Æthelred, lord of the Mercians

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Æthelred, lord of the Mercians (d. 911). Of unknown origins, by 883 Æthelred was in control of that western part of Mercia which had been left under Anglo-Saxon control when Vikings conquered the rest of the province. Æthelred found it expedient to accept the overlordship of Alfred of Wessex and married his eldest daughter Æthelfleda, perhaps soon after Alfred had ceded control of London to him in 886. The two provinces co-ordinated activities against the Vikings, but Æthelred seems to have become increasingly plagued by ill-health so that well before his death in 911 Æthelfleda had become the effective leader of the Mercians.

Barbara Yorke