Hi Mr. Cornwell,

As I did some research on the anglo saxon period to england especially in regards to christianity, I found that the the present day Isle of Wight was the site of the last stronghold of paganaism in anglo saxon england until 686(according to Bede) when cadwella king of wessex (who wasn’t even baptised as a christian) conquered it and killed the inhabitants including its king  Arwald,  and his sons (who he had baptised before killed)all in the name of christ and land and power. The reason I bring this up is because the king Arwald  supposedly had a sister who married to the royal house of kent and if one could speculate could of been an ancestor to Alfred the great as it seems that his grandfather egberth of wessex might have had kentish royal blood as well as west saxon royal blood ,if one can speculate with the tangled relatively unknown mess that is the royal anglo saxon family trees. I don’t know if this idea struck your fancy but it seems up your alley  . Personally I find it very interesting and i believe Uhtred would find it fascinating (provided he opens books to study history of saxons and kings  which he will never do)  that one of the  ancestors of the great founder of  a unified england and christan defender of pagan invaders Alfred the great was of blood relation to the last english  pagan king in england .

Michael Powers