The Empty Throne recap

Aethelred, Lord of Mercia, dies of his Teotanheale wound, leaving no heir, and Uhtred - himself half-crippled by the festering wound Cnut's sword gave him - fights to decide who fills the empty throne. He thwarts the ambitious Eardwulf, who schemed to marry Aethelred's daughter and seize power, and whose treachery ends in flight; at the Witan Uhtred maneuvers the Mercian nobles into choosing Aethelflaed to rule, defying the tradition that bars a woman. Eardwulf's sister Eadith changes sides, leads Uhtred to the sword Ice-Spite, and with it heals his wound at last, becoming his lover. When the Norse sea-king Sigtryggr attacks from Ireland, Uhtred defeats him at Ceaster, taking his eye, and in the settlement Eardwulf is executed by the young prince Aethelstan. Sigtryggr sails back to Ireland taking Uhtred's daughter Stiorra with him as his wife in all but law, and Aethelflaed rules Mercia.

Earlier in the series: Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Northumbrian noble raised by Danes and still a pagan, was robbed of his ancestral fortress of Bebbanburg by his own kin and spent his life as the greatest warlord of the Christian Saxons, serving Alfred of Wessex and then his children - King Edward, and Aethelflaed of Mercia, who is Uhtred's ally and lover. In the last book Uhtred was excommunicated and landless, failed in an attempt to storm Bebbanburg, and then saved the Saxon kingdoms by destroying the great Danish army of Cnut Ranulfson at Teotanheale. He killed Cnut, but Cnut's sword Ice-Spite left a deep wound in his side that has never healed. Aethelflaed's husband Aethelred, Lord of Mercia, was also wounded in that battle, and Uhtred disowned his eldest son for becoming a priest, passing the name Uhtred to his warrior second son.

Mercia waits on a death. Lord Aethelred is dying of the wound he took at Teotanheale, he has no legitimate son, and every ambitious man in Mercia and Wessex is circling the throne he will leave empty. Uhtred, the obvious power in the land, is a shadow of himself: Ice-Spite's wound festers, robbing him of strength, and his enemies take note. Eardwulf, the low-born, capable commander of Aethelred's household troops, positions himself to rise - a marriage to Aethelred's daughter Aelfwynn would give his ambitions legitimacy - while his sister Eadith shares the dying lord's bed. Aethelflaed holds the loyalty of Mercia's warriors but not of its churchmen and nobles, who will not lightly hand rule to a woman, and King Edward of Wessex watches for the chance to bind Mercia to his own crown. Uhtred, sick as he is, means to see Aethelflaed rule, and shelters the young prince Aethelstan, whose claim to Wessex makes him a target.

Aethelred dies, and the struggle for the empty throne begins in earnest. The scheme to marry Aelfwynn into Eardwulf's keeping moves forward with West Saxon blessing, and Uhtred - too sick to fight a battle but not to scheme - moves to keep the girl, and the young prince Aethelstan, out of the plotters' hands. The maneuvering turns violent: Eardwulf overreaches, showing himself willing to use force against those he was sworn to serve, and his treachery destroys him at court. Exposed, he flees Mercia as an outlaw with a handful of followers, leaving his sister Eadith to face the wreckage of his ambitions alone. She breaks with her brother's cause and attaches herself to Uhtred, and she carries knowledge that matters to him more than any throne: she knows what became of Ice-Spite, the sword whose stroke left the wound that is slowly killing him.

Eadith leads Uhtred to Cnut's sword Ice-Spite, and the cure works: with the blade that made the wound, the poison is drawn from his side, the pain that has crippled him for months ends, and his strength returns. Restored, Uhtred turns to the succession. At the great Witan in Gleawecestre he outplays the nobles, the churchmen, and the West Saxon faction around Ealdorman Aethelhelm, steering the Mercian lords into doing the unthinkable: choosing Aethelflaed, a woman, to rule Mercia. Meanwhile a new threat lands in the west - Sigtryggr, a young Norse sea-king out of Ireland, brings a fleet against the Saxon coast and strikes toward Ceaster, judging Mercia distracted and weak. Among those who join the Norseman is the outlawed Eardwulf, selling his sword and his knowledge of Mercia to his people's enemy.

Sigtryggr's assault on Ceaster fails. Uhtred, whole again, leads the defence and beats the Norse attack back from the walls, and in the fighting Sigtryggr loses an eye to him. Defeated but respected, the young sea-king comes to terms: he will take his fleet back to Ireland and trouble Mercia no more. In the settlement Eardwulf is handed over to Uhtred, and the execution is given to the boy Aethelstan - part of Uhtred's deliberate schooling of a future king, who must learn that judgment is done with his own hand. Then a thing Uhtred did not plan: his daughter Stiorra and Sigtryggr have fallen for each other, and she chooses to sail with the Norseman. Seeing his own youth with Gisela in the match, Uhtred gives his blessing rather than his anger. The book ends with Aethelflaed ruling Mercia as its chosen lady, Eadith at Uhtred's side, his health and power restored, and his daughter gone to Ireland as consort to a Norse king.

The book closes with Mercia settled and Uhtred restored. At the Witan in Gleawecestre, Uhtred outmaneuvered the nobles and churchmen and saw Aethelflaed chosen to rule Mercia in her dead husband's place, to the fury of the West Saxon faction around Ealdorman Aethelhelm. Uhtred himself is healed: Eadith, having broken with her disgraced brother, led him to Cnut's sword Ice-Spite, and with it the poison was drawn from his long-festering wound. The Norse sea-king Sigtryggr, defeated in his assault on Ceaster - where Uhtred cost him an eye - has agreed to sail back to Ireland, and Uhtred's daughter Stiorra, who fell in love with the young Norseman, sails with him, with her father's blessing. Eardwulf, who fled his treachery to serve Sigtryggr, was handed over in the settlement, and the boy Aethelstan carried out his execution as part of Uhtred's schooling of a future king. Uhtred stands strong again, with Eadith at his side, Aethelflaed on Mercia's throne, and his old dream of Bebbanburg still waiting in the north.