The Empty Throne characters

Appears from the start

Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the pagan Northumbrian warlord who has spent his life winning battles for the Christian Saxons. He begins this book gravely weakened: the wound Cnut Ranulfson's sword Ice-Spite gave him at Teotanheale festers and will not heal, sapping the strength that made him the most feared warrior in Britain. His ambitions remain what they always were - to see Aethelflaed safe, and one day to retake Bebbanburg.

Appears from the start

The Irish swordsman who leads Uhtred's household warriors and has been his closest friend through years of war. With his lord half-crippled by a festering wound, Finan's steadiness and blade matter more than ever.

Appears from the start

Alfred's daughter, the widow-to-be of Mercia in all but name: her husband Aethelred lies dying, and she already commands the loyalty of Mercia's fighting men. Devout, capable, and Uhtred's lover, she is the obvious ruler Mercia needs and the one its churchmen and nobles are least willing to accept, because she is a woman.

Appears from the start

King of Wessex, Alfred's son and Aethelflaed's brother. With Mercia's throne about to fall empty, Edward and the ambitious men around him see a chance to bind Mercia to Wessex, and his interest in the succession is not the same as his sister's.

Appears from the start

The Lord of Mercia, Aethelflaed's estranged husband, now dying slowly of a wound taken in the great battle at Teotanheale. He has no legitimate son, and the question of who will fill his empty throne drives every scheme in the book.

Appears from the start

Uhtred's son, once named Osbert, renamed Uhtred when his elder brother was disowned for the priesthood. A proven young warrior now, he fights beside his father and begins to carry more of the family's weight while the older man's wound saps him.

Appears from the start

King Edward's eldest son, a boy whom many at court insist is illegitimate so that he can be pushed aside from the succession. Uhtred shelters and trains him, believing he has the makings of a king, which makes the boy a target for the men who want him gone.

First appears in chapter 2

The commander of the dying Lord Aethelred's household troops, a capable soldier of low birth with high ambitions. With Mercia's throne about to fall empty, Eardwulf means to rise with it, and a marriage into the ruling family would give him everything he lacks.

First appears in chapter 3

Eardwulf's sister, a striking red-haired woman who is mistress to the dying Lord Aethelred. Clever and observant, she is bound to her brother's rise, and despised by the pious as the sort of woman who profits from a lord's weakness.

First appears in chapter 6

Uhtred's daughter, raised in Aethelflaed's household, with her dead mother Gisela's dark looks and her father's pagan heart. Poised and sharp-witted, she is of an age where her marriage has become a piece on the board of Saxon politics.

First appears in chapter 9

A young Norse sea-king out of Ireland, leading a fleet in search of easier land to conquer. Confident, charming, and dangerous, he strikes at the western Saxon lands while Mercia is distracted by its empty throne.