its mark.

Contrary to earlier received wisdom about the unique importance of strong mother figures as role models in a woman’s development, recent research suggests that a daughter’s self-confidence, ego strength and capacity for self-assertiveness depend greatly on positive guidance and encouragement from her father. Given the patriarchal structures predominant in most known societies, it is hardly surprising that a child, whether male or female, would look to the father rather than the mother for assurance and encouragement before taking action in the world.140

One important example Alfred set his daughter was that of personal courage. As a child she had witnessed his struggles for survival, and for the survival of his kingdom, in his most difficult time.

The flight to Athelney was not the first of Alfred’s challenges. By the time Aethelflaed was 8 her father had been in battle – not counting minor skirmishes – at least sixteen times – at Nottingham, Reading, Ashdown, Basing, Wilton and Merton. In 870 alone, he fought in nine major engagements. In 874 he took to sea, leading a naval attack against incoming Vikings. He ‘fought against seven ship-loads, and captured one of them and put the others to flight’.141

After his brother King Aethelred died in 871, Alfred succeeded him as king. He did so reluctantly, daunted by the military challenges ahead: ‘for indeed he did not think that he alone could ever withstand such great ferocity of the Vikings, unless strengthened by divine help, since he had already sustained great losses of many men while his brothers were alive.’142

In spite of this seeming hesitancy in accepting the role of king, Alfred on the battlefield was remembered for bold decisive action – notably at Ashdown. Before the fight, while the Vikings were assembling their troops, he found that his older brother King Aethelred was still in his tent hearing Mass.

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