Thank you for doing this AMA!

Were the women of power in Anglo-Saxon England all from the British isles? Were there many marriages between Anglo-Saxon nobles and others on the continent, or were European nuns and abbesses common?

I'm also curious how exactly one gets elected to the Royal Historical Society. Is there lots of going round university departments canvassing? Is membership just more letters after your name or do you have lots of responsibilities?

Thanks for this AMA! I’m in the final year of a PhD writing about the way the Norse are depicted in Middle Irish, including a whole chapter on gender. I’d like to adapt my findings into historical novelisation. What advice do you have for someone who has scholastic training and raw data from primary sources, to turn it into compelling and memorable narrative?

What’s the most surprising thing about the daily life of women in medieval times? What aspects of their lives would seem surprisingly modern?

In other responses below, you've twice mentioned the 7th c. in the context of "as far back as." I'm sure this is an embarrassingly basic question, but is that because sources dry up earlier than that? Something else?

What makes the Anglo-Saxon period so appealing to you, personally? Was there any particular work that you read when you were younger that sparked the interest? Or was there an individual from that period whose life captivated you?

Thank you to AskHistorians for organising this AMA today and thank you to everyone who has dropped by and taken the time to ask me questions. I've really enjoyed talking about my favourite period of history and the wonderful women who lived and operated in those times.

I'm signing off now but I'll be sure to pop by over the next few days in case I've missed any questions and comments.

Thanks so much to all involved!

Hi there, this is a great AMA and I always think Anglo-Saxon England doesn't get enough time on it!

My question is, was it unusual for women to become leaders especially in respect to Æthelflæd. Just quite how big a deal was it for her to become lady of the Mercians after her husband died?

I've always been fascinated by women of power near the royal court (to whatever extent that was a reality in Anglo-Saxon England or simply meaning the place to be if you want to garner influence) would there have been women that weren't relatives or someone's wife in close proximity to the king based on their own landholdings/merit? Also, do we know if these women could hold titles or if that wasn't something that women were entrusted with?

Do you see remnants of Roman social structure, family life, etc. persist in Anglo-Saxon England, or do you see more of a redefinition of social status based on the Germanic values brought to England during and after Roman occupation?

Hi, thanks for doing this AMA.

Its very common for many cultures to have different naming conventions for the different genders. Did Anglo Saxon names have any common attributes that were distinctly feminine to the point that such a name would never be used for men? Can you, with reasonable certainty, tell the gender of a person purely from their name?

I've recently been wondering about something.

What percentage of women in the early medieval period were interested in being rulers or being involved in court politics?

I'm guessing no one ever took a straw poll and wrote down the results, but I do wonder how many noble women essentially didn't want to participate in the political lifestyle.

I do know that some modern evidence shows gender disparity in occupations is heavily impacted by cultural bias, for example as modern western culture becomes more egalitarian, more women are entering male dominated professions.

What can you tell us about the management of menstruation in the Early English period?

Dear Ms. Whitehead,

Thank you for doing this AMA! Anglo-Saxon Britain is a fascinating period and one that I have always been enamoured by (although not so much as to commit to further study, that goes to Ancient Greece).

I have several questions.

Firstly, what is your opinion on Hild by Nicola Griffith, if you have read it? It is a really interesting book that fully immerses you in the world of northern England under early Saxon rule, and shows a lot of interaction between the Saxons and the Celts.

Secondly, I can't say that I am too up to date on current research, but what do you think of the apartheid-like structure of early-Medieval Saxon society, with the divide between Saxons and Celts? Furthermore, if this is seen to be an historical possibility, how would Celtic women fit into society? Would they be able to exert any influence, whether within their own communities or in Saxon courts?

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Thanks again for this AMA!

Hello and thank you for this great AMA! We get a lot of questions and posts here that tend to assume that women just never appeared in sources, or had that much to do with any real power in history. How easy/hard was it for you to find material to work with on these topics, and do you have any thoughts on good ways to amplify these important parts of history?

What rights would a woman have if her husband was infertile? I know that divorce was possible but very unlikely, and that if she found another partner it would have meant THEIR bloodline was continued rather than her infertile husband’s, so what did people do to make an heir in this context? Find a next of kin?

What were the main differences in rights, duties, social roll, etc, for women living in the Anglo Saxon kingdoms and those living under the Dane Law?

Did the Norman Conquest bring much change for women, or did things largely stay the same?

I have a question pertaining to a marriage between an Anglo-Saxon prince, Edward the Exile, and a noble woman named Agatha. English sources are inconsistent on Agatha’s antecedents: John of Worcester and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle claims she was a kinswoman of an Emperor Henry; William of Malmesbury, though claims she was a sister of a Queen of Hungary. Then there’s a legal document, the Laws of Edward the Confessor, which states she was a Rus woman of noble birth.

Besides the inconsistencies in historiography, were the antecedents of a noblewoman in Anglo-Saxon England unimportant to historians?

There has been a lot of contentious debates regarding the usage of the term "Anglo-Saxon" in academia. What are your opinion on this issue? Sorry if this question is kinda inappropriate

Where do you generally start for primary sources? Obviously the popular works can be found easily, but is there a database for all surviving documents from the period?

Thoughts on that Cathy Newman book that came out- 'Bloody Brilliant Women' or something.

Have you seen The Last Kingdom? I believe it takes place in the time period of your studies. If you have, what did you think of it?

I know series often get the history wrong, often purposefully for dramatic effect and other reasons, but how correct or incorrect was Aethelflaed’s portrayal in The Last Kingdom? What was her relationship with Aethelred like and was he actually cruel with her? Lastly, did she ever associate with an Uhtred like character and how would that have been taken by people at the time? Thanks for this AMA!

Thank you for this. In terms of Anglo-Saxon historical fiction I was greatly impressed by the recent novel Hild by Nicola Griffith, based on the life of Hilda of Whitby. I wondered if you’d read this and what you thought. Specifically about the concept of gemæcce Griffith created to describe the role of close female companion and work partner. Is this a valid concept of relationships between women during the time, or purely fictitious. And whether Griffith is right in her depiction of court life in the period.

You have mentioned in another answer that women could have wealth and some legal standing during the period in question. I'm also aware that in Celtic societies women seemed to have a stronger legal position than in those societies influenced by Rome.

Do you have any information that suggests womens position became weaker during the Anglo-Saxon era or their influence was retrospectively removed as part of the conversion to Christianity. Maybe under the influence of religious doctrine?

Edit: Do you believe Aethelflaed and/or her daughter were killed and possibly written out of the history for the benefit of her brother?

What inspired your passion for history?