Is The Last Kingdom historically accurate? 20 Questions Answered

Alright, fellow arselings! With the much anticipated fourth season of The Last Kingdom dropping on Netflix, it’s time to sharpen our swords and gather the fyrd! In this article, we’ll have some fun looking over the historical elements of the show and see how accurately The Last Kingdom has been adhering to the known record.

That said, keep in mind that The Last Kingdom has a bit of an advantage since it’s set in the late ninth century, in the Early Medieval Period where much of the archaeological record is spotty at best and nonexistent at worst. There’s a lot of room to play with story elements, accuracy-wise.

The show is based on a series of novels — The Saxon Stories — by author Bernard Cornwell, but we’re not going to tackle how faithful Cornwell is to history here. This is about the TV adaptation.

Of course, The Last Kingdom is a fictional show based on historical events, where Cornwell and the showrunners often bend or ignore established historical facts and timelines in favor of enhancing the drama and streamlining the narrative. But it’s still fun to see how closely they’re managing to stick to the established history anyway. Let’s have at it!

Warning: There are SPOILER for the first three seasons ahead, and potentially for the fourth.