The season welcomes back \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d<\/a> (played by Millie Brady) \u2013 the \u2018Lady of the Mercians\u2019 and daughter of Alfred the Great<\/a> \u2013 whose rule of Mercia as queen-in-all-but-name had played a big part in the last season\u2019s storyline<\/a>.<\/p>\n She now sees her daughter \u00c6lfwynn (Phia Sabin) forced to grow up in the turbulent politics of the early 10th century. The show introduces big questions: with \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d\u2019s health failing, what will happen to Mercia? And what of \u00c6lfwynn\u2019s fate?<\/p>\n Thanks to a lot of recent interest in the historical figure of \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d, including a statue in Tamworth erected in 2018 to mark the 1,100th anniversary of her death, there is a new awareness of her life and her achievements in reconquering Danish-held territory<\/a> during and after the lifetime of her husband \u00c6thelred, \u2018Lord of the Mercians\u2019 (d911).<\/p>\n Find out how and where to watch season 5 of The Last Kingdom<\/em>, catch-up on seasons 1\u20134, and explore the real history that underpins the fictional adventures of Uhtred, son of Uhtred | Read more<\/a> <\/p><\/div> In contrast, all that is said for sure of \u00c6lfwynn is from a \u2018Mercian Register\u2019 of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle<\/em><\/a> that survives in manuscripts of that famous book. Following the death of her mother, \u00c6lfwynn was \u201cdispossessed of all authority in Mercia and was taken to Wessex three weeks before midwinter\u201d.<\/p>\n After this, we hear only of the achievements of \u00c6lfwynn\u2019s uncle, her mother\u2019s brother, King Edward the Elder<\/a> (899\u2013924). Edward styled himself, as his father had in his latter years, \u2018King of the Anglo-Saxons\u2019 and was probably now aspiring to rule over both Wessex and Mercia as \u2013 if not as a unified realm, then as a union of kingdoms.<\/p>\n There is, perhaps hardly surprisingly, no mention of \u00c6lfwynn at all in the West Saxon version of the Chronicle. The \u2018Mercian Register\u2019 provided \u2013 again, hardly surprisingly \u2013 a Mercian take on the achievements of the two decades in which \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d was active in Mercia, and the years beyond her death.<\/p>\n The author (or authors) could well have been associated with \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d, perhaps even \u00c6lfwynn too, and may have written this version of the Chronicle in Mercia after \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d\u2019s death with a wish to keep alive a flame of Mercian independence.<\/p>\n In the light of such courtly intrigues, fans of The Last Kingdom<\/em> might not want to hold out for too much avuncular affection from King Edward (Timothy Innes) for his on-screen niece. As the historical \u00c6lfwynn is little more than a name, there is a lot of room for some artistic licence.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Few may be surprised to learn that there is no evidence that the real \u00c6lfwynn\u2019s birth was the result of her mother\u2019s relationship with a Viking, with whom she fell in love after being taken hostage (a story that played out back in the third season of The Last Kingdom<\/em>). But in the early medieval world, questions of parentage could be asked when it suited some to do so, as with those who opposed Harald Harefoot, the son of Cnut the Great<\/a>, in the 1030s.<\/p>\n Fans can be satisfied to know that legends did develop around important people, and the real \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d was certainly important enough for her daughter\u2019s significance to be recognised.<\/p>\n The Anglo-Norman monk William of Malmesbury recorded that a difficult childbirth led to \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d having only one child. This could have been William\u2019s sense of storytelling coming into play, but he may also have been justifying what could have been a difficult issue for him to make sense of in the 12th century \u2013 that a 10th-century woman of some independent means could accept and even promote her daughter to succeed to her authority in Mercia.<\/p>\n There is a clue to this potential handover of power in the historical record. \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d died 12 days before midsummer; if her daughter was only \u201cdeprived of all authority\u201d three weeks before Christmas, a point when Mercian authority came into the hands of Edward, this meant that there were a little under six months when he did not rule the old kingdom.<\/p>\n Had a handover of power from mother to daughter taken place? If so, \u00c6lfwynn would have been expected to succeed her mother, or at least expected to be capable of doing so.<\/p>\n Along with the names of \u00c6thelfl\u00e6d (and her husband \u00c6thelred), the appearance of an \u2018\u00c6lfwyn\u2019 on the witness lists of some early 10th-century Mercian charters is a tantalising clue of her importance during her mother\u2019s lifetime. \u00c6lfwynn, meaning \u2018Elf-Joy\u2019 (that the name element Elf was shared with her royal grandfather is probably no coincidence), wasn\u2019t a rare name in Anglo-Saxon<\/a> England. But it wasn\u2019t that common either, so it is certainly possible that charters recorded her presence at assemblies.<\/p>\n If this daughter of the royal kin was at her parents\u2019 court, unmarried and seen as part of the political establishment, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if she were considered for succession at the time of her mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Even if she couldn\u2019t come into the control of all of Mercia, the fact that months had passed before she was \u201cdispossessed of all authority\u201d \u2013 and that there was someone who was willing to record her existence along with the achievements of her mother, while Edward\u2019s version of events said nothing of \u00c6lfwynn \u2013 is an interesting indication of her importance.<\/p>\n Historians should always be wary of reading too much into an absence of evidence, but the presentation of Edward smoothly assuming power in Mercia following his sister\u2019s death is certainly intriguing.<\/p>\n What was \u00c6lfwynn\u2019s fate in Wessex? We cannot surely know, but one historian has suggested that in AD 948, long after the reign of Edward the Elder, a charter might just indicate that somewhere there remained an aged royal cousin whose importance couldn\u2019t be entirely suppressed.<\/p>\n At the prompting of his mother, Queen Eadgifu, King Eadred made a grant of land in Kent to a certain \u00c6lfwynn, a \u201creligious woman\u201d.<\/p>\nWhat do we know of the real \u00c6lfwynn?<\/h2>\n
The Last Kingdom: everything you need to know<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\""Programme\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/the-last-kingdom-852e357.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556"\" "\\"\"the-last-kingdom-852e357\"\\"\/")
<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>Who was \u00c6lfwynn\u2019s father?<\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/03\/TLK-11-03-21-STILLS-MP-32-aba7acd-e1648041654305.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did \u00c6lfwynn rule as Lady of Mercia?<\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/TLK-27-05-21-STILLS-MP-5-21e1842-e1646830246448.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How did \u00c6lfwynn die?<\/h2>\n