Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 3, 2014

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians (died 911) became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death of its last king, Ceolwulf II, in 879. His rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw. Æthelred's origin is unknown, and he was first recorded as the probable leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of Wales in 881. Shortly afterwards, he married Æthelflæd, a daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex, and submitted to Alfred's lordship, an important step towards the unification of England in the next century. In the 890s the Vikings renewed their attacks, and in 893 Æthelred led a joint force of Mercians, West Saxons and Welsh to a decisive victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Buttington. He spent much of the decade fighting the Vikings in cooperation with Alfred's son, the future Edward the Elder. Historians disagree whether Æthelred governed Mercia as Alfred's deputy or whether he was a ruler of a semi-independent territory. Æthelred died in 911 and was succeeded by his widow, and then briefly by his daughter, before Mercia was annexed by Edward the Elder in 918. (Full article...)

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