There is little information on her childhood, and she first appears in the historical record as a fully grown adult. It was on to this tumultuous stage that Æthelflæd stepped. The Vikings’ purpose was to conquer the kingdoms completely, yet the battle of Edington in 878 stemmed the tide and a tentative alliance was drawn up, splitting the country in two between English-ruled territory and lands administered by the Danes (the Danelaw). Then, over more than a decade, a coalition of Norse warriors took land in all the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms – except Wessex, which had so far managed to defy them. Just three years earlier, a Great Viking Army had launched a massive assault on East Anglia. The time at which she came screaming into the world was one of turmoil. Her parents were married in AD 868 and she is thought to have been their first-born child. It is difficult to know when Æthelflæd was born.
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