'The Last Kingdom': How Did The Real Aethelflaed Die?

For five seasons of The Last Kingdom, audiences have watched Aethelflaed (played by Millie Brady) and Uhtred's (Alexander Draymon) will-they-won't-they relationship play out on screen.

Sadly, in Season 4 Aethelflaed sacrificed her relationship with Uhtred to become Lady of Mercia, and going into Season 5, Aethelflaed seems more powerful than ever. But her time on the Mercian throne is cut short, and in Episode 4 she dies, breaking Uhtred's heart.

Unfortunately, Aethelflaed's death means actress Millie Brady is unlikely to feature in the upcoming The Last Kingdom film, Seven Kings Must Die.

How did the real Aethelflaed die? Newsweek has everything you need to know.

How Did The Real Aethelflaed Die?

In The Last Kingdom Season 5, Aethelflaed's life comes to a tragic end.

Just like Aethelflaed's fate in book 10 of Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories, upon which The Last Kingdom is based, Aethelflaed died of breast cancer.

Sadly, despite efforts by Aelswith (Eliza Butterworth) and Father Benedict (Patrick Robinson) to source some divine intervention to save her, Aethelflaed died from her illness. In The Last Kingdom, her brother King Edward (Timothy Innes) stepped in as the ruler of Mercia—but this was not the case in real life.

She was, in fact, succeeded by her daughter Elfwynn before her brother, Edward the Elder, took over.

It is not known how the real Aethelflaed died. It is widely accepted by historians Aethelflaed did not die in battle and that she died suddenly.

The real Aethelflaed died on June 12, 918 at Tamworth Castle in Staffordshire, the castle she had founded to defend the market town from Vikings invasion. She was thought to be 47 or 48 years old at the time of her death.

Aethelflaed's death came just days before the Viking leaders of York offered her their loyalty.

Her body was carried 75 miles to Gloucester where she was buried next to her husband Aethelred at St Oswald's Priory, a church she had ordered to be built.

Who Was The Real Aethelflaed?

Just like Aethelflaed in The Last Kingdom, the real Aethelflaed was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great (David Dawson) and his wife Aelswith.

Although Aethelflaed is based on a real historical figure, Bernard Cornwell has blended historical fact and fiction to tell the story of Aethelflaed. For example, Aethelflaed did rule Merica but she did not have relations with Uhtred of Bebbanburg, as he is an entirely fictional character.

The real Aethelflaed ruled Mercia from 911 until her death in 918. She was known as Lady of the Mercians after the death of her husband Ethelred, Lord of the Mercians in 911.

Her marriage to Ethelred served to strengthen the alliance between Mercia and Alfred's Wessex, the last two kingdoms successfully resisting Viking takeover.

Throughout her rule, Aethelflaed was able to fight numerous Vikings invasions by building fortifications in locations including Leister, Stafford, Worcester, Bridgnorth, and Warwick.

In 917 she sent an army to capture Derby, the first of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw (areas of Viking rule) to fall to the English. In 918, Leicester followed and York was ready to offer their loyalty, but sadly, Aethelflaed died just days before the offer was made.

Her brother Edward completed Aethelflaed's conquest of Mercia and she was succeeded by her daughter Aelfwynn.

Speaking to the BBC, Dr. Clare Downham, from the University of Liverpool, said: "She must have had quite a force of personality to overcome the assumptions of her time.

"It is a mark of her success in male-dominated times she was accepted as a ruler and achieved incredible—even unique—things."

The Last Kingdom Season 5 is streaming on Netflix now.