"Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (d. 12 June 918), ruled Mercia from 911 to her death in 918. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his queen, Ealhswith. Æthelflæd was born at the height of the Viking invasions of England. Her father married her to Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians. After his death in 911, she ruled; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle referred to her as the Myrcna hlæfdige, "Lady of the Mercians".
Æthelflæd was married to Æthelred, then ealdorman of Mercia. Near the end of the reign of Alfred the Great, Æthelred and Æthelflæd were requested by Werferth, the Bishop of Worcester, to fortify the town, in return for which they shared the rents and other profits which had belonged to the bishop.
Æthelflæd established garrisons in Hereford and Gloucester before 914 and repaired the old walls of Chester in 907.[6] In 910 she built her first fortress; since her husband took no part in the campaign against the Danes, some scholars suggest that she was the real leader of the Mercian people.
On her husband's death in 911 after the Battle of Tettenhall, she was recognised as the "Lady of the Mercians". This was not a purely honorific title; Æthelflæd was a formidable military leader and tactician and ruled for eight years. Upon succeeding her husband, she began to plan and build a series of fortresses in English Mercia, ten of which can be identified: Bridgnorth (912); Tamworth (913); Stafford (913); Eddisbury (914); Warwick (914); Chirbury (915); Runcorn (915). Three other fortresses, at Bremesburh, Scergeat and Weardbyrig, have yet to be located.
Æthelflæd allied herself to her brother Edward the Elder, king over much of England. Historian Sir Frank Stenton said that Edward was able to achieve "the outstanding feature of his reign", the move against the occupying Danes in the south of England, due to being able to rely upon Æthelflæd.
In 916 she led an expedition into Wales to avenge the murder of a Mercian abbot, and succeeded in capturing the wife of the king of Brycheiniog.
n 918, the people of the region around York promised to pledge their loyalty to Æthelflæd, probably in order to secure her support against Norse raiders from Ireland, but she died on 12 June 918, less than two weeks before the city was able to pay homage to her. She was succeeded as Lady of the Mercians by her daughter, Ælfwynn, but six months later Edward deposed her and took Mercia under his personal control." Details extracted from
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The statue
"On Wigg Island,now a conservation area lying between Runcorn and the River Mersey, there was a recent carving of Ethelfleda using Cheshire stone. Ethelfleda is one of three stone carvings which were positioned adjacent to the old Runcorn to Latchford Canal. The aim of the artist was to depict the figures keeping a constant vigil on the River Mersey, looking out on the river.
Because of the danger of damage to these carvings due to the construction of the new "MerseyGateway" bridge , they have all now been relocated to ground outside the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn."
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