Ælfflæd or Æthelflæd (
fl. 840) is not recorded before the twelfth century.
William of Malmesbury describes Æthelflæd as the daughter of King
Ceolwulf I of Mercia, wife of King
Wiglaf's son
Wigmund, and mother of
Wigstan.
According to
Thomas of Marlborough's
hagiographical life of Wigstan, when his father King Wigmund died in 840, Wigstan refused to become king, preferring a life of religion. His relative
Beorhtwulf
Beorhtwulf (, meaning "bright wolf"; also spelled ''Berhtwulf''; died 852) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 839 or 840 to 852. His ancestry is unknown, though he may have been connected to Beornwulf, who ruled Mercia in ...
then asked for permission to marry the widowed queen, Æfflæd, and when Wigstan refused, he had him murdered.
John of Worcester
John of Worcester (died c. 1140) was an English monk and chronicler who worked at Worcester Priory. He is now usually held to be the author of the .
Works
John of Worcester's principal work was the (Latin for "Chronicle from Chronicles") or ...
has a different version of Wigstan's parentage and death, which he dates to 849. Wigstan was regarded as a saint, like many other Anglo-Saxon royals murdered for political reasons.
She was the heir of her father and his brother
Coenwulf, and, by the middle of the century, she was probably abbess of
Winchcombe
Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, situated northeast of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census and ...
, as she was disposing of its property. She died after 850, and may have been the mother of King
Ceolwulf II and Eadburh, wife of
Æthelred Mucel.
[Keynes & Lapidge, ''Asser'', pp. 77; 240–41; Abels, ''Alfred the Great'', p. 121]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aelfflaed Of Mercia (02)
9th-century English people
9th-century English women
Daughters of kings