Æthelflæd was the daughter of Alfred, king of Wessex, and wife of Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia. She was unusual in being a female politician and warleader, but she was also representative of her class and gender, as aristocratic daughter, sister, wife and mother. She was extraordinary, in her ability to order the building of a minster-mausoleum, to fund intercessory masses and to translate saints' relics, but ordinary in that her investment in these bones, buildings and ceremonies typified the behaviour of great laymen and women in the decades around 900, not just in England but also in continental Europe. With many powerful women, there is debate over the extent of their agency, and it is hard to know whether Æthelflæd was governing independently, or whether events and decisions were engineered by the men around her. If these questions cannot be answered for Elizabeth I, we are unlikely to be able to answer them for Æthelflæd nearly seven centuries earlier. The present discussion argues that Æthelflæd was acting on her own initiative, wielding authority rather than merely influence, particularly from 902 when the exiguous evidence suggests that she ruled alone. She is presented as independent in the Mercian Register, annals later assimilated into the West Saxon chronicle tradition, but presumably produced by someone in her circle. She thus inhabits an unusual space where gender and gender roles are concerned. She and her husband Æthelred are also hard to define in terms of status.