On this day in history….. Pagan Warrior, then titled Hædfeld first hit the ‘shelves,’ as it were. Until the release of Men of Iron earlier this year, Pagan Warrior had been the furthest back in time I’d written about. So, what prompted me to write about Penda, the mighty pagan king of Mercia?
Well, I think you all know by now that I’m a Mercian by birth. But my plans for Penda actually started with the desire to tell the story of the battle of Maserfeld, which is the second major battle Penda fought against the Northumbrians, nine years after Hædfeld. For the sake of my readers, and because it was too good an opportunity to miss, I decided to start with the earlier battle of Hædfeld.
And what a revelation it was. I’ve said before there are certain periods in the history of Saxon England that feel as though we know more about them – Pagan Warrior and the whole Gods and Kings Trilogy is one of those periods. We have the names of Penda’s many allies and his enemies. The island of Britain so often segregated into neat little kingdoms that too often fall into the now established England, Scotland and Wales (and Northern Ireland) feels alive with the earlier, smaller kingdoms stretching from Dumnonia all the way to the Pictish kingdom, taking in Wessex, Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms along the way. And of course the family dynamics between the Mercian brothers and the Northumbrian children also offered a fascinating angle to explore. On top of all that there was the pagan/Christian element as well. What a delight.
At the heart of it, Hædfeld is a story of a single battle, and the events that led to it, so often the case, years in the making. So, if you’ve not tried Pagan Warrior now is the perfect opportunity. The ebook is currenly 99p/99c on all good platforms (not just Amazon), and to celebrate, I’ve created a special edition matte covered hardback with foiled writing, (exclusively available sirectly from my SumUp store) AND a boxset of the whole trilogy. (It’s also available in audio but I can’t do any special offers for that).
Thanks to some spectacular archaeological finds, we can visualise how a Saxon warrior might have looked. The reconstructions of the Sutton Hoo helm, and that found with the Staffordshire Horde (as well as a few others), present us with elaborate helmets crested with dyed-horse hair in a way very reminiscent of the Roman era. They glitter, and they seem to be festooned in gold and silver work, but whether these were actually worn in battle or not is debatable. Firstly, they would have made the kings or noblemen very noticeable to their enemy. Secondly, they were so valuable it’s impossible to consider the loss of one of them should they fall and their goods be taken by their enemy. Bad enough for their king and leader to die in battle, but to also lose such precious wealth as well seems unlikely. That said, of course, the Sutton Hoo helm was buried, and the fragments of the Staffordshire Hoard helmet were buried and lost. An image of the Staffordshire Helmet can be found here: https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/collections/archaeology/the-staffordshire-hoard/
But there is another reason why these helmets might have existed, and that’s because they were for ceremonial purposes. Kings, before the reign of Athelstan (925-937) are not known to have undergone consecration with a crown but rather with a helmet. After all, they were warrior kings. Perhaps then, these survivals are more akin to that worn by a warrior-king when appearing before his people or for ceremonial reasons.
The cheek guard from the Staffordshire Hoard. Attribution below. Flickr user “Portable Antiquities Scheme”, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
What then might have been the more usual garb for a warrior of the Saxon era, which at nearly six hundred years is bound to offer some variations? Shield, spear, seax, sword and byrnie. We get a feel for these items and how valuable they were from wills that survive from the later Saxon era, hundreds of years after the events of Pagan Warrior. Ealdormen had horses, both saddled and unsaddled, shields, spears, swords, helmets, byrnies, seax, scabbards and spears. The will of Æthelmær, an ealdorman in the later tenth century, records that he’s granting his king, ‘four swords and eight horses, four with trappings and four without, and four helmets and four coats of mail and eight spears and eight shields,’[1] as part of his heriot, a contentious term for something that some argue was an eleventh-century development, and others argue, is merely reflecting earlier practice on the death of a man.
There would also have been thegns and king thegns, who had their own weapons, as well as the men of the fyrd, the free-men who could be called upon to perform military service each year, as and when required. It’s often assumed they would have been less well-armed, although this begs the question of whether kings and their warrior nobility were prepared to sacrifice those they relied on to provide them with food to gain more wealth. They might have found themselves with the money to pay for food but without the opportunity to do so.
There are very few representations of warriors, but the surviving strands of the Gododdin, a sixth-century lament to the fallen of Catraeth gives an idea of how these warrior men thought of one another. There is much talk of killing many enemies, drinking mead, and being mourned by those they leave behind.
Battle tactics from the period are impossible to determine fully. Before writing my books which are blood-filled and violent, I read a fascinating account, by a military historian, on how he thought the Battle of Hastings might have been won or lost. The overwhelming sense I came away from the book with was that local features, hillocks, streams, field boundaries even perhaps the path of a sheep track might well be the very thing that won or lost a battle for these opposing sides. The land that kings chose to go to war on was incredibly important,
When trying to reconstruct the battlefield for the battle of Hædfeld, which concludes Pagan Warrior, I encountered a problem that will be familiar to writers of the Saxon era. The place where the battle is believed to have taken place, on the south bank of the River Don (although this has been disputed and work continues to discover whether the other location could be the correct one), has been much changed by later developments. It was drained in the 1600s and therefore, it doesn’t look today as it would have done when the battle took place.
I had very little information to work on. The River Don, the River Idle, the River Ouse, the belief that the ground would have been marshy, and that many men fell in the battle. And the words of Bede in his Ecclesiastical History, ‘A great battle being fought in the plain that is called Heathfield.’[2] Much of the rest is my imagination.
If you’ve been with Coelwulf, Rudolf, Icel, Edmund and Pybba since the beginning, then you’re probably with me in trying to work out how five years have gone by since the first book’s release. There are now ten books in all, as well as a short story collection, Coelwulf’s Company, and the prequel series featuring a young Icel, the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles (check out the stories featuring a young Icel – if you know, you know, and if you don’t yet know, you’re going to want to find out.)
If you’ve not yet discovered The Mercian Kingdom: The Ninth Century series, then you’re in for a treat, as long as you’re not easily offended by foul language and violence – although if you are, there are Cleaner versions available without quite so much swearing. Follow this link, as they can be a bit tricky to find on Amazon.
The Last King books are available in ebook, paperback and hardback, and The Last King (book 1 ) is also available in audio.
Competition Time
I’ve gained some of the best fans ever by running competitions to win signed copies of my books, and this year is no different, although the prize keeps getting BIGGER.
To enter the competition to win all 10 books signed by me, complete this Google form. (Competition is open until 30th April 2025).
Entries are open to UK-based people only (because postage is very expensive elsewhere), but people outside the UK can still submit their details and receive a FREE copy of a short story collection featuring stories set in The Last King’s world (and check out another fabulous deal below).
You can also grab the first 3 books in the series for 99p/99c and equivalent worldwide for a very limited time
These are the less sweary-versions (I am having a bit of moment with hyphenated words so I am going with it for this).
It’s happy release day to Men of Iron, the first book in the Dark Age Chronicles Trilogy #newrelease #MenOfIron #histfic
The Dark Ages?
As a bit of a history nerd, I’m not always comfortable with the term ‘Dark Ages’ for my books, mostly because the ‘real’ Dark Ages took place between about 410 and 600 in England, and so, until NOW, my books haven’t strictly fallen into that category. (Also, as a very literal child, I entirely mistook what was meant by the Dark Ages, and I was always perplexed as to why it was so damn dark.)
Admittedly, many apply the term to almost all of the period of Saxon England, which is somewhat incorrect (and indeed it was once applied to the entire Middle Ages). The idea of the Dark Ages stems from a belief there was no scientific or cultural advancement during this period (according to Wiki), but particularly in regards to England it references the lack of surviving written records from the period.
Archaeology is massively changing this interpretation, and there is now an accepted view that much can be understood about the era, just not in the way ‘historians’ might think – the merging of archaeology and history (and other sciences) is rewriting the period. We’re no longer entirely reliant on two written sources, Gildas, and his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae – On The Ruin of Britain (who may or may not have a cameo in Men of Iron), or Bede, (amongst historians often called ‘Bloody’ Bede) and his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum – History of the English People (as well as a few ‘odd’ earlier sources. Check out my blog post for more details.) It might be impossible to apply dates to developments, but it is possible to postulate what was actually happening during these ‘lost’ two hundred years, even if much of our knowledge must rely on finds from graves. It is also increasingly understood that this period was complex and that rarely does ‘one narrative’ adequately explain what was happening throughout England. This is a time before the major Saxon kingdoms, when much was in flux with cultures merging and endeavouring to survive with the loss of the Roman economy.
A new trilogy
And this is where my new trilogy enters stage left. This period fascinates me. I’ve been reading extensively about it for some time, and eventually managed to convince my editor (thank you) to let me tell ‘a‘ story of what ‘might‘ have been happening in this period. It can’t be based on any ‘named’ historical individuals (well, apart from one or two I’ve snuck in there as fictional creations) but it can attempt to populate this complex and little-understood period with people who lived and breathed, and I’m so excited to share it, with my readers. And guess what, it’s about what was ‘Mercia’ before it was ‘Mercia.’ (If you think you’re going to get me away from Mercia, you’re very mistaken.)
So how then to tell this story with so many cultures? I’ve taken the decision to offer a dual narrative, one from Meddi, my seeress in the west of England (close to Gloucester), and the other, Wærmund, my would-be-warrior from the east of England (the Fens). These two main characters allow me to explore the continuity and change taking place in what would become England. Their experiences as a seeress, as a warrior, and with the added complications of family discord driving their actions, ensure the characters from Men of Iron feel like ‘real people’ even in this distant, hazy landscape so similar and yet so different to everything we experience today. I really hope you’ll enjoy it. (I’m also very excited as I have dual narrators for this trilogy.)
Back in 2020, I finally wrote a book I’d wanted to write for a long time – the story of Mercia’s last king, Coelwulf II (although, I think I should have spelt his name as Ceolwulf but hey ho). The book I eventually wrote has spawned my most successful series to date and has also given readers The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, featuring a younger version of Coelwulf’s very outspoken fellow warrior Icel.
The book I wrote was also very different to how I thought it would be. Indeed, it’s not one book, but a series 10 books long, and featuring a cast of lovable, foul-mouthed rogues who are as loyal to one another as they are to the horses they ride. I’ve spoken before about why the characters are so sweary, and I know not everyone enjoys that element of the books, but hey, these men are who they are. But, thank goodness for Coelwulf’s aunt, who keeps a wary eye on them all and can occasionally make them a little more polite.
The Last King/The Mercian Ninth Century
I’ve long wanted to celebrate the occasion of five years since releasing the book, and I’ve had many thoughts about it over the last few years, but when it finally happened, it was very unexpected, and the cover design came from someone I’d asked to work on some sprayed edges to jazz the cover up a little. It is very understated, but I think that makes it all the more special. BookVault can incorporate sprayed edges, a design on the endpapers, super high-quality white printing paper, as well as a ribbon to keep track of your reading. There are also new chapter headings, but at heart, this is The Last King, as it was released on 23rd April 2020, at a time when we were all looking for the means to distract ourselves from the horrors of the Pandemic and distract us we all did, even me. I find writing Coelwulf and his allies (and enemies) enormous fun and also very comforting. I know these characters, and they do live in my head rent-free, and I really don’t mind at all.
So, let’s check out the designs for this special edition, which will only be available directly from me. I don’t plan on releasing it widely, and depending on demand, I will limit it to 100 printed copies.
The jacketThe jacket againMock-up of the front cover and sprayed edges designThe new chapter heading imagesThe amended map to fit the endpapers of the book
What it looks like in ‘real’ life
The front coverThe original coverThe inside jacketTitle pageOriginal mapThe prologue with chapter heading imagesThe sprayed edgesThe back coverThe inside back cover jacketThe original coverSide-by-side comparison with the original hardback version
Each book will be signed by me, and I’ll include some goodies with it as well. But to get a copy, you must order it via my SumUp shop. I will be offering discount codes to readers who order The Last King for The Last Warrior edition, too.
Happy book birthday to the wonderful Son of Mercia, the first book telling the story of young Icel in early ninth-century Mercia (fans of The Last King will have met Icel before, but it’s not necessary to have read the later series to enjoy Son of Mercia).
If you’re signed up to my newsletter, I’m giving subscribers the chance to win a complete signed set of the series to date in paperback. If you’ve not yet subscribed, then you can do so now and I’ll enter you into the competition. You’ll also receive a free short story collection. Enjoy. (Competition closes on 23rd Feb 2025)
The series is now a massive seven books long for readers, and for me, it’s eight books long because I’ve just finished the first draft.
I thought today would be a great day to shine a light on all seven books featuring young Icel. He’s endured a lot. He’s grown into a young man, but it’s good to remember how we first met Icel – scared, hungry and desperate to evade Lady Cynehild. How times have changed for him.
I love writing the stories of young Icel. He’s a fabulous character, and indeed, the more I write him, the better he becomes. And those with ‘eagle’ eyes (did you see what I did there), will have started to notice more and more Icel appearing in the later, The Last King books, and I’m going to start asking the question, what came first for both series? I think readers might be surprised:)
Do check out The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles page on the blog, stuffed with links to blog posts and more information about the series.
Tamworth, Mercia AD825.
The once-mighty kingdom of Mercia is in perilous danger.
Their King, Beornwulf lies dead and years of bitter in-fighting between the nobles, and cross border wars have left Mercia exposed to her enemies.
King Ecgberht of Wessex senses now is the time for his warriors to strike and exact his long-awaited bloody revenge on Mercia.
King Wiglaf, has claimed his right to rule Mercia, but can he unite a disparate Kingdom against the might of Wessex who are braying for blood and land?
Can King Wiglaf keep the dragons at bay or is Mercia doomed to disappear beneath the wings of the Wessex wyvern?
Icel is becoming a warrior of Mercia, but King Ecgberht of Wessex still holds the Mercian settlement of Londonia and its valuable mint.
King Wiglaf of Mercia is determined that the last bulwark be reclaimed from his sworn enemy to complete his rehabilitation as Mercia’s rightful ruler.
In the heart of the shield wall, Icel suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the battle and thrust into the retreating enemy stronghold where he must take on the pretence of a Wessex warrior to survive and exact a cunning plan to bring down the Wessex force cowering behind the ancient walls.
His allegiances are tested and the temptation to make new allies is overwhelming but Icel must succeed if he’s ever to see Tamworth again and bring about King Wiglaf’s victory, or will he be forced to join the enemy?
Oath sworn to Wiglaf, King of Mercia and acknowledged as a member of Ealdorman Ælfstan’s warrior band, Icel continues to forge his own destiny on the path to becoming the Warrior of Mercia.
With King Ecgberht of Wessex defeated and Londonium back under Mercian control, the Wessex invasion of Mercia is over.
But the Wessex king was never Mercia’s only enemy. An unknown danger lurks in the form of merciless Viking raiders, who set their sights on infiltrating the waterways of the traitorous breakaway kingdom of the East Angles, within touching distance of Mercia’s eastern borders.
Icel must journey to the kingdom of the East Angles and unite against a common enemy to ensure Mercia’s hard-won freedom prevails.
A mercy mission in the heart of Wessex is beset with deadly, bloody dangers.
Tamworth AD831
Icel’s profile continues to rise. Lord of Budworth and warrior of Mercia, he’s acknowledged by King Wiglaf and his comrades to keep Mercia safe from the ravages of Wessex, the king-slayer of the East Angles, and the Viking raiders. But, danger looms. Alongside Spring’s arrival comes the almost certain threat of the Viking raiders return.
When Lord Coenwulf of Kingsholm is apprehended by a Viking and held captive on the Isle of Sheppey in Wessex held Kent, Icel is implored by Lady Cynehild to rescue her husband.
To rescue Lord Coenwulf, Icel and his fellow warriors must risk themselves twice over, for not only must they overpower the Viking raiders, they must also counter the threat of Mercia’s ancient enemy, the kingdom of Wessex as they travel through their lands.
Far from home and threatened on all sides, have Icel and his fellow warriors sworn to carry out an impossible duty
A deathbed oath leaves the lives of two infants hanging in the balance… Tamworth AD833
After successfully rescuing her husband Lord Coenwulf from the Isle of Sheppey, Icel hears the deathbed confession of Lady Cynehild which leaves him questioning what he knows about his past, as well as his future.
In the unenviable position of being oath sworn to protect their two atheling sons when Lord Coenwulf is banished for his treason against the Mercian ruler, King Wiglaf, Icel is once more torn between his oaths and the life changing secret he now knows.
When the two children are kidnapped, Icel, good to his word, and fearing for their safety, pursues their abductors into the dangerous Northern lands.
He fears whose powerful and deadly royal gamesmanship is behind the audacious attempt on their young and innocent lives.
Alone in the Northern lands, Icel finds himself facing his worse fears.
Can he rescue the children from their captor, or will he fail and lose his own life in the process?
A King’s command. A warrior’s quest for the truth… Tamworth AD835
Following Icel’s epic rescue of Lord Coenwulf’s children from their almost certain death, King Wiglaf is forced to call upon Icel’s loyal services once more.
Furious that the conspirators behind the audacious move to snatch the children have yet to face justice, he despatches Icel to hunt down the enemy of Mercia and discover who seeks to conspire against the throne.
The dangerous mission will take Icel into the heartland of enemy-held Wessex to Winchester and onto Canterbury. As the web of lies and deceit grows, Icel must battle to discover the truth whilst keeping himself and his allies safe.
But those who conspire against the King have much to lose and will stop at nothing to prevent Icel discovering the truth. Once more, Icel’s life is endangered as he tries to protect Mercia from her enemies who threaten Mercia’s kingly line.
A King in crisis, a Queen on trial, a Kingdom’s survival hangs in the balance.
Londonia, AD835 The deadly conspiracy against the children of Ealdorman Coenwulf is to be resolved. Those involved have been unmasked and arrested. But will justice prevail?
While the court convenes to determine the conspirator’s fate, King Wiglaf’s position is precarious. His wife, Queen Cynethryth, has been implicated in the plot and while Wiglaf must remain impartial, enemies of the Mercia still conspire to prevent the full truth from ever being known.
As Merica weeps from the betrayal of those close to the King, the greedy eyes of Lord Æthelwulf, King Ecgberht of Wessex’s son, pivot once more towards Mercia. He will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of ending Mercia’s ruling bloodline.
Mercia once more stands poised to be invaded, but this time not by the Viking raiders they so fear.
Can Icel and his fellow warriors’ triumph as Mercia once more faces betrayal from within?
Set in the troubled years at the end of the Mercian supremacy, with the advent of the true First Viking Age just around the corner, The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles allow me to explore the kingdoms of Saxon England at the time, while ensuring my focus remains on Mercia, the kingdom in the’Midlands’ of England, with which I’m quite obsessed.
And choosing to write about a very strong character from my The Last King series, also allows me to play with my readers expectations. Icel is a fabulous creation, and one I’m incredibly proud of and pleased my readers love so much.
Yes, these are bloody and brutal tales, but at the heart of them is a ‘coming of age’ story as young Icel learns about himself, as well as the truth of his heritage and birth.
If you’ve not yet tried The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, then now is the perfect opportunity. Enjoy.
A King in crisis, a Queen on trial, a Kingdom’s survival hangs in the balance.
Londonia, AD835 The deadly conspiracy against the children of Ealdorman Coenwulf is to be resolved. Those involved have been unmasked and arrested. But will justice prevail?
While the court convenes to determine the conspirator’s fate, King Wiglaf’s position is precarious. His wife, Queen Cynethryth, has been implicated in the plot and while Wiglaf must remain impartial, enemies of the Mercia still conspire to prevent the full truth from ever being known.
As Merica weeps from the betrayal of those close to the King, the greedy eyes of Lord Æthelwulf, King Ecgberht of Wessex’s son, pivot once more towards Mercia. He will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of ending Mercia’s ruling bloodline.
Mercia once more stands poised to be invaded, but this time not by the Viking raiders they so fear.
Can Icel and his fellow warriors’ triumph as Mercia once more faces betrayal from within?
An action packed, thrilling historical adventure perfect for the fans of Bernard Cornwell and Matthew Harffy
Here’s the purchase link (ebook, paperback, hardback and audio)
Throughout the series I’ve taken young Icel to some interesting locations, and that means I’ve had to make use of many maps which are recreations of the era, because, alas, we have none from the period. Both maps I’ve had made are relevant to Betrayal of Mercia which largely takes place in London, or Londonia, or Londinium and Lundenwic.
The map of Lundenwic and Londinium, shortened in the books to Londonia, a term more accurately applied to the eighth century and not the ninth, is much simplified and largely shows locations relevant to me and which I need to remember when writing the books. Although, I must confess, I did forget about it in the drafting process and when I found it, I was relieved to discover I hadn’t made THAT many mistakes.
The most important elements to understand are that ‘London’ as we know it didn’t exist at this time. Instead, there were two very distinctive settlements, and they were seperated by the River Fleet, one of London’s ‘lost’ rivers because it’s now subterranean. I think, for me, not being very familiar with London as it is today actually helped. Rather than trying to orientate myself as to what’s there now, I can work the other way round. I sort of know what was and wasn’t there in the ninth century, and then I can try and work out what’s there now:) Honestly, it makes sense to me.
It also helps to remember that despite London now being the capital of England, it wasn’t in the ninth century. Far from it, in fact. There are many good books on London in it’s earliest manifestations. If you’re interested, they are very worth checking out.
I also have a map of England at this time. This is to help readers (and me) try and get an idea of what settlements were and weren’t there at the time. As I’ve learned, it can be far too easy to just assume the longevity of a location, and then discover it wasn’t there at all, was bigger or even, much smaller than it is now. One of those locations is Wall, close to Lichfield, which was very important during the Roman occupation of Britain, but is now little more than ruins. And it’s far from alone in that.
A King in crisis, a Queen on trial, a Kingdom’s survival hangs in the balance.
Londonia, AD835 The deadly conspiracy against the children of Ealdorman Coenwulf is to be resolved. Those involved have been unmasked and arrested. But will justice prevail?
While the court convenes to determine the conspirator’s fate, King Wiglaf’s position is precarious. His wife, Queen Cynethryth, has been implicated in the plot and while Wiglaf must remain impartial, enemies of the Mercia still conspire to prevent the full truth from ever being known.
As Merica weeps from the betrayal of those close to the King, the greedy eyes of Lord Æthelwulf, King Ecgberht of Wessex’s son, pivot once more towards Mercia. He will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of ending Mercia’s ruling bloodline.
Mercia once more stands poised to be invaded, but this time not by the Viking raiders they so fear.
Can Icel and his fellow warriors’ triumph as Mercia once more faces betrayal from within?
An action packed, thrilling historical adventure perfect for the fans of Bernard Cornwell and Matthew Harffy
Here’s the purchase link (ebook, paperback, hardback and audio)
In Betrayal of Mercia, the seventh book in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles featuring young Icel, I’ve done something that I don’t ‘think’ anyone else has done before. I’ve staged a criminal trial, making Betrayal part court-room drama and part action-thriller (you know Icel is always going to end up in a fight at some point). However, there are odd things about Saxon England that we have no information about – one of them is how often people actually went to church once Christianised, another is exactly how the law was enacted.
This might seem like an odd thing to say. Everyone knows there are surviving law codes from the era, especially from the eleventh century, with the inspiring names of Æthelred I or Cnut II, and indeed, the earliest law code dates back to Ine, in the seventh century, from which we can glean such titles as Wealas or foreigner, but applied to the Welsh, who had different wergild payments and punishment from the Saxons. But, there has long been an argument about how much these law codes reflect practise as opposed to an ideal. And some of the elements we ‘think we know’ turn out to be on much less steady ground. And, at the heart of all this is a problem with our current perceptions of ‘right,’ ‘wrong,’ and ‘justice.’ We ‘appear’ to look at these elements of our current legal system in a way very different to the era.
When studying what records we do have, we’re greeted with some interesting terms. ‘Thereafter there would be no friendship,’ appears in a charter detailing a land dispute in the later tenth century – between Wynflæd and Leofwine (S1454 from 990 to 992). In this, despite whoever was in the wrong or the right, the decision was made which was something of a compromise – both injured parties had to make concessions. No one truly ‘won’, even though Wynflæd had many who would speak on her behalf, including the king’s mother, and the Archbishop of York, and had appealed directly to the king, Æthelred II, for assistance, only for Leofwine to refuse to attend his summons saying that royal appeals couldn’t precede a regional judgement on the matter.
In the famous case of Lady Eadgifu of Wessex (recorded in charter S1211), the mother of Kings Edmund and Eadwig (who features in the Brunanburh series), her landholdings at Cooling required the intervention of her husband, stepson, son and grandson, in a long-running debacle which was never really resolved until her grandson intervened close to the end of her life. Even though she appears to have held the ‘landboc’ – the title deed for the land – and was a highly regarded member of the royal family, this wasn’t enough to stop counterclaims. In the end, she assigned the land to the Christ Church religious community, and that way, no one actually benefitted apart from the church.
These cases both refer to land disputes, which are one of the larger areas of document survival, along with wills. But what about crimes visited against the king’s mund (both his physical person and his physical kingdom)? Here, we’re again confronted with little knowledge. We know of ealdormen being banished (under Æthelred II) and this attests to another element of the practise of law which is perhaps surprising. There does seem to have been an aversion to capital punishment (as Rabin details in his book mentioned below). And there was also a concern that the right sentence was handed to individuals – it was as bad to incorrectly punish as it was to have committed the crime.
In trying to stage a trial set in the Saxon period (which I now realise was a bit bonkers), I’ve relied heavily on a very short book, Crime and Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England by Andrew Rabin, and also his translations of the Old English Legal Writings by (Archbishop) Wulfstan (from the 1000s), from which I’ve determined how many oath-helpers people must have based on the Mercian Wergild listed within the source documents. This suggests the value placed on individuals – the king, of course, being at the top. Each individual had a wergild value and equally, each individual had a required value for the number of oath-helpers who would stand as surety for them if asked to detail what they had ‘seen and heard’ in a trial situation. The implication being that those who needed the least oath-helpers were more trustworthy than those who needed many – so a king might need no one, after all, he was the king, whereas a warrior might need a few, and a ‘normal’ person might need many.
This feels like a very different world to the one we ‘know,’ where transgressions are punished by custodial sentences and fines and where the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of those prosecuting the alleged offenders.
It has certainly been an interesting experiment, and one I hope readers will enjoy, and more importantly, one which I’ve managed to convey largely ‘correctly.’
A King in crisis, a Queen on trial, a Kingdom’s survival hangs in the balance.
Londonia, AD835 The deadly conspiracy against the children of Ealdorman Coenwulf is to be resolved. Those involved have been unmasked and arrested. But will justice prevail?
While the court convenes to determine the conspirator’s fate, King Wiglaf’s position is precarious. His wife, Queen Cynethryth, has been implicated in the plot and while Wiglaf must remain impartial, enemies of the Mercia still conspire to prevent the full truth from ever being known.
As Merica weeps from the betrayal of those close to the King, the greedy eyes of Lord Æthelwulf, King Ecgberht of Wessex’s son, pivot once more towards Mercia. He will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of ending Mercia’s ruling bloodline.
Mercia once more stands poised to be invaded, but this time not by the Viking raiders they so fear.
Can Icel and his fellow warriors’ triumph as Mercia once more faces betrayal from within?
An action packed, thrilling historical adventure perfect for the fans of Bernard Cornwell and Matthew Harffy
Here’s the purchase link (ebook, paperback, large print, hardback and audio)
There is a scene in Betrayal of Mercia where our favourite healer, Wynflæd, speaks to young Icel about her experiences of ‘bad queens,’ referencing three women in almost living memory deemed as ‘bad’, certainly many years after their deaths, if not quite by the 830s, when the scene takes place. These women were the wife of King Offa, his daughter, Eadburh, and the daughter of King Coenwulf (796-821), Cwenthryth. Indeed, this collection of bad queens, especially the sister of Queen Cynethryth, have been cited as the reason why Wessex was so slow to adopt the term. But, was everything as it appears, or are these reputations a later tradition?
The daughter of King Offa (757-796), Eadburh was married to the king of the West Saxons, Beorhtric. In the words of the later Asser, who wrote at the end of the 890s, she’s accused of poisoning her husband to death while trying to actually poison one of his disloyal followers. Interestingly, the man who became king after Beorhtric was King Ecgberht of Wessex, who features in the Icel stories, and in turn, it was his grandson who commissioned Asser to write his life which tarnishes the reputation of Eadburh.
Cynethryth, the wife of King Offa, was a powerful woman in her own right, and the only preconquest queen known to have minted coin showing her own name. In later centuries, her name became associated with the murder of a king of the East Angles, and she was involved in a long-running land dispute with the archbishop of Canterbury.
Cwenthryth, the daughter of King Coenwulf, became associated with the murder of her brother, Cynehelm/Kenelm. The later, Anglo-Norman histories inform that.
‘At Winchcombe you will read of the secret martyrdom of Kenelm. He was the son of Cenwulf, [Coenwulf] the Mercia king, who died in the year of grace 819, having reigned for twenty-four years. The martyrdom of his son Kenelm was revealed from heaven to Pope Silvester II at Rome.’p691 Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, The History of the English People
While The Chronicle of John of Worcester extends this recording for the year, ‘[819] St Cenwulf, king of the Mercians, after a life devoted to good deeds, passed over to the eternal blessedness which is in heaven, and left his 7-year-old son St Kenelm heir of his realm. But when a few months had passed, by the treachery of his own sister Cwenthryth, whose cruel spirit had been roused by an awful lust for power, he was secretly done to death with cruel outrage by Æscberht, his most bloodthirsty tutor, in the shade of a thorn tree in a deserted wood.’ P239-241
Winchcombe Nunnery was founded by Cwenthryth’s father, and the family were therefore invested in the religious establishment, although whether enough to kill one of their own to have him venerated as a saint, does seem doubtful. The identity of St Kenelm is very much contested, although it is believed that Cynehelm did live, and died before his father, which led to Coelwulf, the first of his name, and Coenwulf’s brother, becoming King of Mercia when his brother died..
This is the scene from Betrayal, where Wynflæd shares the gory knowledge she knows, and perhaps, hints at her approval for such strong-minded women that they could become associated with such dark deeds.
‘Mercia hasn’t fared well with the women wed to their kings.’ A soft cackle. ‘Or the children born between a king and a queen. Wigmund’s merely the most current of many disappointments. Lord Coenwulf there, his father became king because his brother’s daughter killed her brother.’
‘I thought that was a lie,’ I countered.
‘That’s how King Coenwulf had it reported. It was all true though. I didn’t witness it, but I know of others who did.’
‘What, watched her kill her brother?’
‘No, witnessed the king speak of it, to a select few. And before her, Offa’s wife also had blood on her hands, as did Offa’s sister.’
I shuddered at the thought. ‘Why?’
‘A woman must live by her wits, and safeguard her future, for fear she’ll be locked up tight in a nunnery, with no means of engaging with the world at large. Think of Lady Cynehild.’ Wynflæd met my searching gaze then. ‘She remarried, and meddled where she shouldn’t have done. Admittedly, she stopped far short of murdering anyone.’
‘So, the king should have expected this then?’ I was astounded.
‘Maybe. He married her.’ Wynflæd cackled softly. ‘A man may wed a woman for her title, and lands. A woman may divorce a man. But better to have him dead, and then take his place. A grieving woman will have the sympathy of others. A widow has more freedom than a wife.’
‘You almost sound like you approve.’
‘I do not,’ she countered, but her eyes glittered.
Wynflæd is a stalwart of the series, and I was recently inspired to write a short story from her point of view regarding Mercia’s alleged ‘bad queens.’ If you’d like to read it, sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you a link to download the story. And, you automatically receive a free short story collection as well.
A huge thank you to all the book bloggers and Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for organising. Some of these amazing people have been with Young Icel throughout the entire series, and I am so grateful they are so keen to read, they sign up for the blog tour:)
MJ Porter 