Title: The Warrior Queen
Description: "Æthelflæd, eldest daughter of Alfred 'the Great,' has gone down in history as an enigmatic and almost legendary figure. To the popular imagination, she is the archetypal warrior queen, a Medieval Boudicca, while in fiction she has also been cast as the mistreated wife who seeks a Viking lover, and struggles to be accepted as a female ruler in a patriarchal society. The sources from her own time, and later, reveal a more complex and fascinating image of the 'Lady of the Mercians.' A skilled diplomat who forged alliances with neighboring territories, she was a shrewd and ruthless leader willing to resort to deception and force to maintain her power. Yet she was also a patron of learning, who used poetic tradition and written history to shape her reputation as a Christian maiden engaged in an epic struggle against the heathen foe." -- publisher.
Subjects: Queens, great britain, Great britain, biography, Great britain, kings and rulers, Great britain, history, to 1485, Queens, Biography, History, Kings and rulers