You make great points... I didn't know this about Sigurd -- I love and read a lot on British history but know very superficially about Norse history -- it's a HUGE screw-up, unbelievable!
I think it would have been less obvious (and could be seen as "will of god") if she had done all that, failed and then Aethelred being killed almost immediately.... crown to Alfred... this will of god could be used also to inspire people to support him as King (even though he is weak, no warrior, etc).
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eYeDEF (5050)
6 years ago
Yeah that could have worked but it looks like they're doing their best to try and compress the time period to feature as much of Alfred's strategic brilliance and political acumen as possible. I can't blame them too much given Alfred's outsized role in history. Any additional screen time to Aethelred would have just taken away from Alfred's on screen character development.
I'm also less sure that Judith is the hardcore religious nut she started as. She appears to have evolved into a steely eyed realist, like the secular worldliness of Egbert and additional education had rubbed off on her. Not that she'd be above using religion and calls to god as inspiration for the masses to achieve her ends of course, she'd certainly recognize the nature of power and her role as queen demands she cloak herself in religiosity and "divine will" to maintain that power.
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