The 25 Best Characters on The Last Kingdom

24) AELFRIC

A lot of the series’ bad guys are dead by the end of season 2, opening the doors for new villains, but the man Uhtred most wants to kill remains alive. He is Uhtred’s uncle Aelfric (Joseph Millson), and boy, is he nasty. In the series premiere, he is the trusted lieutenant of Uhtred father, but once the Aelderman fall in battle he makes his move to take power at Bebbanburg.

Aelfric wanted to kill the Young Uhtred (whom he refers to as Osbert, Uhtred’s name before becoming the direct heir of Bebbanburg), but the boy disappeared, taken prisoner by Eaal Ragnar. It is Aelfric who teams up the the devious Viking Kjartan to attack Earl Ragnar’s household, but he has no idea that Uhtred is part of that family.

Shocked to learn that Uhtred is still alive, Aelfric spends much of the rest of the series trying to hunt him down down and kill him. For example, when Guthred needs men for his holy army in season 2, Aelfric cuts him a deal. “[Uhtred] wants me dead,” he says. “I know it. I’ve always known it.” So Aelfric will supply Guthred with the soldiers he wants, but “in return, I shall require the head of Osbert.”

Guthred sells Uhtred into slavery, but that isn’t good enough for Aelfric, who is infuriated. Aelfric is willing to take Gisela as a wife, especially when he learns that she is “fond” of Uhtred, but she runs away before she can be forced into the arranged marriage. Later, Guthred and Aelfric decide to use Kjartan and his men to find and murder Uhtred. After Uhtred is rescued and Kjarten is killed, the story skips ahead three years and moves away from Aelfric and the Bebbanburg storyline. But we bet a thousand shillings that won’t last.