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The Last Kingdom · A Viewer's Companion

Three Uhtreds, two Ragnars, and a wall of Æthel-names. Here's the map through the shield wall.

One man holds this whole story together: Uhtred — Saxon by blood, Dane by upbringing — which means he sits in two families at once and belongs to neither. This chart untangles the rest: crimson borders are the House of Wessex (Alfred's Saxon royal line), sea-steel borders are the Danes who raised him, and amber marks Bebbanburg — Uhtred's stolen birthright, his children, and the sworn men who became his real family.

House of Wessex — the Saxon crown The Danes Bebbanburg — Uhtred's line & sworn men marriage parent → child secret marriage born outside marriage raised as kin ♛ wore a crown † dead — through Season 5
m. m. m. his 1st wife his 2nd m. m. m. raised him as his own son born his heir the slave girl raised beside Uhtred wed in secret — then denied their hidden son Alfred's son — born outside marriage lovers — never wed his sworn men — the found family Earl Ragnar † "the Fearless" · Dane lord Peter Gantzler burned in his hall — S1 Lord Uhtred † Ealdorman of Bebbanburg Matthew Macfadyen † in episode 1 Ælfric † his brother — the usurper Joseph Millson stole Bebbanburg — † S4 ♛ Alfred † King of Wessex David Dawson dreams of "England" — † S3 Ælswith Alfred's pious queen Eliza Butterworth guards Alfred's dream Ragnar † the Younger · blood brother Tobias Santelmann murdered in his sleep — S3 Thyra † Ragnar's daughter Julia Bache-Wiig weds Father Beocca — † S3 Brida † Saxon girl turned Dane Emily Cox first love → great enemy Mildrith the Saxon bride Alfred chose Amy Wren ends her days in a nunnery Uhtred of Bebbanburg · Ragnarsson Alexander Dreymon "Destiny is all" Gisela † the Dane he chose himself Peri Baumeister † in childbirth — S3 ♛ Edward king after Alfred Timothy Innes outlives the series Ecgwynn Edward's secret first wife Julia Brown put aside — sent to a convent Æthelred † Lord of Mercia Toby Regbo her cruel husband — † S4 ♛ Æthelflæd † Lady of Mercia Millie Brady the love Uhtred can't keep Finan Irish swordsman Mark Rowley met Uhtred at the slave-oar Sihtric Dane · Kjartan's bastard Arnas Fedaravicius swore to Uhtred, not a king Osferth † "Baby Monk" · Alfred's blood Ewan Mitchell † Season 5 Young Uhtred his son, given to God Finn Elliot chose the cross, not the sword Stiorra his daughter Ruby Hartley chooses her Danish blood ♛ Sigtryggr † Dane king of Jorvik Eysteinn Sigurðarson the Dane who wanted peace Osbert the baby Gisela died bearing fostered away as an infant grown only in the film Æthelstan Edward's hidden heir Harry Gilby raised in Uhtred's household Ælfwynn Æthelflæd's daughter Phia Saban Mercia's marriage pawn
Hover over any portrait to enlarge it. How to read it: gold lines are marriages, grey lines run from a marriage down to its children, and dashed lines mark everything this show keeps half-hidden — the amber dash is Uhtred being raised by Earl Ragnar (and, along the bottom of his row, his lifelong not-quite-romance with Æthelflæd), the crimson dash is Osferth's illegitimate royal blood, and the dashed gold tie is Edward's denied first marriage, which makes Æthelstan legitimate no matter what the court says. Uhtred sits where the two solid lines meet: born heir to Bebbanburg, raised a Dane. Covers all five seasons.

Why the tree matters: every war in this show is a family argument

Five facts on this chart drive nine years of television.

The spine

Saxon by blood, Dane by upbringing

Uhtred is born the heir of Bebbanburg. At about ten he watches his father die, is captured by Danes, and is raised as a son by Earl Ragnar — so his blood family and his real family are on opposite sides of the war. Every season is Uhtred being yanked between the two: the Saxons need his sword, the Danes have his heart.

The claim

Bebbanburg — the stolen home

While young Uhtred was a Danish captive, his uncle Ælfric paid to have him killed and took Bebbanburg for himself. "I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred" is a legal claim as much as a catchphrase: the whole series is one long attempt to get the fortress back — finally achieved, at terrible cost, in Season 5.

The dream

Alfred's dream and the succession

Alfred wants one Christian "England" that doesn't exist yet — and he needs the pagan Uhtred to build it. When Alfred dies (S3), the dream passes like a baton: to Edward, then to Æthelflæd in Mercia, and finally toward Æthelstan. Whoever holds the baton, it's always Uhtred who gets sent to do the bleeding.

The secret

Æthelstan's hidden legitimacy

Young Edward secretly married the commoner Ecgwynn (dashed gold line); the marriage was annulled and hushed up, the twins hidden. That makes Æthelstan a legitimate first-born son the court treats as a bastard — raised safely off-stage in Uhtred's household. His claim against his half-brother is the fuse the film eventually lights.

The wound

Brida's turn

Brida is Uhtred's mirror: Saxon-born, Dane-raised, his first love. But where he bends toward the Saxons, she never does — and every Saxon betrayal (especially being left to Wessex's mercy after Alfred's victory, then losing Ragnar) hardens her into his most personal enemy. Her S5 vendetta is a family feud, not a war.

The name decoder

The show is historically faithful about names — which is the problem. Half of Wessex is called Æthel-something and everyone in Northumbria is called Uhtred. Keep these apart:

The three Uhtreds (and a fourth in hiding)

Lord Uhtred = the father, dead in episode 1. Uhtred = our hero — born Osbert, renamed when his older brother was killed. Young Uhtred = the hero's own son, the priest. And the hero's youngest boy is named… Osbert. It's a loop.

The two Ragnars

Earl Ragnar "the Fearless" = the Dane who raised Uhtred, burned in his hall in Season 1. Ragnar the Younger = his son, Uhtred's beloved adoptive brother, murdered in Season 3. When someone swears vengeance "for Ragnar," check which one.

The Æthel- minefield

Æthelflæd = Alfred's daughter, Lady of Mercia. Æthelred = her husband, Lord of Mercia (no relation before marriage). Æthelwold = Alfred's scheming nephew. Æthelstan = Edward's hidden son. Ælswith = Alfred's widow. Ælfwynn = Æthelflæd's daughter. Six people, one syllable.

Osferth vs. Æthelstan

Both are royal-blooded boys sheltered in Uhtred's crew. Osferth = Alfred's illegitimate son, born of a servant — a monk turned warrior. Æthelstan = Edward's legitimate-but-hidden son. Technically, Osferth is Æthelstan's half-great-uncle.

Sihtric vs. Sigtryggr

Nearly the same Norse name, two different Danes. Sihtric = Uhtred's loyal sworn man from Season 2 on. Sigtryggr = the clear-eyed Dane king of Jorvik who marries Uhtred's daughter Stiorra in Season 4.

The three Dane women in Uhtred's life

Brida = raised beside him, never a wife, ends an enemy. Thyra = Ragnar's daughter — his adoptive sister, never a love interest — who marries Father Beocca. Gisela = the wife he actually chose, lost in childbirth in Season 3.

Two women called queen — neither by Wessex

Wessex doesn't crown king's wives, so Ælswith is technically just "the king's wife" — a snub she resents. Æthelflæd is never queen either: her title is Lady of Mercia, and she rules alone after Æthelred dies.

Not family — but always in the hall

Father Beocca as seen in the show, played by Ian Hart

Father Beocca †

Ian Hart

Bebbanburg's priest and Uhtred's lifelong conscience — the one man who knew him from boyhood. Weds Thyra; dies saving Uhtred's son at Bebbanburg in Season 4.

Father Pyrlig as seen in the show, played by Cavan Clerkin

Father Pyrlig

Cavan Clerkin

Welsh warrior-turned-priest, equally at home with a prayer or a spear. Alfred's (then Edward's) fixer, and one of the few churchmen Uhtred actually likes.

Aethelwold as seen in the show, played by Harry McEntire

Æthelwold †

Harry McEntire

Alfred's nephew — son of the king before him — forever whispering that the crown is rightfully his. His schemes kill Ragnar the Younger; Uhtred kills him for it in Season 3.

Haesten as seen in the show, played by Jeppe Beck Laursen

Hæsten †

Jeppe Beck Laursen

The great survivor: a Dane warlord who flatters, spies, betrays, and switches sides for five straight seasons — and very nearly gets away with all of it.

Scope: the chart covers all five seasons of the series (2015–2022) — spoilers through the Season 5 finale, so † means dead by then. The story does continue in the 2023 film epilogue Seven Kings Must Die (where Edward's death, a grown Osbert, and Æthelstan's fight for the crown play out), but the film is deliberately not charted here. Portraits are stills from the Last Kingdom wiki, cropped and served from this site so nothing hotlinks an external host.