Seizing the opportunity, Anlaf rallies them together by convincing them that Aethelstan will come after all of them. Meanwhile, Aethelstan’s expansive ventures make other leaders on the British Isles uncomfortable. As Uhtred is the leader of perhaps the only English territory where the pagans and Christians live in harmony, he opposes Aethelstan’s new rules and refuses to swear allegiance to him, though he promises once the younger man proves himself to be a worthy king of everyone that resides in England, he will gladly do so. He murders Aelfweard even after the latter surrenders and begins systematically targeting the part of the Danish population that still follows the old ways. It seems that the zealotry is influenced by his belief that his feelings for Ingilmundr are an insult to God. Under the influence of Ingilmundr, his aide and secret lover, Aethelstan has become ruthless and a religious zealot.
This prompts him to leave Bebbanburg after a long while, but not before Eadgifu warns him that Aethelstan is no longer the carefree boy he and his followers remember. Uhtred is a father figure for Aethelstan (Harry Gilby), who spent much of his youth in Northumbria and readily supports the younger man’s claim to the throne. He tries to arrest Edward’s widowed queen Eadgifu (Elaine Cassidy) and son Edmund, but they manage to flee to Northumbria with Aldhelm and find shelter in Bebbanburg. As Edward nears his death, Anlaf (Pekka Strang), Hiberno-Scandinavian (Irish-Viking) king of Irland, arrives in West Northumbria with a contingent of Wolf Warriors and slaughters an entire settlement before reuniting with his daughter, Astrid, who came to England earlier as a spy.Īfter Edward’s death, one of his sons, Aelfweard of Wessex, immediately moves to lay claim to his father’s vacant throne. He didn’t swear loyalty to Edward but accepted him as his overlord, agreeing to pay homage to him. Uhtred effectively made Northumbria a buffer between what was officially England and Scotia. Toward the end of ‘The Last Kingdom,’ he brokered a peace between King Constantin of Scotia (Rod Hallett) and Edward. Although Uhtred was born a Saxon, he was brought up as a Dane and is now an adherent of Norse paganism. But Northumbria, governed by Uhtred from his castle in Bebbanburg, is technically not. Most of England – Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia – is already under Saxon control. With King Edward on the deathbed, enemies of Wessex begin stirring in their lair, knowing that there are always internal struggle and bloodshed after the death of a Saxon king. He sets the stage for the narrative before the story starts. The film begins and ends with the narration from Finan (Mark Rowley), a fiercely loyal Irish warrior serving under Uhtred.
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