Changes

There is a good amount great deal of creative liberty in this season. The 890s were recorded in the <i>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle </i>, which is the primary source for this period. We do not know how serious the Dane raids were but one gets a sense they became less successful as the English (Anglo-Saxons) began devising more effective defensive systems. The Danes were likely still a formidable threat and the fact they were campaigning throughout still much of England shows that. The major battles in this period were just outside of London and in an area near Cambridge. The entanglement of Danes with the English also becomes clear as by now many had begun to convert to Christianity and the politics of the Danes and English intersected. England itself would become a mixture of Danish and English influences. The fact that Alfred was still highly successful in manipulating the situation for his favour with the Mercia and securing his son on the throne shows that he continued to be a wise ruler as he is depicted. The threat from Hastein may have not been so severe but the fact that Æthelwald could threaten the crown shows that Alfred had not properly dealt with the threats from within his wider family.

The portrayal of Uhtred vacillating between his temptation to join his brother Ragner and the Danes and try to stay loyal to the English who often were ungrateful demonstrates also the period in which the story takes place. As a king became physically weaker, enemies of Wessex did begin to contemplate if this was their chance to get at the kingdom. The lack of Dane unity or at least coordination in their military tactics was once again partly their downfall and this became clear. Although the <i>Last Kingdom</i> takes great liberty with the story in this season, along with several fictional, key characters such as Skade and Harald Bloodhair, the story is well set within another period of uncertainty in English history and makes these characters believable and seemingly central to the wider story of English unification.