The Royal Women of the 10th Century

​

Betrayal is a family affair.

12th June AD918.

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Alfred the Great, is dead.

Ælfwynn, the niece of Edward, king of Wessex, has been bequeathed her mother’s power and status by the men of the Mercian witan. But she knows Mercia is vulnerable to the north, exposed to the retreating world of the Viking raiders from her mother’s generation.

With her cousin Athelstan, Ealdorman Æthelfrith and his sons, Archbishop Plegmund and her band of trusted warriors, Ælfwynn must act decisively to counter the threat from the Norse. Led by Rognavaldr, the grandson of the infamous Viking, Ivarr of Dublin, they've turned their gaze toward the desolate lands of Northern England and the jewel of York.

Inexplicably, Ælfwynn's also exposed to the south, where her detested cousin, Ælfweard, and uncle, King Edward, eye her position covetously, their ambitions clear to see.

This is the unknown story of Ælfwynn, the daughter of the Lady of the Mercians and the startling events of late 918 when family loyalty and betrayal marched hand in hand across lands only recently reclaimed by the Mercians from the Viking raider enemy. When kingdoms could be won or lost through treachery and fidelity, and when there was little love and even less honesty. When the words of a sword were heard far more loudly than those of a king or churchman, noble lady’s daughter or Viking raider.