King Alfred’s Daughter:The remarkable story of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, the heroine who was written out of history
By David Stokes
Publisher: The Book Guild,
Published in 2023
ISBN: 1915603196
Reviewed for Volume 1 Issue 3 Summer 2023
The Review
Who is King Alfred’s daughter? It is the Lady of the Mercian’s. Our Aethelflaed whose statue stands outside Tamworth Railway station pointing to the town with her spear.
This is a fascinating fictional story written by a historian used to writing non-fiction. Consequently the book is a wonderful story of people that threads through the known history without disturbing it. In fact you could read this adventure story as history as there is nothing you could point to and say that didn’t happen. Of course the conversations are fiction but as mentioned in the prologue and epilogues they are as accurate as any other history of the period. Apart from explaining how the history happened and, potentially, Aethelflaed’s thought processes and discussions with her brother the King of Wessex, Aethelrad, her husband King of Mercia and Aethel…
Actually there are a lot of Aethel-something’s in the book, but it is history and nothing the author can do about that. However, there is a very helpful historically accurate family tree as well as a full list of characters and who they are. It also highlights the very few fictional characters the author has added where the actual people are not known. There is also a map of the British Isles at the time. There was no “England” then (well not at the start of the tale) along with a set of historical notes from 865 to 927 and some notes on historical interpretation. So for the historians amongst you it will answer most of your questions and give an insight into history. So you can immerse yourself in the 25 years of Mercian history, the bit between Alfred the Great and the birth of England.
I recently met David Stokes at an Aethelflaed event in Tamworth castle and discussed some of the points of the story with him. Particularly the Mercian’s starting to use cavalry where they had traditionally used a shield wall on foot. There was a discussion about this between two characters which he said he had “made up” but it actually fits the known history so is probably closer to the reality than not. Even if it was someone else in Aethelflaed’s circle who had the idea than the character in the book. Also the change in tactics from the leader/king being in the shield wall, as warrior kings were up to this time, to instead directing from the rear. Directing from the rear became common in the years after this period to the current times. As David pointed out Aethelflaed appears more of an educated tactician than a brawler.
In fact in the book Aethelflaed discusses her strategy for creating fortified towns and defence lines which you can still see in many towns today, if only in the street names and in some cases still in the line of the streets. She started a lot of building work from churches to castles to burhs.
For those of you who just want a dammed good adventure story it certainly is that! There is even a romance in there as well as lopping off heads. The story roams over much of Mercia and Wessex, also the Welsh borders. You will see the towns across Mercia (and Wessex) in a new light.
As the central character is a Lady and the story supposedly written by her daughter, you might think it is feminist, a sort of “Jermaine Greer went to war”, but it isn’t, and chick-lit it certainly isn’t. It is more a subtle game of chess, and a bit of romance in passing, amidst the blunt clash of spears on shield walls and the birth of Saxon cavalry. There are Bishops, Kings and Queens along with an insight into the number of different nationalities, tribes and languages across the island. It is more like The West Wing with more violence, though not graphical violence.
So do yourself a favour and grab a copy of King Alfred’s Daughter and over the summer slip back a thousand years for a great story. You could of course visit the locations mentioned as you read the story and move between towns you thought you knew. What better way to spend a summer?
Highly recommended!
The Author, David Stokes giving a talk on the book at Tamworth Castle. 2023
