"Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen" was interesting and I liked learning about Aethelflaed and her world, but the structure of this book was really odd and the second to last chapter was rather unnecessary, in my opinion.

Aethelflaed is one of my favorite historical woman and I loved reading a new book about her and her influence in Saxon England.

I would like to thank netgalley and Pen & Sword for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting biography of such an obscure figure. The biography was focused and didn't go of on a tangent despite how little written information there is about Aethelflaed. I loved learning about her influence on the Midlands and the towns we have now.

Published a few months after the 1100th anniversary commemorations last year, Margaret C. Jones book was a timely contribution to the history of Aethelflaed.
Its a short book, at just over 150 pages not including notes and bibliography, but packed full of useful information. What's more interesting is that it does not just cover Aethelflaed brief career as a war leader, but also her childhood, her foundations of churches and devotion to Saint's cults, the period of over a decade in which she ruled Mercia jointly with her husband.

I for one believe they had a good relationship, defined by mutual co-operation. He was not an abuser, nor a useless and incompetent ruler.
So, 'Fighter, Founder Saxon Queen' provides a well rounded picture of Aethelflaed's life, career and legacy, placed in the context of her times without being anachronistic. The maps prove useful, and the guide at the the end which lists all the towns and cities in which monuments or buildings associated with her can be found is ideal for modern history buffs who want to walk in her footsteps.

Of course, on a personal level I appreciate the fact that Ms. Jones consulted and cited my own book on Aethelflaed a number of times.

Thanks to Pen and Sword for approving my request to read a PDF of this book via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. .

This was a well-researched biography. However, there were many conjectures and suppositions. This made the biography more drawn out and could easily have been shorter. The writing was also a bit dry. Still, I learned a lot about the Middle Ages. I recommend this for anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon history.

I liked the structure of the book. It followed the life of the queen clear through without back tracking or anything. Sometimes I really don’t like how books jump around from time period to timer period or person to person. Margaret set out on a mission to give us a look into Aethelflaed’s life and that is just what she did.

-- I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this opportunity! --

I really enjoyed reading this book on Aethelflaed, a historical queen I didn't know anything about. It is a wonderful introduction into the Anglo-Saxon period for non-historians, but also follows the standards of the field well enough not to make academics cringe, as many popular history books do. However, the book does try to do too many different things at the same time, which, for me, detracts from it's value - e.g. there's a travel guide at the end for people who would like to follow in Aethelflaed's footsteps, which I did not see the point in.

Aethelflaed was a woman ahead of her times. The daughter of Alfred the Great, how could she be anything but fabulous!

Aethelflaed was courageous and not afraid to make her mark in the world. At a time when women were expected to stay in the background, she was determined to lead her people fairly and honestly. Married at a young age, she had only one child, a daughter. Yet this woman was more remarkable than many could have dared to hope for. She planned and executed the building of several burghs and towns, fortified to keep the townspeople safe from Viking attacks, held off Viking attacks, and even managed to bring peace throughout her realm.
Known as the Lady of the Mercians, she ruled in her own right after the death of her husband. While her brother, Edward, was her overlord after the death of their father, she ruled Mercia alone for years. After her death, her daughter ruled briefly ad the Lady of the Mercians, before Edward swept through with an army and removed her from power, where she disappears from history altogether.
Aethelflaed, had she still been alive would have fought back against her brother, but the daughter was no match for her powerful uncle. At the time of her death, she was in process of brokering peace with York, where a great Viking community was thriving. Her untimely death waylaid all plans for peace and it was almost ten years later when her nephew would finally bring York under Saxon control.

The story of Aethelflaed has not been recounted as often as it should, and many times she is afforded a footnote in the annals of history, brushed aside. But she deserves more attention than she has been given. Her layouts for the burghs reverberate through many of the towns that she founded, and still exist today.
Margaret Jones did a fantastic job in fleshing out this remarkable woman and bringing her exploits to life. This book was fantastic and one that deserves to be read!

Aethelflaed's life is one shrouded in mystery and black holes and several authors have now attempted to piece together her life. Æthelflæd’s date of birth is not recorded, but her parents were Alfred the Great and his Queen Ealhswith. She had a brother, named Edward the Elder. Her father was the fifth son of King Ethelwulf, and he was never expected to become King. Æthelflæd was married to Æthelred, who was the ealdorman of Mercia. They are known to have had at least one daughter, Ælfwynn. After her husband’s death, Æthelflæd was recognised as Lady of the Mercians. She began to build a series of fortresses and was known to be a formidable military lady and tactician.

Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians by Margaret C Jones is unfortunately bound to all the problems before it. We simply do not know enough about Aethelflaed and so the book is formed of many what-ifs and focusses mainly on events Aethelflaed could have been a part of. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the writing style and it makes me thoroughly wish we knew more of this formidable lady. Perhaps not quite so relevant, I particularly liked the cover art.

Aethelflaed was responsible for a variety of achievements. In many ways she was a woman ahead of her time, and yet she was also a product of it- and her culture. The women of her family were educated and took an active role in the founding of abbeys and churches. When her husband's health declined, Aethelflaed was prepared to govern Mercia by his side, and eventually became a ruler in her own right. She traveled from place to place with her witan (a group of counselors) creating fortified towns and rebuilding in areas the vikings had occupied. This was a Lady who kicked viking butt- she would not accept puppet rulers set up by the Danes, although Aethelflaed did value diplomacy when and where it was possible. Much of her life was dedicated to repelling the vikings who had plagued her father, Alfred the Great.

What I most enjoyed about this book was the author's detailed descriptions about how Aethelfaed has been remembered down the years. She has only recently seen more exposure in history books, and it was not until the 1,000 year anniversaries of the towns Aethelflaed founded that she was celebrated much in modern times. The author carefully examines how the Lady of the Mercian's has been viewed throughout history, and how her legacy is remembered today.

Knowing nothing of Aethelflaed before, this book was a joy to read and is chock full of fascinating info on her life, society, culture, and accomplishments. There is only so much that is known about Aethelflaed, and I found that when the author offered conjecture, it was posed as a question instead of just an assumption. Often with history books the author wants us to believe their opinion is the right one. Too often a writer likes to say "probably, they believed such and such." Jones avoids this and is open minded about what may or may not have passed through Aetheflaed's mind. She has infused her book with creative retellings about important moments in Aetheflaed's life, which were in turn important to the eventual unification of England.

In Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen, Margaret C. Jones labors mightily to flesh out a life of Aethelflaed, eldest child of Alfred the Great, "Lady of the Mercians" after her husband Aethelred's death, and most recently known to many as a character in Bernard Cornwell's book and TV series about Anglo-Saxon England at and after the time of Alfred. She is successful only to a degree, mainly because there is so little known about even men of the period, let alone women, that gives a true sense of their personalities. (While I understand why she included them and they may help other readers, the author's vignettes of various moments of Aethelflaed's life, how she might have felt and experienced them, didn't do much for me.)

Jones aims to present a balanced view of Aethelflaed, as opposed to others who she seems to feel have overemphasized one aspect of her personality at the expense of another (warrior over ruler or patron of the Church, for example), and in this she is largely successful. She looks at the upbringing a young girl might have received at the time in conjunction with known events of Alfred's life and how they (and her relationship with her father) might have affected her life, her marriage to and partnership with Aethelred, and her life after his death, including her efforts to ensure the succession of her daughter Aelfwynn, who was unfortunately deposed by her uncle Edward (Aethelflaed's brother) and disappears from history at that point. This section was the part where I felt like I came closest to Aethelflaed as a person. Her patronage of churches, leading of her troops into battle and foundation of burhs (fortified towns to defend against the Vikings), both with her husband, during his long illness and after his death, are also examined.

Finally, after her death and a disappearance from history almost as complete as Aelfwynn's, Jones examines how she has been brought forward once again and celebrated in various ways, culminating (although not ending) in the millenary celebrations of many of the towns and cities where she was instrumental in founding burhs in the early 1900s, as well as her portrayal in fiction, nonfiction, art and film/TV, including Cornwell's The Last Kingdom.

This was overall a well-written and enjoyable book, and any flaws I found in it were more the fault of the time period and lack of sources than the author. 3.5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book!

Aethelflaed is a kick ass woman! Completely compelling, inspiring and fascinating.
Reading about Aethelflaed's life is almost fictional in it's epicness and for that reason she is a largwr than life character. To have withstood and survived, to have ruled with such power..... She was an amazing heroine of history. I loved her and I loved the writing of this biographical history.

The writing is easy to follow and it draws you in. One of the best histoical biographies I've read in a long while.
Thoroughly researched and well structured.

I was delighted to receive an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley, as I've recently been watching The Last Kingdom, a TV series based on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, in which Aethelflaed is a character. This is a readable and entertaining biography of the eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great, who was an equal partner to her husband in governing and fortifying Mercia and holding it against the Danes, and who continued her work as ruler in her own right after his death. I couldn't help but be struck by the contrast with another history of the era I've been dipping into now and again (The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson) in which Aelthelflaed was barely mentioned and mostly ignored, in favor of Kings Alfred and Edward, and her husband Aethelred. Ferguson almost sounds dismissive when he writes that she was "known to admiring chroniclers as 'the Lady of the Mercians'", as though to imply that these are admirers rather than historians.

But one of the things that Jones makes clear is that the near-contemporary chroniclers didn't really know what to make of Aethelflaed's role, as it wasn't what they were used to seeing from women of the time. One 12th-century source declares that she must have had a disgust of sex, since she only had one child, and that a daughter; Jones points out that Aethelred was in poor health and there's no reason to attribute their small family to Aethelflaed's choices. I imagine that the lacunae in Jones' account are mostly due to the corresponding gaps in what the sources chose to write about. For example, Aethelflaed led armies into battle, but did she actually fight? Probably not, but - who knows?

Jones organizes the book more thematically than chronologically, which I think is a good choice, as Aethelflaed is viewed through a variety of lenses: as a woman of her time, as the organizer of military defenses, as Alfred's daughter, and as a subject of contemporary art and fiction. It's a multifaceted view of a fascinating woman.

Aetheflaed was a Saxon princess. She is known as Lady of the Mercians. She didn't want to be just a princess, she wanted to battle for her people. She didn't just give orders from afar, she was actually with her soldiers in battle. She also made sure her daughter would follow in her footsteps and be a warrior also.
This book has some fascinating facts about her life. As a child, as as a fighter and as a Queen. The Author has researched her material extensively, which makes for interesting facts.
I definitely recommend this book. Aetheflaed was an extraordinary woman. A women that is an example of strength and courage.

This biography is about Alfred the Great's daughter, Aethelflaed; about ther life and achievements, as well as the world that made her. Aethelflaed was a remarkable women who led armies in battle against the vikings, negotiated treaties, founded shrines and churches, planned towns, and ruled a kingdom in her own right, which involved tax collection and law administration. She also attempted to pass the rule of Mercia to her daughter Aelfwynn. This book is a well-written and well researched book that covers the cultural and familial world that shaped Aethelflaed's personality and beliefs. It covers her early life, the years of her marriage, and the world she made after her husband's death. An interesting chapter deals with Aethelflaed's legacy and legand. The book also includes a section of notes that provides a guide of places around the Midlands that still bear traces of Aethelflaed's life and work or have memorial tributes to her, which may be of interest to anyone travelling to this part of England. While there are many maps and illustrations, this book lacks a locality map of where Mercia fits into Greater England and also lacking is a timeline. While I found this biography interesting and accessible ( narrative was distinctly story-like), there was too much speculation on the part of the author, though this appears to be due to the lack of reliable source material for this time period. All-in-all, this is an entertaining and informative, if somewhat superficial, biography of Aethelflaed, Queen of Mercia.

Book: Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians
Author: Margaret C Jones
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Pen and Sword History, for this ARC.

I thought that this was a well written and well researched book. As many of you know, there’s just not a lot of reliable sources out there on Anglo-Saxon England. With that being said, I would think it would be very difficult to let alone find information on the time period, but to find information that is accurate. Margaret points that out many times in the book, which might annoy some people. Once you study the Saxon period for a little bit, you will understand why it is like this. Even the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle offers different versions of history!

So with the lack of sources, I think that this is well done. Aethelflaed’s life is compressed into this short book. It’s around two hundred or so pages. There are a lot of figures who make an appearance in the book-the names make it hard to keep track of. (Therefore, I recommend that you have some understanding of Anglo-Saxon England before you start this one.) The book takes us through everything that we need to know about Aethelflaed’s life without adding any unnecessary details-again make sure that you have some understanding of the time period.

I liked the structure of the book. It followed the life of the queen clear through without back tracking or anything. Sometimes I really don’t like how books jump around from time period to timer period or person to person. Margaret set out on a mission to give us a look into Aethelflaed’s life and that is just what she did.

I am picky about biographies, hence why I give so many of them a low rating. Whenever I read nonfiction, I am not looking for an overly scholarly work. I am looking for something that I can easily read, because I am not reading these for academic proposes. I read them because I am actually interested in the subject. I found this one to be written in a scholarly way, but one that someone who is just reading for fun can pick up and enjoy. There’s just enough in here for it to be an enjoyable, but educational read.

Aethelflaed truly is one of those amazing historical figures who has been written out of history and it’s such a shame. A lot of times Mary and Elizabeth are presented as being the first female monarchs of England-completely forgetting about Aethelflaed. Whenever we talk about the great queens of England, she is often times forgotten. I know…I know…She wasn’t actually a queen, but she was a woman who did rule a lot of land on her own. Isn’t that remarkable enough for her to ranked right up there with the big dogs? Like Elizabeth and Victoria, she had a lot of influence on her land. I just hope that books like this bring her back into attention.

Overall, a good short biography about a historical figure who is often times forgotten. This book comes out November 19, 2018.

(Review is already on Goodreads and will be posted on Amazon on release day.)

Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians
Margaret C. Jones
Pen & Sword History
Publication date: 30/8/18
4/5
Copy received from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred, is a historical figure who, until recently, was almost completely erased from history mostly thanks to the Victorians (they have to ruin everything, don’t they?). You would think that having a Queen on the throne would mean they would actually embrace strong females through history but apparently not. Alfred, hell yes, but his daughter hell no.
That doesn’t mean she wasn’t a fascinating woman. Born to a King, married to an Ealdorman of Mercia (I’m making that distinction because no matter how much you want to paint her as an actual Queen, she wasn’t. The King of Wessex was overlord of Mercia in this period), she became one of the most influential and powerful women in Anglo-Saxon history. Her influence can be seen throughout the tenth century and this new biography of this great woman does a good job of telling the story of Aethelflaed and tying her to the larger historical context in Anglo Saxon England.
Summary: Alfred the Great’s daughter defied all expectations of a well-bred Saxon princess. The first Saxon woman ever to rule a kingdom, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, led her army in battle against Viking invaders. She further broke with convention by arranging for her daughter to succeed her on the throne of Mercia.
To protect her people and enable her kingdom in the Midlands to prosper, Aethelflaed rebuilt Chester and Gloucester, and built seven entirely new English towns. In so doing she helped shape our world today.
This book brings Aethelflaed’s world to life, from her childhood in time of war to her remarkable work as ruler of Mercia. The final chapter traces her legend, from medieval paintings to novels and contemporary art, illustrating the impact of a legacy that continues to be felt to this day.
I have often said I can be a bit iffy when it comes to biographies. Excellent ones are hard to find and bad ones all too easy. I am very picky, to say the least. I don’t want to just read about the subject, I want to know how they are connected to the bigger picture. I also really love the Anglo-Saxon period of English history so when I saw this, having just read Max Adams’ very good book Ælfred’s Britain (which deals with the same time period), I was immediately intrigued.
Anglo-Saxon histories are, unfortunately, very limited in their sources. You either have to rely on archaeological evidence or the scant primary sources, primarily Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (and, yes, I am the sad nerd who owns both of these), with a dash of Asser’s Life of Alfred thrown in too. Founder, Fighter is not a long biography but it manages to pack a lot into the hundred plus pages, giving a concise yet detailed history of the life of Aethelflaed.
As a historical text, this is very good. It is thoroughly researched with a decently sized bibliography. The biography is well structured, taking a thematic approached to the life of Aethelflaed, from her childhood to her marriage and after and focusing on her reputation as a warrior, a leader and a pious religious woman. The biography also has a section on her legacy, both in the immediate period after her death up until the modern period. I really liked the fact that this wasn’t a narrative biography, that Jones took a more thematic approach. Jones effectively conveys her admiration for Athelflaed and her achievements but it doesn’t stray into hagiographical territory, which I very much appreciate (if you don’t know hagiographies usually describe biographies where the subject is lauded as better than they actually are. They usually refer to Saint’s lives which are very much in that vein).
Fighter, Founder is a well-structured biography and makes the most of its short page count. The preface sets out the biography well, it has relevant historiographical information and sets out the aims of the book. It can be divided into her private life: Aethelflaed’s upbringing, marriage and family as well as her religious beliefs, the influences on her and how she influenced things. Jones does a good job on all fronts. The biographical aspect is well written and entertaining to read and her discussion of the role of women in the Anglo-Saxon period is informative and it is interesting to read about the perceived notions of womanhood and how Aethelflaed subverted those. It also manages to show in a very strong light the rather large hypocritical thinking of the church in regards to women. The third part, Aethelflaed’s influence and legacy, is obviously the most interesting part of the biography. She was a remarkable woman who ruled Mercia with and without her husband, who went with her soldiers into battle (did she actually fight? Who knows. It would be nice to think that but Jones does explain it would have been very difficult for a woman to fight in a battle. Then again, apparently Viking women used to join raids so maybe she did.), who fortified towns and built churches (not solely by herself, buy you get what I mean).
The final chapter looks at her legacy through art and through the towns she fortified. The artistic representations I found the most interesting as they showed how Aethelflaed was represented throughout history right through to the modern day and it’s nice to see Aethelflaed have quite the renaissance with artists on the internet. Another thing I liked was that Jones included a sort of travel guide as to where you can find traces of Aethelflaed’s influence so you could go to the places mentioned and see things for yourself.
This was a biography that I very much enjoyed. It has all the aspects of a biography that I like: it gives an interesting history of the subject without being brown-nosey (aka a hagiography), it links the subject to the wider historical context and it also does a very good job of showing the legacy of Aethelflaed. Jones presents Aethelflaed as very much the architect of her own destiny and not someone who remained passive and it does a lot of justice to Aethelflaed, someone who was almost airbrushed out of history despite being very important in her time.
There is only one real criticism that I can think of, and that is sometimes Jones strays a little to much into conjecture. She wonders how Aethelflaed might have been feeling at any given moment and, for me, that felt very out of place in a piece of historical writing. We’re never going to know how she was feeling, she left no written record, so I personally don’t see the point of speculating. I’m also not a massive fan of the cover. It looks like it belongs more on a fantasy novel than a biography. It’s a persona; thing but I’m not a huge fan of faces on covers.
Fighter, Founder, Saxon Queen is a very good biography. It is interesting, informative and sheds new light onto an unfairly forgotten person. Jones uses her sources well, not only using the usual Anglo-Saxon primary sources, such as The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Asser’s Life of Alfred etc., but also incorporating more modern sources and interpretations, such as Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories. It is well written and engaging. All in all it is a very easy read. If you like biographies then you’ll probably like this. If you like Anglo-Saxon history then you’ll probably like this. If you like feminist histories then you’ll definitely like this.