The twelfth-century historian William of Malmesbury records that she declined to have sex after bearing a daughter because it was ‘unbecoming of the daughter of a king to give way to a delight which, after a time, produced such painful consequences’. He also suggests that she shied away from ‘marital obligations’ because of the risks it posed her life. It may be that Æthelflæd had suffered physical difficulties through the birth and pregnancy. True to the Mercian queens that had gone before her, however, she believed a female heir was as capable of ruling as a male one. She put in place
...more
