The Scandelous & Shocking Tales of Anglo-Saxon Queens

Judith of Flanders, a prominent historical figure, played a significant role in the medieval period as the Queen Consort of Wessex and the Countess Consort of Flanders. Born around the year 843, her life was marked by political alliances, marriages, scandals and the challenges of navigating the intricate web of early medieval European politics. This is her story. Judith was the eldest child of King Charles II of West Francia, which in turn made her the great-granddaughter of the legendary Charlemagne, putting much prestige behind her lineage. She would have grown up in a lavish estate and received the best possible treatment that an early medieval princess would have, however, this would come at a cost. In the year 855, King Aethelwulf of Wessex would make a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way there, he stopped off at the court of King Charles and negotiated for a marriage with his 12-year-old daughter, Judith. Judith was born during a time before the country of England was birthed and instead were many separate kingdoms. The four major ones were Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex. Aethelwulf would have been in his fifties at this point and already had six children, many of them already being adults. Nevertheless, these kings lived during the early stages of the Viking Age and were seeking allies in order to protect their kingdoms from the ravaging and raiding the Norsemen were causing. King Aethelwulf would soon return from his pilgrimage in the year 856 and would once again stay in the court of King Charles. The king in his mid-fifties would marry a young Judith, aged around 13 at the time, in the year 856. The marriage was a lavish event and took place in the royal palace of In addition, a Carolingian princess rarely married and they were usually sent to convents in order to live out their lives in servitude to God. It was also extremely rare for them to marry foreign kings. However, with the power hungry Viking warlords in Britain, alliances had to be cemented. During the ceremony, Judith put on a beautiful wedding ring and was also presented with magnificent gifts. She was also crowned and was anointed with myrrh. Aethelwulf would also call his new bride Judith his queen after the ceremony. However, according to the customs of Wessex at the time, the wife of a king could not be called queen or sit the throne beside her husband, but Judith becoming the queen of Wessex would have been a condition Charles gave to Aethelwulf when they were negotiating the marriage. In the Annals of Bertiniani it states, when the Bishop Himcar blessed the marriage and placed the crown on her head, he declared her queen, which neither he nor his people had in the past in the custom. Following the festivities, Aethelwulf along with his newly wed wife returned to Wessex. Judith, akin to many educated Frankish princesses of her era, likely brought an air of sophistication associated with the Carolingian monarchy to the Wessex court. However, upon their return, Aethelwulf found himself surrounded by traitors. His eldest surviving son Aethelbald and the elder of Somerset, Ianwolf, conspired to depose him. In the end, Aethelwulf would divide Wessex with his son Aethelbald. He would continue ruling until his death in the year 858. Judith had no children with Aethelwulf and was now a fifteen-year-old widow. Aethelwulf's eldest surviving son Aethelbald would succeed him to the throne of Wessex, and he quickly married his stepmother Judith. In consenting to this union, Judith possibly sought to evade the conventional destiny of widows, which often involved being sent to a convent. From Aethelbald's perspective, this marriage held strategic advantages due to Judith's affiliation with the esteemed Carolingian dynasty. It enabled him to elevate his standing, positioning himself ahead of his brothers in terms of status and influence. Many chroniclers, however, note this marriage as being a scandal. One writing, Once King Aethelwulf was dead, Aethelbald his son, against God's prohibition and Christian dignity, and also contrary to the practice of all pagans, took over his father's marriage bed and married Judith, daughter of Charles, King of the Franks, incurring great disgrace from all who heard of it. Not much is known about the details from the marriage between Judith and Aethelbald, nevertheless, they must have had quite a lot of prying eyes from the people of Wessex. During this time, Judith would retain her title as Queen, but after just two and a half years, Aethelbald would die. Judith was still childless when Aethelbald passed away in the year 860. The demise of Aethelbald left Judith without prospects in Wessex. At the age of merely seventeen and without children, her future within the kingdom became uncertain. According to Carolingian sources, she sold the property that she had acquired and returned to her father, who sent her to the monastery of St. Lys, where she was to remain under his royal protection. However, Judith's story was not over. A man named Baldwin would stumble upon the monastery in the year 861 and would encounter and meet the beautiful young princess, who although young and fair, was already widowed twice. Baldwin would soon fall in love with Judith and around the Christmas of the year 862, Judith ran away from the monastery with her new love interest. Judith's father King Charles would be absolutely outraged upon hearing the news. He immediately ordered for search parties to find his daughter Judith and capture Baldwin. A new issue would arise however. It had come to the king's attention that the couple had married in secret, without royal consent. King Charles would have them both excommunicated from the church. In essence, they had been banished from the church, which in 9th century Francia was a serious matter. Judith no longer had ties to her father, Charles, or her family. She could not return to any of her estates, and she had sold all her land in Wessex and had been excommunicated from the church. Out of options, Judith and her new husband Baldwin would seek refuge with the Viking Rorik, a warlord and the king of Frisia, which is a modern day province in the Netherlands. Judith must have been desperate indeed to seek the help of the Vikings. Eventually however, Judith and Baldwin would travel to Rome. She would plead her case to Pope Nicholas I and was very convincing with her appeal. The Pope would ask Charles to recognise their marriage as legitimate and welcome the young couple, but King Charles was a stubborn man and would not be persuaded easily. Charles would eventually come around however and forgave his daughter and reluctantly allowed her to marry. In hopes that Baldwin would meet a quick death, King Charles gifted him land south of the Scheldt River, a region frequently raided by the Vikings. Baldwin would prove to be quite the warrior and gained the nickname Ironarm. He amassed an army and began building on his newly acquired land. This land would evolve to become the county of Flanders, an extremely powerful domain in France. Judith's home would now reside in Flanders and it was a lavish fortified castle, with drawbridges and high walls. Now secure in her new marriage, she had at least three sons with Baldwin, however she would die in around the year 870 at the young age of 26. She is remembered to history as Judith of Flanders. Her life was marked by the challenges of navigating familial and political dynamics, as well as societal expectations. Her marriages were not always her own personal choices and when they were, they resulted in scandal, especially the marriages to Æthelbald and Baldwin. In addition, her behaviour was unseemly for a Carolingian princess, from marrying her dead husband's son, to escaping from a nunnery and eloping without the consent of her father. Judith is mainly remembered in many chronicles and annals for the outrage she caused, however in the end she left a legacy in contributing to the establishment of the county of Flanders. A lot of us know Æthelflaed from the TV show The Last Kingdom. Here we see her accomplish much, such as fighting the Danes to protect Mercia. Let it be clear that Æthelflaed, the Lady of Mercia, was very real and many historians describe Æthelflaed as a warrior queen who played a vital role in the campaigns against the Danes. So let's delve into the life of the warrior Lady of the Mercians and find out more about her. First, let's look at her ancestry and early life. Æthelflaed was the daughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and the King of the Anglo-Saxons. Alfred wouldn't have a peaceful reign though, as soon as he ascended to the throne, he spent several years fighting Viking invasions. Æthelflaed would be born in the height of the Viking Age in the year 870. By the time she was eight years old, most of England would be under Viking rule. The whole of the north had been conquered and so had East Anglia and Alfred was forced out of his own capital city and was on the run, hiding out in the marshes of Somerset. The whole of England had fallen and Alfred was the only man who could take it back. Soon enough, Alfred would win a decisive victory at the Battle of Eddington and would force the Vikings out of Wessex that would result in the baptism of their leader Guthrum. Sometime in the 880s, Alfred would seal a strategic alliance between the surviving English kingdoms by marrying Æthelflaed to Æthelred, the Lord of the Mercians. It is said that Æthelred was a lot older than Æthelflaed and they only had one child together called Ælfwyn. Saxon rule at this time was confined to Mercia's western half, as eastern Mercia was part of the Vikings Danelaw. Æthelflaed herself was half Mercian, with her mother being Ælswith, a noblewoman whose father was Æthelred Musel, a Mercian noble and the elderman of the Gaeni, one of the many tribes in Mercia. Æthelflaed and her husband Æthelred would do much together such as granting privileges to many abbeys and churches. Æthelred would also spend much time in the 890s fighting the Vikings alongside Alfred's son and the future king Edward the Elder. However, sometime after the year 899, Æthelred's health may have declined and Æthelflaed may have become the effective ruler of Mercia. She would stand in for Æthelred, presiding over courts and signing diplomatic treaties. She also began to build a reputation for efficiency and justice. The Mercians soon realised that she was brilliant and was a natural leader, disregarding her gender which was rare at the time. Her husband would die in the year 911 and upon his death, Æthelflaed became the Lady of the Mercians. Her ascent to the Mercian throne has been described as the only case of a female ruler of a kingdom in Anglo-Saxon history and one of the unique events in early medieval history. The elderman of Mercia would even swear allegiance to her. However, soon enough, trouble with the Vikings would once again be on the horizon. This is where Æthelflaed's amazing role as a strategist would shine. Viking settlers would be expelled from Ireland and would make their way to Mercia. Æthelflaed would give the Norsemen land in Mercia, but in reality, she was stalling them while she made preparations. She knew that if she didn't make peace with them instantly, they would bide their time and attack, but this way, they could be constantly watched, their supplies and numbers tracked which would give her accurate information so she could organise her defences or counterattacks accordingly. Her foresight would prove correct, as the same group of Norsemen attacked Chester in the year 907, but couldn't breach the city's walls. Æthelflaed knew that more Viking attacks were on the way, as the Vikings had taken Mercia before and she knew it was only a matter of time before they wanted to retake it. So she would renew alliances with powerful eldermen and her brother, the King of Wessex. Together, brother and sister would reconquer old Mercian territories that were within the Danelaw. They would launch a five-week campaign against the kingdom of Linsey and would recapture the relics of St. Oswald of Northumbria. In the year 910, Æthelflaed would finally make her mark in battle as the Vikings would seek vengeance. The kings of the Danelaw would assemble, there were three co-rulers who were all kings and brothers, there was Eowils, Halfdan and Inwair. They would transport their army through the river Severn directly into the heartlands of Mercia. They would raid and ravage the land and would collect much wealth. They would quickly make their way back to their lands but all of this had been anticipated by the Lady of Mercia Æthelflaed would meet the three Viking kings at Tettenhall with an army. Also present was her brother, Edward, with the forces of Wessex and so the Battle of Tettenhall began. The allies of Wessex and Mercia trapped their Viking enemy and inflicted such a slaughter that it was reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that thousands of Vikings were killed. The three Viking kings of Northumbria were amongst the fallen and died there on the battlefield. To conclude, it was a massacre. It seems that here Æthelflaed the warrior was born. She never married after the death of her husband, all were captivated by her for her work ethic and brilliance really was astounding. In the year 917, there were further Viking invasions but all would fail. Æthelflaed would send her armies to capture Derby which was one of the five boroughs in the Danelaw and soon enough, the dominoes would all start to fall. Her victory at Derby has been regarded as one of her greatest victories as it broke through the barrier to allow the reconquest of England. Just a few years earlier, this was thought to be impossible. By the end of the year, the East Anglian Vikings submitted to Æthelflaed and in early 918, she liberated the ancient city of Leicester with their Viking army submitting to her. York was now under threat of being reclaimed by the Saxons and the Vikings were terrified to lose one of their final strongholds. But York would pledge their loyalty to Æthelflaed to avoid bloodshed, but she would tragically die on the 12th of June in the year 918, at the age of 48, before she could accept their loyalty. She died a few months too early to see the final conquest of the southern Danelaw by her brother Edward. She was succeeded as the Lady of Mercians by her daughter Ælfwin, but Edward would soon depose her and have Mercia under his control and so ends the tale of the Lady of Mercia. With her starting the conquest of the Danelaw and the retaking of England, she laid the foundations for her father Alfred's dream, a united England. Her brother King Edward had influence over most of the country when he absorbed Mercia into his own kingdom and also with many of the boroughs of the Danelaw submitting to him. Æthelflaed made it possible for Edward's son King Æthelstan to be proclaimed as the first king of the whole of England. Ælfrith was the first wife of an English king to be anointed as queen. She is remembered as an extremely powerful political figure in the late 10th century and is remembered to history as an evil queen, drunk on power, who would hatch plots and schemes from the shadows. But how did the first official queen of England get such a title? This is her story. Ælfrith was born just two decades after the establishment of England in the year 945 and like all girls in the kingdom, she had dreams of becoming a queen. She was the daughter of As per the accounts of William of Malmesbury, the foremost English historian of the 12th century, news of the exceptional beauty of Ælfrith, the daughter of Ordgar, reached the ears of the current king of England, King Edgar. In search of a suitable queen, Edgar dispatched Æthelwald, the elderman of East Anglia, to assess the girl's beauty and instructed him to propose marriage to her if her appearance lived up to the reports. Finding her beauty to be as splendid as rumoured, Æthelwald, contrary to his instructions, married Ælfrith himself and falsely reported to Edgar that she was unsuitable. Upon learning of Æthelwald's betrayal, Edgar devised a plan for reprisal. He declared his intention to visit Ælfrith, causing great concern for Æthelwald. Desperate to dissuade the king's interest, Æthelwald implored Ælfrith to make herself appear as unattractive as possible for the impending visit. However, she defied his request and, according to William, deliberately enhanced her allure. Edgar, captivated by her beauty, allegedly killed Æthelwald during a hunting expedition. Ælfrith could now remarry. Edgar would soon marry Ælfrith in the year 964. She would have been around 19 at the time. The kingdom of England was still relatively new prior to its unification by King Æthelstan in the year 927. Several Viking warlords would crown themselves the kings of the provinces they invaded. In light of these circumstances, King Edgar orchestrated a second coronation for himself to reinforce his assertion as the undisputed ruler of all England. In this coronation ceremony, Ælfrith too was crowned and anointed, elevating her status to a level surpassing that of any recent queen. However, Edgar had two children already, a son named Edward and a daughter named Edith. Ælfrith and Edgar would soon have children of their own, Edmund, although he died young, and a second son named Æthelred. Throughout her tenure as queen, Ælfrith bore the responsibility of overseeing the kingdom's nunneries. Her influence extended beyond court, as she actively engaged in the affairs of various abbeys, taking a keen interest in their well-being. This not only attests to her administrative prowess, but also underscores her genuine dedication to the religious and social fabric of the kingdom. After around ten years of marriage, King Edgar would die in the year 975, he left behind two sons by different mothers, Edward and Æthelred. Edward was almost an adult at the time of his father's death, whereas Æthelred would have been a boy of ten. Ælfrith would support her son's claim for the throne, however she was unsuccessful and Edward would ascend to the throne, ending her time as queen. Three years into Edward's reign, he would visit his younger brother Æthelred at Corfe castle in the year 978. According to William of Malmesbury, Ælfrith had been scheming during Edward's reign to have him killed, and this was her chance. She knew he wouldn't have huge amounts of guards surrounding him as he was visiting Kin, and she could come to greet him personally before he entered the castle as a courtesy to the king. She would hand him refreshment after his long journey, but this was a distraction, and her servant would stab the unaware king. Edward fell off his horse and died. The only true choice now to be the king of England was Æthelred, and so, the blood of Ælfrith would come to rule the land. However, news regarding how the king died would spread around the kingdom, and he became a legendary figure, even being proclaimed as a saint. Later chronicles were written about his life, and they paint Ælfrith as a witch and a murderer. Some accounts even say she slew the king herself. Nevertheless, in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, the killer of the king was never named. It must have remained a secret among the nobility that hid the truth behind the regicide. In the span of a year following his brother's demise, Æthelred ascended to the throne as the confirmed king of the English. Given Æthelred's youth, Ælfrith assumed the role as regent, providing steady guidance and governance for her son, until he reached the age of maturity which transpired around the year 984. Therefore, Ælfrith was the most powerful woman in the England at the time for around six years. This period of regency underscores Ælfrith's pivotal role in maintaining stability and continuity within the English monarchy during a transitional phase in the young king's life. After her son Æthelred, now remembered to history as Æthelred the Unready, assumed his duties as king, Ælfrith remained an important figure in court, being responsible for the care of her grandchildren. Despite the tarnishing of her reputation due to the unforeseen murder of her stepson, Ælfrith remained a woman of devout religious convictions. Throughout her queenship, she demonstrated a particular commitment to According to the accounts by William of Malmesbury, Ælfrith is credited with the founding of several abbeys. This reveals her enduring dedication to fostering religious institutions and contributing to the broader tapestry of monastic life during her reign. She died in around the year 1000, unfortunately due to the murder of Edmund and Ælfrith being blamed in many sources. She is remembered as a stereotypical evil queen and a bad stepmother, who as the first official queen of England, became drunk on power and had to have her own blood on the throne. I would like to give a huge thank you to all of my members, your contribution really helps make all of these videos possible. A special thank you to Stephanie Hasson, Theresa Laux and John Seitz. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like, subscribe and share and I'll see you all soon for another history profile.