THE old English word 'wif', although obviously the forerunner of our word 'wife' did not mean someone who was married.

Wifs were women who had specific jobs that needed specific skills, for example an alewife, henwife, or fishwife.

The term refers to the verb 'to weave' and there is a strong link between women and weaving in Saxon society.

In King Alfred's will he described the male line as 'the spear side' and the female line as 'the spindle side'.

Males expressed their manhood via weapons; women their femininity through spinning, weaving and embroidery.

This wasn't a frivolous pastime, it meant creating clothing and furnishings including wall coverings, bed hangings and covers.

Old English embroidery was a high art form equal to illuminated manuscripts, beautiful jewellery and highly decorated gold weaponry.

Little survives of this embroidery as the Normans carried loads of it back to the continent as valued treasure.

In fact it is very likely that the famous Bayeux Tapestry was actually made by nuns in Canterbury.

There would have been women who were skilled in embroidery on the staff of royal and noble households and religious establishments.

As well as being weavers in the literal sense, Saxon women also spun and wove the threads that held society together.

One old English word describes a high-born woman who marries to make peace or keep the peace between powerful dynasties and tribes as 'peace-weaver'.

As well as weaving and nurturing children, English women also fought and commanded fighting men.

Aethelflaed has been described as 'our greatest woman-general, one of the most effective leaders we ever had, who commanded troops for eight years of decisive warfare, and ruled a country as well. If she had been born in any other nation, her name could easily have been a household word, a patriotic legend (like Joan of Arc) and an inspiration to her fellow countrywomen'.

She was King Alfred of Wessex's eldest child and sister of King Edward of Wessex.

She was married to Aethelred, the Ealdorman of West Mercia, the only part of the once mighty Kingdom of Mercia that had not fallen into Danish hands.

And she was a 'peace-weaver', after making a political marriage with her father's most powerful ally.

She also had to keep the powerful Mercian earls, her husband's war leaders and councillors, in good humour so that they did not turn against Wessex.

In 907AD she and Aethelred jointly organised the rebuilding and colonisation of the abandoned Roman fort and town at Chester, to create a port and stop Norse pirates raiding from Ireland.

Around this time her husband became unwell and she had to assume more responsibility to hide the fact that he was ill, and to stop his own earls or the Danes from seizing power.

When Aethelred died in 911 she ruled the country and commanded the army.

She became Queen of Mercia, although she never claimed to be queen for sound political and personal reasons and assumed the title 'Lady of the Mercians'.

During the first five years after the battle of Tettenhall in 909 and 910, Aethelflaed fortified gaps in the defences of Mercia.

By 915 she had constructed 10 strongholds, usually adding two a year up the Welsh borderland towards the mouths of the Dee and the Mersey, and along the frontier zone of the Peak and East Midlands.

Contrary to local Tamworth folklore, she did not build castles, as the Normans did.

Instead she followed the example of her father, Alfred and built or re-fortified settlements (burhs), which commanded parts of the surviving Roman road system.

These burhs were garrisoned refuges, where farmers could bring their stock and where local troops could strike at the enemy.

They also ultimately became the places for civilised life, towns, once peace was restored.

Some of her fortresses, such as Tamworth, Stafford and Warwick, which commanded the east, were also sited to help her brother Edward's campaigns against the Danes.

When the final assault came, she took Derby in 917, after a savage fight.

In 918 she advanced on Leicester. Soon afterwards the Danish kingdom of York, north of the Humber, and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sent a formal promise of allegiance to her, not to her brother King Edward.

On June 12, 917AD she died at Tamworth. Her death came as surprise, although she was elderly by 10th century standards.

She was buried in St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester, as by this time Gloucester had replaced Tamworth as the favoured place of the Royal Dynasty of Mercia.

She had only one child, a daughter, Aelfwynn, who never married.

However, Aethelflaed virtually adopted her brother Edward's eldest son, Athelstan, perhaps to ensure the dynastic succession at the request of her father Alfred.

She also made sure her husband had no son or grandson to create a dynastic dispute between Wessex and Mercia.

Before the Danish invasions Mercia and Wessex had been fighting tooth and nail.

If she had produced a son by Aethelred to inherit the house of Mercia, Wessex and Mercia might have once again resumed hostilities and the Vikings could have regained control.

To maintain a unified front against the Danes it was decided that there would be only one single Royal House in England, after the re-conquest.

While it was Alfred's plan, Aethelflaed ensured that it happened – perhaps through control of her own fertility (and that of her own daughter as well), to prevent an independent Mercian dynasty.