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<i>This article contains spoilers.</i>
[[How Historically Accurate is Season 2 of Last Kingdom?|Check out our Season 2 summary.]] __NOTOC__The Last Kingdom is a popular television series recently released by the BBC and the show has strived to portray an accurate depiction of the time and reign of Alfred the Great. It is based on the <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LEYI47C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00LEYI47C&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5896bb38392fa928ad7836385dccf0d Saxon Tales]</i> series written by Bernard Cornwell. The first season is drawn from the first two books in the series. The show focuses the life of Uhtred, son of Uhtred, who is a fictional character based on an amalgamation of several historical characters, during the Dane invasions of England during the 9th century. The events depicted in <i>The Last Kingdom</i> were critical early steps in forging what became England. <i>The Last Kingdom</i> is a reference to the Kingdom of Wessex, which was the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom to stand in the way of Dane conquest of England. Uhtred is from Bebbanburgh (modern Bamburgh), a part of Northumbria. The season begins with Uhtred's father being killed in a battle at York, where Uhtred was taken as a slave by the Danes. Uhtred's uncle then usurps the control of Bebbanburgh, where Uhtred was the rightful heir.
===Anglo-Saxon and Danish History and Culture===
The Danish beliefs did not involve a strict moral code like Christianity. At times, this loose moral code allowed the Danes to be more playful than the Anglo-Saxons, but this lack of moral code also has a dark side. In one scene, the Danes killed the East Anglian king, Edmund, with a volley of arrows after he was captured. The Danes were testing whether Edmund's god was as powerful as he claimed. <ref>For more on Edmund, see: Pinner, R. (2015). <i>The Cult of St Edmond in Medieval East Anglia</i>. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press.</ref> Not only did this event occur, but Edmund was canonized for it. Other Anglo-Saxon leaders are shown as tortured and murdered when captured. The Danes were fairly ruthless when they captured Anglo leaders, but the accurately depicts that some would be spared if they cooperated with the Danes and provided them with food, silver and land.
Many of the urban places are historical and the names used in the series reflects their Anglo-Saxon names. For instance, London and Reading are two cities mentioned. Wessex's primary town was Winchester (Figure 1), where most of the Wessex kings held court which is depicted in the series.<ref>For more on Winchester in the Anglo-Saxon period, see: Legg, P. (2011). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0752455206/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0752455206&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=481f9491450113fd66f98a4456c7bc68 Winchester: history you can see]</i>. Stroud: History.</ref> Winchester, in fact, was rival to London for a period as the capital of all of England.
Some of the terms used in the series were words prevalent at the time. This includes terms such as plowing a field having sexual connotations. Another term is <i>arseling</i>, used as a playful or sometimes mocking term of Uhtred by his friend Leofric, which also would have been a term used at the time meaning "from the ass."<ref>For more on Anglo-Saxon terms, see: Baker, P. S. (2012). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047065984X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047065984X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=9be15e3cc90a4d0002c6a94f24e5cb09 Introduction to Old English]</i> (3rd ed). Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.</ref> Such terms and expressions were, in fact, contemporary to the period.
The next major encounter was the Battle of Edington (Figure 2), which pitted Guthrum of the Danes against Alfred. The Danes had likely assumed Alfred to be significantly weakened after being forced to flee. The battle was characterized by Alfred summoning his fyrds, or the popular army from different parts of his kingdom, that gathered to fight the Danes. This allowed Alfred to create a greater force and demonstrated he retained the loyalty of his ealdormen despite his earlier losses. Once again, the ability for the Saxons to muster a large force and launch an attack likely surprised the Danes. Egbert's stone was used as the meeting point for the fyrds in the series as well as in the chronicles describing the events. In effect, much of these events are true historically. The battle, unlike the series, involved an encounter of the armies where the Danes were driven into a fort and were besieged afterwards. In the series, the main battle is only depicted as a pitched encounter and the siege was not shown.
In both cases, after Dane leader Guthrum was defeated and baptized, as a condition of the peace, the Danes led their remaining army away. Eventually, the Danes formed another kingdom called Danelaw that represented areas where the Danes ruled for nearly another 100 years. This was based on a treaty with Alfred, where areas north of Wessex and in East Anglia represented Danelaw. For some years, there was peace between Wessex and the Danes. Alfred, after this time, build the boroughs, which were fortifications that helped protect Wessex. While relatively simple, these fortifications helped strengthen Wessex and made it more difficult for later Danish invasions. Although the invasions against Wessex continued, no serious threat ever occurred by Danish forces against Wessex.<ref>For more on the Battle of Edington, see: Hunter Blair, P. H., & Keynes, S. (2006). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521537770/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521537770&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c7f4a0f8d82609fab94dd2527fcc39ad An introduction to Anglo-Saxon England]</i>d (3. ed., repr). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, pg. 111</ref> Arguably, this was the battle that may have prevented all of England falling to Danish hands in the 9th century.
===Historical Figures===
===Summary===
Like many historical series and movies, there are a lot of untrue events and stories incorporated into the historical period depicted. However, the <i>Last Kingdom</i> does a very good job at incorporating many cultural elements that would have been contemporary at the time, including those involving the behavior of the characters and types of equipment they had during campaigns. Unlike many earlier historical dramas, this one looks more closely at the historical background of the characters, trying to imbue them in a cultural and historical context that would have been familiar to them but still entertaining to 21st century viewers. The series informs us on how England arose as a nation, where its origin emerges at a time when Anglo-Saxon England was threatened at its last English throne and was close to being taken by the Danes. The use of a lot of historical facts mixed with fictional events make the series informative as well as entertaining.
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==References==
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[[Category:British History]] [[Category:English History]] [[Category:Historically Accurate]] [[Category:Medieval History]]
