The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die Ending Explained: The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die is a British historical drama movie that was written and directed by Edward Bazalgette. It was based on Bernard Cornwell’s book The Saxon Stories.
It is a follow-up to the TV series The Last Kingdom. Alexander Dreymon was Uhtred of Bebbanburg again.
It came out on Netflix on April 14, 2023. It is also the last book in the series and the last part of the story.
If you have watched the movie and do not understand the ending of the movie, you have visited the right place. In this article, we will discuss The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die Ending Explained.
What is the Plot of The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die?
After King Edward dies of illness, the Danes led by King Anlaf attack Northumbria. Prince Edward takes the throne with the help of the ealdormen of Wessex and mercenaries, forcing Queen Eadgifu and Prince Edmund to flee to Uhtred for safety.
Finan’s wife, Ingrith, tells Uhtred in Bebbanburg that “seven kings must die and the woman you love” before England can be joined. Uhtred, who is now an old man, doesn’t believe her because he’s not a king and doesn’t have a wife.
Uhtred gets his friends together to move on before he can solidify his power so that Aethelstan can take the throne. He sends his son Osbert to train Edmund. Aethelstan has become very religious and hired Lord Ingilmunder as his advisor. Lord Ingilmunder uses the Bible to tell the prince what to do.
In Aegelesburg, Uhtred and his men pretend to be soldiers who want to fight for Edweard, only to find out that Edweard wants to trap Aethelstan. But Aethelstan sees through his brother’s plan and gets out of it, while Uhtred takes control of the town’s gates and talks Edweard into giving up quietly.
Aethelstan kills his brother in cold blood instead of letting him go into exile because he thinks that God has chosen him to be the true heir. He also has his men kill Edweard ‘s men. In spite of what Ingilmunder wants, Uhtred is able to get Aethelstan to step down, but he won’t bow down to him until he’s actually crowned at Winchester.
The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die Ending Explained!
Once the battlefield was ready, the final fight, the fight of Brunanburh, would decide the fate of England and the British Isles for good.
Uhtred joined forces with King Aethelstan, and what was left of their armies went up against the armies of Irland, Orkney, Man, Shetland, Strathclyde, and Scotland.
Uhtred was a great strategist and military leader. He set up a defensive position at the base of the hill, which gave Anlaf’s forces the upper hand. But this was done on purpose, because having King Aethelstan on the battlefield was meant to get the enemy to attack.
Uhtred told them to make a shield wall to protect themselves and slowly walk back to the tree line. Since the enemy was too eager, they were led into a trap where dozens of men hurt themselves by falling on spikes that were hidden in the grass.
The trap didn’t give Uhtred’s forces enough of an edge to win, but it did cause enough confusion to buy them some time. But Father Pyrlig would get hurt during the attack, making Uhtred think he had died in battle.
Alfan’s army would charge into the shield wall, but the line would hold even though there were so many of them. But on the right side, where Aethelstan was fighting Scots, they would start hitting the shield wall with a Swine Wedge, a triangle-shaped formation that could break through the shield wall’s line.
With the enemy pushing hard on Aethelstan’s side, the shield wall barely held, but it did its job of turning the line around to face the trees.
On Uhtred’s orders, would tell the horsemen hiding behind the trees to charge the enemy from behind. If Uhtred could trap the enemy between the shield wall and the horsemen, the fight would turn in his favor. Many men, including several kings of the enemy, would die in battle because they had nowhere to go.
Uhtred saw that King Aethelstan and Ingilmundr were fighting furiously, which caught his attention. Uhtred was worried about the King’s life, so he would try to rush through the fight to save him.
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However, whether it was because of his age or because he let his guard down for a few seconds out of concern for the King, Uhtred was killed several times. Before Uhtred passed out, he saw King Aethelstan beat Ingilmundr and Father Pyrlig, who was still alive but hurt.
All of the kings whose sons had died chose to run away because their lines were in danger. This left Anlaf without an army and forced him to go back to Irland. Finnand and Sihtric would find Uhtred badly hurt after the fight. In the meantime, King Aethelstan would sentence Ingilmundr to death for treason.
When everyone got back to Bebbanburg, they were worried about Uhtred’s health as he rested from the fight. Uhtred would swear loyalty to Aethelstan in his last moments. This made Aethelstan the new King of Northumbria.
As the King of Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, and Northumbria, Alfred united England under one name for the first time in its history. But Uhtred’s word came with one condition: Aethelstan couldn’t get married or have children. When he died, the crown would automatically go to his younger brother.
Uhtred, son of Uhtred, would die of his wounds in his ancestral home of Bebbanburg. Because of his famous actions on and off the battlefield, his friends adopted family, and other legendary Vikings would be waiting for him in the halls of Valhalla.
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