Chapter 17Wodensbeorg, Wiltshire, 715 AD
The combined host of Wessex and Mercia could not have chosen a more commanding position for the forthcoming battle. Aethelheard, next to King Ine at the centre of the host surveyed the magnificent view over the rolling downs. His eyes settled on the massed ranks of the advancing foe. Bards still recounted tales of the great battle fought here, many lifetimes ago, by the great Wessex warlord Ceawlin, the hammer of the foe they faced today, the Wealisc.
Aethelheard reflected on the irony of the situation. According to his spies, here they were prepared for battle, lined up beside the very ones who had whispered in the enemies' ears to urge them to this reckoning – the people who wished to take King Ine's throne from him. How events had the habit of
