Æthelflæd cover art

Æthelflæd

The Lady of the Mercians

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Æthelflæd

By: Tim Clarkson
Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

This Dark Ages biography chronicles the life of one of the period's most famous women: the ruler of Mercia who took England back from the Vikings.

At the end of the ninth century, a large part of what is now England was controlled by the Vikings—warlike Scandinavians who had been attacking the British Isles for more than a hundred years. Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, was determined to regain the conquered lands. But when he died in 899 A.D., the task passed to his son Edward. In the early 900s, Edward led a great fight against the Viking armies, assisted by the English rulers of Mercia: Lord Æthelred and his wife Æthelflæd, who was also Edward's sister.

After her husband's death, Æthelflæd ruled Mercia on her own, leading the army to war and working with her brother to achieve their father's aims. Known to history as the Lady of the Mercians, she earned a reputation as a capable general who was feared by her enemies. In this authoritative biography, Tim Clarkson tells her remarkable life story from childhood to her vital role in saving England from the Vikings.

©2018 Tim Clarkson (P)2022 Tantor Europe Great Britain Politics & Activism Royalty Women England Marriage Viking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Never Greater Slaughter cover art
The Anglo-Saxon World cover art
Conquered cover art
In Search of the Dark Ages cover art
The Makers of Scotland cover art
The Wolf Age cover art
Crécy cover art
The Last Viking cover art
The Anglo-Saxons at War cover art
Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame cover art
Winters in the World cover art
History of the Lombards cover art
The Goths cover art
The Normans cover art
Empire of the Black Sea cover art
William the Conqueror cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
the narrator may be AI? it was flat and rendered the story, a little dry, difficult to listen to. I went back over some parts several times as I kept zoning out.

a flat narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent book which is well delivered. The author is comprehensive in use of sources, noting those that are less reliable. The story is clear and easy to follow. Highly recommend.

Excellent description of a remarkable life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great read, lots of good information
On the queen of Mercia ,
Will defo use this book for studying

This book covers all aspects& history on the Anglo Saxon queen of Mercia

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Despite my fascination with the subject matter I struggled to get through this audiobook due to the bizarre narration style that had me wondering whether it was a human or AI performance. Emphasis was routinely PUT on unexpected words.... IN sentences, as well as pauses... that made YOU think a line was finished, but it was... 'nt.

The writing itself was alright, although I'd just finished listening to Marc Morris' book on the Anglo-Saxons, which did a great job of bringing characters to life with their peculiarities and quirks, and the contrast between that and this book was significant.

Very dryly written and awkwardly narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator was the star. A general history rather than a biography to my mind,

Slow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There is an awful lot of information in this book, which is great, but the reason I got it was in the hope it would be presenting this topic in an interesting story like fashion, so I could actually take some of this history in. To me it is just an impenetrable list of names, places and dates (Very useful to some!). I thought, once I got through the intro that's when the colour and substance will kick in....nope.
Perhaps a better/more useful book in physical form rather than audio. Certainly for my mind.
This may be a hit for a different type of listener however and the reader does what she can.

Not very digestible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I had anticipated that this would be a biography of Æthelflæd but, disappointingly, it seemed to be more of a general overview of Alfred, which happened to include some things on Æthelflæd.

Dont get this title if you had hoped to hear about Æthelflæd only. Best stick to the Mercian Chronicles!!

title misleading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.