The Fortress Kingdom

The Wars of Æthelflæd and Edward the Elder, 899–927
Paul Hill

In the first book of a four part series The Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons: The Wars of King Alfred 865-899 (March 2022) by author Paul Hill investigated the tactics of 9th century warfare which changed in Alfred’s time in response to the devastation of the Danish invasions from set-piece battles to a grander network of fortifications, known as burhs.

The burh had been a successful instrument of war during the Mercian domination of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy in England, c.716 and c.825, known as the Mercian Supremacy. It is without doubt that Alfred adopted this policy from the Mercians.

The success of Alfred's strategy led to the recovery of Wessex but to obtain peace with the Danes he had to accept partition of the country and cede a large part of the country in the creation of the Danelaw in a boundary roughly from London to the Wirral.

Following Alfred's passing his daughter Æthelflæd and eldest son Edward strove to recover the Danelaw through expansion of this network of fortifications throughout Mercia and the East Midlands. Paul Hill’s latest book, and second in the series, The Fortress Kingdom is the story of Æthelflæd and Edward's wars against the Danes.

Alfred’s daughter Æthelflæd and her husband Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, commissioned the construction of a series of strongholds from 907, if not earlier. Æthelflæd and Æthelred established a network of burhs (fortified enclosures) across English Mercia in the west while the Danes held eastern Mercian under the Danelaw.

Archaeological evidence suggests a network of major royal settlements that were substantially fortified in the 8th and early 9th centuries were rebuilt in the late-9th and early-10th centuries by Æthelred and Æthelflæd, and continued by the Lady of the Mercians alone following Æthelred’s death in 911. In this process they were joined after the death of King Alfred by his eldest son Edward the Elder, brother of Æthelflæd.

Some burhs may have been purely military in character, and the struggle to locate them today suggests they did not develop beyond the wars of Æthelflæd. However, during the 10th and 11th centuries many of these burhs developed into boroughs with an urban character, as is the case with the five shire towns.

The five boroughs of of Danish Mercia were crucially important to the existence of the Danelaw with the five towns of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln firmly under the control of the Vikings by the 9th century.

The Mercian Register (Annals of Æthelflæd) records that in 917 Æthelflæd took possession of the stronghold of Derby. By 918 Æthelflæd had made further in-roads into the The Five Boroughs and took control the stronghold of Leicester and ejected the raiding-parties there. It seems York was her next target, as the Register records the people there had pledged their allegiance to the Lady of the Mercians, but 12 days before mid-summer she suddenly died at Tamworth.

By the time that Æthelflæd died at Tamworth in 918, the task of subduing the Danes in Mercia was nearing completion. After his sister’s death Edward moved quickly to extend his overlordship of Mercia into direct rule.

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In 2018 I ran a series of articles on this blogsite to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd, the lady of the Mercians. [See: Æthelflæd & the Vikings ]

Several books were published around the same time to mark this very special lady: Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen by Margaret C Jones; Æthelflæd by Tim Clarkson; The Warrior Queen-The Life and Legend of Æthelflæd by Joanna Arman; Mercia-The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom by Annie Whitehead; and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians by David Horovitz. Brief mention was made of Æthelflæd: England’s Forgotten Founder by Tom Holland due publication 2019.

Whereas it is no longer my intention to provide book reviews on this blogsite, I want to mention this book by Paul Hill as an important addition to the bibliography of Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians:

The Fortress Kingdom
The Wars of Æthelflæd and Edward the Elder, 899–927
By Paul Hill
Pen & Sword Military
ISBN: 9781399010610
Published: 4th October 2022

From the publisher:
"In this the second part of his four-volume military and political history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Paul Hill follows the careers of Æthelflæd, Alfred the Great’s eldest daughter, and Edward the Elder, Alfred’s eldest son, as they campaigned to expand their rule after Alfred’s death. They faced, as Alfred had done, the full force of Danish hostility during the early years of the tenth century, a period of unrelenting turbulence and open warfare. But through their military strength, in particular their strategy of fortress building, they retained their hold on the kingdom and conquered lands which had been under Danish lords for generations.

"Æthelflæd’s forces captured Derby and Leicester by both force and diplomacy. Edward’s power was always immense. How each of them used forts (burhs) to hold territory, is explored. Fortifications across central England became key. These included Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Chirbury and Runcorn (Æthelflæd) and also Hertford, Witham, Buckingham, Bedford and Maldon (Edward), to name a few."

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