Lesson video

Hello.

This brings us to the third lesson of our four lesson enquiry on what made Alfred well, why he's remembered as Great.

We looked at Alfred himself in the last lesson before that, we looked at who the Vikings were So in today's lesson, we'll be talking about his family, specifically his two children.

Edwards, that's an okay name, Aethelflaed, slightly weird name, and then Aethelstan, who's the grandson.

Now be careful with spelling because they're spelled in a funny way, these are very important people as you've got to get them.

So, first of all, as always date, title underlined both on a piece of paper or your book careful with the spelling, get it right in the title it's going to make it easier when we do this lesson.

So we'll be looking at Alfred's two children and grandson.

And what they did to continue the fight that Alfred had started.

So as ever, you can pause the video whenever you're like, I wouldn't take it personally.

Hide your phone don't have any near you.

Just put it away just for half an hour.

It's great.

More than half an hour 'cause this lesson will stay more than half an hour.

Anyway, pause now and get the title written down and then we will start with the lesson.

So if you could make sure you've got the title in your books or your notes that will would be fantastic.

Be careful with the spelling, strange names well Edward less strange, but Aethelflaed and Aethelstan two quite strange names.

Make sure you get the A and the E the right way round is always A-E not E-A So do that and then restart the video when you're done.

So in the last lesson we talked about Alfred, Alfred the Great, why he called Alfred the Great, not just Alfred.

We talked about we learned about why he was pretty great.

He did lots of good things to strengthen methods, to fight back against the Vikings, but we also looked at why we need to be a little bit careful when we think about Alfred in particular.

And this is especially, those who're becoming more clear now because today's lesson we're going to be talking about who Alfred who came after Alfred specifically, Aethelflaed the women on the right.

And on the left hand side, we have Edwards.

Now these were the two children of Alfred, and in many ways it was Edward and Aethelflaed together who really pushed the Vikings out of England for good.

We don't hear much about them, however, and there's a reason for this.

So as we'll be exploring in this lesson today, so just to meet this absolute care, today, we're going to be talking about Alfred and his successes.

Alfred who died in 899 AD, he had two children, well he had more than two children, but these are the two children that we'll be talking about in particular, Edward, who was King until 924 AD, and Aethelflaed, who became the Lady of Mercia.

And you'll be reading about this in the slides the Lady of Mercia.

So she was in charge of Mercia after her husband's death.

And for about seven years, she led the fights which she fought alongside Edward.

We didn't hear much about her.

It wouldn't have to floodxxx However, we talk about Alfred the Great, we don't have Edward the Great, we don't have Aethelflaed the Great.

And this is partly to do with the lack of written sources that lack of written sources that tell us about, we don't have a life of sin, or we don't have a life of Edward, We don't have a life of Aethelflaed.

We do have a life of King Alfred.

And as we looked at last lesson written by Assa, he was probably sat in the next room.

So was writing in a way that made him sound good.

We will then also be looking at Edward's son, Aethelstan.

Aethelstan took over when Edward died, and then he ruled England until 939.

And it was Aethelstan who became known as the King of all of Britain.

So three other important figures in this period, none of them cool great.

Only Alfred is known as Great.

And we'll be looking at whether that's right, whether these other Kings and this lady, Lady of Mercia, should be getting more attention for the work that for the fighting that they did against the Vikings.

Just very quickly, see if you can get the names down.

First one Alfred then pause now and see if you can fill in the gaps in the correct boxes.

So pause now and have a go.

So Alfred should be in the green box.

The pink box is Edwards and Aethelflaed and then Aethelstan in the purple box.

These are the three figures that we'll be talking about in today's lesson.

Now, just forget I'm going to tell you the story, the tell you the story of the fight back against the Viking.

So Alfred, we looked at in the last lesson, he was crowned King of Wessex in 861 AD.

He then died in 899.

Alfred dies and then Edward becomes King of the Anglo Saxons.

So Alfred in his life.

So he was King for a very long time, 38 years.

And in these 38 years, he kind of, he brought stability stabilise to broke homeless, to passive invent, he agreed this deal with treaty with Guthrum.

He built burrs all over the country and he really pretty stopped the Viking advance.

Edward who became King in 899, he continues to fight alongside Aethelflaed, who became the Lady of Mercia in 911.

Aethelflaed had been in Mercia for a long time.

She'd been married to the Lord of Mercia, and then the Lord of Mercia, a man called Aethelred just to make even another Aethel, Aethelred he died in 911.

And then the lady of, Aethelflaed was given the position of Lady of Mercia by the Lords of Mercia.

So they wanted her to take charge and what she did for seven years until her death in 918.

At which point, Edward son of Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons takes over Mercia.

So Aethelflaed dies Mercia is then taken over by Edward, who then dies himself in 924.

So before 924, we have about 20, 25 years when Aethelflaed and Edward are fighting hard against the Vikings, gradually pushing them out of Anglo Saxons, England.

But it is only when Aethelstan becomes King in 942 that we see England United under one King, and the Vikings pushed out for good from Anglo Saxon, England.

And then he passes away in 939.

And then we have his son Edmund becoming King.

We're not going to look too much at Edmund in this, the sequence of lessons.

But when we think about Alfred the Great, we're talking about a period of the start of this timeline.

The Vikings were not pushed out of being in completely from the 25 years after Alfred had died.

The question we should be asking ourselves, why do we not talk about Edward the Great? Why don't we talk about Aethelflaed the Great? Why not Aethelstan the Great? Because it was these three, these three individuals who continued the fight that Alfred started and actually brought England together in a way that Alfred didn't, Alfred did not do that.

Now, just to remind you, this is the situation that's Alfred agreed 890 the treaty of Wedmore between King Alfred and Guthrum.

The pink area known as the Danelaw.

So the Dane is another name that was given to the Viking.

So the law of the Danes, this was Viking land.

And remember, we can tell, we know roughly where the boarders were because of the place names.

Place names North of this border have Viking words in them.

South of this border, the Brown area they don't.

And this is the area that was controlled by Alfred and yeah, in control by Alfred.

Now, when Alfred dies in 899, we have something happening, Edward and Aethelflaed start to push into the Danelaw and they do this very, very successfully.

So by 918, when Aethelflaed has died, the Vikings have been pushed out almost completely from East Anglio and England.

So they push the borders further and further and further, and what they both do as, but especially Aethelflaed, they build burrs all over this conquered land, they strengthen the kingdom.

They strengthen their kingdoms and to protect themselves, protect their subjects from the Vikings.

Now, one of the major sources.

So we've been talking about how do we know anything about these Kings and Queens? Well, for King Alfred, we have the life of King Alfred, written by Assa, a monk who was employed or worked for Alfred.

This is why we have this very flat he's, I mean, think about what Asa said, Alfred was so good looking everyone loved him.

He was fantastic.

But of course, he's going to say that because he was probably working next door for Alfred.

Another source that historians use to get an idea of what was going on is something called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

An Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is kind of a year by year.

It's like a gatekeeper diary.

But so diary is used for each day.

A Chronicle is for each year.

And so on the screen here, we have a page from this particular Chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, you might be able to see very, very faint numbers on the left hand side of the page.

They all the years, I think that's 915.

I can't see myself 'cause it's a bit blurry.

And then we have a description of what happened in those years.

So this is, we have the Chronicle going back many, many hundreds of years, but it was being written by Alfred but it was being written by people working for Alfred, working for the Kings of England.

And so what I'd like you to do before we go into the next part of the lesson is to pause here, and we've done this a few times now, simply work out which word goes in which space.

What I'd suggest you do actually is write out the whole, write up the paragraph, leaving gaps, and then go back and add in the words as you come across them.

So pause here, have a go.

And then when you've done that restart the lesson.

So here we go.

When Alfred died in 899 AD, his son Edward became King.

Alfred had married his daughter, Aethelflaed to the Lord of Marcia a few years before.

When her husband died in 911 AD, Aethelflaed was made the Lady of Mercia by her Lords.

Aethelflaed built burhs across the country.

For the next few years, Aethelflaed and Edward fought together and push the Vikings out of the Midlands, which is another word for Mercia, out of Mercia and East Anglia.

When Aethelflaed died in 918, Edward continued the fight until his death in 924.

So make sure you've got the correct answers down in your books.

This is a really useful paragraph to have written out, actually, because we'll be using a lot of this stuff in our writing activity later on.

So pause now, make sure you got the correct answers and then restart when you're done.

And just to remind us of the timeline, 861 becomes King.

The great heathen army arrives a few years later destroys most of Anglo-Saxon, England, even Wessex looks like it's about to collapse.

Alfred takes the fight back.

He agrees this border between Anglo-Saxon land and the Dane law the Viking control lands.

He dies at 899, then we have Edward becoming King.

And then from 911, Edward with his sister, the Lady of Mercia fights successfully to push the Viking's out of much of England.

Aethelflaed dies in 918.

Edward takes continues the fight takes control of Mercia.

So we no longer have the separate kingdom of Mercia.

Edward dies in 924, his son Aethelstan becomes the King of the Anglo-Saxons.

And we then have Athelstan, which is what we're looking at now, and Aethelstan what was he doing to control England? So this is what Aethelstan was upto.

So Aethelstan son of Edward becomes King in 924 rules until 939.

King Aethelstan won by the sword's edge undying glory in battle at Brunanaburh.

Brunanburh is a place in Scotland.

They smashed the shield-wall, broke the wood shields with hammered swords, the people of the Scots and the pirates fell doomed.

The field grew dark with the blood of men.

Not since the Angles and the Saxons came here from the East and one in the country, has there been such a great slaughter of an army by the edge of the sword.

And this is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

So remember that piece of paper that I showed you for the year 934.

934 the Chronicle has this description of the battle of Brunanburh.

So we have Aethelstan, it is he who scores this massive victory against the Scots and the pirates.

The pirates is another way of describing the Vikings.

So it is Aethelstan not Alfred who scores this massive victory.

We don't have Aethelstan the Great, and this is why we're asking this question.

Why is Alfred known as Alfred the Great and not his children, Edward and Aethelflaed or his grandson Aethelstan? And here we have two coins, sorry not two coins, 1.

2 sides.

And this is a coin literally made by Aethelstan.

And what's really special about this coin, we have the image of Aethelstan in the middle of the coin looking quite Roman, actually like a Roman emperor.

And that was, he meant it to look that way.

And we have his name Aethelstan.

And then we have the words in Latin saying King of all Britain.

So this is a big deal, not just the Anglo-Saxons of Britain.

So we have Aethelstan, not Alfred or Edward or Aethelflaed.

Aethelstan is the King who united England into one country.

And you'll be reading more about who he was and what he did in the slides in a moment.

He also, this is what actually, this particular picture is one of the earliest is probably the earliest image of an Anglo-Saxon came that we have.

So this was in a book, a life of a Saint Saint cuspid, and you see Aethelstan on the left, holding his book, giving this book to the saints, saint cuspid, now of course cuspid had died many years before.

So this isn't an actual event that took place.

But what we have here is Aethelstan deliberately making himself look very Holy.

He wasn't just a big fighter.

He didn't just score this huge fixing victory at Brunanburh against the Scots and the pirates, He was also a holy man.

And again, you'll be reading more about this.

You'll be reading more about this in the slides.

So what you're going to do now is you've done many times before, by this point hopefully you're shortly going to pause the video.

You're going to close the video, click Next to the bottom right hand corner of the screen or your phone or whatever you're using.

And then you're going to go to the next part of, the next part of the lesson.

And you're going to read through the slides.

And then when you've done that, you'll find these five questions at the end of the, at the end of the slides, answer in full sentences.

Full sentences is the most important thing that I want to emphasise here.

Not single words I want full sentences.

So pause the video now, read slides and answer the comprehension questions.

And when you finished restart the video and we'll go through the answers together.

So first question, who were Alfred children? Acceptable answer Edward and Aethelflaed.

Make sure you got the spelling of Aethelflaed, especially correct.

The good answer, Alfred's children were Edward and Aethelflaed.

Now this doesn't mind what seemed like, particularly big differencexx, but the difference is one is a full sentence and the other one isn't, and that is a big difference, as far as I'm concerned.

Two, why was Aethelflaed known as the lady of Mercia? Acceptable answer, She was in charge of Mercia.

The good answer, when Aethelflaed's husband who was lord of Mercia died in 911, Aethelflaed was given the title Lady of Mercia by the lords in that kingdom.

This was Lord's giving Aethelflaed permission to take charge.

Doesn't often happen, that a woman at this time is given such an important role.

So clearly she was very good at what she was doing.

Three, what did Edward and Aethelflaed do to the Vikings? Acceptable answer: Fought back against them.

Good answer: Edward and Aethelflaed successfully worked together to push the Vikings out of England.

So it wasn't out he got rid of the Vikings really, it was Edward and Aethelflaed, his children who pushed the Vikings out of England.

Four, why did Aethelstan become known as "the King of the Whole of Britain? Acceptable answer: He defeated the Scottish King.

Good answer: in 934, Aethelstan defeated the Scottish King at the battle of Brunanburh, which was the last person who was the last person to refuse to accept him as King.

So this is why Athelstan not Alfred, not Edward, not Aethelflaed.

Aethelstan becomes known as the King of the whole of Britain.

And five, what did Aethelstan do to make life better for people in England? Acceptable answer: He changed the rules about the death penalty.

The good answer: Aethelstan forced his lords to make sure their people didn't starve.

He also got rid of the death penalty for people under 15.

Again, so it wasn't Alfred who did these things, it wasn't Edward who did these things, it wasn't Aethelflaed who did these things, it was Aethelstan.

Aethelstan was the King who gave more responsibility to his lords to make sure their people were not starving.

So he did much more than his predecessors into the people that came before him.

So what we're going to do now, historians we read and we write.

And what I want us we're going to do together is answer this question, who defeated the Vikings: Alfred or his family? Now, the reason I'm asking this question is because Alfred is one of the reasons Alfred is remembered as the Great is because he is seen as the man who defeated the Vikings.

But as we've seen in today's lesson, it wasn't that simple Alfred yes, he did a lot to fight back against the Vikings, but it was also his children and his grandchild, grandson Aethelstan, who did this.

So what I'd like you to do is first of all, complete each sentence.

So you're simply going to match the boxes.

The first one, Alfred defeated the Vikings at, and then you need to work out which box matches the answer.

So do that now and then when you've done restart the video and we'll go through them together.

So first one, Alfred defeated the Vikings at the battle of Edington in 878 AD.

Second, Alfred made a deal with Guthrum to divide England in half between them.

Three, after becoming Lady of Mercia, Aethelflaed built a network of burhs across the Midlands.

Four, Edward and Aethelflaed worked together to push the Vikings out of Southern England.

Five, Aethelstan became King of all of Britain after defeating the Scots at the Battle of Brunanburh in 934 AD.

So make sure you've got those in the right places, if not, do correct, make the correction.

And then when you've done that, restart the video, and we'll move to the last part for lesson.

So it is the question, who defeated the Vikings: Alfred or his family? So the first sentence I've done for you, that's the start of clearly answering the question.

The Vikings were defeated after many years of fighting by King Alfred and his successors.

His successors the people that came after him.

Now, what you need to do is to summarise, or just to write a few sentences about what each of these individuals do.

So your paragraph will not look like this, it will be a paragraph of about five or six sentence describing the process or the story about how the Vikings were defeated.

And the reason we're doing this is because it's really important for us to not forgets the other leaders, the other Anglo-Saxon Kings and lady Aethelflaed, who played such an important part in fighting back against the Vikings.

Alfred is known as the Great, but as we've hopefully seen, there were other very important characters as well, who did just as much if not more to fight against the Viking.

So have a go at that now.

When you've done restart the video, and that will take us to the end of the lesson.

So if you'd like to, this is not compulsory, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and @LearnwithOak I would love to see the work you're producing, but again, don't worry.

This is not compulsory.

It's just because we'd love to see the work that you're producing.

So that brings us to the end of lessons, three of four on our inquiry, Why is Alfred sometimes remembered as Great.

You might be thinking Alfred maybe got a bit too much attention.

And actually his children did quite a lot as well.

So this is kind of where we're headed with this story.

Aethelstan, Aethelflaed and Edward, I challenge you to say those three words as quickly as possible correctly.

They kind of forgotten by a lot of people, but they big deal, very big deal, which is why we're doing this lesson today.

Last thing you need to do after you've heard me stop when I've stopped talking, which will be very seemingly pleased to hear, quiz, do the quiz, and then you are free to go and I will see you for lesson Four.