In 910 a large Viking army raided England's shores, they were defeated by an allied army from Mercia and Wessex under the leadership of Aethelflaed and her brother Edward, the children of Alfred the Great.
On the 5th of August, the Battle of Tettenhall, in modern-day Wolverhampton, would be the last major Norse invasion of England.
On the 5th of August, the Battle of Tettenhall, in modern-day Wolverhampton, would be the last major Norse invasion of England.
Aethelflaed's husband was Athelred, King of Mercia, it was on his death in 911 that Aethelflaed took the title of "Lady of the Mercians." Her succession has been described as the 'only case of a female ruler of a kingdom in Anglo-Saxon history' and 'one of the most unique events in early medieval history.'
Some twenty years earlier Aethelflaed had founded an abbey in Gloucester not too far from the original 7th century St Peter's Abbey. In 909, following a Saxon and Mercian raid into Lindsey, a Danish territory, they seized the remains of Saint Oswald. This relic had rested at Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire since 642, it was taken to St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester were Aethelflaed renamed it St Oswald’s Priory.
Following the Battle of Maserfield, also on the 5th August, St Oswald's remains arrived in Bardney in Lincolnshire, you can read how the abbey's monks refused them entry here.
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