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To Be A Queen Kindle Edition
This is the true story of Aethelflaed, the ‘Lady of the Mercians’, daughter of Alfred the Great. She was the only female leader of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
Born into the royal house of Wessex at the height of the Viking wars, she is sent to her aunt in Mercia as a foster-child, only to return home when the Vikings overrun Mercia. In Wessex, she witnesses another Viking attack and this compounds her fear of the enemy.
She falls in love with a Mercian lord but is heartbroken to be given as bride to the ruler of Mercia to seal the alliance between the two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
She must learn to subjugate her feelings for her first love, overcome her indifference to her husband and win the hearts of the Mercians who despise her as a foreigner and twice make an attempt on her life.
When her husband falls ill and is incapacitated, she has to learn to rule and lead an army in his stead. Eventually she must fight to save her adopted Mercia from the Vikings and, ultimately, her own brother. To Be A Queen was Long-listed for HNSIndie Book of the Year 2016 and has been awarded an indie BRAG Gold Medallion.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateDecember 7, 2015
- File size4171 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B0193QHAHW
- Publisher : (December 7, 2015)
- Publication date : December 7, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 4171 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 312 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #892,531 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #889 in Historical Biographical Fiction
- #1,206 in Biographical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #2,356 in Biographical Historical Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Annie Whitehead is a prize-winning writer, historian, and elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has written four award-winning novels set in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Mercia. She has contributed to fiction and nonfiction anthologies and written for various magazines. She was the winner of the inaugural Historical Writers’ Association/Dorothy Dunnett Prize 2017 and is now a judge for that same competition. She has also been a judge for the HNS (Historical Novel Society) Short Story Competition. She has twice been a prize winner in the Mail on Sunday Novel Writing Competition, and won First Prize in the 2012 New Writer Magazine's Prose and Poetry Competition. She has been a finalist in the Tom Howard Prize for non-fiction, and was shortlisted for the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award 2021. Her nonfiction books, Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom and Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, are published by Amberley Books and Pen & Sword Books. She has recently signed a contract to contribute to a new history of English monarchs, to be published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2023.
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Top reviews from the United States
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In “To Be a Queen,” the historical account of Aethelflaed or the “Lady of the Mercians,” author Annie Whitehead gets the balance of research and story exactly right. And what a story she tells!
Aethelflaed (ca. 870 to 918A.D.) was the daughter of Alfred the Great, King of the English based in Wessex. The most significant fact of this entire period was the repeated invasions by and battles with the Vikings. The Viking threat framed Aethelflaed’s life, as it did the lives of her father, her brother Edward, her husband Aethelred, and the entire people of the British Isles.
Aethelred, lord of the Mercians, becomes allied with Alfred to fight the Vikings. They’re successful, and to cement the alliance between Wessex and Mercia, Alfred gives his daughter Aethelflaed in marriage to Aethelred. Whitehead creates a love interest for Aethelflaed, one closer to her age, but the young girl knows what her royal duty is. Her considerably older husband is aware of her love for another man, but wisely bides his time.
In the story, Aethelflaed eventually comes to love her husband deeply and earns the respect of the Mercian people, to the degree that they accept her as their ruler when Aethelred is struck down by illness and later dies. She holds the distinction of being the only woman ever to ruled an Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
The heart of the story is in its details – the accounts of day-to-day activities (royal women worked, often just like non-royal women), the love stories Whitehead builds, Aethelflaed’s many miscarriages, and the personalities of the characters themselves, including the heroines, heroes, and villains. What makes this historical novel even more interesting is that what is known of the Mercians is what was written down by their enemies and allies; no first-hand, Mercian accounts of their rulers and history exist.
Whitehead, a member of the Royal Historical Society and the Historical Writers Association. She has published three novels set in Mercia: “To Be a Queen” (2013); “Alvar the Kingmaker” (2016); and “Cometh the Hour” (2017). She has also published the non-fiction work “Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom” (2018). Her books have won a number of prizes and recognitions, and she is a frequent contributor to anthologies on English history and a lecturer. She blogs at Casting Light upon the Shadow and Time Traveler.
“To Be a Queen” is a rousing story, well researched and expertly told, of a woman who served and ruled in a perilous time.
This Ethelfleada is a real and complex person with strengths and weaknesses. Her husband Aethelred of Mercia is also portrayed as an astute, courageous yet sensitive man. The other historical characters are also well drawn: a somewhat aloof Alfred, a fierce and determined Edward, and an intelligent young Athelstan. Other characters both historical and non- historical, add to the richness of the story. The known historical events provide the framework for the story and the reader is thrust into the struggles and upheavals of the late 9th and early 10th century England, before it was actually England. We don't know what these people were really like as human beings, but Whitehead has certainly created believable and admirable humans struggling to survive and, in the case of Ethelfleada, her father, brother and husband, to bring about a united people. She has also provided rich details about the every day life of the people. The characters, the setting, the writing itself, all make for an engrossing experience for the reader. For those who are interested in this period of history, the Bernard Cornwall "Uhtred series" provide a very different interpretation of the characters of Ethelfleada, Aethelred,and Edward. All in all, the Anglo-Saxon period of history is prime fodder for skilled historical fiction writers and their lucky readers!
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2018
Top reviews from other countries
Annie Whitehead, an accomplished historian herself, has merged surviving evidence with fiction to give us a glimpse into life as it might have been for a young lady from Alfred’s court, the daughter of the King no less, to travel to a less glamorous region of the country and make a new life for herself with the stranger she had been married off to. Whitehead does not glorify Aethelflaed and describes quite realistically what it must have taken for her, a West Saxon woman, to earn the trust and love of people who saw themselves as very much not West Saxon.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in important female figures in British History. I am currently also about halfway through her non-fiction work Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, and it is fascinating!
Being a fan of "The Last Kingdom" series, books and drama, I've come to learn at a certain point about the Lady Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of Wessex, and so to find that my interest got stirred in this great lady and so to buy this book.
The historical details concerning this story have been very thoroughly researched by the author, with the known documentations about this period of history available, and they are superbly implemented within this wonderful tale about the life, from childhood to Queen, of (Little) Teasel or Lady Aethelflaed of Mercia.
At the beginning of the book you'll find a list of real historical characters who're featuring in this story, and you'll notice a superb glossary, not to forget a short informative intro, while at the back of the book you'll find a well documented Author's Notes, wherein Names are explained as well as important events and issues are brought forward by the author for the reader's attention.
Storytelling is of a wonderful quality for the author certainly has the ability in bringing Saxon Britain and all its Kings, Queens, and all other important people vividly to life within this beautiful story, with the main part reserved of course for Lady Aethelflaed, according to the Irish and a lot of other people is Queen of Mercia, and also for a great part her brother King Edward, for bringing together Wessex and Mercia and striving to defeat all Vikings from Britain and to form one united England in the end, as their ultimate goal.
The book is divided into 4 parts and it is set between the years AD 874 until AD 918, and it tells us the story of (Teasel) Aethelflaed from young girl to Lady, and all that she manages to achieve in her life, and finally becoming out of love according to her people in Mercia their Lady and Queen.
This story takes us on a historical journey concerning the life and achievements of this wonderful and daring Lady of the Mercians, Aethelflaed, and this eventful journey is brought to us by the author in a most enjoyable, warm and lovely fashion.
Very much recommended, for this book is a beautiful written description about a most remarkable woman in history, and that's why I would like to call this book: "Honour The Queen, This Lady Of Mercia"!
Whitehead has a light touch, and reminds me that woman historians & novelist bring so much to the writing of past eras. So OK this novel has, not surprisingly, invented & omitted much, but Whitehead explains the rationale. If this upsets some readers, then I suggest they keep away from historical novels.
A good read. Enjoy