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Æthelred 'Unræd'[1, 2]

Male Abt 966 - 1016  (50 years)


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  • Name Æthelred 'Unræd'  
    Nickname Æðelræd Unræd 
    Born Abt 966  Wessex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Occupation King of England, 978-1016 
    Occupation King of England, Jarl 
    Occupation Konungur Englands 
    Occupation Roi, d'Angleterre, 978 
    Occupation unknown 
    Occupation 18 Mar 978  England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    King 
    Occupation 18 Mar 978 
    unknown 
    Occupation 14 Apr 979  King of England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    unknown 
    Occupation 1014 
    unknown 
    Residence England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Died 23 Apr 1016 
    Address:
    London
    London, Middlesex
    England 
    Buried Abt 23 Apr 1016  St. Paul's Cathedral Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    London
    London
    England 
    Notes 
    • {geni:about_me} Son of King Edgar 'the Peaceful' and Queen Ælfthryth

      "Unready" is a mistranslation of Old English unræd (meaning bad-counsel or no-counsel)—a twist on his name "Æthelred", meaning noble-counsel. A better translation would be "ill-advised" (or possibly "un-advised", meaning he just wouldn't listen to anybody else).

      from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelred_the_Unready

      '''Æthelred the Unready''', or '''Æthelred II''' (c. 968 – 23 April 1016), was King of England (978–1013 and 1014–1016). He was the son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth and was only about ten years old (no more than thirteen) when his half-brother Edward was murdered. Æthelred was not personally suspected of participation, but as the murder was committed at Corfe Castle by the attendants of Ælfthryth, it made it more difficult for the new king to rally the nation against the military raids by Danes, especially as the legend of St Edward the Martyr grew.

      From 991 onwards, Æthelred paid tribute, or Danegeld, to the Danish king. In 1002, Æthelred ordered a massacre of Danish settlers. In 1003, King Sweyn invaded England, and in 1013, Æthelred fled to Normandy and was replaced by Sweyn, who was also King of Denmark. Æthelred returned as king, however, after Sweyn died in 1014.


      =Contents=

      * 1 Name
      * 2 Early life
      * 3 Conflict with the Danes
      * 3.1 Battle of Maldon
      * 3.2 England begins tributes
      * 3.3 Renewed Danish raids
      * 3.4 St. Brice's Day massacre of 1002
      * 3.5 Invasion of 1013
      * 4 Death and burial
      * 5 Appearance and character
      * 6 Marriages and issue
      * 7 Legislation
      * 8 Legacy
      * 8.1 Did Æthelred invent the jury?

      =Name=

      The story of Æthelred's notorious nickname, "Æthelred the Unready", from Old English Æþelræd Unræd, goes a long way toward explaining how his reputation has declined through history. His first name, composed of the elements æðele, meaning "noble", and ræd, meaning "counsel" or "advice",[3] is typical of the compound names of those who belonged to the royal House of Wessex, and it characteristically alliterates with the names of his ancestors, like Æthelwulf ("noble-wolf"), Ælfred ("elf-counsel"), Edward ("rich-protection"), and Edgar ("rich-spear"). His nickname Unræd is usually translated into present-day English as "The Unready" (less often, though less confusingly, as "The Redeless"), though, because the present-day meaning of "unready" no longer resembles its ancient counterpart, this translation disguises the meaning of the Old English term. Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary defines the noun unræd in various ways, though it seems always to have been used pejoratively. Generally, it means "evil counsel", "bad plan", "folly". Bosworth-Toller do not record it as describing a person directly; it most often describes decisions and deeds, and once refers to the nature of Satan's deceit (see Fall of Man). The element ræd in unræd is the element in Æthelred's name which means "counsel". Thus Æþelræd Unræd is a pun meaning "Noble counsel, No counsel". The nickname has alternatively been taken adjectivally as "ill-advised", "ill-prepared", "indecisive", thus "Æthelred the ill-advised".

      The epithet would seem to describe the poor quality of advice which Æthelred received throughout his reign, presumably from those around him, specifically from the royal council, known as the Witan. Though the nickname does not suggest anything particularly respectable about the king himself, its invective is not actually focused on the king but on those around him, who were expected to provide the young king with god ræd (i.e., good counsel). Unfortunately, historians, both mediaeval and modern, have taken less of an interest in what this epithet suggests about the king's advisers, and have instead focused on the image it creates of a blundering, misfit king. Because the nickname was first recorded in the 1180s, more than 150 years after Æthelred's death, it is doubtful that it carries any implications for how the king was seen by his contemporaries or near contemporaries.

      In the view of Oxford professor Chris Wickham, Æthelred was one of the most forceful kings of the tenth century, who ended the control of every one of the major magnate families over their ealdormanries in the two decades after 985, and although this was ultimately to prove to his disadvantage, it is significant that he maintained the strength to push all of them into private life in spite of the military crisis of the period.

      =Early life=

      Sir Frank Stenton remarked that "much that has brought condemnation of historians on King Æthelred may well be due in the last resort to the circumstances under which he became king." Æthelred's father, King Edgar, had died suddenly in July 975, leaving two young sons behind. The elder, Edward (later Edward the Martyr), was probably illegitimate, and was "still a youth on the verge of manhood" in 975. The younger son was Æthelred, whose mother, Ælfthryth, Edgar had married in 964. Ælfthryth was the daughter of Ordgar, ealdorman of Devon, and widow of Æthelwold, Ealdorman of East Anglia. At the time of his father's death, Æthelred could have been no more than 10 years old. As the elder of Edgar's sons, Edward – reportedly a young man given to frequent violent outbursts – probably would have naturally succeeded to the throne of England despite his young age, had not he "offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behaviour." In any case, a number of English nobles took to opposing Edward's succession and to defending Æthelred's claim to the throne; Æthelred was, after all, the son of Edgar's last, living wife, and no rumour of illegitimacy is known to have plagued Æthelred's birth, as it might have his elder brother's. Both boys, Æthelred certainly, were too young to have played any significant part in the political manoeuvring which followed Edgar's death. It was the brothers' supporters, and not the brothers themselves, who were responsible for the turmoil which accompanied the choice of a successor to the throne. Æthelred's cause was led by his mother and included Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, while Edward's claim was supported by Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Saint Oswald of Worcester, the Archbishop of York[12] among other noblemen, notably Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia, and Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex. In the end, Edward's supporters proved the more powerful and persuasive, and he was crowned king at Kingston upon Thames before the year was out.

      Edward reigned for only three years before he was murdered by members of his brother's household. Though we know little about Edward's short reign, we do know that it was marked by political turmoil. Edgar had made extensive grants of land to monasteries which pursued the new monastic ideals of ecclesiastical reform, but these disrupted aristocratic families' traditional patronage. The end of his firm rule saw a reversal of this policy, with aristocrats recovering their lost properties or seizing new ones. This was opposed by Dunstan, but according to Cyril Hart, "The presence of supporters of church reform on both sides indicates that the conflict between them depended as much on issues of land ownership and local power as on ecclesiastical legitimacy. Adherents of both Edward and Æthelred can be seen appropriating, or recovering, monastic lands." Nevertheless, favour for Edward must have been strong among the monastic communities. When Edward was killed at Æthelred's estate at Corfe Castle in Dorset in March 978, the job of recording the event, as well as reactions to it, fell to monastic writers. Stenton offers a summary of the earliest account of Edward's murder, which comes from a work praising the life of Saint Oswald of Worcester: "On the surface his [Edward's] relations with Æthelred his half-brother and Ælfthryth his stepmother were friendly, and he was visiting them informally when he was killed. [Æthelred's] retainers came out to meet him with ostentatious signs of respect, and then, before he had dismounted, surrounded him, seized his hands, and stabbed him. ... So far as can be seen the murder was planned and carried out by Æthelred's household men in order that their young master might become king. There is nothing to support the allegation, which first appears in writing more than a century later, that Queen Ælfthryth had plotted her stepson's death. No one was punished for a part in the crime, and Æthelred, who was crowned a month after the murder, began to reign in an atmosphere of suspicion which destroyed the prestige of the crown. It was never fully restored in his lifetime." Nevertheless, at first, the outlook of the new king's officers and counsellors seems in no way to have been bleak. According to one chronicler, the coronation of Æthelred took place with much rejoicing by the councillors of the English people. Simon Keynes notes that "Byrhtferth of Ramsey states similarly that when Æthelred was consecrated king, by Archbishop Dunstan and Archbishop Oswald, 'there was great joy at his consecration’, and describes the king in this connection as 'a young man in respect of years, elegant in his manners, with an attractive face and handsome appearance'." Æthelred could not have been older than 13 years of age in this year.

      During these early years, Æthelred was developing a close relationship to Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, one who had supported his unsuccessful claim to the throne. When Æthelwold died, on 1 August 984, Æthelred deeply lamented the loss, and he wrote later in a charter from 993 that the event had deprived the country of one "whose industry and pastoral care administered not only to my interest but also to that of all inhabitants of the country."

      =Conflict with the Danes=

      England had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century by King Edgar, Æthelred's father. However, beginning in 980, when Æthelred could not have been more than 14 years old, small companies of Danish adventurers carried out a series of coast-line raids against England. Hampshire, Thanet, and Cheshire were attacked in 980, Devon and Cornwall in 981, and Dorset in 982. A period of six years then passed before, in 988, another coastal attack is recorded as having taken place to the south-west, though here a famous battle was fought between the invaders and the thegns of Devon. Stenton notes that, though this series of isolated raids had no lasting effect on England itself, "their chief historical importance is that they brought England for the first time into diplomatic contact with Normandy."[16] During this period, the Normans, who remembered their origins as a Scandinavian people, were well-disposed to their Danish cousins who, occasionally returning from a raid on England, sought port in Normandy. This led to grave tension between the English and Norman courts, and word of their enmity eventually reached Pope John XV. The pope was disposed to dissolve their hostility towards each other, and took steps to engineer a peace between England and Normandy, which was ratified in Rouen in 991.

      '''Battle of Maldon'''

      However, in August of that same year, a sizeable Danish fleet began a sustained campaign in the south-east of England. It arrived off Folkestone, in Kent, and made its way around the south-east coast and up the river Blackwater, coming eventually to its estuary and occupying Northey Island. About 2 kilometres (1 mile) west of Northey lies the coastal town of Maldon, where Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, was stationed with a company of thegns. The battle that followed between English and Danes is immortalised by the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon, which describes the doomed but heroic attempt of Byrhtnoth to defend the coast of Essex against overwhelming odds. Stenton summarises the events of the poem: "For access to the mainland they [the Danes] depended on a causeway, flooded at high tide, which led from Northey to the flats along the southern margin of the estuary. Before they [the Danes] had left their camp on the island[,] Byrhtnoth, with his retainers and a force of local militia, had taken possession of the landward end of the causeway. Refusing a demand for tribute, shouted across the water while the tide was high, Byrhtnoth drew up his men along the bank, and waited for the ebb. As the water fell the raiders began to stream out along the causeway. But three of Byrthnoth's retainers held it against them, and at last they asked to be allowed to cross unhindered and fight on equal terms on the mainland. With what even those who admired him most called 'over-courage', Byrhtnoth agreed to this; the pirates rushed through the falling tide, and battle was joined. Its issue was decided by Byrhtnoth's fall. Many even of his own men immediately took to flight and the English ranks were broken. What gives enduring interest to the battle is the superb courage with which a group of Byrhtnoth's thegns, knowing that the fight was lost, deliberately gave themselves to death in order that they might avenge their lord." This was the first of a series of crushing defeats felt by the English: beaten first by Danish raiders, and later by organised Danish armies.

      '''England begins tributes'''

      In 991, Æthelred was around 24 years old. In the aftermath of Maldon, it was decided that the English should grant the tribute to the Danes that they desired, and so a gafol of 10,000 pounds was paid them for their peace. Yet it was presumably the Danish fleet that had beaten Byrhtnoth at Maldon that continued to ravage the English coast from 991 to 993. In 994, the Danish fleet, which had swollen in ranks since 991, turned up the Thames estuary and headed toward London. The battle fought there was inconclusive. It was about this time that Æthelred met with the leaders of the fleet, foremost among them Olaf Tryggvason, and arranged an uneasy accord. A treaty was signed between Æthelred and Olaf that provided for seemingly civilised arrangements between the then-settled Danish companies and the English government, such as regulation settlement disputes and trade. But the treaty also stipulated that the ravaging and slaughter of the previous year would be forgotten, and ended abruptly by stating that 22,000 pounds of gold and silver had been paid to the raiders as the price of peace. In 994, Olaf Tryggvason, already a baptised Christian, was confirmed as Christian in a ceremony at Andover; King Æthelred stood as his sponsor. After receiving gifts, Olaf promised "that he would never come back to England in hostility." Olaf then left England for Norway and never returned, though "other component parts of the Viking force appear to have decided to stay in England, for it is apparent from the treaty that some had chosen to enter into King Æthelred's service as mercenaries, based presumably on the Isle of Wight."

      '''Renewed Danish raids'''

      In 997, Danish raids began again. According to Keynes, "there is no suggestion that this was a new fleet or army, and presumably the mercenary force created in 994 from the residue of the raiding army of 991 had turned on those whom it had been hired to protect." It harried Cornwall, Devon, western Somerset, and south Wales in 997, Dorset, Hampshire, and Sussex in 998. In 999, it raided Kent, and, in 1000, it left England for Normandy, perhaps because the English had refused in this latest wave of attacks to acquiesce to the Danish demands for gafol or tribute, which would come to be known as Danegeld, 'Dane-payment'. This sudden relief from attack Æthelred used to gather his thoughts, resources, and armies: the fleet's departure in 1000 "allowed Æthelred to carry out a devastation of Strathclyde, the motive for which is part of the lost history of the north."

      In 1001, a Danish fleet – perhaps the same fleet from 1000 – returned and ravaged west Sussex. During its movements, the fleet regularly returned to its base in the Isle of Wight. There was later an attempted attack in the south of Devon, though the English mounted a successful defence at Exeter. Nevertheless, Æthelred must have felt at a loss, and, in the Spring of 1002, the English bought a truce for 24,000 pounds. Æthelred's frequent payments of immense Danegelds are often held up as exemplary of the incompetency of his government and his own short-sightedness. However, Keynes points out that such payments had been practice for at least a century, and had been adopted by Alfred the Great, Charles the Bald, and many others. Indeed, in some cases it "may have seemed the best available way of protecting the people against loss of life, shelter, livestock, and crops. Though undeniably burdensome, it constituted a measure for which the king could rely on widespread support."

      '''St. Brice's Day massacre of 1002'''

      On 13 November 1002, Æthelred ordered the massacre of all Danish men in England on St Brice's Day. No order of this kind could be carried out in more than a third of England, where the Danes were too strong, but Gunhilde, sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, was said to have been among the victims. It is likely that a wish to avenge her was a principal motive for Sweyn's invasion of western England the following year. By 1004 Sweyn was in East Anglia, where he sacked Norwich. In this year, a nobleman of East Anglia, Ulfcytel Snillingr met Sweyn in force, and made an impression on the until-then rampant Danish expedition. Though Ulfcytel was eventually defeated, outside of Thetford, he caused the Danes heavy losses and was nearly able to destroy their ships. The Danish army left England for Denmark in 1005, perhaps because of their injuries sustained in East Anglia, perhaps from the very severe famine which afflicted the continent and the British Isles in that year.

      An expedition the following year was bought off in early 1007 by tribute money of 36,000 pounds, and for the next two years England was free from attack. In 1008, the government created a new fleet of warships, organised on a national scale, but this was weakened when one of its commanders took to piracy, and the king and his council decided not to risk it in a general action. In Stenton's view: "The history of England in the next generation was really determined between 1009 and 1012...the ignominious collapse of the English defence caused a loss of morale which was irreparable." The Danish army of 1009, led by Thorkell the Tall and his brother Hemming, was the most formidable force to invade England since Æthelred became king. It harried England until it was bought off by 48,000 pounds in April 1012.

      '''Invasion of 1013'''

      Sweyn then launched an invasion in 1013 intending to crown himself king of England, during which he proved himself to be a general greater than any other Viking leader of his generation. By the end of 1013 English resistance had collapsed and Sweyn had conquered the country, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy. But the situation changed suddenly when Sweyn died on 3 February 1014. The crews of the Danish ships in the Trent that had supported Sweyn immediately swore their allegiance to Sweyn's son Cnut the Great, but leading English noblemen sent a deputation to Æthelred to negotiate his restoration to the throne. He was required to declare his loyalty to them, to bring in reforms regarding everything that they disliked and to forgive all that had been said and done against him in his previous reign. The terms of this agreement are of great constitutional interest in early English History as they are the first recorded pact between a King and his subjects and are also widely regarded as showing that many English noblemen had submitted to Sweyn simply because of their distrust of Æthelred.

      Æthelred then launched an expedition against Cnut and his allies, the men of the Kingdom of Lindsey. Cnut's army had not completed its preparations and, in April 1014, he decided to withdraw from England without a fight leaving his Lindsey allies to suffer Æthelred's revenge. In August 1015, he returned to find a complex and volatile situation unfolding in England. Æthelred's son, Edmund Ironside, had revolted against his father and established himself in the Danelaw, which was angry at Cnut and Æthelred for the ravaging of Lindsey and was prepared to support Edmund in any uprising against both of them.

      =Death and burial=

      Over the next months, Cnut conquered most of England, and Edmund had rejoined Æthelred to defend London when Æthelred died on 23 April 1016. The subsequent war between Edmund and Cnut ended in a decisive victory for Cnut at the Battle of Ashingdon on 18 October 1016. Edmund's reputation as a warrior was such that Cnut nevertheless agreed to divide England, Edmund taking Wessex and Cnut the whole of the country beyond the Thames. However, Edmund died on 30 November and Cnut became king of the whole country.

      Æthelred was buried in old St Paul's Cathedral, London.

      =Appearance and character=

      "[A] youth of graceful manners, handsome countenance, and fine person..." as well as "[A] tall, handsome man, elegant in manners, beautiful in countenance, and interesting in his deportment."

      =Marriages and Issue=

      Æthelred married first Ælfgifu, daughter of Thored, earl of Northumbria, in about 985. Their known children are:

      * Æthelstan Ætheling (died 1014)
      * Ecgberht Ætheling (died c. 1005)[26]
      * Edmund Ironside (died 1016)
      * Eadred Ætheling (died before 1013)
      * Eadwig Ætheling (executed by Cnut 1017)
      * Edgar Ætheling (died c. 1008)[26]
      * Eadgyth or Edith (married Eadric Streona)
      * Ælfgifu (married Uchtred the Bold, ealdorman of Northumbria)
      * Wulfhilda (married Ulfcytel Snillingr)
      * Abbess of Wherwell Abbey

      In 1002 Æthelred married Emma of Normandy, sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. Their children were:

      * Edward the Confessor (died 1066)
      * Ælfred Ætheling (died 1036–7)
      * Goda of England (married 1. Drogo of Mantes and 2. Eustace II, Count of Boulogne)

      All of Æthelred's sons were named after predecessors of Æthelred on the throne.

      =Legislation=

      Æthelred's government produced extensive legislation, which he "ruthlessly enforced." Records of at least six legal codes survive from his reign, covering a range of topics. Notably, one of the members of his council (known as the Witan) was Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York, a well-known homilist. The three latest codes from Æthelred's reign seemed to have been drafted by Wulfstan. These codes are extensively concerned with ecclesiastical affairs. They also exhibit the characteristics of Wulfstan's highly rhetorical style. Wulfstan went on to draft codes for King Cnut, and recycled there many of the laws which were used in Æthelred's codes.

      Despite the failure of his government in the face of the Danish threat, Æthelred's reign was not without some important institutional achievements. The quality of the coinage, a good indicator of the prevailing economic conditions, significantly improved during his reign due to his numerous coinage reform laws.

      =Legacy=

      Later perspectives of Æthelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080–c. 1143), who reports that Æthelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another mediaeval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.

      Efforts to rehabilitate Æthelred's reputation have gained momentum since about 1980. Chief among the rehabilitators has been Simon Keynes, who has often argued that our poor impression of Æthelred is almost entirely based upon after-the-fact accounts of, and later accretions to, the narrative of events during Æthelred's long and complex reign. Chief among the culprits is in fact one of the most important sources for the history of the period, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which, as it reports events with a retrospect of 15 years, cannot help but interpret events with the eventual English defeat a foregone conclusion. Yet, as virtually no strictly contemporary narrative account of the events of Æthelred's reign exists, historians are forced to rely on what evidence there is. Keynes and others thus draw attention to some of the inevitable snares of investigating the history of a man whom later popular opinion has utterly damned. Recent cautious assessments of Æthelred's reign have more often uncovered reasons to doubt, rather than uphold, Æthelred's later infamy. Though the failures of his government will always put Æthelred's reign in the shadow of the reigns of kings Edgar, Aethelstan, and Alfred, historians' current impression of Æthelred's personal character is certainly not as unflattering as it once was: "Æthelred's misfortune as a ruler was owed not so much to any supposed defects of his imagined character, as to a combination of circumstances which anyone would have found difficult to control."

      '''Did Æthelred invent the jury?'''

      Æthelred has been credited with the formation of a local investigative body made up of twelve thegns who were charged with publishing the names of any notorious or wicked men in their respective districts. Because the members of these bodies were under solemn oath to act in accordance with the law and their own good consciences, they have been seen by some legal historians as the prototype for the English Grand Jury. Æthelred makes provision for such a body in a law code he enacted at Wantage in 997, which states:

      >''þæt man habbe gemot on ælcum wæpentace; & gan ut þa yldestan XII þegnas & se gerefa mid, & swerian on þam haligdome, þe heom man on hand sylle, þæt hig nellan nænne sacleasan man forsecgean ne nænne sacne forhelan. & niman þonne þa tihtbysian men, þe mid þam gerefan habbað, & heora ælc sylle VI healfmarc wedd, healf landrican & healf wæpentake.''

      >that there shall be an assembly in every wapentake, and in that assembly shall go forth the twelve eldest thegns and the reeve along with them, and let them swear on holy relics, which shall be placed in their hands, that they will never knowingly accuse an innocent man nor conceal a guilty man. And thereafter let them seize those notorious [lit. "charge-laden"] men, who have business with the reeve, and let each of them give a security of 6 half-marks, half of which shall go to the lord of that district, and half to the wapentake.

      But the wording here suggests that Æthelred was perhaps revamping or re-confirming a custom which had already existed. He may actually have been expanding an established English custom for use among the Danish citizens in the North (the Danelaw). Previously, King Edgar had legislated along similar lines in his Whitbordesstan code:

      >''ic wille, þæt ælc mon sy under borge ge binnan burgum ge buton burgum. & gewitnes sy geset to ælcere byrig & to ælcum hundrode. To ælcere byrig XXXVI syn gecorone to gewitnesse; to smalum burgum & to ælcum hundrode XII, buton ge ma willan. & ælc mon mid heora gewitnysse bigcge & sylle ælc þara ceapa, þe he bigcge oððe sylle aþer oððe burge oððe on wæpengetace. & heora ælc, þonne hine man ærest to gewitnysse gecysð, sylle þæne að, þæt he næfre, ne for feo ne for lufe ne for ege, ne ætsace nanes þara þinga, þe he to gewitnysse wæs, & nan oðer þingc on gewitnysse ne cyðe buton þæt an, þæt he geseah oððe gehyrde. & swa geæþdera manna syn on ælcum ceape twegen oððe þry to gewitnysse.''

      >It is my wish that each person be in surety, both within settled areas and without. And 'witnessing' shall be established in each city and each hundred. To each city let there be 36 chosen for witnessing; to small towns and to each hundred let there be 12, unless they desire more. And everybody shall purchase and sell their goods in the presence a witness, whether he is buying or selling something, whether in a city or a wapentake. And each of them, when they first choose to become a witness, shall give an oath that he will never, neither for wealth nor love nor fear, deny any of those things which he will be a witness to, and will not, in his capacity as a witness, make known any thing except that which he saw and heard. And let there be either two or three of these sworn witnesses at every sale of goods.

      The 'legend' of an Anglo-Saxon origin to the jury was first challenged seriously by Heinrich Brunner in 1872, who claimed that evidence of the jury was only seen for the first time during the reign of Henry II, some 200 years after the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, and that the practice had originated with the Franks, who in turn had influenced the Normans, who thence introduced it to England. Since Brunner's thesis, the origin of the English jury has been much disputed. Throughout the twentieth century, legal historians disagreed about whether the practice was English in origin, or was introduced, directly or indirectly, from either Scandinavia or Francia. Recently, the legal historians Patrick Wormald and Michael Macnair have reasserted arguments in favour of finding in practices current during the Anglo-Saxon period traces of the Angevin practice of conducting inquests using bodies of sworn, private witnesses. Wormald has gone as far as to present evidence suggesting that the English practice outlined in Æthelred's Wantage code is at least as old as, if not older than, 975, and ultimately traces it back to a Carolingian model (something Brinner had done). However, no scholarly consensus has yet been reached.
      --------------------
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelred_the_Unready
      --------------------
      Æthelred II the Unready

      Son of King Edgar 'the Peaceful' and Queen Ælfthryth

      "Unready" is a mistranslation of Old English unræd (meaning bad-counsel or no-counsel)—a twist on his name "Æthelred", meaning noble-counsel. A better translation would be "ill-advised" (or possibly "un-advised", meaning he just wouldn't listen to anybody else).

      Links

      The Peerage
      Medlands
      King of England Reign 978 - 1013 + 1014 - 016
      Predecessor Edward "the Martyr" (978) - Sweyn I "Forkbeard" (1014) Successor Sweyn I "Forkbeard" (1013) - Edmund "Ironside" (1016)



      Please see Darrell Wolcott: Welsh Origins of the Peverel Family; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id50.html. (Steven Ferry, April 15, 2020.)

      Please see Darrell Wolcott: Edwin of Tegeingl and His Family - The Ancestry of Edwin of Tegeingl; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id42.html. (Steven Ferry, June 5, 2020.)
    • 1 NAME Aethelred II the Unready of /England/ 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 BIRT 2 PLAC Wessex, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 DEAT 2 DATE 23 APR 1016 2 PLAC London, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001


      [De La Pole.FTW]
      Sources: RC 233; 242, 342; Kings and Queens of Britain; Butler; Coe, A. Roots 1-19, 34, 250-20; Kraentzler 1159, 1263; AF; Pfafman; P of W; Shorter History of England; NEHGR 79/371; Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants; Ashley. Roots: Aethelred II, the Redeless, King of England, 979-1016; born 968, died 1016; married (1) 985 Alfflaed, daughter of Thored (or Torino; (2) Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normany. Earl of Mercia and Gainas. King of England from 978-1016. K&Q says he had "other daughters." Not named specifically by this source were numbers 3, 12, and 13. The latter two came from Ancestral File.
      K. and P of W: Ethelred II, King of England. Descents: Ethelred II the Unready, King of England, died 1016; married Alflaed. Ashley: Ethelred II "The Unready." King of England, reigned 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
    • Æthelred II the Unrede, King of England from 978 to 1016
      Born about 968
      Died on April 23, 1016 at London, and interred at St.Paul's Cathedral;but his tomb was lost when the old St. Paul's was destroyed in the greatfire of London.
      The name Æthelred means "noble council", but a cynical 13th century punsuggested his name should have been “evil council” or “unrede” because hesaid to have participated in a plot to murder his half brother St. Edwardthe Martyr. However, he was only about 10 years old at the time, and itis diffiuclt to imagine how a child could have been a participant in sucha heinous crime. Regardless, Æthelred’s name "the Unrede" stuck. The name"the Unready" was coined centuries later and is mistaken.
      Æthelred reigned from 979 to 1013, at which time he was temporarilydeposed by King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, who was never actuallycrowned King of England. When Sweyn died on February 3, 1014, the Witanrecalled Æthelred who then reigned until his death on April 23, 1016.

      Æthelred married first about 985 to Elfreda (Ælfgifu), a daughter ofeither Æthelbert, an Ealdorman; or Thored, Ealdorman of York. Æthelredand Elfreda (Ælfgifu) had the following children:

      Athelstan, born circa 986 died in 1015 in battle
      Ecgbert died about 1005
      Edmund II Ironside, King of England, April to November 1016
      Edred died about 1012
      Edwy (Eadwig) died (killed) in 1017
      Edward died before 1004
      Edgar died circa 1012
      Edith who married first circa 1008 to Eadric Streona, Ealdorman of Merciaand second to Thurkil "the Tall" Havi
      Ælfgifu who married to Uchtred, Earl of Northumbria
      Wulfhilda who married first to Ulfcytel Snylling, Ealdorman of EastAnglia and second to Thurchil, Earl of East Anglia
      a daughter who married Æthelstan who was killed in 1010
      a daughter who became the Abbess of Wherwell, died after 1051
      Edric who may not have existed

      Æthelred may have married to Ælthelgife, a daughter of Egbert who is notshown in all genealogies.

      Æthelred married on April 5, 1002 to Emma of Normandie Æthelred and Emmahad the following children:

      St. Edward the Confessor, King of England 1042 - 1066
      Alfred, slain by Earl Godwin on February 5, 1037 at Ely, Cambridgeshire
      Godgifu (Goda), born about 1009 died 1056 who married Dreux (Walter),Count of Mantes & the Vexin; their children:
      Walter, Count of Mantes & the Vexin died circa 1064
      Ralph de Sudeley "the Timid", Earl of Hereford died December 21, 1057
      Fulk, Bishop of Amiens, (1030 - 1058)


      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandiewhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.

      Ruled 978-1016 King Ethelred was the half-brother of Edward the Matry andfully deserved his nickname of the Unready, meaning resourceless, for hewas apparently a creature of weakness and self-indulgence, lackingability, and pursuing the fatal course of opportunism. In his defence itmust be said that he had more than his share of bad luck, for the Danesnever left him alone, and often his own plans were ruined by treachery orintrigue at home. The manner in which Ethelred habitually bought off hisenemies with large sums of money and, on one occasion, on Sait Brice'Day1002, ordered a general massacre of the Danes, seems to indicate that hewas merely weak in spirit and perhaps very indolent; but he foughtbravely enough when the time came. In 1013 the Danish Raids, hitherto forthe most part only predatory, became political, and the King of Denmark,Sweyn Forkbear, forced Ethelred to flee his kingdom. By the end of thatyear King Sweyn ruled all England, and claimed the crown by right ofconquest. A frightened Witan elected him king, but he was never crownedfor he died a few months later pierced, says a legend, by the spear ofSaint Edmund the Martyr, whom he had derided. The Witan hastily calledback "their natural Lord", but Ethelred was already a sick man, and hedied shortly after his return to his native land.

      AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamed THEUNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by hissecond wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to thethrone on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. Inthe year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though asyet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy ofbuying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danes in Englandcarried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only madematters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by thedesire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter wasdestroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectualresistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganizationof the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark,but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack ofresistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off fora larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyedpeace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by thewitan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such a fleet "as neverbefore had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserablecourt quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned ageneral levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was aboutthe attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and theopportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdommore utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in thekingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as he best might; noreven at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offeringresistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000.While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew thearchbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out thesame time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.

      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of theDanish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission ofnorthern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing totake it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex.Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered himas full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalledby the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, butCanute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edricjoined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, andwere preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23,1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued a policy ofopportunism to a fatal conclusion.

      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I theFearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. Afterthe king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished;she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth,and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and theaetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother ofHardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in thehistory of the relations between England and Normandie, and J. R. Greensays "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinctcourse of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From themoment of Emma's marriage Normandie became a chief factor in Englishpolitics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELREDII]

      -----------

      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, orAETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of theEnglish from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectualruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. Theepithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."

      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne uponthe assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in the murdercreated much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined hisauthority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasionsresumed in 980.

      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buypeace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin tosettle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 theDanish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelredhad fled to Normandie.

      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invitedhim to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfy theirgrievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canutewas ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund IIIronside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward theConfessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELREDI]
      _________________

      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue SoftwareCD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira(daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; andEmma of Normandie married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund"Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred,Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu);Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandie; and there is noreference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.

      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275(Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of theNormans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had twosons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)."Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, King ofthe English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of AethelredII ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article"EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was theson of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter of Richard, Duc deNormandie."

      Until proved otherwise, I prefer to put my trust in Britannica and listall five of Aethelred's children to be the offspring of his marriage toEmma of Normandie.AEthelred II the Unready, King of England

      Born: ABT 968
      Acceded: 4 APR 978, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey
      Died: 23 APR 1016, London, England
      Interred: St.Paul's Cathedral, London, England
      Notes:
      Reigned 979-1013(deposed) and 1014-1016.
      In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes(Danegeld) to
      the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn but returned after his death.
      Died during Canutes invasion of England.
      Burke says he died 1010. His tomb was lost when the old St. Pauls wasdestroyed
      in the great fire of London.
      Father: , Edgar the Peaceful, King of England, b. 944
      Mother: , Aelfthryth (Elfrida), b. CIR 945
      Married ABT 985 to , Elfreda (AElfgifu)
      Child 1: , Athelstan, b. CIR 986
      Child 2: , Ecgbert
      Child 3: , Edmund II Ironside, King of England, b. 989
      Child 4: , Edred
      Child 5: , Edwy
      Child 6: , Edward
      Child 7: , Edgar
      Child 8: , Edith
      Child 9: , AElfgifu
      Child 10: , Wulfhilda
      Child 11: , Daughter
      Child 12: , (Daughter), Abbess of Wherwell
      Child 13: , Edric
      Married to , AElthelgife
      Married 5 APR 1002, Winchester Cathedral, London, England to , Emma ofNormandie
      Child 14: , Edward (St.) the Confessor, King of England, b. ABT 1002Child15: , Alfred Athling, b. BEF 1012
      Child 16: , Godgifu (Goda), b. ABT 1009[FAVthomas.FTW]

      Also spelled Aethelred, byname Ethelred The Unready, or AethelredUnraedy. king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. Hewas an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunningEngland. The epithet “unready” is derived from unraed, meaning evilcounsel.
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959/975), Ethelred ascended the throneupon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr inMarch 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined hisauthority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasionsresumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buypeace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin tosettle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 theDanish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelredhad fled to Normandie.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisersinvited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's sonCanute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund IIIronside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward theConfessor from 1042 to 1066.

      To cite this page: "Ethelred II" Encyclopædia Britannica
      <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=33699&tocid=0&query=ethelred%20ii>


      Æthelred II, the Unready (978-1016 AD)

      He succeeded to the throne after the murder of his half-brother, EdwardII, the Martyr, at the age of ten. His reign was plagued by poor advicefrom his personal favorites and suspicions of his complicity in Edward'smurder. His was a rather long and ineffective reign, which was notablefor little other than the payment of the Danegeld, an attempt to buy offthe Viking invaders with money. The relentless invasions by the DanishVikings, coupled with their ever-escalating demands for more money,forced him to abandon his throne in 1013. He fled to Normandy for safety,but was later recalled to his old throne at the death of Svein Forkbeardin 1014. He died in London in 1016.
    • King of England
    • From Genealogical Library book "House of Adam".
    • EthelUn
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=dffba097-0eb1-4b43-87b0-be438367e671&tid=10145763&pid=-371520238
    • Ethelred the Unready
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=f7b5eafb-4aaa-4715-a27f-e5b4f27c3515&tid=10145763&pid=-371520238
    • Ethelred the Unready
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=f7b5eafb-4aaa-4715-a27f-e5b4f27c3515&tid=10145763&pid=-371520238
    • EthelUn
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=dffba097-0eb1-4b43-87b0-be438367e671&tid=10145763&pid=-371520238
    • Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Ed., Weis (Line 1)
    • Line 2739 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" /England/
      !SOURCES:
      1. Burke's Peerage, Eng. P 99 ed, p. 251
      2. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings & Nobles, Eng. 104, p. 347-51, 359
      3. Keiser und Loenig Hist., Gen. Hist. 25, pt 1, p. 96-97
      4. Lewis Topogr. Dict., v. 4, p. 508
      5. The Royal Line of Succession, A16A225, p. 7
      6. Dict. of Nat'l Biog., Eng. Pub. A, v. 18, p. 27-33
      7. George's Tab., Eng. 102, Tab. 1
      8. Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Eng. 36, v. 2, p. 260-86, 305, 320
      9. Plantagenet Ancestry, Eng. 116, p. 21
      10. Anderson's Royal Gen., Eng. 132, p. 740
      11. Betham's Gen. Tab., Eng. 133, Tab. 601, 602
      12. Espolin (GS #12462, pt 1, p. 102)
    • Line 7391 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" King Of /ENGLAND/
    • _P_CCINFO 1-20792
    • _P_CCINFO 1-20792
    • King of England 976-1016. Born 968 and died 1016. Married (1) Alfflaed;daughter of Thored.
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • From Genealogical Library book "House of Adam".
    • Stuart Roderick, W.
      Royalty for Commoners, 3rd Edit. Published, Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc. Baltomore, MD. 1998,
      ISBN-0-8063-1561-X Text 324-40
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • [large-G675.FTW]

      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandywhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.
      Acceded 979-1013 & 1014-1016.

      Ethelred 'the Unready'
      Edgar's sudden death at the age of 33 led to a succession dispute betweenrival factions supporting his sons Edward and Ethelred. The elder sonEdward (reigned 975-978) was murdered in 978 at Corfe Castle, Dorset, byhis seven year old half-brother's supporters. For the rest of Ethelred'sreign (reigned 978-1016), his brother became a posthumous rallying pointfor political unrest; a hostile Church transformed Edward into a royalmartyr. Known as the Un-raed or 'Unready' (meaning no counsel, or that hewas unwise), Ethelred failed to win or retain the allegiance of many ofhis subjects. In 1002, he ordered the massacre of all Danes in England toeliminate potential treachery.
      Not being an able soldier, Ethelred defended the country againstincreasingly rapacious Viking raids from the 980s onwards by diplomaticalliance with the duke of Normandy in 991 (he later married the duke'sdaughter Emma) and by buying off renewed attacks by the Danes with moneylevied through a tax called the Danegeld. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in1006 was dismissive: 'in spite of it all, the Danish army went about asit pleased'. By 1012, 48,000 pounds of silver was being paid in Danegeldto Danes camped in London.

      Eventually, in 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy when king Sweyn of Denmarkdispossessed him. Ethelred returned to rule after Sweyn's death in 1014.

      Ethelred's son Edmund set himself up as an independent ruler in theDanelaw. After Ethelred's death in 1015, Edmund cleared southern Englandof Danish marauders in a series of fiercely fought and highly mobilefighting, but he lost the battle of Ashingdon of 1016 (his Mercian alliesdeserted him) against Sweyn's son Canute, and died in the same year.Before his death, Edmund made an agreement with Canute giving Canuteterritorial concessions, including Wessex. Edmund was buried atGlastonbury.
      [large-G675.FTW]

      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandywhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.
      [large-G675.FTW]

      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandywhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.
      [large-G675.FTW]

      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandywhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.
      [large-G675.FTW]

      Reigned 978-1016. Ethelred II acceded the throne of England in 978 andwas called either Aethelred or Ethelred II the Unready, KIng of England.Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In light of repeated Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld). He was driven intoexile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute'sinvasion of England. Burke says he died 1010.

      REF: British Monarchy Official Website: Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016)tried to buy off renewed attacks by the Vikings with money levied througha tax called the Danegeld. Eventually, in 1013 Ethelred fled to Normandywhen Sweyn (the
      Danish king's son) dispossessed him; and Ethelred returned to rule afterSweyn's death in 1014.
    • Durante o seu reinado, Ethelred enfrentou uma invasão viking liderada por Olaf Trygvasson, um senhor da guerra norueguês. Depois de algumas derrotas, Ethelred conseguiu expulsar os vikings através de um enorme suborno oferecido aos seus líderes. A guerra estava no entanto reaberta e a 13 de Novembro de 1002 Ethelred ordena o massacre das comunidades viking estabelecidas nas costas de Inglaterra. Esta atitude brutal provocou uma série de campanhas lideradas por Svend I da Dinamarca contra a Inglaterra. Em 1013, Ethelred foi obrigado a fugir para a Normandia para salvar a vida, regressando à Inglaterra no ano seguinte para recuperar a coroa. Apesar dos reveses militares, o reinado de Ethelred foi marcado por boas condições económicas e prosperidade, como indica a alta qualidade das moedas cunhadas durante esse período.
      Ethelred foi pai de pelo menos 16 crianças, incluindo Eduardo o Confessor, dos seus dois casamentos com Ælfgifu da Nortúmbria e Ema da Normandia. O sobrinho-neto de Ema Guilherme, Duque da Normandia utilizou essa relação familiar como argumento para invadir as Ilhas Britânicas em 1066.
    • He was an Anglo-Saxon king of England. His reign was marked by bitter
      military struggles. After negotiating a treaty with Richard II, duke of
      Normandy, Æthelred married Richard's sister. This marriage provided the
      basis for the subsequent Norman claim to the English throne. Although
      Æthelred paid tribute to the plundering Danes, Sweyn I (the Forkbeard),
      king of Denmark, invaded England in 1013 and proclaimed himself king. In
      1014 Æthelred fled to Normandy but returned a few months later upon
      Sweyn's death. Sweyn's son and successor, Canute II, invaded the country a
      year later and, following Æthelred's death, became king of England.
      Æthelred's sobriquet, The Unready is a corruption of the Old English
      unraed, bad counsel, which is a reference to his misfortunes.
    • BIOGRAPHY: King of England from 978, following the murder of his half-brother, Edward the Martyr. He was son of King Edgar. Aethelred tried to buy off the Danish raiders by paying Danegeld. In 1002 he ordered the massacre of the Danish settlers, provoking an invasion by Sweyn I of Denmark.In 1013 King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark landed in England and was proclaimed king. Aethelred II the Unready fled to Normandy but was recalled in 1014 on the death of Sweyn. War with Sweyn's son, Canute, occupied the rest of Aethelred's reign. His nickname is a corruption of the Old English 'unreed', meaning badly counselled or poorly advised.

      -- http://www.begent.net/history



    • Born into the royal house of Wessex, which was at that time the effective ruler of all the Anglo-Saxons,Ethelred was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great and the son of King Edgar, who had ruled a united and peacefulEngland for 16 years. At Edgar's death in 975, the realm passed to Ethelred's brother Edward, who was still a child.The nobles of the kingdom formed rival parties around Edward and Ethelred, and the latter's supporters murdered Edwardon March 18, 978, making Ethelred king. Edward was soon widely honored as a martyred saint, and devotion to him gavemany an excuse to withhold allegiance from his successor. From the time of Ethelred's accession at the age of 9 or 10,his reign was tragically marred by the treason and revolt of his leading thegns (noblemen). The ensuing disorder wasnourished by his own indecisive character and by the renewal of Danish raids on England in 980 after a pause of 25years. Increasing Danish aggressiveness complemented the increasing English disunity and military ineffectiveness. In991 Ethelred instituted a policy of buying off Danish raiders with lavish payments of silver. Given the inadequacy ofEnglish defenses, it was a strategically sound but psychologically demoralizing decision that mocked the heroictraditions of the Anglo-Saxons.

       
      In the late 900's, during the reign of King Ethelred II, Danish attacks resumed. In 1016, Canute, a brother ofthe king of Denmark, became king of England. Canute, like Alfred, ruled as a wise and just king until his death in1035. Two of Canute's sons followed him on the throne before the old Anglo-Saxon dynasty was restored.
      For more information see the Our Folk - Hart family Web Site



      from "Our Folk" by Albert D Hart, Jr.
    • KNOWN AS AETHELRED "THE UNREADY""THE REDELESS" [WITHOUT COUNSEL OR REDE];
      ACCEDED 3/978 (CROWNED KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES); RULED 978-1013 [DEPOSED], THEN
      1014-1016; ALSO SPELLED "EAGELRED"
    • Aethelred II van Engeland, ook bekend als van Wessex, geb. 0968*, ovl. 23.04.1016, ref. nr. 25.03.2004 ES II-78.8 Vermeld 979/1013, koning van Engeland 1014/16. Hij is later in 1002 getrouwd met Emma van Normandië. Hij trouwde met Elgiva van Northumbria.
    • The Unready (The Redeless), King of England. Crowned atKingston-upon-Thames in 979, he later fled to Normandy after theDanish invasion in the autumn of 1013. He was restored to his throneupon the death of Sweyn, February 1014. [His regain of the throne isnot shown in the Begin Reign-End Reign Events, only the initial reign.(ph)]
    • Æthelred II, King of England (Æthelred the Unready)
      Æthelred II, 968-1016, king of England (978-1016), lost his kingdom to Danish conquerors. His nickname, "the Unready," is derived from the Old English unrede, meaning that he lacked advice. Beginning his reign under suspicion of murdering his half-brother, King Edward the Martyr, Æthelred proved a weak ruler. In 980 the Danes renewed their raids on England after a 25-year truce. Unable to mount effective resistance, Æthelred began payment (991) of the Danegeld, a form of tribute, to buy off the raiders. In 1013, however, the Danes under Sweyn overran the entire country, and Æthelred fled to Normandy. Although he returned in 1014, the Danish king Canute completed the Danish conquest of England in 1016, shortly after Æthelred's death. Bibliography: Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3d ed.(1971). [Grolier's On-Line Encyclopedia]

      Æthelred, 965?-1016, king of England (978-1016), called Æthelred the Unready [from Old Eng. unroed = without counsel]. He was the son of Edgar and the half brother of Edward the Martyr. The obscure circumstances of Edward�s murder in 978 started Æthelred�s reign under a cloud of suspicion. The catastrophes of the period occurred partly because Æthelred was a weak king, but his reign coincided with the height of Danish power, and his people were often treacherous. His first payment of tribute to raiding Danes was in 991 - a payment he raised by the Danegeld then and frequently thereafter. In 997 the Danes came not only to raid but to stay and plunder the rich realm until 1000. It is impossible to assign reasons or blame for the devastation of Strathclyde by the English in 1000 or the massacre of Danes in England in 1002, both of which may have been at the king�s order. Æthelred tried to defend his kingdom; in 1002 he married Emma, sister of Richard II, duke of Normandy, perhaps in an attempt to gain an ally; in 1007 the army was placed under a single commander; by 1009 a navy had been built, but was rendered useless by the treason of many commanders, who took to piracy. A severe harrying (1009-12) by the Danes left England disorganized and hopeless, and when the Danish king Sweyn returned in 1013 to conquer, he was well received in the Danelaw, and London capitulated without much fighting. Æthelred fled to Normandy. Upon Sweyn�s death in 1014, Æthelred�s restoration was negotiated in the first recorded pact between an English king and his subjects. Canute, son of Sweyn, withdrew, but returned in 1015 and was opposed desperately by Æthelred and his son, Edmund Ironside. Æthelred died in April, 1016; Edmund was declared his successor and made a treaty with Canute, but died in November. Æthelred�s heirs were restored only with Edward the Confessor. [The Illustrated Columbia Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., 1969]

      Ethelred II (?968-1016), king of England, �the Unready.� His energy was largely spent in keeping off the Northmen. His brutal massacre of Danes (1002) in a time of peace renewed the invasions, which ended in the rule of Sweyn over all England (1013). [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

      He was aged 7 when his father died and ten when the murder of his half-brother Edward the Martyr placed him on the throne. He was swayed by unworthy favourites and his reign was marked by raids by the Northmen and attempts to buy them off. He was �redeless� or unready - lacking in foresight. Fierce Danish invasions forced him to flee to Normandy in 1014. The death of Sweyn allowed him to return, to die in 1016. Succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Edmund. {Burke�s Peerage} [GADD.GED]

      Crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames in 979, he later fled to Normandy after the Danish invasion in the autumn of 1013. He was restored to his throne upon the death of Sweyn, Feb 1014. [His regain of the throne is not shown in the Begin Reign-End Reign Events, only the initial reign. (ph)] [HALL.GED]

      "The Unready" King of England 978-1016. Buried St. Paul�s Cathedral in London. [ROWLEYHR.GED]

      Additional information: Britannia.com http://britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon14.html

    • Event: Reigned BET. 978 - 1016
      Event: Massacred 13 NOV 1002 Danish Settlers
      Event: Fled 1013
      "Ethelred was indeed a weak and foolish King and his reign was one long disaster...."

      THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA 1998 states the following.........also spelled Aethelred, by name Ethelred the Unready, or Aethelred Unraed (b. 968? - - d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in the murder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more repacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching a massacre of Danish settlers (November 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy. (see also Index : Saint Brice's Day massacre)
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfy their grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066.
    • Line 2739 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" /England/
      !SOURCES:
      1. Burke's Peerage, Eng. P 99 ed, p. 251
      2. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings & Nobles, Eng. 104, p. 347-51, 359
      3. Keiser und Loenig Hist., Gen. Hist. 25, pt 1, p. 96-97
      4. Lewis Topogr. Dict., v. 4, p. 508
      5. The Royal Line of Succession, A16A225, p. 7
      6. Dict. of Nat'l Biog., Eng. Pub. A, v. 18, p. 27-33
      7. George's Tab., Eng. 102, Tab. 1
      8. Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Eng. 36, v. 2, p. 260-86, 305, 320
      9. Plantagenet Ancestry, Eng. 116, p. 21
      10. Anderson's Royal Gen., Eng. 132, p. 740
      11. Betham's Gen. Tab., Eng. 133, Tab. 601, 602
      12. Espolin (GS #12462, pt 1, p. 102)
    • Line 2739 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" /England/

      !SOURCES:
      1. Burke's Peerage, Eng. P 99 ed, p. 251
      2. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings & Nobles, Eng. 104, p. 347-51, 359
      3. Keiser und Loenig Hist., Gen. Hist. 25, pt 1, p. 96-97
      4. Lewis Topogr. Dict., v. 4, p. 508
      5. The Royal Line of Succession, A16A225, p. 7
      6. Dict. of Nat'l Biog., Eng. Pub. A, v. 18, p. 27-33
      7. George's Tab., Eng. 102, Tab. 1
      8. Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Eng. 36, v. 2, p. 260-86, 305, 320
      9. Plantagenet Ancestry, Eng. 116, p. 21
      10. Anderson's Royal Gen., Eng. 132, p. 740
      11. Betham's Gen. Tab., Eng. 133, Tab. 601, 602
      12. Espolin (GS #12462, pt 1, p. 102)
    • BIOGRAPHY
      Aethelred was the son of Edgar 'the Peaceful', king of England, and Elfrida. According to St. Dunstan his life began with an ill omen, for at his baptism he made water in the font. From this Dunstan predicted the slaughter of the English people that would take place in Aethelred's time. With his first wife Elgiva, daughter of Thored, ealdorman of Northumbria, he had at least eleven children of whom three would have progeny, including his son and successor Edmund Ironside.

      Aethelred became king after the murder of his elder brother Edward. Though not as capable as his predecessors, he reigned longer than any of them. However his kingdom was eventually dismembered by his son Edmund Ironside and Knud 'den Store'

      His derogatory nickname, coined in the twelfth century, is merely a pun on his name, meaning 'noble counsel'. The early years (973-983) were dominated by his mother. His personal rule over the period from 983 until 993 was oppressive. Unfortunately the Viking assaults starting in 988 were of a ferocity unmatched since Alfred's day, and Aethelred could do little but negotiate temporary respites and massive tributes, which encouraged further attacks.

      He tried to combat the Vikings by diplomacy, notably by taking as his second wife Emma of Normandy, daughter of Richard I 'the Fearless', duke of Normandy, and raising a fleet and large armies. In 1000 he led an expedition to Strathclyde to disrupt the Viking settlements around the Irish Sea.

      On 13 November 1002, St. Brice's Day, he ordered all the Danish men who were in England to be slain, because he had been informed that they would treacherously kill him and all his councillors, and take possession of the kingdom. Aethelred's reward for this was the wrath of King Svend II 'Forkbeard' of Denmark whose sister had been a victim of the massacre.

      King Svend and his son Knud 'den Store' began conquering territory. Their unexpected attacks in southern and midland England destroyed the morale of king and country, and so disillusioned the nobility that Aethelred could no longer trust them. When Svend was chosen king in 1013 Aethelred fled; after Svend had died Aethelred returned in 1014, promising better rule.

      However, when Aethelred failed to reassert control, his son Edmund made himself independent ruler in the Danelaw, which in turn was taken by Knud. This assisted the collapse of the kingdom of Aethelred, who died in 1016. He was succeeded by Edmund.
    • Ethelred II (gammelengelsk Æþelred) (ca. 968 - 23. april 1016), med tilnavnet ?den rådville? var konge av England fra 978 til 1013 og 1014 til 1016. Han arvet tronen da han var omkring ti år gammel, etter mordet på hans halvbror Edvard Martyren.

      Ifølge William av Malmesbury gjorde Ethelred fra seg i døpefonten da han ble døpt, noe som skal ha ført til at St. Dunstan profeterte at det engelske monarkiet ville bli styrtet under hans styre. Denne historien er høyst sannsynlig en senere fabrikasjon.

      Den engelske formen av kallenavnet ?den rådville? er ?the Unready?, et ord som i dag betyr ?den som ikke er rede?. Men på gammelengelsk betyr det ?den som er uten råd?, og det er også et ordspill på navnet Ethelred, som betyr ?den som har et godt råd?.

      Ethelred fikk minst seksten barn gjennom to ekteskap. Det første var med Ælfgidu, som var datteren til en ealdorman fra Northumbria, og det andre, inngått i 1002, med Emma av Normandie, som var en grandtante til Vilhelm Erobreren. Vilhelm brukte senere dette slektskapet da han krevde den engelske tronen.

      Etter at Danelagen hadde blitt gjenerobret i første halvdel av det 10. århundre hadde det vært fred i England. Men i 991 kom en vikingflåte som var større enn noen siden Guthrums ?sommerarmé? et århundre tidligere. Flåten ble ledet av Olav Tryggvason. Etter et nederlag i slaget ved Maldon lyktes Ethelred i å oppnå et forlik med Olav, som vendte tilbake til Norge for å vinne sitt rike der. Ethelred hadde dermed kjøpt tid, men det kom flere vikingraid. De ble slått tilbake, men flere ganger måtte kongen følge den praksis flere av hans forgjengere hadde hatt med å betale dem for å trekke seg tilbake. Denne betalingen ble kjent som danegjelden.

      I 1002 beordret Ethelred en massakre av danene som levde i England på St. Brices dag, den 13. november. Som et resultat av dette startet Svein Tjugeskjegg flere innbitte felttog for å erobre England. Han lyktes i dette, men etter sin seier levde han bare i fem uker.

      Da England ble tatt av Svein flyktet Ethelred til Normandie, hvor han søkte beskyttelse hos sin svoger Robert. Han vendte tilbake i februar 1014, etter Sveins død.

      Ethelred døde 23. april 1016 i London, og ble etterfulgt av sin sønn Edmund II.

      Senere krøniker har beskrevet hans regjeringstid som en katastrofe, men med et kritisk blikk på historien ser man at dette ikke er et helt riktig bilde. Ethelred reformerte styreformen i det angelsaksiske England, og sto blant annet bak innføring av sheriffembetet. Kvaliteten på myntene, noe som er en god indikasjon på den økonomiske stabiliteten, forble god gjennom hele hans tid på tronen.


      Se også
      Massakrene på Sankt Brictiusdagen i 1002
    • Line 7391 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" King Of /ENGLAND/
    • He ruled from 979 to 1016.
    • He ruled from 979 to 1016.
    • From THE RUFUS PARKS PEDIGREE by Brian J.L. Berry, chart pg 45.

      !Arms of Ethelred & Edgar: Azure a cross flory between four doves.

      Page 51:

      18. Ethelred II the Redeless, 968-1016. Ironically, the name Ethelred means "noble counsel," while Redeless means "evil counsel" or "without counsel," though the popular rendering is "the Unready." Whatever he was called, he made every possible mistake in dealing with the Danes who renewed their incursions into England. He met the trouble by paying the Danes to leave in peace -- a practice still remembered today as the Danegeld. He resorted to murder and violance, epitomized by a brutal hunt against the Danes living among the English. This was the notorious Massacre of of St. Brice's Day, 13 Nov 1002. Unluckily for the English, one of the victims was a sister of Sweyn, King of Denmark. Sweyn led a completely successful attack against Ethelred, who fled to Normandy. In 1013 the Wiltan or Council of the Wise -- forerunner of the Privy Council -- offered the crown to Sweyn, and a Dane sat of the English Throne. But the Wiltan soon found Sweyn an unacceptable master, and they recalled Ethelred, who promised to rule better, but in the midst of another Danish uprising, Ethelred died, leaving the problem to his Edmund Ironside. Ethelred mar. (1) 985 Alffiaed, dau. of Ealdorman Thored, son of Gunnor; (2) Emma of Normandy, dau. of Richard I sans Peur (the Fearless), Duke of Normandy, And Gunnora. Arms ascribed to Ethelred: Azure a cross flory between four doves.
    • EVEN:
      TYPE Acceded
      DATE 978
    • Line 2739 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" /England/
      !SOURCES:
      1. Burke's Peerage, Eng. P 99 ed, p. 251
      2. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings & Nobles, Eng. 104, p. 347-51, 359
      3. Keiser und Loenig Hist., Gen. Hist. 25, pt 1, p. 96-97
      4. Lewis Topogr. Dict., v. 4, p. 508
      5. The Royal Line of Succession, A16A225, p. 7
      6. Dict. of Nat'l Biog., Eng. Pub. A, v. 18, p. 27-33
      7. George's Tab., Eng. 102, Tab. 1
      8. Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Eng. 36, v. 2, p. 260-86, 305, 320
      9. Plantagenet Ancestry, Eng. 116, p. 21
      10. Anderson's Royal Gen., Eng. 132, p. 740
      11. Betham's Gen. Tab., Eng. 133, Tab. 601, 602
      12. Espolin (GS #12462, pt 1, p. 102)
    • 1 NAME Aethelred II the Unready of /England/ 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 BIRT 2 PLAC Wessex, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 DEAT 2 DATE 23 APR 1016 2 PLAC London, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001


      [De La Pole.FTW]
      Sources: RC 233; 242, 342; Kings and Queens of Britain; Butler; Coe, A. Roots 1-19, 34, 250-20; Kraentzler 1159, 1263; AF; Pfafman; P of W; Shorter History of England; NEHGR 79/371; Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants; Ashley. Roots: Aethelred II, the Redeless, King of England, 979-1016; born 968, died 1016; married (1) 985 Alfflaed, daughter of Thored (or Torino; (2) Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normany. Earl of Mercia and Gainas. King of England from 978-1016. K&Q says he had "other daughters." Not named specifically by this source were numbers 3, 12, and 13. The latter two came from Ancestral File.
      K. and P of W: Ethelred II, King of England. Descents: Ethelred II the Unready, King of England, died 1016; married Alflaed. Ashley: Ethelred II "The Unready." King of England, reigned 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
    • Ethelred has gone down in history as 'the Unready' and it is an apt sobriquet (although an incorrect rendering of the original 'Redeless' which signified lacking in counsel). He came to the throne when his half-brother, Edward, 'the Martyr, was murdered. Ethelred was undoubtedly entirely innocent of any implication in the murder, being no more than ten or eleven years old at he time. Dunstan crowned him at Kingston on 14 April 979, and may have taken the opportunity of foretelling the calamities which where to fall upon the nation in expiation of the death of Edwrd, as he was to do many times before his death in 988.
      Costal raids by pirates continued through most of the reign and in 986 the King himself laid waste the diocese of Rochester to gratify his own cupidity. A pestilence among cattle (possibly foot and mouth disease) made its first appearance in England in that year. In 994 the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvesson [called Anlaf by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] and King Sweyn of Denmark sailed up the Thames with ninety-four ships and besieged London until the King and his council bought them off for 16,000 pounds. Olaf visited Ethelred at Andover and there was an exchange of gifts and mutual assurances of non-aggression.
      Sweyn of Denmark renewed his attack in 1004, sacking and burning Norwich, and the following year there was a great famine throughout the country which forced the Danish invaders to withdraw temporarily. They were back again very soon, however, and in the course of the next few years the whole of England came under their rule. In 1013 Sweyn was acknowledged as king and Ethelred fled, first to the Isle of Wight, then to Normandy. Sweyn's death early in 1014 brought about Ethelred's recall and he reigned uneasily until his death in London on St George's Day, 23 April 1016, 'after a life of uch hardship and many difficulties', says the Chronicle. He was buried in St Pauls Cathedral.
      Ethelred was first married about 985 to Elfgiva, daughter of Ealdorman Thored of Northumbria. She bore him a large family of sons and daughters, some of whom were to die before their father. After Elfgiva's death Ethelred married again, in the spring of 1002, this time choosing a bride from the Continent. She was Emma, the eldest daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, and the marriage was tohave very far-reaching repercussions. The new Queen assumed the popular English name of Elfgiva [the same as that of Ethelred's first wife] and gave Ethelred two more sons and a daughter. After hisdeath she married Canute.
    • 1 NAME Aethelred II the Unready of /England/ 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 BIRT 2 PLAC Wessex, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001 1 DEAT 2 DATE 23 APR 1016 2 PLAC London, England 2 SOUR S033320 3 DATA 4 TEXT Date of Import: Jan 17, 2001


      [De La Pole.FTW]
      Sources: RC 233; 242, 342; Kings and Queens of Britain; Butler; Coe, A. Roots 1-19, 34, 250-20; Kraentzler 1159, 1263; AF; Pfafman; P of W; Shorter History of England; NEHGR 79/371; Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants; Ashley. Roots: Aethelred II, the Redeless, King of England, 979-1016; born 968, died 1016; married (1) 985 Alfflaed, daughter of Thored (or Torino; (2) Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normany. Earl of Mercia and Gainas. King of England from 978-1016. K&Q says he had "other daughters." Not named specifically by this source were numbers 3, 12, and 13. The latter two came from Ancestral File.
      K. and P of W: Ethelred II, King of England. Descents: Ethelred II the Unready, King of England, died 1016; married Alflaed. Ashley: Ethelred II "The Unready." King of England, reigned 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
    • ?? Line 1411: (New PAF RIN=9154)
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      NAME Ethelred II "The Unready" King Of /ENGLAND/
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    • Ethelred was unlucky in his problems, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle judges his reign in the light of its disastrous end. Mounting the throne after the murder of his elder brother Edward, his kingdom was eventually dismembered by his son, Edmund Ironside, and Cnut the Dane. If Ethelred was not of the calibre of his forebearers, neither was he a complete disaster and he reigned longer than any of his predecessors. His derogatory nickname, current from the twelfth century, is merely a pun on his name, meaning 'noble counsel'. The early years were dominated by his mother and the legacy of Edward's death. His early personal rule was oppressive, especially after the death of Dunstan (988) and Bishop Ethelwold. Maturity unfortunately coincided with Viking assaults from 988 of a ferocity unmatched since Alfred's day. He could do little but negociate temporary respites and massive tribute which encouraged further attacks. He tried to combat the Vikings by diplomacy, notably by marrying Emme, the daughter of the duke of Normandy (1002) and he raised a fleet and large armies. He even led an expedition to Strathclyde (1000) to disrupt Viking settlements round the Irish Sea. But his energetic measures were not always well organized. Sweyn, the Danish king's son, began conquering territory (1003), and his blitzkrieg in southern and midland England destroyed the morale of king and country and so disillusioned the nobility that Ethelred could no longer trust them. Sweyn was chosen king (1013) and Ethelred fled. After he returned (1014) promising better rule, he failed to reassert control and his son Edmund made himself independent ruler in the Danelaw. The collapse of Ethelred's kingdom was not sudden--its strength and resources and Ethelred's efforts ensured that. Yet if the kingship and kingdom were sounder than the king, they also had structural weaknesses which the Vikings exploited.
    • Ethelred II (c. 968 – April 23, 1016), also known as Ethelred the Unready (Old English Æþelred Unræd), was King of England (978–1013, and 1014–1016). He was the son of Edgar, King of all England (959–75) and Aelfthryth. The majority of his reign (991–1016) was marked by a defensive war against Viking invaders.

      Contents [hide] 1 Æþelred Unræd 2 Early life 3 Conflict with the Danes 4 Marriages and issue 5 Legacy 6 Cultural references 7 See also 8 References 9 In Literature 10 External links



      [edit] Æþelred Unræd It is not true that contemporaries considered him ill-prepared. Rather, his nickname "the unready" derives from the Anglo-Saxon Unræd, which means "without counsel", "poorly counselled" or "indecisive". This can be seen as a pun on his name, Æþelræd, which may be understood to mean "noble counsel" in Old English. So he was 'Noble counsel, No counsel'. There are 2 spellings of his name, the one here being 'Ethelred', and the second being 'Aethelred', which is closer to the original Anglo-Saxon spelling 'Æþelræd'. Any books on him will use one of the two spellings, but they both refer to the same person.


      [edit] Early life According to William of Malmesbury, Ethelred defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, almost certainly a complete fabrication (a similar story is told of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another medieval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects).

      Following the death of his father King Edgar and subsequent murder of his half-brother Edward the Martyr by servants of Ethelred's mother, Ethelred succeeded to the throne at about age ten.


      [edit] Conflict with the Danes

      Aedelraed II UnraedEngland had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century. However, a new wave of raids began in 980 and a sizeable Danish force began a sustained campaign in 991. During the next quarter of a century England was devastated by a succession of large Danish armies, either under the leadership of King Sweyn I of Denmark or of other commanders such as Olaf Tryggvason and Thorkell the Tall, which Ethelred's government failed to combat effectively. He was only able to halt the depredations of these armies by the payment of large sums of money known as Danegeld. Each payment led to the withdrawal of the Danes, but on each occasion a fresh onslaught began after a year or two, and each Danegeld payment was much larger than the last. Ethelred's most desperate response was the massacre of the Danes living in England on St Brice's Day (November 13) 1002. Finally in 1013 English resistance collapsed and Sweyn conquered the country, forcing Ethelred into exile, but after his victory Sweyn lived for only another five weeks. In 1014, Canute the Great was proclaimed King of England by the Danish army in England but was forced out of England that year. Canute launched a new invasion in 1015 and Ethelred's control of England was collapsing once again when he died at London on 23 April 1016. He was buried in St Paul's and was succeeded by his son, Edmund Ironside.


      [edit] Marriages and issue

      A charter of Aethelred's in 1003 to his follower, Aethelred.Ethelred married first Ælflæd, daughter of Thored, the ealdorman of Northumbria, by whom he had four sons: Æthelstan Ætheling (died 1011), Edmund Ironside, Ecgberht Ætheling and Eadred Ætheling. They also had Eadgyth or Edith of England, who married Eadric of Mercia, ealdorman of Mercia and Alfgifu or Elgiva, who married Uchtred the Bold, ealdorman of Northumbria. Helen Panter also claims a daughter Wulfhild.

      In 997 he remarried, to Ælfgifu, daughter of Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of York, who gave him two sons: Eadwig Ætheling (killed 1017) and Eadgar Ætheling the Elder.

      His third and final marriage, in 1002, was to Emma of Normandy, whose grandnephew, William I of England, would later use this relationship as the basis of his claim on the throne. They had two sons, Eadweard (later King of England and known now as Edward the Confessor) and Ælfred Ætheling. By this marriage, he also had Goda of England, who married Drogo of Mantes, Count of Vexin.

      There may be other daughters by his three marriages.


      [edit] Legacy Despite the total failure of his government in the face of the Danish threat, Ethelred's reign was not without some achievements. The quality of the coinage, a good indicator of the prevailing economic conditions, significantly improved during his reign due to his numerous coinage reform laws.[citation needed]

      His formation of an investigative body charged with the duty of accusing no innocent person and sheltering no guilty one is credited as being the historical root of the grand jury.[1]


      [edit] Cultural references Ethelred was the subject of a stageplay by Ronald Ribman titled The Ceremony of Innocence. It was first performed in 1968, and depicted interactions between Ethelred and his court, family and advisors, and also with the Danish king.

      In the game Civilization IV, Ethelred the Unready is one of the leadership rankings you can achieve (though, true to his nickname, it denotes a very low achievement).


      [edit] See also House of Wessex family tree

      [edit] References ^ Grande Jury handbook of the Florida Supreme Court. Ann Williams: Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London: Hambledon Press, 2003. ISBN 1-85285-382-4 Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959

      [edit] In Literature Helen Hollick. The Hollow Crown. (August 2004) William Heinemann, Random House. ISBN 0-434-00491-X; Arrow paperback ISBN 0-09-927234-2. This is a historical novel about Queen Emma of Normandy, including her first marriage to Ethelred.

      [edit] External links Genealogy for Ethelred the Unready Documentary - The Making of England: Aethelred the Unready
    • GIVN Ethelred II "the Unready"
      SURN von Kent
      NSFX King of England
      AFN B19R-5C
      DATE 9 SEP 2000
      TIME 13:15:48
    • GIVN Ethelred II "the Unready"
      SURN von Kent
      NSFX King of England
      AFN B19R-5C
      DATE 9 SEP 2000
      TIME 13:15:48
    • Source #1: Frederick Lewis Weis, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700" - Seventh Edition, with additions and corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., assisted by Davis Faris (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1995), pp. 2; 37

      Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016.
      In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld) to the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canute's invasion of England. His tomb was lost when the old St Pauls was destroyed in the great fire of London.

      He married, 2ndly, Emma, the daughter of Richard (I) Duke of Normandy, by whom he was the father of King Edward "The Confessor." Emma married, 2ndly, Aethelred's enemy, Canute, and was the mother of Harthacanute, King of England.
    • King of England, Crowned in 979

      aka Ironside, Aethelred the Unready

      Reigned 979-1013(deposed) and 1014-1016. In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes(Danegeld) to the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canutes invasion of England. Burke says he died 1010. His tomb was lost when the old St Pauls wasdestroyed in the great fire of London.


      Acceded: 4 APR 978, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey
    • Name Prefix: King Name Suffix: Ii, Of England "The Unready" Reigned 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld) to the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Canutes invasion of England. Burke says he died 1010. His tomb was lost when the old St. Paul's was destroyedin the great fire of London.

      -------------------- king of England, the sonof Edgar, succeeded his brother, Edward the Martyr , in 979, and, for his wantof vigour and capacity, was surnamed the Unready. He paid a tribute to the Danes, raised by a tax called Danegelt, levied on his subjects. To free himself from this oppression, he caused all the Danes in England to be treacherously massacred in one day (Nov.13, 1002). On this Sweyn, king of Denmark, invaded his kingdom and compelled him to fly to Normandy, but Sweyn dying soon after, Ethelred returned and resumed the government. He died in 1016, while Canute was preparing his great expedition.

      Ethelred's mother, Elfthryth, beat him with candles so hard and so often that he had a life-long phobia of them. -------------------- Ethelred II (Old English : Æþelred)(c. 968 - April 23 , 1016 ), known as the Unready, was a King of England (968 - 1013 and 1014 - 1016 ). According to William of Malmesbury , Ethelred defecated inthe baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during Ethelred's reign. This story is, however, almost certainly a fabrication. Ethelred succeeded to the throne aged about 10 following the death ofhis father King Edgar and subsequent murder of his half-brother Edward the Martyr . His nickname"The Unready" does not mean that he was ill-prepared, but derives from the Anglo-Saxon unræd meaning without counsel. This is alsoa pun on his name, Æþelræd, which means "Well advised". Ethelred had at leastsixteen children from two marriages, the first to Ælfgifu , the daughter of Thored, the ealdorman of Northumbria and the second, in 1002 , to Emma of Normandy , whose great-nephew, William I ofEngland , would later use this relationship as the basis of his claim on the throne. England had experienced a long periodof peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the first half of the 10th Century. However in 991 Ethelred was faced with a Viking fleet larger than any since Guthrum's "Summer Army" a century earlier. This fleet wasled by Olaf Trygvasson , a Norwegian with ambitions to reclaim his country from under Danish domination. After initial military setbacks including the defeat of his Ealdorman Birhtnoth at the Battle of Maldon, Ethelred was able to come to terms with Olaf,who returned to Norway to gain his kingdom with mixed success. While this arrangement won him some respite England faced further depredations from Viking raids. Ethelred fought these off, but inmany cases followed the practice of earlier kings including Alfred the Great in buying them off by payment of what was to become known as Danegeld . Ethelred ordered the massacre ofthe Danes living in England on St Brice 's Day (November13 ) 1002
    • AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      Until proved otherwise, I prefer to put my trust in Britannica and list all five of Aethelred's children to be the offspring of his marriage to Emma of Normandy.
    • Æthelred II, the Unready (978-1016 AD)

      He succeeded to the throne after the murder of his half-brother, Edward II, the Martyr, at the age of ten. His reign was plagued by poor advice from his personal favorites and suspicions of his complicity in Edward's murder. His was a rather long and ineffective reign, which was notable for little other than the payment of the Danegeld, an attempt to buy off the Viking invaders with money. The relentless invasions by the Danish Vikings, coupled with their ever-escalating demands for more money, forced him to abandon his throne in 1013. He fled to Normandy for safety, but was later recalled to his old throne at the death of Svein Forkbeard in 1014. He died in London in 1016.
    • AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      Until proved otherwise, I prefer to put my trust in Britannica and list all five of Aethelred's children to be the offspring of his marriage to Emma of Normandy.
    • [My Ancestors.FTW]

      Ethelred the Unready (968?-1016), king of the English 978-1016; his marriage with Norman princess Emma opened distinct policy that led to the Norman conquest of England

      [My Ancestors2.FTW]

      Ethelred the Unready (968?-1016), king of the English 978-1016; his marriage with Norman princess Emma opened distinct policy that led to the Norman conquest of England

      [Runk_Export.FTW]

      Ethelred the Unready (968?-1016), king of the English 978-1016; his marriage with Norman princess Emma opened distinct policy that led to the Norman conquest of England

      Ethelred the Unready (968?-1016), king of the English 978-1016; his marriage with Norman princess Emma opened distinct policy that led to the Norman conquest of England

      Ethelred the Unready (968?-1016), king of the English 978-1016; his marriage with Norman princess Emma opened distinct policy that led to the Norman conquest of England
    • AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamedTHE UNREADY; i.e., without "rede" or counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife, Aelfthryth, was born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder of his half-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 978. In the year after his accession the Danish invasions recommenced, though as yet their object was plunder only, not conquest. Aethelred's policy of buying off the raiders failed, and the massacre of the Danesin England carried out by his orders on St. Brice's Day (Nov. 13, 1002) only made matters worse. Next year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford were sacked in 1004. No effectual resistance was offered, despite efforts here and there; disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the Danes were absent in Denmark, but they came back next year, and emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far inland. In 1007 Aethelred bought them off for a larger sum than ever (£36,000], and for two years the land enjoyed peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution made by the witan in the preceding year, Aethelred collected such afleet "as never before had been in England in any king's day"; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he was about the attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than ever. "There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could gather a force, but each fled as hebest might; nor even at last would any there resist another." Incapable of offering resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than £48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked Canterbury and slew the archbishop Alphege. The tribute was paid soon afterwards; and at out the same time the Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service.
      From 1013 an important change is discernible in the character of the Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their aim. Inthis year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then, marching south, attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he turned northwards, and after that "all the nation considered him as full king." London soon acknowledged him, and Aethelred was recalled by the witan. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son, but Canute sailed away, only to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex submitted. Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and were preparing to reduce London, when Aethelred died there on April 23, 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident, he had pursued apolicy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
      Aethelred's wife was Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I the Fearless, duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985. After the king's death Emma married Catute the Great, and after his death in1035 she struggled hard to secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however, when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in 1040. In 1043 Edward the Confessor seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death on March 6, 1052. By Aethelred Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (3. 1036), and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Her marriage with Aethelred was an important step in the history of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R. Green says "it suddently opened for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage Normandy became a chief factor in English politics." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, p. 275, AETHELRED II]
      -----------
      Ethelred II, also spelled AETHELRED, byname ETHELRED THE UNREADY, or AETHELRED UNRAED (b. 968?--d. April 23, 1016, London), king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."
      The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in themurder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.
      Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made the invaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching amassacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, and Ethelred had fled to Normandy.
      After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return to the throne on condition that he agree to satisfytheir grievances. At the time of Ethelred's death in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, ETHELRED I]
      _________________
      Automated Archives, Automated Family Pedigrees #1 [Banner Blue Software CD-#100], reflects Aethelred having two wives: Alfgifu/Aelflaed of Deira (daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Ealdorman of Deira), married 985; and Emma of Normandy married 1002. According to this pedigree, Edmund "Ironside," King of England, and Aelfgifu of England (who m. Uchtred, Ealdorman of Northumbria) were the children of Aethelred and Alfgifu); Godgifu/Goda being the daughter of Emma of Normandy; and there is no reference to Edward "The Confessor," King of England.
      As cited above, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 1, pg. 275 (Article: AETHELRED II, King of the English), states, "Aethelred's wifewas Emma, or Aelfgifu, daughter of Richard I, the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, whom he married not later than 985....By Aethelred, Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and the aetheling Aelfred (d. 1036)." Additionally, the article "EDMUND or EADMUND, called Ironside, Kingof the English," in Vol. 7, pg. 964, states Edmund "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") by his wife, Emma, or Aelfgifu." Likewise, the Article "EDWARD, 'THE CONFESSOR,' King of the English," states Edward "was the son of Aethelred II ("the Unready") and Emma, daughter ofRichard, duke of Normandy."
      Until proved otherwise, I prefer to put my trust in Britannica and list all five of Aethelred's children to be the offspring of his marriage to Emma of Normandy.
    • Line 17089 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:
      OCCU King of England ?968-1016

      Ethelred II, "the Unready"
    • Massacred Danish Settlers 13 Nov 1002.
      Fled to Normandy 1013 and succeeded by Sweyn.
      Restored on the death of Sweyn.
    • Kinship II - A collection of family, friends and U.S. Presidents
      URL: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2902060&id=I575151019
      ID: I575151019
      Name: Ethelred II Of ENGLAND
      Given Name: Ethelred II Of
      Surname: ENGLAND
      Sex: M
      Birth: Abt 0968 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Death: 23 Apr 1016 in , London, Middlesex, England
      Burial: St Paul's, London, Middlesex, England
      Change Date: 3 Nov 2003 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
      Note:
      Name Prefix: King
      Also Known As:<_AKA> The Unready
      Ancestral File Number: B19R-5C


      Father: Edgar "The Peacable", King Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0943 in , , Wessex, England
      Mother: Elfrida (Elfthryth), Queen Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0947 in Of, , Devonshire, England

      Marriage 1 Emma Princess Of NORMANDY b: Abt 0982 in Of, , Normandie
      Married: 1002 in Of Normandy, France
      Note: _UIDFDBCD6CA2FFB8E49B60895E3EE8870B42A9D
      Children
      Alfred Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 1002 in , , Wessex, England
      Edward III "The Confessor" King Of ENGLAND b: Abt 1004 in , Islip, Oxfordshire, England
      Goda (Godgifu) Princess Of ENGLAND b: Abt 1004 in Of, , Wessex, England

      Marriage 2 Alfgifu (Aelflaed) Queen Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0968 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Married: Abt 0985 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Note: _UID3EFB534A01820F4E8B134279E5A783244250
      Children
      Edmund II "Ironside" King Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0988 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Athelstan Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0986 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Egbert Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0987 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Edred Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0990 in Of, , , Wessex, England
      Edwig Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0991 in Of, , , Wessex, England
      Edward Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0992 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Edgar Prince Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0994 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Edith Princess Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0995 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Wulfhild Princess Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0998 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Miss Princess Of ENGLAND b: Abt 1000 in Of, , Wessex, England
      Miss Ethelred Of ENGLAND b: Abt 1001 in Of, Wherewell, Hampshire, England
      Elfgifu Princess Of ENGLAND b: Abt 0997 in , , Wessex, England

      Sources:
      Author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
      Title: Ancestral File (R)
      Publication: Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998
      Repository:
    • He was married 3 times and had 16 children including Edmund II Ironside, King of England, (born 989) and Edward (St.) the Confessor, King of England, (born c1002).
      In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld) to the enemy. His reprisal was the St. Brides massacre in which all Danes living in England were killed. He chose the 13th November 1002 for this co-ordinated massacre, St. Brice's day. The deed was done. Thousands were killed including the sister of the king of Denmark, Swegn ( Sweyn ) Forkbeard. This so incensed Swegn, that he planned a near full scale invasion of England. Massacres by Danes were catalogued all over the country. England was more or less bankrupt and starving. Even the Danes returned to Denmark in 1005. They returned in 1006 and demanded even more danegeld. Aethelred agreed to 36,000 pounds of silver in a final attempt to buy peace.

      The Danish fleet was often based in Greenwich as a base to attack London. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Alfege) was murdered in Greenwich by a Danish invading force on Easter Day 1012. He was driven into exile in Normandy by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Cnut's invasion of England.
      Æthelred II, the Unready (978-1016 AD)

      He succeeded to the throne after the murder of his half-brother, Edward II, the Martyr, at the age of ten. His reign was plagued by poor advice from his personal favorites and suspicions of his complicity in Edward's murder. His was a rather long and ineffective reign, which was notable for little other than the payment of the Danegeld, an attempt to buy off the Viking invaders with money. The relentless invasions by the Danish Vikings, coupled with their ever-escalating demands for more money, forced him to abandon his throne in 1013. He fled to Normandy for safety, but was later recalled to his old throne at the death of Svein Forkbeard in 1014. He died in London in 1016.

      Ethelred II became king following the murder of Edward the Martyr. What followed was a disastrous time for England where all the good work was to go to waste. England, as affluent as it had ever been since the time of the Romans was about to descend back into the dark pit it had spent all those years climbing out of. To blame Aethelred for all that was about to happen would be unfair, but one must ask the question of how Alfred, Edward I or Aethelstan would have dealt with the particular set of circumstances that now confronted Aethelred. His weak leadership and favouritism for selected henchmen. with nepotism abound, probably because of his perpetual fear of insurrection and plot, England declined rapidly. The countries strength had kept the Danes away. In 980 the Danes returned in force. England was slowly returning to the dark ages again. Aethelred did virtually nothing. It was left to valiant individuals to resist their advance. The most famous was the Battle of Maldon in 991, where Byrhtnoth, the reeve of Essex defended the causeway from the onslaught before being killed

      Time Line
      1002-13 November (St. Brice's Day): Ethelred ordered the massacre of Danes living in England
      1002/3: Birth of Edward (the Confessor) - Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England (again)
      1007: Danes bought off from England by Ethelred - Ship money first levied in England
      1009: Danish invasion of England
      1012: 19 April - St. Alphege (954 - 1012) martyred on Easter Sunday, on spot of St. Alfege Church in Greenwich.
      1013: Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England (again) - Ethelred fled to Norway
    • Suspected by many of complicity in Edward's murder, he seemed an inefficient
      ruler with successions of Danish raids. While the kingdom of England was
      conquered, it escaped disintegration under him. 1013: King of Denmark was
      recognized as "king everywhere" and Ethelred exiled at his brother-in-law's
      court, Richard, Duke of Normandy. Sweg Forkbeard, the Danish King, died in
      1014, however, and the English nobility recalled Ethelred. He was succeeded
      by his son, Edmund II, when he died in the spring of 1016.
    • Ethelred II of England



      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



      Ethelred II the Unready [EthelUn.jpg]

      Rank: 15th

      Ruled: March 18, 978-December 25, 1013

      and February 2, 1014-April 23, 1016

      Predecessor: Edward the Martyr

      Date of Birth: 968

      Place of Birth: Wessex

      Wives: Elgiva and Emma

      Buried: Old Saint Paul's Cathedral

      Date of Death: April 23, 1016

      Parents: Edgar and Elfrida



      Ethelred II, known as the Unready (968-1013 and 1014-1016), was a King of England.



      He succeeded to the throne aged 10 following the death of his father King Edgar and subsequent murder of his half-brother Edward the Martyr. His nickname "The Unready" does not mean that he was ill-prepared, but derives from the Anglo-Saxon
      unraede meaning without counsel. Ethelred the Clueless sums up the meaning well.



      Ethelred had at least sixteen children from two marriages, the second of these, in 1002, being to Emma of Normandy, whose great-nephew, William I of England, would later use this relationship as the basis of his claim on the throne.



      He attempted to buy off the Vikings by payment of what was to become known as Danegeld; he had little choice in the matter since he was unable to place any trust in his generals.



      In 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy, seeking protection by his brother-in-law, Robert of Normandy, when England was over-run by Svein Haraldsson of Denmark and his forces. He returned in February, 1014, following the death of Svein Haraldsson.
      Ethelred died on April 23, 1016, in London, where he was buried. He was succeeded by his son, Edmund II of England.
    • Suspected by many of complicity in Edward's murder, he seemed an inefficient
      ruler with successions of Danish raids. While the kingdom of England was
      conquered, it escaped disintegration under him. 1013: King of Denmark was
      recognized as "king everywhere" and Ethelred exiled at his brother-in-law's
      court, Richard, Duke of Normandy. Sweg Forkbeard, the Danish King, died in
      1014, however, and the English nobility recalled Ethelred. He was succeeded
      by his son, Edmund II, when he died in the spring of 1016.
    • [s2.FTW]

      Ethelred II, King of the English (The Unready)

      Title(s): King of the English ( 978 - 1013); King of the English (1014 - 1016)
      Born about 967, died April 23, 1016 at age 49 in London of natural causes.
      Buried at: St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England.

      Marriages: 985: At age 18 married Elfgifu; about July 1002: At age 36 married Emma of Normandy, age 18.

      Events:
      About October 1013: Deposition
      February 1014: Resumption
      April 14, 979: Coronation, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England

      Children:
      With Emma of Normandy:
      Alfred
      Edward III, King of the English
      Godgifu
      With Elfgifu:
      Edgar
      Edith
      Edmund II, King of the English
      Edred
      Edwy
      Egbert
      Elfgifu
      Ethelstan
      Unknown 4th daughter of King Ethelred the Unready
      Unknown 5th daughter of King Ethelred the Unready
      Wulfhild

      Notes:
      1. Ethelred's mother, Elfthryth, beat him with candles so hard and so often that he had a life-long phobia of them.

      Following the assassination of his brother, Edward, Ethelred II was propelled upon the English throne at the age of 10 years. The circumstance of his rise to power, as a pawn in the ambitions of others, did not alter throughout his 48 years of life.

      The nickname of Unready is though to derive from the Saxon word meaning 'with no reputable policy' which can be taken as both accurate and ironic in that Ethelred is itself said to have meant 'noble policy'.

      Ethelred was married twice. His first wife, Elfigfu of Mercia bore him no less than 11 children: Athelstan, Ecgbert, Edmund, Edred, Edwig, Edgar, Wulfhild, Edgyrth, Elfgifu and a further two other daughters whose names are not commonly recorded.

      His second marriage, to Emma of Normandy, produced three children, Edward, Alfred and Goda.

      All through his reign he was shackled by the fact that he could not fully trust the support of his generals, both military and political, at a time when the fearsome Danish invaders were a constant threat to the English. In an act of, what proved to be, futile appeasement Ethelred attempted to stem the Danish ambitions by paying what was known as Danegeld.

      In 1009 the King of the Danes, Sweyn decided that as well as keeping the territory, and monies, he had taken from the English he would now pursue the whole country. Four years later, in 1013, Sweyn had overrun the country and Ethelred had fled to Normandy to seek protection from Emma's brother, Robert the Good.

      This flight brings into the picture the grandson of Robert the Good, William, later to be known as William the Conqueror.

      Sweyn died in 1014 and Ethelred reclaimed the English crown for a further 2 years before his death at the age of 48 in 1016.Ethelred II, King of the English (The Unready)

      Title(s): King of the English ( 978 - 1013); King of the English (1014 - 1016)
      Born about 967, died April 23, 1016 at age 49 in London of natural causes.
      Buried at: St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England.

      Marriages: 985: At age 18 married Elfgifu; about July 1002: At age 36 married Emma of Normandy, age 18.

      Events:
      About October 1013: Deposition
      February 1014: Resumption
      April 14, 979: Coronation, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England

      Children:
      With Emma of Normandy:
      Alfred
      Edward III, King of the English
      Godgifu
      With Elfgifu:
      Edgar
      Edith
      Edmund II, King of the English
      Edred
      Edwy
      Egbert
      Elfgifu
      Ethelstan
      Unknown 4th daughter of King Ethelred the Unready
      Unknown 5th daughter of King Ethelred the Unready
      Wulfhild

      Notes:
      1. Ethelred's mother, Elfthryth, beat him with candles so hard and so often that he had a life-long phobia of them.

      Following the assassination of his brother, Edward, Ethelred II was propelled upon the English throne at the age of 10 years. The circumstance of his rise to power, as a pawn in the ambitions of others, did not alter throughout his 48 years of life.

      The nickname of Unready is though to derive from the Saxon word meaning 'with no reputable policy' which can be taken as both accurate and ironic in that Ethelred is itself said to have meant 'noble policy'.

      Ethelred was married twice. His first wife, Elfigfu of Mercia bore him no less than 11 children: Athelstan, Ecgbert, Edmund, Edred, Edwig, Edgar, Wulfhild, Edgyrth, Elfgifu and a further two other daughters whose names are not commonly recorded.

      His second marriage, to Emma of Normandy, produced three children, Edward, Alfred and Goda.

      All through his reign he was shackled by the fact that he could not fully trust the support of his generals, both military and political, at a time when the fearsome Danish invaders were a constant threat to the English. In an act of, what proved to be, futile appeasement Ethelred attempted to stem the Danish ambitions by paying what was known as Danegeld.

      In 1009 the King of the Danes, Sweyn decided that as well as keeping the territory, and monies, he had taken from the English he would now pursue the whole country. Four years later, in 1013, Sweyn had overrun the country and Ethelred had fled to Normandy to seek protection from Emma's brother, Robert the Good.

      This flight brings into the picture the grandson of Robert the Good, William, later to be known as William the Conqueror.

      Sweyn died in 1014 and Ethelred reclaimed the English crown for a further 2 years before his death at the age of 48 in 1016.
    • king of England, the son of Edgar, succeeded his brother, Edward the Martyr, in 979, and, for his want of vigour and capacity, was surnamed the Unready. He paid a tribute to the Danes, raised by a tax called Danegelt, levied on his subjects. To free himself from this oppression, he caused all the Danes in England to be treacherously massacred in one day (Nov.13, 1002). On this Sweyn, king of Denmark, invaded his kingdom and compelled him to fly to Normandy, but Sweyn dying soon after, Ethelred returned and resumed the government. He died in 1016, while Canute was preparing his great expedition.
    • Suspected by many of complicity in Edward's murder, he seemed an inefficient
      ruler with successions of Danish raids. While the kingdom of England was
      conquered, it escaped disintegration under him. 1013: King of Denmark was
      recognized as "king everywhere" and Ethelred exiled at his brother-in-law's
      court, Richard, Duke of Normandy. Sweg Forkbeard, the Danish King, died in
      1014, however, and the English nobility recalled Ethelred. He was succeeded
      by his son, Edmund II, when he died in the spring of 1016.
    • --Also spelled Aethelred, byname Ethelred The Unready, or Aethelred Unraed born 968? died April 23, 1016, London
      --King of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet "unready" is derived from unraed, meaning "evil counsel."The son of King Edgar (ruled 959-975), Ethelred ascended the throne upon the assassination of his half brother King Edward the Martyr in March 978. Widespread suspicion that Ethelred may have had a part in the murder created much of the distrust and disloyalty that undermined his authority. Hence, there was no unified defense when the Danish invasions resumed in 980.Nearly all of the country was ravaged, and Ethelred's efforts to buy peace only made theinvaders more rapacious. When they did begin to settle down in towns, Ethelred provoked further invasions by launching a massacre of Danish settlers (Nov. 13, 1002). By the end of 1013 the Danish king Sweyn I had been accepted as king in England, andEthelred had fled to Normandy.After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred's council of advisers invited him to return tothe throne on condition that he agree to satisfy their grievances. At the time of Ethelred'sdeath in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute was ravaging England. Ethelred was succeeded byhis son Edmund II Ironside (ruled 1016); one of his other sons ruled England as Edward the Confessor from 1042 to 1066.
    • Suspected by many of complicity in Edward's murder, he seemed an inefficient
      ruler with successions of Danish raids. While the kingdom of England was
      conquered, it escaped disintegration under him. 1013: King of Denmark was
      recognized as "king everywhere" and Ethelred exiled at his brother-in-law's
      court, Richard, Duke of Normandy. Sweg Forkbeard, the Danish King, died in
      1014, however, and the English nobility recalled Ethelred. He was succeeded
      by his son, Edmund II, when he died in the spring of 1016.
    • Suspected by many of complicity in Edward's murder, he seemed an inefficient
      ruler with successions of Danish raids. While the kingdom of England was
      conquered, it escaped disintegration under him. 1013: King of Denmark was
      recognized as "king everywhere" and Ethelred exiled at his brother-in-law's
      court, Richard, Duke of Normandy. Sweg Forkbeard, the Danish King, died in
      1014, however, and the English nobility recalled Ethelred. He was succeeded
      by his son, Edmund II, when he died in the spring of 1016.
    • Ethelred II, called The Unready (968?-1016), Anglo-Saxon king of England (978-1016), son of King Edgar and half brother of Edward the Martyr. His reign was marked by bitter military struggles. After negotiating a treaty with Richard II, duke of Normandy (reigned about 996-1026), Ethelred married Richard's sister Emma. This marriage provided the basis for the subsequent Norman claim to the English throne. Although Ethelred paid tribute to the plundering Danes, Sweyn I (the Forkbeard), king of Denmark invaded England in 1013 and proclaimed himself king. In 1014 Ethelred fled to Normandy (Normandie) but returned a few months later upon Sweyn's death. Sweyn's son and successor, Canute II, invaded the country a year later and, following Ethelred's death, became king of England. Ethelred's sobriquet, "The Unready," is a corruption of the Old English unraed,"bad counsel," which is a reference to his misfortunes.



      HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
      "Ethelred II," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
      http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft

      Ethelred was the son of King Edgar and began to reign when only 11 years old. He was a weakling, totally unable to withstand the Danish onslaught that re-started on his accession. He continually attempted to buy off the Danes - Danegeld - as when he lost the Battle of Maldon in 991. In a state of near panic he ordered the slaughter of all Danes whether peaceful settlers or not and this foul deed was put in hand on St.Brices Day 13th Nov 1002. Among the victims was the sister of Sweyn, King of Denmark. The Norsemen were furious and ravaged the country from Cornwall to Kent and from South Wales to East Anglia. At this time Ethelred married Emma, sister of the Duke of Normandy. By 1013, Sweyn, who was accompanied by his son Canute, was proclaimed King but he died soon afterwards. Ethelred fled to Normandy when Sweyn's rule prevailed and then on Sweyn's death he returned but the English lords placed severe restrictions on him. The Danes led by Canute returned in 1015 and landing at Poole they crossed the Thames at Cricklade. Ethelred died on Monday 23rd April 1016 and was buried at Glastonbury. He had truly earned his name - Ethelred the Unready. Abroad, the Vikings settled Greenland in 982 and, under Lief Ericsson in 1002, they explored the Eastern coast of America.
    • !DESCENT: Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., Ancestral Roots
      of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, 7th ed., at 2
      (1992). Line 1-19.
    • Ethelred the Unready, King of England
    • Ethelred II (c. 968 – 23 April 1016), also known as Æthelred II, Aethelred II, Ethelred the Unready, Æthelred the Unready and Aethelred the Unready (from Old English Æþelræd, nicknamed Unræd, "ill-advised"), was King of England (978–1013, and 1014–1016). He was a son of King Edgar and his queen Ælfthryth. The majority of his reign (991–1016) was marked by a developing, defensive war against Danish invaders.

      [edit] Æþelræd Unræd
      Different spellings of this king’s name which are most commonly to be found in modern texts are "Ethelred", and "Aethelred", the latter being closer to the original Old English form "Æþelræd". However ‘Ethelred’ is perhaps most familiar to the modern eye, and so is used here.

      The story of Ethelred's notorious nickname, "Ethelred the Unready", from Old English Æþelræd Unræd, goes a long way to explaining how his reputation has declined through history. His first name, composed of the elements æðele, meaning "noble", and ræd, meaning "counsel" or "advice",[1] is typical of the bombastic compound names of those belonging to the royal house of Wessex, and it characteristically alliterates with the names of his ancestors like, for example, Æthelwulf ("noble-wolf"), Ælfred ("elf-counsel"), Edward ("prosperous-protection"), and Edgar ("rich-spear").[2] His nickname Unræd is usually translated into present-day English as 'The Unready', though, because the present-day meaning of 'unready' no longer resembles its ancient counterpart, this translation completely disguises the meaning of the Old English term. Bosworth-Toller defines the noun unræd in various ways, though it seems always to have been used pejoratively. Generally, it means "evil counsel", "bad plan", "folly". Bosworth-Toller do not record it as describing a person directly; it most often describes decisions and deeds, and at least once refers to the nature of Satan's deceit. The element ræd in unræd is the element in Ethelred's name which means 'counsel'. Thus Æþelræd Unræd is a pun meaning "Noble counsel, No counsel". The nickname has alternatively been taken adjectivally as "ill-advised", "ill-prepared", "indecisive", thus "Ethelred the ill-advised".

      The epithet would seem to describe the poor quality of advice which Ethelred received throughout his reign, presumably from those around him, and specifically the royal council, known as the Witan. Though the nickname does not suggest anything particularly respectable about the king himself, its invective is not actually focused on the king but on those around him, who were expected to provide the young king with god ræd. Unfortunately, historians, both medieval and modern, have taken less an interest in what this epithet suggests about the king's advisers, and have instead focused on the image it creates of a blundering, misfit king. Because the nickname was first recorded in the 1180s, more than 150 years after Ethelred's death, it is doubtful that it carries any implications for how the king was seen by his contemporaries or near contemporaries.[3]


      [edit] Early life
      Sir Frank Merry Stenton remarked that "much that has brought condemnation of historians on King Æthelred may well be due to in the last resort to the circumstances under which he became king."[4] Ethelred's father, King Edgar, had died suddenly in July of 975, leaving two young sons behind him. The elder, Edward (later Edward the Martyr), was Edgar's son by his first wife, Æthelflæd,[5] and was "still a youth on the verge of manhood" in 975.[6] The younger son was Ethelred, whose mother, Ælfthryth, Edgar had married in 964. Ælfthryth was the daughter of Ordgar, ealdorman of Devon, and widow of Æthelwold, Ealdorman of East Anglia. At the time of his father's death, Ethelred could have been no more than 10 years old. As the elder of Edgar's sons, Edward - reportedly a young man given to frequent violent outbursts - probably would have naturally succeeded to the throne of England despite his young age, had not he "offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behaviour."[7] In any case, a number of English nobles took to opposing Edward's succession and to defending Ethelred's claim to the throne; Ethelred was, after all, the son of Edgar's last, living wife, and no rumour of illegitimacy is known to have plagued Ethelred's birth, as it might his elder brother's.[8] It must be remembered that both boys, Ethelred certainly, were too young to have played any significant part in the political manoeuvring which followed Edgar's death. It was the brothers' supporters, and not the brothers themselves, who were responsible for the turmoil which accompanied the choice of a successor to the throne. Ethelred's cause was led by his mother and included ealdorman Ælfhere and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester.[9] while Edward's claim was supported by Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Saint Oswald of Worcester, the Archbishop of York[10] among other noblemen, notably Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia, and Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex. In the end, Edward's supporters proved the more powerful and persuasive, and he was crowned king before the year was out.

      Edward ruled for only three years before he was murdered by his brother's household. Though we know little about Edward's short reign, we do know that it was marked by political turmoil. Edward, perhaps owing to his close connections with Dunstan and Oswald, was fond of endowing monasteries with large land-holdings, which often had to be at the expense of the local influence of the ealdormen and thegns whose job and privilege it was to govern England's many shire communities. Resentment on the part of the king's royal officers was inevitable, and perhaps an air of hostility towards Edward was beginning to propagate through the nobility. Nevertheless, favour for Edward must have been strong among the monastic communities. When Edward was killed at Ethelred's estate at Corfe in Dorset in March of 978, the job of recording the event, as well as reactions to, it fell to monastic writers. Stenton offers a summary of the earliest account of Edward's murder, which comes from a work praising the life of Saint Oswald of Worcester: "On the surface his [Edward's] relations with Æthelred his half-brother and Ælfthryth his stepmother were friendly, and he was visiting them informally when he was killed. [Æthelred's] retainers came out to meet him with ostentatious signs of respect, and then, before he had dismounted, surrounded him, seized his hands, and stabbed him. ... So far as can be seen the murder was planned and carried out by Æthelred's household men in order that their young master might become king. There is nothing to support the allegation, which first appears in writing more than a century later, that Queen Ælfthryth had plotted her stepson's death. No one was punished for a part in the crime, and Æthelred, who was crowned a month after the murder, began to reign in an atmosphere of suspicion which destroyed the prestige of the crown. It was never fully restored in his lifetime."[11] Nevertheless, at first, the outlook of the new king's officers and counsellors seems in no way to have been bleak. According to one chronicler, the coronation of Ethelred took place with much rejoicing by the councillors of the English people.[12] Simon Keynes notes that "Byrhtferth of Ramsey states similarly that when Æthelred was consecrated king, by Archbishop Dunstan and Archbishop Oswald, 'there was great joy at his consecration’, and describes the king in this connection as ‘a young man in respect of years, elegant in his manners, with an attractive face and handsome appearance’."[13] Ethelred could not have been older than 13 years of age in this year.

      During these early years, Ethelred was developing a close relationship to Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, one who had supported his unsuccessful claim to the throne. When Æthelwold died, on 1 August 984, Ethelred deeply lamented the loss, and he wrote later in a charter from 993 that the event had deprived the country of one "whose industry and pastoral care administered not only to my interest but also to that of all inhabitants of the country."[14]


      [edit] Conflict with the Danes

      A coin bearing Ethelred's profileEngland had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century by King Edgar, Ethelred's father. However, beginning in 980, when Ethelred could not have been more than 14 years old, small companies of Danish adventurers carried out a series of coast-line raids against England. Hampshire, Thanet, and Cheshire were attacked in 980, Devon and Cornwall in 981, and Dorset in 982. A period of 6 years then passed before, in 988, another coastal attack is recorded taking place to the south-west, though here a famous battle was fought between the invaders and the thegns of Devon. Stenton notes that, though this series of isolated raids had no lasting effect on England themselves, "their chief historical importance is that they brought England for the first time into diplomatic contact with Normandy."[15] During this period, the Normans, who remembered their origins as a Scandinavian people, were well-disposed to their Danish cousins who, occasionally returning from a raid on England, would seek port in Normandy. This led to grave tension between the English and Norman courts, and word of their enmity eventually reached Pope John XV. The pope was disposed to dissolve their hostility towards each other, and took steps to engineer a peace between England and Normandy, which was ratified in Rouen in 991.

      However, in August of that same year a sizable Danish fleet began a sustained campaign in the south-east of England. It arrived off Folkestone, in Kent, and made its way around the south-east coast and up the river Blackwater, coming eventually to its estuary and occupying Northey Island.[16] About 2 km east of Northey lies the coastal town of Maldon, where Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, was stationed with a company of thegns. The battle that followed between English and Danes is immortalized by the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon, which describes the doomed but heroic attempt of Byrhtnoth to defend the coast of Essex against overwhelming odds. Stenton summarizes the events of the poem: "For access to the mainland they [the Danes] depended on a causeway, flooded at high tide, which led from Northey to the flats along the southern margin of the estuary. Before they [the Danes] had left their camp on the island Byrhtnoth, with his retainers and a force of local militia, had taken possession of the landward end of the causeway. Refusing a demand for tribute, shouted across the water while the tide was high, Byrhtnoth drew up his men along the bank, and waited for the ebb. As the water fell the raiders began to stream out along the causeway. But three of Byrthnoth's retainers held it against them, and at last they asked to be allowed to cross unhindered and fight on equal terms on the mainland. With what even those who admired him most called 'over-courage', Byrhtnoth agreed to this; the pirates rushed through the falling tide, and battle was joined. Its issue was decided by Byrhtnoth's fall. Many even of his own men immediately took to flight and the English ranks were broken. What gives enduring interest to the battle is the superb courage with which a group of Byrhtnoth's thegns, knowing that the fight was lost, deliberately gave themselves to death in order that they might avenge their lord."[17] This would be the first of a series of crushing defeats felt by the English at the hands of first Danish raiders, then organized Danish armies.

      In 991 Ethelred was around 24 years old. In the aftermath of Maldon, it was decided that the English should grant the tribute to the Danes that they desired, and so a gafol of 10,000 pounds was paid them for their peace. Yet it was presumably the Danish fleet that had beaten Byrhtnoth at Maldon that continued to ravage the English coast from 991-93. In 994, the Danish fleet, which had swollen in ranks since 991, turned up the Thames estuary and headed towards London. The battle fought there was inconclusive. It was about this time that Ethelred met with the leaders of the fleet, foremost among them Olaf Tryggvason, and arranged an uneasy accord. A treaty was signed between Ethelred and Olaf that provided for seemingly civilized arrangements between the now-settled Danish companies and the English government, such as regulation settlement disputes and of trade. But the treaty also stipulates that the ravaging and slaughter of the previous year will be forgotten, and ends abruptly by stating that 22,000 pounds of gold and silver have been paid the raiders as the price of peace.[18] In 994, Olaf Tryggvason, already a baptized Christian, was confirmed as Christian in a ceremony at Andover; King Æthelred stood as his sponsor. After receiving gifts, Olaf promised "that he would never come back to England in hostility."[19] Olaf then left England for Norway and never returned, though "other component parts of the Viking force appear to have decided to stay in England, for it is apparent from the treaty that some had chosen to enter into King Æthelred's service as mercenaries, based presumably on the Isle of Wight."[20]

      In 997 Danish raids began again. According to Keynes, "there is no suggestion that this was a new fleet or army, and presumably the mercenary force created in 994 from the residue of the raiding army of 991 had turned on those whom it had been hired to protect."[21] It harried Cornwall, Devon, western Somerset, and south Wales in 997, Dorset, Hampshire, and Sussex in 998. In 999 it raided Kent, and in 1000 it left England for Normandy, perhaps because the English had refused in this latest wave of attacks to acquiesce to the Danish demands for gafol or tribute, which would come to be known as Danegeld, 'Dane-payment'. This sudden relief from attack Ethelred used to gather his thoughts, resources, and armies: the fleet's departure in 1000 "allowed Æthelred to carry out a devastation of Strathclyde, the motive for which is part of the lost history of the north."[22]

      In 1001 a Danish fleet - perhaps the same fleet from 1000 - returned and ravaged west Sussex. During its movements, the fleet regularly returned to its base in the Isle of Wight. There was later an attempted attack in the south of Devon, though the English mounted a successful defence at Exeter. Nevertheless, Ethelred must have felt at a loss, and in the Spring of 1002 the English bought a truce for 24,000 pounds. Ethelred's frequent payments of immense Danegelds are often held up as exemplary of the incompetency of his government and his own short-sightedness. However, Keynes points out that such payments had been practice for at least a century, and had been adopted by Alfred the Great, Charles the Bald, and many others. Indeed, in some cases it "may have seemed the best available way of protecting the people against loss of life, shelter, livestock, and crops. Though undeniably burdensome, it constituted a measure for which the king could rely on widespread support."[23]

      It seems that no amount of money could staunch the flow of Danish assaults, however, indeed it may have encouraged them, for in 1003 Danish armies were again active in the west under the command of Swein Forkbeard, who had been with fleet that had attacked London in 994. By 1004 Swein was in East Anglia, where he sacked Norwich. In this year a nobleman of East Anglia, Ulfcytel Snillingr met Swein in force, and made an impression on the, until then, rampant Danish expedition. Though Ulfcytel was eventually defeated, outside of Thetford, he caused the Danes heavy losses and was nearly able to destroy their ships. The Danish army left England for Denmark in 1005, perhaps because of their injuries sustained in East Anglia, perhaps from the very severe famine which afflicted the continent and the British Isles in that year.[24]

      During the next twelve years England was devastated by a succession of large Danish armies, either under the leadership of King Sweyn I of Denmark or of other commanders such as Thorkell the Tall, which Ethelred's government failed to combat effectively. He was only able to halt the depredations of these armies by the payment of large payments of Danegeld. Each payment led to the withdrawal of the Danes, but on each occasion a fresh onslaught began after a year or two, and each Danegeld payment was much larger than the last. Ethelred's most desperate response was the massacre of the Danes living in England on St Brice's Day (13 November) 1002. Finally in 1013 English resistance collapsed and Sweyn conquered the country, forcing Ethelred into exile, but after his victory Sweyn lived for only another five weeks. In 1014, Canute the Great was proclaimed King of England by the Danish army in England, but was forced out of England that year. Canute launched a new invasion in 1015. Subsequently, Ethelred's control of England was already collapsing once again when he died at London on 23 April 1016. Ethelred was buried in St Paul's and was succeeded by his son, Edmund Ironside.

      Ethelred married first Ælfgifu, daughter of Thored, the ealdorman of York, by whom he had six sons: Æthelstan Ætheling (died 1011), Edmund Ironside, Ecgberht Ætheling, Eadred Ætheling, Eadwig Ætheling (killed 1017) and Eadgar Ætheling the Elder. They also had four daughters: Edith, who married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia, and Ælfgifu, who married Uchtred the Bold, ealdorman of Bamburgh. Less certainly there may also have been a daughter named Wulfhild married to Ulfcytel Snillingr, and a fourth daughter, Aethelreda married to Gospatric.

      His second marriage, in 1002, was to Emma of Normandy, sister of Richard II, duke of Normandy. Emma's grandnephew, William I of England, would later use this relationship as the basis of his claim on the throne. They had two sons, Eadweard (later King of England and known now as Edward the Confessor) and Ælfred Ætheling. By this marriage, he also had Goda of England, who married Drogo of Mantes, Count of Vexin.

      All of Ethelred's sons were named after previous kings of Wessex / England.

      Ethelred's government produced extensive legislation, which he "ruthlessly enforced."[25] Records of at least six legal codes survive from his reign, covering a range of topics.[26] Notably, one of the members of his council (known as the Witan) was Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York, a well-known homilist. The three latest codes from Ethelred's reign seemed to have been drafted by Wulfstan.[27] These codes are extensively concerned with ecclesiastical affairs. They also exhibit the characteristics of Wulfstan's highly rhetorical style. Wulfstan went on to draft codes for King Cnut, and recycled there many of the laws which were used in Ethelred's codes.[28]

      Despite the failure of his government in the face of the Danish threat, Ethelred's reign was not without some important institutional achievements. The quality of the coinage, a good indicator of the prevailing economic conditions, significantly improved during his reign due to his numerous coinage reform laws.
      Later perspectives of Ethelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080-c. 1143), who reports that Ethelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another medieval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.

      Efforts to rehabilitate Ethelred's reputation have gained momentum since about 1980. Chief among the rehabilitators has been Simon Keynes, who has often argued that our poor impression of Ethelred is almost entirely based upon after-the-fact accounts of, and later accretions to, the narrative of events during Ethelred's long and complex reign. Chief among the culprits is in fact one of the most important sources for the history of the period, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which, as it reports events with a retrospect of 15 years, cannot help but interpret colour events with the eventual English defeat a foregone conclusion. Yet, as virtually no strictly contemporary narrative account of the events of Ethelred's reign exists, historians are forced to rely on what evidence there is. Keynes and others thus draw attention to some of the inevitable snares of investigating the history of a man whom later popular opinion has utterly damned. Recent cautious assesments of Ethelred's reign have more often uncovered reasons to doubt, than uphold, Ethelred's later infamy. Though the failures of his government will always put Ethelred's reign in the shadow of the reigns of kings Edgar, Aethelstan, and Alfred, historians' current impression of Ethelred's personal character is certainly not as unflattering as it once was: "Æthelred's misfortune as a ruler was owed not so much to any supposed defects of his imagined character, as to a combination of circumstances which anyone would have found difficult to control."[29]


      [edit] Did Ethelred invent the jury?
      Ethelred has been credited with the formation of a local investigative body made up of twelve thegns who were charged with publishing the names of any notorious or wicked men in their respective districts. Because the members of these bodies were under solemn oath to act in accordance with the law and their own good consciences, they have been seen by some legal historians as the proto-type for the English Grand Jury.[30] Ethelred makes provision for such a body in a law code he enacted at Wantage in 997, which states:

      þæt man habbe gemot on ælcum wæpenkace; & gan ut þa yldestan XII þegnas & se gerefa mid, & swerian on þam haligdome, þe heom man on hand sylle, þæt hig nellan nænne sacleasan man forsecgean ne nænne sacne forhelan. & niman þonne þa tihtbysian men, þe mid þam gerefan habbað, & heora ælc sylle VI healfmarc wedd, healf landrican & healf wæpentake.[31]

      that there shall be an assembly in every wapentake,[32] and in that assembly shall go forth the twelve eldest thegns and the reeve along with them, and let them swear on holy relics, which shall be placed in their hands, that they will never knowingly accuse an innocent man nor conceal a guilty man. And thereafter let them seize those notorious [lit. "charge-laden"] men, who have business with the reeve, and let each of them give a security of 6 half-marks, half of which shall go to the lord of that district, and half to the wapentake.

      But the wording here suggests that Ethelred is perhaps revamping or re-confirming a custom which already existed. He may actually have been expanding an established English custom to be used among the Danish citizens in the North (the Danelaw). Previously, King Edgar had legislated along similar lines in his Whitbordesstan code:

      ic wille, þæt ælc mon sy under borge ge binnan burgum ge buton burgum. & gewitnes sy geset to ælcere byrig & to ælcum hundrode. To ælcere byrig XXXVI syn gecorone to gewitnesse; to smalum burgum & to ælcum hundrode XII, buton ge ma willan. & ælc mon mid heora gewitnysse bigcge & sylle ælc þara ceapa, þe he bigcge oððe sylle aþer oððe burge oððe on wæpengetace. & heora ælc, þonne hine man ærest to gewitnysse gecysð, sylle þæne að, þæt he næfre, ne for feo ne for lufe ne for ege, ne ætsace nanes þara þinga, þe he to gewitnysse wæs, & nan oðer þingc on gewitnysse ne cyðe buton þæt an, þæt he geseah oððe gehyrde. & swa geæþdera manna syn on ælcum ceape twegen oððe þry to gewitnysse.[33]

      It is my wish that each person be in surety, both within settled areas and without. And 'witnessing' shall be established in each city and each hundred. To each city let there be 36 chosen for witnessing; to small towns and to each hundred let there be 12, unless they desire more. And everybody shall purchase and sell their goods in the presence a witness, whether he is buying or selling something, whether in a city or a wapentake. And each of them, when they first choose to become a witness, shall give an oath that he will never, neither for wealth nor love nor fear, deny any of those things which he will be a witness to, and will not, in his capacity as a witness, make known any thing except that which he saw and heard. And let there be either two or three of these sworn witnesses at every sale of goods.

      The 'legend' of an Anglo-Saxon origin to the jury was first challenged seriously by Heinrich Brunner in 1872, who claimed that evidence of the jury could only been seen for the first time during the reign of Henry II, some 200 years after the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, and that the practice had originated with the Franks, who in turn had influenced the Normans, who thence introduced it to England.[34] Since Brunner's thesis, the origin of the English jury has been much disputed. Throughout the twentieth century, legal historians disagreed about whether the practice was English in origin, or was introduced, directly or indirectly, from either Scandinavia or Francia.[35] Recently, the legal historians Patrick Wormald and Michael Macnair have reasserted arguments in favour of finding in practices current during the Anglo-Saxon period traces of the Angevin practice of conducting inquests using bodies of sworn private witnesses. Wormald has gone as far as to present evidence suggesting that the English practice outlined in Ethelred's Wantage code is at least as old as, if not older than, 975, and ultimately traces it back to a Carolingian model (something Brinner had done).[36] However, no scholarly consensus has yet been reached.
    • King of England, 978-1016

      St. Dunstan predicted the slaughter of the English people that would take place during his reign because at his baptism, he peed into the font of holy water.
      He became King when his older half-brother King Edward "the Martyr" was murdered while visiting him at Corfu Gate, Dorset.
      He was consecrated King before all the nobles of England at Kingston. The chief feature of his reign was the renewed encursions by the Danish raiders. A solution was adapted for controlling the Danes by paying them tribute, and though he was not the first to propose such a policy, the collection of Danegeld is indelibly associated with his name. The payments have been interpreted as weakness and military incapacity but most were made on the advice of councilors and though not a permanent solution because of the numbers of seperate raiding parties, they did acheive intermittant respites.
      The first payment followed a raid in 994. "Then the King and his councillors determined to send to them and promise them tribute and provisions, on condition that they should cease that harrying. And then they accepted that and the whole army came to Southampton and took winter quarters there; and they were provisioned throughout all the West Saxon kingdom and were paid 16,000 pounds of money.
      Further sums were paid in 1001, 1004, 1007 (amounting to 36,000 pounds sterling silver), 1009, 1011, 1012 (48,000 pounds), 1013, and 1014. The long term effect was summed up sourly in the twelfth century: "And this
      infliction has continued to this present day, and, unless God's mercy interposes, will still continue, for we now pay to our kings, from custom, the tax which was levied by the Danes from intolerable fear."
      Ethelred's reputation is further underlined by reprisals which he took against the Danes on 13 November 1002, "and in that year, the King ordered to be slain all the Danish men who were in England - this was done on St. Brice's day - because the King had been informed that they would theacherously deprive him, and then all his councillors, of life and possess this kingdom afterwards". He described his action later: "A decree was sent tou by me, with the council of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination."
      However much he might try to defend his actions, his reward for this was the wrath of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark whose sister had been a victim of the massacre.
      By 1013, when Sweyn came to England with his son, Cnut, Ethelred's fortune had reached a low ebb. His wife had retreated with her sons to France and he followed her soon afterwards. Sweyn's death in 1014 brought a reprieve.
      "Then all the councillors who were in England determined to send for King Ethelred and they said that no lord was dearer to them than their natural lord, if he would govern them more justly than he did before. Then the King said that he would be a gracious lord to them and reform all the things which they hated and during the spring King Ethelred came home to his own people and he was gladly recieved by them all."
      His reinstatement was brief. Cnut went home only to return in the summer of 1015. He made himself master of the old Danelaw by the time Ethelred died.
      An uninspiring leader, his dealings with the Danes and with his northern domaines were uniformly unsatisfactory, and his reign was marked with treachery. His nickname "unread" or "evil counsel" was often mistranslated "unready", aptly so. His reign witnessed notable artistic and literary acheivements and generally efficient administration.

      ["The British Monarchy", www.royal.gov.uk]

      Edgar's sudden death at the age of 33 led to a succession dispute between rival factions supporting his sons Edward and Ethelred. The elder son Edward (reigned 975-978) was murdered in 978 at Corfe Castle, Dorset, by his seven year old half-brother's supporters.

      For the rest of Ethelred's reign (reigned 978-1016), his brother became a posthumous rallying point for political unrest; a hostile Church transformed Edward into a royal martyr. Known as the Un-raed or 'Unready' (meaning no counsel, or that he was unwise), Ethelred failed to win or retain the allegiance of many of his subjects. In 1002, he ordered the massacre of all Danes in England to eliminate potential treachery.
      Not being an able soldier, Ethelred defended the country against increasingly rapacious Viking raids from the 980s onwards by diplomatic alliance with the duke of Normandy in 991 (he later married the duke's daughter Emma) and by buying off renewed attacks by the Danes with money levied through a tax called the Danegeld. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1006 was dismissive: 'in spite of it all, the Danish army went about as it pleased'. By 1012, 48,000 pounds of silver was being paid in Danegeld to Danes camped in London.

      Eventually, in 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy when king Sweyn of Denmark dispossessed him. Ethelred returned to rule after Sweyn's death in 1014.

      Ethelred's son Edmund set himself up as an independent ruler in the Danelaw. After Ethelred's death in 1015, Edmund cleared southern England of Danish marauders in a series of fiercely fought and highly mobile fighting, but he lost the battle of Ashingdon of 1016 (his Mercian allies deserted him) against Sweyn's son Canute, and died in the same year. Before his death, Edmund made an agreement with Canute giving Canute territorial concessions, including Wessex. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury.
    • AFN: B19R-5C
      http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/AF/individual_record.asp?recid=8135795&lds=0
    • ETHELRED II 'THE UNREADY' (r. 979-1013 and 1014-1016)

      Ethelred, the younger son of Edgar, became king at the age of seven following the murder of his half-brother Edward II in 978 at Corfe Castle, Dorset, by Edward's own supporters.

      For the rest of Ethelred's rule (reigned 978-1016), his brother became a posthumous rallying point for political unrest; a hostile Church transformed Edward into a royal martyr. Known as the Un-raed or 'Unready' (meaning 'no counsel', or that he was unwise), Ethelred failed to win or retain the allegiance of many of his subjects. In 1002, he ordered the massacre of all Danes in England to eliminate potential treachery.

      Not being an able soldier, Ethelred defended the country against increasingly rapacious Viking raids from the 980s onwards by diplomatic alliance with the duke of Normandy in 991 (he later married the duke's daughter Emma) and by buying off renewed attacks by the Danes with money levied through a tax called the Danegeld. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1006 was dismissive: 'in spite of it all, the Danish army went about as it pleased'. By 1012, 48,000 pounds of silver was being paid in Danegeld to Danes camped in London.

      In 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy when the powerful Viking Sweyn of Denmark dispossessed him. Ethelred returned to rule after Sweyn's death in 1014, but died himself in 1016.
    • King of the English, 18 March 978-December 1013, 3 February 1014-23 April 1016. Crowned: Kingston-upon-Thames, 4 April 978.Born: c968. Died: London, 23 April 1016, aged 48. Buried: Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London.Married: (1) c985, Elgiva (c963-1002), dau. Thored, ealdorman of Northumbria: 13 children; (2) 5 April 1002, Emma (c985-1052), dau. Richard, duke of Normandy: 3 children.Athelred is remembered colloquially and half-jokingly today as the Unready, although the nickname was really a clever pun on his name, athel “noble” and raed “counsel”, meaning “noble counsel”. Throughout his reign Athelred was ill-advised and if he made his own decision, he was as likely to change his mind, hence the nickname, raed-less, or lacking counsel. He was a better administrator that history has given credit, but he was a hopeless king and leader. He was the son of EDGAR and second (or third) wife Elfrida. At the time of Edgar’s death there were many who supported Athelred as the next king, but the witan elected his elder half-brother EDWARD. When Edward was murdered three years later, Athelred’s supporters, who included his mother and the Mercian ealdorman Alfhere, ensured that Athelred came to the throne. He was still probably under ten, and Elfrida and Alfhere dominated the government of England. Alfhere had been the main opponent to Edward and led the anti-monastic movement which flared up following the death of Edgar. Alfhere believed that the monasteries were becoming too rich and powerful too quickly and that they could control the shires. Alfhere was implicated in the murder of Edward. Interestingly it was he who translated Edward’s body from its hasty burial at Wareham to Shaftesbury, where it was buried amongst great ceremony and talk of miracles. Alfhere remained the most powerful ealdorman until his death in 983. He succeeded in shaping Athelred’s policy toward reducing the power of the monasteries, although Athelred later over-turned this. Alfhere also had to face the impact of the first Danish raids for thirty years, which marked the beginning of the end for the Saxon kingdom. When he died, Alfhere was not much loved, being regarded as something of a bully. After Alfhere’s death Athelred endeavored (sic) to exert his own authority and even his mother’s considerable power waned, though she lived till 1002. There was a period in the late 980s when Athelred sought to reduce the power of the church, but he subsequently reverted to his father’s interests and promoted the construction of new monasteries under the new order. He also endeavored (sic) to update the laws of the country and reorganize local government. This culminated in the Wantage Code of 997 which, compared to past law codes, showed an unprecedented willingness to accept local customs, especially those amongst the Danes of eastern England. Many of the odd and curious anomalies that we have in our customs and codes of conduct in this country were enshrined under this Code. Had Athelred’s reign been measured by his willingness and ability to reform and organize, he would have been remembered kindly, but his mettle was tested when the Danish raids returned and England was pushed to the limit. The raids began in a comparatively small way as early as 980 and continued through to 982. Most of the raids were in the south west, but Southampton was severely damaged and London was attacked and burned in 982. Raids ceased for the next few years and perhaps Athelred was lulled into a false sense of security, for in 987 they began again, once more in the south-west and then, in 991, a major battle at Maldon in Essex. The Danish leader Olaf Tryggvason outwitted the East Saxon ealdorman Beortnoth, and the Saxons were killed to a man. The first payment of danegeld, or what amounted to protection money, arose following this battle, a policy instigated at the suggestion of Sigeric, the archbishop of Canterbury, who was one of Athelred’s poor advisers. Olaf used this ploy as he moved around the south and east, plundering and destroying and then extracting payment. In 994, after the Danes had invaded London, Athelred paid 16,000 pounds in danegeld, but this time on the basis that Olaf would accept Christianity and never again raid Britain. Olaf kept his promise. He used the money to strengthen his fleet and finance his bid for the kingship of Norway. But his command was superseded by others who had made no such agreement, and so the raids continued. Each year the danegeld increased until the riches of England were savagely reduced. In addition the monasteries were plundered and destroyed and with armies being kept mobilized (sic) for most of the year men were unable to harvest. The country grew poorer, the men weaker, and spirits lower. The men had no equivalent of ALFRED or EDWARD (THE ELDER) or ATHELSTAN to look to for leadership. Athelred had never been tested as a battle commander and he had no idea what to do. He also had to face desertion from amongst his own ealdormen, whose actions in fleeing the command of battle further weakened their men’s morale. Athelred seemed powerless to punish them. Instead he shifted from one mad scheme to another, none of which worked and all of which reduced the country’s morale further. At one point in 1009, he demanded that a whole new fleet be constructed, but he was unable to find sufficient able commanders and had no battle plans to meet the Danes in the waters they controlled. The fleet spent more time anchored off-shore than in battle, and once it moved into battle it was destroyed. Athelred did nothing to save it but left it to its fate. The venture was a disaster and drained the country’s resources further. In 1002 Athelred married Emma, daughter of Richard, duke of Normandy. The marriage was almost certainly to create an alliance whereby Richard stopped the Danes using Normandy as a base for raiding southern England. Richard no doubt played his part, but the plan was another of Athelred’s ineffective tactics. Probably his worst decision was the St Brice’s Day massacre on 13 November 1002. He ordered the killing of every Dane who lived in England except the Anglo-Danes of Danelaw. It is unlikely that the edict was carried out to the letter, but there was fearful slaughter across southern England which left a bitter stain on Athelred’s character. Even if the resident Danes had supported him previously, they now turned against him. The massacre brought back to English shores the Danish commander SWEIN who had accompanied Olaf on earlier missions. Legend has it that Swein’s sister and her husband had been killed in the massacre and Swein returned to exact revenge. Sweins campaign lasted from 1003 to 1007 when Athelred agreed a peace treaty with him and paid over an immense danegeld of 30,000 pounds. Swein returned to Denmark, but new commanders took his place and the raids and slaughter continued. The next major enemy was Thorkell the Tall, who arrived with a major army in August 1009 and left a wave of destruction across southern England. The low point of his campaign was the murder of Alphege, the archbishop of Canterbury in 1012. Thorkell had not condoned the murder and he subsequently offered his services to help protect England. Athelred had to raise a new tax, the heregeld, to pay for Thorkell’s army, but this band of mercenaries was more effective than the English army because it had a strong, sound leader. Nevertheless, the whole of England had now become a battlefield, and the English were prepared to submit. Swein read the signs correctly when he returned to England. He landed in the Humber in August 1013, and the Northumbrians immediately submitted, followed soon by the Danes of Danelaw. Athelred waited with Thorkell’s fleet in the Thames off London, so Swein marched on Bath, where the Mercians and West Saxons capitulated. By December 1013 London collapsed and Athelred fled to Normandy. Swein died only three months later and Athelred was recalled, when Swein’s son, CANUTE, returned to establish himself in Denmark. Athelred’s return was conditional on that he governed “more justly than he had done in the past.” Matters did not improve, however. Early in the fighting against Canute, in 1014 Athelred’s eldest son and heir, Athelstan, was killed in battle. Early in 1015 Athelred executed the two leading thanes of the Danelaw whom he regarded as traitors, which did not endear him to Mercia or the north. His son, EDMUND, gained the support of the Danelaw, and when Canute returned later in 1015, England was divided and the armies refused to move against the Danes unless the king himself commanded them. By now, though, Athelred was dying. Although he was only forty-eight, he had lived longer than many of his predecessors and was worn out by the fighting. He died on 23 April 1016, leaving Edmund to continue to battle for survival.

      I do not have verification on all information that you have downloaded. Please feel free to contact me @ promise_me_tomorrow@yahoo.com for errors/corrections/ or any additional information, especially if you are willing to share information
    • Ethelred II was King of England from 979 to 1016.
      1002 Nov Ethelred marries Emma
      Ethelred 43 pays the Vikings a sum of £24,000 to try and stop the invas ions and in an attempt to strengthen his position against the Vikings, h e married Emma 312 , the daughter of Richard 287 , Duke of Normandy. Ethe lred also ordered the murder of all Danes in England, but some escaped t o report back the Vikings attacks started again.
      Ethelred 'The Unready' was King of the English from 978 to 1016. The ter m 'unready' is probably a misinterpretation of the word 'un-raed' which m eans 'lack of council'. It appears that Ethelred was not able to make an y decisions on his own and relied on the Witan council heavily. Ethelre d married Aelfgifu first, and in 1002 married Emma, the daughter of Richa rd I, Duke of Normandy. Between September of 1013 and February 1014, Swei n Fork-Beard of Denmark is acknowledged as King of all England. Ethelre d resumed the reign from March 1014. (More information about the links wi th the Normans to come)
      ETHELRED II 'THE UNREADY' (r. 979-1013 and 1014-1016)
      Ethelred, the younger son of Edgar, became king at the age of seven follo wing the murder of his half-brother Edward II in 978 at Corfe Castle, Dor set, by Edward's own supporters.
      For the rest of Ethelred's rule (reigned 978-1016), his brother becam e a posthumous rallying point for political unrest; a hostile Church tran sformed Edward into a royal martyr. Known as the Un-raed or 'Unready' (me aning 'no counsel', or that he was unwise), Ethelred failed to win or ret ain the allegiance of many of his subjects. In 1002, he ordered the massa cre of all Danes in England to eliminate potential treachery.
      Not being an able soldier, Ethelred defended the country against increasi ngly rapacious Viking raids from the 980s onwards by diplomatic allianc e with the duke of Normandy in 991 (he later married the duke's daughte r Emma) and by buying off renewed attacks by the Danes with money levie d through a tax called the Danegeld. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1006 wa s dismissive: 'in spite of it all, the Danish army went about as it pleas ed'. By 1012, 48,000 pounds of silver was being paid in Danegeld to Dane s camped in London.

      In 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy when the powerful Viking Sweyn of Denm ark dispossessed him. Ethelred returned to rule after Sweyn's death in 10 14, but died himself in 1016.
    • [Eldad_Grannis.FTW]

      [SPARKMAN DATABASE.FTW]

      In the face of Danish Raids, AEthelred II was forced to pay tributes[Danegeld] to the enemy . He was driven into exile by Sweyn in about 1013but returned after the death of Sweyn in 10 14. He died during Canutesinvasion of England. Burke states that he died in 1010. His tom b wasdestroyed when the old St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed in the greatfire of London, s o there is no way of verifying the exact date of death.[tracy ancestors temp.FTW]

      Asceded the throne in 978 and reigned 28 years. "Kings and Queens of England and Great Brita in" by Eric R. Deldefield. Page 12.[anc of thomas tracy from ancestry.FTW]

      He was known as Ethelred "The Unready". He was the 14th King of
      England, who succeeded the the crown in 978, upon the assassination
      of Edward the Martyr (half brother). Emma was his second marriage.
      *Reference: "The Tracy Family" compiled by Scott Lee Boyd, Santa
      Barbara, CA, April, 1933.
    • [Eldad_Grannis.FTW]

      [SPARKMAN DATABASE.FTW]

      In the face of Danish Raids, AEthelred II was forced to pay tributes[Danegeld] to the enemy . He was driven into exile by Sweyn in about 1013but returned after the death of Sweyn in 10 14. He died during Canutesinvasion of England. Burke states that he died in 1010. His tom b wasdestroyed when the old St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed in the greatfire of London, s o there is no way of verifying the exact date of death.[tracy ancestors temp.FTW]

      Asceded the throne in 978 and reigned 28 years. "Kings and Queens of England and Great Brita in" by Eric R. Deldefield. Page 12.[anc of thomas tracy from ancestry.FTW]

      He was known as Ethelred "The Unready". He was the 14th King of
      England, who succeeded the the crown in 978, upon the assassination
      of Edward the Martyr (half brother). Emma was his second marriage.
      *Reference: "The Tracy Family" compiled by Scott Lee Boyd, Santa
      Barbara, CA, April, 1933.
    • Ethelred " The Unsteady "
    • [2975] COLVER31.TXT file

      WSHNGT.ASC file (Geo Washington Ahnentafel) # 4362574 = 918990 = 460354, also # 8725330 = 460354; Athelred "the Unready", places of b. & d.

      Microsoft Encarta 1993 "The Unready," is a corruption of the Old English 'unraed', "bad counsel," which is a reference to his misfortunes.

      "Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists ..." Aethelred II the Redeless

      "Anglo Saxon Chronicle", Part 2:
      A.D. 978. ... This year was King Edward slain ... In this same year succeeded Ethelred Etheling, his brother, to the government; and he was afterwards very readily, and with great joy to the counsellors of England, consecrated king at Kingston.

      A.D. 979. In this year was Ethelred consecrated king, on the Sunday fortnight after Easter, at Kingston. And there were at his consecration two archbishops, and ten diocesan bishops.
    • Aethelred, one of the most hated kings of England, inherited the throne when he was ten years old. His name comes from the Anglo Saxon name for him, "Unraed," which means "evil-counseled," or "uncounseled," and was a pun on his name. Later generations, after the language had changed, produced the pun we have here. He was supposed to be licentious and mean.
      He was not ready for the Danes to renew their attack. They had been pretty docile since Alfred, the Great. He lost all of England. His son Edmund II Ironside, briefly recovered some of it, but then King Canute (and 2 other Danish kings) took over until Aethelred's other son, Edward the Confessor, regained the throne--only to lose it (for the Saxons anyway) in the next generation to William the Conqueror.Reigned from 979-1013 (deposed) and 1014-1016. In the face of Danishraids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Dangeld) to the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn, but returned after the latter's death. Aethelred died during the invasion of England by Canute. Burke says he died in 1010. His tomb was lost when the old St Paul's was destroyed in the great fire of London 1666.
      According to St. Dunstan his life began with an ill omen, for at his baptism he made water in the font. From this 'the man of God' predicted the slaughter of the English people that would take place in his time. He became king after the murder of his elder brother Edward, but his kingdom was eventually dismembered by his son, Edmund Ironside, and Cnut the Dane. Though not as capable as his predecessors, he reigned longer than anyone before him.
      His derogatory nickname, coined in the twelfth century, is merely a pun on his name, meaning 'noble counsel'. The early years (973-983) were dominated by his mother; his personal rule over the period from 983 till 993 was oppressive. Unfortunately, the Viking assaults starting in 988 were of a ferocity unmatched since Alfred's day, and he could do little but negotiate temporary respites and massive tributes, which encouraged further attacks.
      He tried to combat the Vikings by diplomacy, notably by marrying Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy, and raising a fleet and large armies. In 1000 he led an expedition to Strathclyde to disrupt the Viking settlements around the Irish Sea.
      On 13 November 1002, St. Brice's day, he ordered all the Danish men who were in England to be slain, because the king had been informed that they would treacherously deprive him, and then all his councillers, of life, and possess this kingdom afterwards. Aethelred's reward for this was the wrath of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark whose sister had been a victim of the massacre.
      Sweyn, together with his son, Cnut, began conquering territory. His unexpected attacks in southern and midland England both destroyed the morale of king and country and so disillusioned the nobility that Aethelred could no longer trust them. In 1013 when Sweyn was chosen king, Aethelred fled, then returned in 1014, after Sweyn had died, promising better rule.
      However, when he failed to reassert control, his son Edmund made himself independent ruler in the Danelaw, which in turn was taken by Cnut. This assisted the collapse of the kingdom of Aethelred, who died in 1016.
    • He was married 3 times and had 16 children including Edmund II Ironside, King of England, (born 989) and Edward (St.) the Confessor, King of England, (born c1002).
      In the face of Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld) to the enemy. His reprisal was the St. Brides massacre in which all Danes living in England were killed. He chose the 13th November 1002 for this co-ordinated massacre, St. Brice's day. The deed was done. Thousands were killed including the sister of the king of Denmark, Swegn ( Sweyn ) Forkbeard. This so incensed Swegn, that he planned a near full scale invasion of England. Massacres by Danes were catalogued all over the country. England was more or less bankrupt and starving. Even the Danes returned to Denmark in 1005. They returned in 1006 and demanded even more danegeld. Aethelred agreed to 36,000 pounds of silver in a final attempt to buy peace.

      The Danish fleet was often based in Greenwich as a base to attack London. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Alfege) was murdered in Greenwich by a Danish invading force on Easter Day 1012. He was driven into exile in Normandy by Sweyn but returned after his death. Died during Cnut's invasion of England.
      Æthelred II, the Unready (978-1016 AD)

      He succeeded to the throne after the murder of his half-brother, Edward II, the Martyr, at the age of ten. His reign was plagued by poor advice from his personal favorites and suspicions of his complicity in Edward's murder. His was a rather long and ineffective reign, which was notable for little other than the payment of the Danegeld, an attempt to buy off the Viking invaders with money. The relentless invasions by the Danish Vikings, coupled with their ever-escalating demands for more money, forced him to abandon his throne in 1013. He fled to Normandy for safety, but was later recalled to his old throne at the death of Svein Forkbeard in 1014. He died in London in 1016.

      Ethelred II became king following the murder of Edward the Martyr. What followed was a disastrous time for England where all the good work was to go to waste. England, as affluent as it had ever been since the time of the Romans was about to descend back into the dark pit it had spent all those years climbing out of. To blame Aethelred for all that was about to happen would be unfair, but one must ask the question of how Alfred, Edward I or Aethelstan would have dealt with the particular set of circumstances that now confronted Aethelred. His weak leadership and favouritism for selected henchmen. with nepotism abound, probably because of his perpetual fear of insurrection and plot, England declined rapidly. The countries strength had kept the Danes away. In 980 the Danes returned in force. England was slowly returning to the dark ages again. Aethelred did virtually nothing. It was left to valiant individuals to resist their advance. The most famous was the Battle of Maldon in 991, where Byrhtnoth, the reeve of Essex defended the causeway from the onslaught before being killed

      Time Line
      1002-13 November (St. Brice's Day): Ethelred ordered the massacre of Danes living in England
      1002/3: Birth of Edward (the Confessor) - Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England (again)
      1007: Danes bought off from England by Ethelred - Ship money first levied in England
      1009: Danish invasion of England
      1012: 19 April - St. Alphege (954 - 1012) martyred on Easter Sunday, on spot of St. Alfege Church in Greenwich.
      1013: Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England (again) - Ethelred fled to Norway
    • Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England was born between 966 and 969.1 He was the son of Eadgar 'the Peaceful', King of England and Ælfthryth (?).3 He married, firstly, Ælgifu (?), daughter of Thored of Northumbria, Ealdorman of York and Hilda (?), between 980 and 985.1 He married, secondly, Emma de Normandie, daughter of Richard I, 3rd Duc de Normandie and Gunnor de Crêpon, on 5 April 1002 at Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, Hampshire, England.4 He died on 23 April 1016 at London, England, murdered.5 He died in 1016. He was buried at St. Paul's Cathedral, The City, London, England.5
      Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England succeeded to the title of King Æthelred II of England on 18 March 978.1 He was crowned King of England on 4 April 978 at Kingston-upon-Thames, London, England.1 He abdicated as King of England in 1013.1 He succeeded to the title of King Æthelred II of England on 3 February 1014.1
      Ethelred was the son of King Edgar and began to reign when only 11 years old. He was a weakling, totally unable to withstand the Danish onslaught that re-started on his accession. He continually attempted to buy off the Danes - Danegeld - as when he lost the Battle of Maldon in 991. In a state of near panic he ordered the slaughter of all Danes whether peaceful settlers or not and this foul deed was put in hand on St. Brices Day 13 Nov 1002. Among the victims was the sister of Sweyn, King of Denmark. The Norsemen were furious and ravaged the country from Cornwall to Kent and from South Wales to East Anglia. By 1013, Sweyn, who was accompanied by his son Canute, was proclaimed King but he died soon afterwards. Ethelred fled to Normandy when Sweyn's rule prevailed and then on Sweyn's death he returned but the English lords placed severe restrictions on him. The Danes led by Canute returned in 1015 and landing at Poole they crossed the Thames at Cricklade.
      Children of Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England and Ælgifu (?)
      Æthelstan (?) b. c 986, d. bt 1012 - 10153
      Eadred (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 10156
      Edgar (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 10157
      Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England+ b. bt 988 - 993, d. 30 Nov 10166
      Edward (?) b. bt 988 - 1002, d. b 1004
      Eadwig (?) b. bt 989 - 1002, d. 10176
      Ecgberht (?) b. bt 990 - 1002, d. c 10056
      Eadgyth (?)+ b. bt 991 - 10027
      Ælfgifu (?)+ b. bt 991 - 10028
      Wulfhild (?) b. bt 992 - 10027
      unknown daughter (?) b. bt 993 - 10027
      unknown daughter2 (?) b. bt 994 - 1002, d. a 10514
      Children of Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England and Emma de Normandie
      Saint Edward 'the Confessor', King of England b. bt 1003 - 1005, d. 5 Jan 1066
      Godgifu (?)+ b. bt 1004 - 1014, d. b 10496
      Alfred 'Atheling' (?) b. b 1012, d. 5 Feb 10376
      Citations
      [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 22. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Family.
      [S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.
      [S52] G. S. P. Freeman-Grencville, The Queen's Lineage: from A.D. 495 to the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (London , U.K.: Rex Collings, 1977), page 4. Hereinafter cited as The Queen's Lineage.
      [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family, page 23.
      [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family, page 24.
      [S52] G. S. P. Freeman-Grencville, The Queen's Lineage, page 6.
      [S58] E. B. Fryde, D. E. Greenway, S. Porter and I. Roy, editors, Handbook of British Chronology, 3rd edition (London, U.K.: Royal Historical Society, 1986), page 27. Hereinafter cited as Handbook of British Chronology.
      [S8] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 13. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
    • King of the English, 18 March 978-December 1013, 3 February 1014-23 April 1016. Crowned: Kingston-upon-Thames, 4 April 978.Born: c968. Died: London, 23 April 1016, aged 48. Buried: Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London.Married: (1) c985, Elgiva (c963-1002), dau. Thored, ealdorman of Northumbria: 13 children; (2) 5 April 1002, Emma (c985-1052), dau. Richard, duke of Normandy: 3 children.Athelred is remembered colloquially and half-jokingly today as the Unready, although the nickname was really a clever pun on his name, athel “noble” and raed “counsel”, meaning “noble counsel”. Throughout his reign Athelred was ill-advised and if he made his own decision, he was as likely to change his mind, hence the nickname, raed-less, or lacking counsel. He was a better administrator that history has given credit, but he was a hopeless king and leader. He was the son of EDGAR and second (or third) wife Elfrida. At the time of Edgar’s death there were many who supported Athelred as the next king, but the witan elected his elder half-brother EDWARD. When Edward was murdered three years later, Athelred’s supporters, who included his mother and the Mercian ealdorman Alfhere, ensured that Athelred came to the throne. He was still probably under ten, and Elfrida and Alfhere dominated the government of England. Alfhere had been the main opponent to Edward and led the anti-monastic movement which flared up following the death of Edgar. Alfhere believed that the monasteries were becoming too rich and powerful too quickly and that they could control the shires. Alfhere was implicated in the murder of Edward. Interestingly it was he who translated Edward’s body from its hasty burial at Wareham to Shaftesbury, where it was buried amongst great ceremony and talk of miracles. Alfhere remained the most powerful ealdorman until his death in 983. He succeeded in shaping Athelred’s policy toward reducing the power of the monasteries, although Athelred later over-turned this. Alfhere also had to face the impact of the first Danish raids for thirty years, which marked the beginning of the end for the Saxon kingdom. When he died, Alfhere was not much loved, being regarded as something of a bully. After Alfhere’s death Athelred endeavored (sic) to exert his own authority and even his mother’s considerable power waned, though she lived till 1002. There was a period in the late 980s when Athelred sought to reduce the power of the church, but he subsequently reverted to his father’s interests and promoted the construction of new monasteries under the new order. He also endeavored (sic) to update the laws of the country and reorganize local government. This culminated in the Wantage Code of 997 which, compared to past law codes, showed an unprecedented willingness to accept local customs, especially those amongst the Danes of eastern England. Many of the odd and curious anomalies that we have in our customs and codes of conduct in this country were enshrined under this Code. Had Athelred’s reign been measured by his willingness and ability to reform and organize, he would have been remembered kindly, but his mettle was tested when the Danish raids returned and England was pushed to the limit. The raids began in a comparatively small way as early as 980 and continued through to 982. Most of the raids were in the south west, but Southampton was severely damaged and London was attacked and burned in 982. Raids ceased for the next few years and perhaps Athelred was lulled into a false sense of security, for in 987 they began again, once more in the south-west and then, in 991, a major battle at Maldon in Essex. The Danish leader Olaf Tryggvason outwitted the East Saxon ealdorman Beortnoth, and the Saxons were killed to a man. The first payment of danegeld, or what amounted to protection money, arose following this battle, a policy instigated at the suggestion of Sigeric, the archbishop of Canterbury, who was one of Athelred’s poor advisers. Olaf used this ploy as he moved around the south and east, plundering and destroying and then extracting payment. In 994, after the Danes had invaded London, Athelred paid 16,000 pounds in danegeld, but this time on the basis that Olaf would accept Christianity and never again raid Britain. Olaf kept his promise. He used the money to strengthen his fleet and finance his bid for the kingship of Norway. But his command was superseded by others who had made no such agreement, and so the raids continued. Each year the danegeld increased until the riches of England were savagely reduced. In addition the monasteries were plundered and destroyed and with armies being kept mobilized (sic) for most of the year men were unable to harvest. The country grew poorer, the men weaker, and spirits lower. The men had no equivalent of ALFRED or EDWARD (THE ELDER) or ATHELSTAN to look to for leadership. Athelred had never been tested as a battle commander and he had no idea what to do. He also had to face desertion from amongst his own ealdormen, whose actions in fleeing the command of battle further weakened their men’s morale. Athelred seemed powerless to punish them. Instead he shifted from one mad scheme to another, none of which worked and all of which reduced the country’s morale further. At one point in 1009, he demanded that a whole new fleet be constructed, but he was unable to find sufficient able commanders and had no battle plans to meet the Danes in the waters they controlled. The fleet spent more time anchored off-shore than in battle, and once it moved into battle it was destroyed. Athelred did nothing to save it but left it to its fate. The venture was a disaster and drained the country’s resources further. In 1002 Athelred married Emma, daughter of Richard, duke of Normandy. The marriage was almost certainly to create an alliance whereby Richard stopped the Danes using Normandy as a base for raiding southern England. Richard no doubt played his part, but the plan was another of Athelred’s ineffective tactics. Probably his worst decision was the St Brice’s Day massacre on 13 November 1002. He ordered the killing of every Dane who lived in England except the Anglo-Danes of Danelaw. It is unlikely that the edict was carried out to the letter, but there was fearful slaughter across southern England which left a bitter stain on Athelred’s character. Even if the resident Danes had supported him previously, they now turned against him. The massacre brought back to English shores the Danish commander SWEIN who had accompanied Olaf on earlier missions. Legend has it that Swein’s sister and her husband had been killed in the massacre and Swein returned to exact revenge. Sweins campaign lasted from 1003 to 1007 when Athelred agreed a peace treaty with him and paid over an immense danegeld of 30,000 pounds. Swein returned to Denmark, but new commanders took his place and the raids and slaughter continued. The next major enemy was Thorkell the Tall, who arrived with a major army in August 1009 and left a wave of destruction across southern England. The low point of his campaign was the murder of Alphege, the archbishop of Canterbury in 1012. Thorkell had not condoned the murder and he subsequently offered his services to help protect England. Athelred had to raise a new tax, the heregeld, to pay for Thorkell’s army, but this band of mercenaries was more effective than the English army because it had a strong, sound leader. Nevertheless, the whole of England had now become a battlefield, and the English were prepared to submit. Swein read the signs correctly when he returned to England. He landed in the Humber in August 1013, and the Northumbrians immediately submitted, followed soon by the Danes of Danelaw. Athelred waited with Thorkell’s fleet in the Thames off London, so Swein marched on Bath, where the Mercians and West Saxons capitulated. By December 1013 London collapsed and Athelred fled to Normandy. Swein died only three months later and Athelred was recalled, when Swein’s son, CANUTE, returned to establish himself in Denmark. Athelred’s return was conditional on that he governed “more justly than he had done in the past.” Matters did not improve, however. Early in the fighting against Canute, in 1014 Athelred’s eldest son and heir, Athelstan, was killed in battle. Early in 1015 Athelred executed the two leading thanes of the Danelaw whom he regarded as traitors, which did not endear him to Mercia or the north. His son, EDMUND, gained the support of the Danelaw, and when Canute returned later in 1015, England was divided and the armies refused to move against the Danes unless the king himself commanded them. By now, though, Athelred was dying. Although he was only forty-eight, he had lived longer than many of his predecessors and was worn out by the fighting. He died on 23 April 1016, leaving Edmund to continue to battle for survival.

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    • Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II,[1][2] (c. 968 - 23 April 1016), was a king of the English (978-1013 and 1014-1016). He was a son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth . His reign was much troubled by Danish Viking raiders. Æthelred was only about 10 (no more than 13) when his half-brother Edward was murdered and was not personally suspected of participation. But as the deed occurred at Corfe Castle by the attendants of Æthelred's mother , it made it more difficult for the new king to rally the nation against the invader, especially as a legend of St Edward the Martyr soon grew. Later, Æthelred ordered a massacre of Danish settlers in 1002 and also paid tribute, or Danegeld , to Danish leaders from 991 onwards. In 1013, Æthelred fled to Normandy and was replaced by Sweyn , who was also king of Denmark. However, Æthelred returned as king after Sweyn died the following year. "Unready" is from Anglo-Saxon unræd, meaning ill-advised.
      The story of Æthelred's notorious nickname, "Æthelred the Unready", from Old English Æþelræd Unræd, goes a long way to explaining how his reputation has declined through history. His first name, composed of the elements æðele, meaning "noble", and ræd, meaning "counsel" or "advice",[3] is typical of the bombastic compound names of those who belonged to the royal House of Wessex , and it characteristically alliterates with the names of his ancestors like, for example, Æthelwulf ("noble-wolf"), Ælfred ("elf-counsel"), Edward ("prosperous-protection"), and Edgar ("rich-spear").[4] His nickname Unræd is usually translated into present-day English as 'The Unready', though, because the present-day meaning of 'unready' no longer resembles its ancient counterpart, this translation disguises the meaning of the Old English term. Bosworth-Toller defines the noun unræd in various ways, though it seems always to have been used pejoratively. Generally, it means "evil counsel", "bad plan", "folly". Bosworth-Toller do not record it as describing a person directly; it most often describes decisions and deeds, and once refers to the nature of Satan's deceit (see Fall of Man ). The element ræd in unræd is the element in Æthelred's name which means 'counsel'. Thus Æþelræd Unræd is a pun meaning "Noble counsel, No counsel". The nickname has alternatively been taken adjectivally as "ill-advised", "ill-prepared", "indecisive", thus "Æthelred the ill-advised".
      The epithet would seem to describe the poor quality of advice which Æthelred received throughout his reign, presumably from those around him, specifically from the royal council, known as the Witan . Though the nickname does not suggest anything particularly respectable about the king himself, its invective is not actually focused on the king but on those around him, who were expected to provide the young king with god ræd. Unfortunately, historians, both medieval and modern, have taken less of an interest in what this epithet suggests about the king's advisers, and have instead focused on the image it creates of a blundering, misfit king. Because the nickname was first recorded in the 1180s, more than 150 years after Æthelred's death, it is doubtful that it carries any implications for how the king was seen by his contemporaries or near contemporaries.[5]
      Sir Frank Merry Stenton remarked that "much that has brought condemnation of historians on King Æthelred may well be due to in the last resort to the circumstances under which he became king."[6] Æthelred's father, King Edgar, had died suddenly in July of 975, leaving two young sons behind him. The elder, Edward (later Edward the Martyr ), was Edgar's son by his first wife, Æthelflæd,[7] and was "still a youth on the verge of manhood" in 975.[8] The younger son was Æthelred, whose mother, Ælfthryth , Edgar had married in 964. Ælfthryth was the daughter of Ordgar, ealdorman of Devon , and widow of Æthelwold, Ealdorman of East Anglia . At the time of his father's death, Æthelred could have been no more than 10 years old. As the elder of Edgar's sons, Edward - reportedly a young man given to frequent violent outbursts - probably would have naturally succeeded to the throne of England despite his young age, had not he "offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behaviour."[9] In any case, a number of English nobles took to opposing Edward's succession and to defending Æthelred's claim to the throne; Æthelred was, after all, the son of Edgar's last, living wife, and no rumour of illegitimacy is known to have plagued Æthelred's birth, as it might his elder brother's.[10] It must be remembered that both boys, Æthelred certainly, were too young to have played any significant part in the political manoeuvring which followed Edgar's death. It was the brothers' supporters, and not the brothers themselves, who were responsible for the turmoil which accompanied the choice of a successor to the throne. Æthelred's cause was led by his mother and included Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester .[11] while Edward's claim was supported by Dunstan , the Archbishop of Canterbury and Saint Oswald of Worcester , the Archbishop of York [12] among other noblemen, notably Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia , and Byrhtnoth , ealdorman of Essex . In the end, Edward's supporters proved the more powerful and persuasive, and he was crowned king before the year was out.
      Edward reigned for only three years before he was murdered by his brother's household. Though we know little about Edward's short reign, we do know that it was marked by political turmoil. Edgar had made extensive grants of land to monasteries which pursued the new monastic ideals of ecclesiastical reform, but these disrupted aristocratic families' traditional patronage. The end of his firm rule saw a reversal of this policy, with aristocrats seizing, or seizing back, land. This was opposed by Dunstan, but according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "The presence of supporters of church reform on both sides indicates that the conflict between them depended as much on issues of land ownership and local power as on ecclesiastical legitimacy. Adherents of both Edward and Æthelred can be seen appropriating, or recovering, monastic lands."[13] Nevertheless, favour for Edward must have been strong among the monastic communities. When Edward was killed at Æthelred's estate at Corfe Castle in Dorset in March of 978, the job of recording the event, as well as reactions to it, fell to monastic writers. Stenton offers a summary of the earliest account of Edward's murder, which comes from a work praising the life of Saint Oswald of Worcester : "On the surface his [Edward's] relations with Æthelred his half-brother and Ælfthryth his stepmother were friendly, and he was visiting them informally when he was killed. [Æthelred's] retainers came out to meet him with ostentatious signs of respect, and then, before he had dismounted, surrounded him, seized his hands, and stabbed him. ... So far as can be seen the murder was planned and carried out by Æthelred's household men in order that their young master might become king. There is nothing to support the allegation, which first appears in writing more than a century later, that Queen Ælfthryth had plotted her stepson's death. No one was punished for a part in the crime, and Æthelred, who was crowned a month after the murder, began to reign in an atmosphere of suspicion which destroyed the prestige of the crown. It was never fully restored in his lifetime."[14] Nevertheless, at first, the outlook of the new king's officers and counsellors seems in no way to have been bleak. According to one chronicler, the coronation of Æthelred took place with much rejoicing by the councillors of the English people.[15] Simon Keynes notes that "Byrhtferth of Ramsey states similarly that when Æthelred was consecrated king, by Archbishop Dunstan and Archbishop Oswald , 'there was great joy at his consecration’, and describes the king in this connection as ‘a young man in respect of years, elegant in his manners, with an attractive face and handsome appearance’."[16] Æthelred could not have been older than 13 years of age in this year.
      During these early years, Æthelred was developing a close relationship to Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, one who had supported his unsuccessful claim to the throne. When Æthelwold died, on 1 August 984, Æthelred deeply lamented the loss, and he wrote later in a charter from 993 that the event had deprived the country of one "whose industry and pastoral care administered not only to my interest but also to that of all inhabitants of the country."[17]
      England had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century by King Edgar , Æthelred's father. However, beginning in 980, when Æthelred could not have been more than 14 years old, small companies of Danish adventurers carried out a series of coast-line raids against England. Hampshire , Thanet , and Cheshire were attacked in 980, Devon and Cornwall in 981, and Dorset in 982. A period of 6 years then passed before, in 988, another coastal attack is recorded taking place to the south-west, though here a famous battle was fought between the invaders and the thegns of Devon. Stenton notes that, though this series of isolated raids had no lasting effect on England themselves, "their chief historical importance is that they brought England for the first time into diplomatic contact with Normandy ."[18] During this period, the Normans, who remembered their origins as a Scandinavian people, were well-disposed to their Danish cousins who, occasionally returning from a raid on England, would seek port in Normandy. This led to grave tension between the English and Norman courts, and word of their enmity eventually reached Pope John XV . The pope was disposed to dissolve their hostility towards each other, and took steps to engineer a peace between England and Normandy, which was ratified in Rouen in 991.
      However, in August of that same year a sizable Danish fleet began a sustained campaign in the south-east of England. It arrived off Folkestone , in Kent , and made its way around the south-east coast and up the river Blackwater , coming eventually to its estuary and occupying Northey Island .[19] About 2 km east of Northey lies the coastal town of Maldon , where Byrhtnoth , ealdorman of Essex , was stationed with a company of thegns. The battle that followed between English and Danes is immortalized by the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon , which describes the doomed but heroic attempt of Byrhtnoth to defend the coast of Essex against overwhelming odds. Stenton summarizes the events of the poem: "For access to the mainland they [the Danes] depended on a causeway , flooded at high tide, which led from Northey to the flats along the southern margin of the estuary. Before they [the Danes] had left their camp on the island Byrhtnoth, with his retainers and a force of local militia, had taken possession of the landward end of the causeway. Refusing a demand for tribute, shouted across the water while the tide was high, Byrhtnoth drew up his men along the bank, and waited for the ebb. As the water fell the raiders began to stream out along the causeway. But three of Byrthnoth's retainers held it against them, and at last they asked to be allowed to cross unhindered and fight on equal terms on the mainland. With what even those who admired him most called 'over-courage', Byrhtnoth agreed to this; the pirates rushed through the falling tide, and battle was joined. Its issue was decided by Byrhtnoth's fall. Many even of his own men immediately took to flight and the English ranks were broken. What gives enduring interest to the battle is the superb courage with which a group of Byrhtnoth's thegns, knowing that the fight was lost, deliberately gave themselves to death in order that they might avenge their lord."[20] This would be the first of a series of crushing defeats felt by the English at the hands of first Danish raiders, then organized Danish armies.
      In 991 Æthelred was around 24 years old. In the aftermath of Maldon, it was decided that the English should grant the tribute to the Danes that they desired, and so a gafol of 10,000 pounds was paid them for their peace. Yet it was presumably the Danish fleet that had beaten Byrhtnoth at Maldon that continued to ravage the English coast from 991-93. In 994, the Danish fleet, which had swollen in ranks since 991, turned up the Thames estuary and headed towards London. The battle fought there was inconclusive. It was about this time that Æthelred met with the leaders of the fleet, foremost among them Olaf Tryggvason , and arranged an uneasy accord. A treaty was signed between Æthelred and Olaf that provided for seemingly civilized arrangements between the now-settled Danish companies and the English government, such as regulation settlement disputes and of trade. But the treaty also stipulates that the ravaging and slaughter of the previous year will be forgotten, and ends abruptly by stating that 22,000 pounds of gold and silver have been paid the raiders as the price of peace.[21] In 994, Olaf Tryggvason, already a baptized Christian, was confirmed as Christian in a ceremony at Andover ; King Æthelred stood as his sponsor. After receiving gifts, Olaf promised "that he would never come back to England in hostility."[22] Olaf then left England for Norway and never returned, though "other component parts of the Viking force appear to have decided to stay in England, for it is apparent from the treaty that some had chosen to enter into King Æthelred's service as mercenaries, based presumably on the Isle of Wight."[23]
      In 997 Danish raids began again. According to Keynes, "there is no suggestion that this was a new fleet or army, and presumably the mercenary force created in 994 from the residue of the raiding army of 991 had turned on those whom it had been hired to protect."[24] It harried Cornwall , Devon , western Somerset , and south Wales in 997, Dorset , Hampshire , and Sussex in 998. In 999 it raided Kent, and in 1000 it left England for Normandy, perhaps because the English had refused in this latest wave of attacks to acquiesce to the Danish demands for gafol or tribute, which would come to be known as Danegeld , 'Dane-payment'. This sudden relief from attack Æthelred used to gather his thoughts, resources, and armies: the fleet's departure in 1000 "allowed Æthelred to carry out a devastation of Strathclyde , the motive for which is part of the lost history of the north."[25]
      In 1001 a Danish fleet - perhaps the same fleet from 1000 - returned and ravaged west Sussex . During its movements, the fleet regularly returned to its base in the Isle of Wight. There was later an attempted attack in the south of Devon , though the English mounted a successful defence at Exeter . Nevertheless, Æthelred must have felt at a loss, and in the Spring of 1002 the English bought a truce for 24,000 pounds. Æthelred's frequent payments of immense Danegelds are often held up as exemplary of the incompetency of his government and his own short-sightedness. However, Keynes points out that such payments had been practice for at least a century, and had been adopted by Alfred the Great, Charles the Bald, and many others. Indeed, in some cases it "may have seemed the best available way of protecting the people against loss of life, shelter, livestock, and crops. Though undeniably burdensome, it constituted a measure for which the king could rely on widespread support."[26]
      Æthelred ordered the massacre of all Danish men in England on St Brice 's Day, 13 November 1002. No order of this kind could be carried out in more than a third of England, where the Danes were too strong, but Gunhilde , sister of Sweyn Forkbeard , King of Denmark, was said to be among the victims. It is likely that a wish to avenge her was a principal motive for Sweyn's invasion of western England the following year.[27] By 1004 Sweyn was in East Anglia , where he sacked Norwich . In this year a nobleman of East Anglia, Ulfcytel Snillingr met Sweyn in force, and made an impression on the, until then, rampant Danish expedition. Though Ulfcytel was eventually defeated, outside of Thetford , he caused the Danes heavy losses and was nearly able to destroy their ships. The Danish army left England for Denmark in 1005, perhaps because of their injuries sustained in East Anglia, perhaps from the very severe famine which afflicted the continent and the British Isles in that year.[28]
      An expedition the following year was bought off in early 1007 by tribute money of 36,000, and for the next two years England was free from attack. In 1008 the government created a new fleet of warships, organised on a national scale, but this was weakened when one of its commanders took to piracy, and the king and his council decided not to risk it in a general action. In Stenton's view: "The history of England in the next generation was really determined between 1009 and 1012...the ignominious collapse of the English defence caused a loss of morale which was irreparable." The Danish army of 1009, led by Thorkell the Tall and his brother Hemming, was the most formidable force to invade England since Æthelred became king. It harried England until it was bought off by 48,000 pounds in April 1012.[29]
      Sweyn then launched an invasion in 1013 intended to make him king of England, and showed himself to be a general above any other Viking leader of his generation. By the end of 1013 English resistance had collapsed and Sweyn had conquered the country, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy, but the situation changed suddenly when Sweyn died on 3 February 1014. The crews of the Danish ships in the Trent immediately gave their allegiance to Sweyns's son Canute , but leading Englishmen sent a deputation to Æthelred to negotiate his restoration. He was required to promise to be a true lord to them, to reform everything of which they had complained, and forgive all that had been said and done against him. The terms are of great constitutional interest as the first recorded pact between a king and his subjects, and also as showing that many noblemen had submitted to Sweyn because of their distrust of Æthelred.[30]
      Æthelred then launched an expedition against Canute and his allies, the men of Lindsey . Canute's army had not completed its preparations, and in April 1014 he decided to withdraw from England without a fight, abandoning his Lindsey allies to Æthelred's revenge. The debacle damaged the young and inexperienced Canute's prestige, but in August 1015 he was able to launch a new invasion with the assistance of his sister's husband, Eric of Hlathir . He returned to a complex situation in England. Æthelred's son, Edmund Ironside , had revolted against his father and established himself in the Danelaw , which was so angry at Canute and Æthelred for the ravaging of Lindsey that it was prepared to support Edmund against both of them. Over the next months, Canute conquered most of England, and Edmund had rejoined Æthelred to defend London when Æthelred died on 23 April 1016. The subsequent war between Edmund and Canute ended in a decisive victory for Canute at the Battle of Ashingdon on 18 October 1016. Edmund's reputation as a warrior was such that Canute neverthess agreed to divide England, Edmund taking Wessex and Canute the whole of the country beyond the Thames. However, Edmund died on 30 November and Canute became king of the whole country.[31]
      Æthelred was buried in St Paul's , London.
      Æthelred married first Ælfgifu , daughter of Thored, earl of Northumbria , in about 985.[32] Their known children are:
      Æthelstan Ætheling (died about 1012)
      Ecgberht Ætheling (died about 1005)
      Edmund Ironside (died 1016)
      Eadred Ætheling (died about 1012)
      Eadwig Ætheling (executed by Canute 1017)
      Eadgar Ætheling the Elder (died about 1008)
      Edith (married 1 Eadric Streona possibly 2 Thorkell the Tall )
      Ælfgifu (married Uchtred the Bold , earl of Northumbria)
      Possibly Wulfhild (married Ulfcytel Snillingr )
      Abbess of Wherwell
      In 1002 Æthelred married Emma of Normandy , sister of Richard II , Duke of Normandy . Their children were:
      Edward the Confessor (died 1066)
      Ælfred Ætheling (died 1036-7)
      Goda of England (married 1 Drogo of Mantes and 2 Eustace II, Count of Boulogne )
      All of Æthelred's sons were named after predecessors of Æthelred on the throne.[33]
      Æthelred's government produced extensive legislation, which he "ruthlessly enforced."[34] Records of at least six legal codes survive from his reign, covering a range of topics.[35] Notably, one of the members of his council (known as the Witan) was Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York , a well-known homilist. The three latest codes from Æthelred's reign seemed to have been drafted by Wulfstan.[36] These codes are extensively concerned with ecclesiastical affairs. They also exhibit the characteristics of Wulfstan's highly rhetorical style. Wulfstan went on to draft codes for King Cnut, and recycled there many of the laws which were used in Æthelred's codes.[37]
      Despite the failure of his government in the face of the Danish threat, Æthelred's reign was not without some important institutional achievements. The quality of the coinage, a good indicator of the prevailing economic conditions, significantly improved during his reign due to his numerous coinage reform laws.[citation needed ]
      Later perspectives of Æthelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080-c. 1143), who reports that Æthelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus , another medieval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.
      Efforts to rehabilitate Æthelred's reputation have gained momentum since about 1980. Chief among the rehabilitators has been Simon Keynes , who has often argued that our poor impression of Æthelred is almost entirely based upon after-the-fact accounts of, and later accretions to, the narrative of events during Æthelred's long and complex reign. Chief among the culprits is in fact one of the most important sources for the history of the period, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which, as it reports events with a retrospect of 15 years, cannot help but interpret colour events with the eventual English defeat a foregone conclusion. Yet, as virtually no strictly contemporary narrative account of the events of Æthelred's reign exists, historians are forced to rely on what evidence there is. Keynes and others thus draw attention to some of the inevitable snares of investigating the history of a man whom later popular opinion has utterly damned. Recent cautious assessments of Æthelred's reign have more often uncovered reasons to doubt, than uphold, Æthelred's later infamy. Though the failures of his government will always put Æthelred's reign in the shadow of the reigns of kings Edgar, Aethelstan, and Alfred, historians' current impression of Æthelred's personal character is certainly not as unflattering as it once was: "Æthelred's misfortune as a ruler was owed not so much to any supposed defects of his imagined character, as to a combination of circumstances which anyone would have found difficult to control."[38]
      Æthelred has been credited with the formation of a local investigative body made up of twelve thegns who were charged with publishing the names of any notorious or wicked men in their respective districts. Because the members of these bodies were under solemn oath to act in accordance with the law and their own good consciences, they have been seen by some legal historians as the prototype for the English Grand Jury.[39] Æthelred makes provision for such a body in a law code he enacted at Wantage in 997, which states:
      þæt man habbe gemot on ælcum wæpenkace; & gan ut þa yldestan XII þegnas & se gerefa mid, & swerian on þam haligdome, þe heom man on hand sylle, þæt hig nellan nænne sacleasan man forsecgean ne nænne sacne forhelan. & niman þonne þa tihtbysian men, þe mid þam gerefan habbað, & heora ælc sylle VI healfmarc wedd, healf landrican & healf wæpentake.[40]
      that there shall be an assembly in every wapentake ,[41] and in that assembly shall go forth the twelve eldest thegns and the reeve along with them, and let them swear on holy relics , which shall be placed in their hands, that they will never knowingly accuse an innocent man nor conceal a guilty man. And thereafter let them seize those notorious [lit. "charge-laden"] men, who have business with the reeve, and let each of them give a security of 6 half-marks, half of which shall go to the lord of that district, and half to the wapentake.
      But the wording here suggests that Æthelred is perhaps revamping or re-confirming a custom which already existed. He may actually have been expanding an established English custom to be used among the Danish citizens in the North (the Danelaw ). Previously, King Edgar had legislated along similar lines in his Whitbordesstan code:
      ic wille, þæt ælc mon sy under borge ge binnan burgum ge buton burgum. & gewitnes sy geset to ælcere byrig & to ælcum hundrode. To ælcere byrig XXXVI syn gecorone to gewitnesse; to smalum burgum & to ælcum hundrode XII, buton ge ma willan. & ælc mon mid heora gewitnysse bigcge & sylle ælc þara ceapa, þe he bigcge oððe sylle aþer oððe burge oððe on wæpengetace. & heora ælc, þonne hine man ærest to gewitnysse gecysð, sylle þæne að, þæt he næfre, ne for feo ne for lufe ne for ege, ne ætsace nanes þara þinga, þe he to gewitnysse wæs, & nan oðer þingc on gewitnysse ne cyðe buton þæt an, þæt he geseah oððe gehyrde. & swa geæþdera manna syn on ælcum ceape twegen oððe þry to gewitnysse.[42]
      It is my wish that each person be in surety , both within settled areas and without. And 'witnessing' shall be established in each city and each hundred . To each city let there be 36 chosen for witnessing; to small towns and to each hundred let there be 12, unless they desire more. And everybody shall purchase and sell their goods in the presence a witness, whether he is buying or selling something, whether in a city or a wapentake. And each of them, when they first choose to become a witness, shall give an oath that he will never, neither for wealth nor love nor fear, deny any of those things which he will be a witness to, and will not, in his capacity as a witness, make known any thing except that which he saw and heard. And let there be either two or three of these sworn witnesses at every sale of goods.
      The 'legend' of an Anglo-Saxon origin to the jury was first challenged seriously by Heinrich Brunner in 1872, who claimed that evidence of the jury could only been seen for the first time during the reign of Henry II , some 200 years after the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, and that the practice had originated with the Franks, who in turn had influenced the Normans, who thence introduced it to England.[43] Since Brunner's thesis, the origin of the English jury has been much disputed. Throughout the twentieth century, legal historians disagreed about whether the practice was English in origin, or was introduced, directly or indirectly, from either Scandinavia or Francia.[44] Recently, the legal historians Patrick Wormald and Michael Macnair have reasserted arguments in favour of finding in practices current during the Anglo-Saxon period traces of the Angevin practice of conducting inquests using bodies of sworn private witnesses. Wormald has gone as far as to present evidence suggesting that the English practice outlined in Æthelred's Wantage code is at least as old as, if not older than, 975, and ultimately traces it back to a Carolingian model (something Brinner had done).[45] However, no scholarly consensus has yet been reached.
    • Ethelred the Unready
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      Ethelred II, the Unready
      King of England

      Reign March 18, 978 – April 23, 1016
      Born 968
      Wessex
      Died April 23, 1016
      London
      Buried Old Saint Paul's Cathedral
      Predecessor Edward the Martyr (978)
      Sweyn (1014)
      Successor Sweyn (1013)
      Edmund Ironside (1016)
      Consort Ælfgifu
      Emma
      Issue Aethelstan Aetheling
      Edmund Ironside
      Ecgberht Ætheling
      Eadred Aethling
      Eadgyth
      Ælfgifu
      Eadwig Aetheling
      Eadgar Aetheling the Elder
      Edward the Confessor
      Ælfred_Ætheling
      Goda
      Father Edgar
      Mother Ælfthryth

      Ethelred II (c. 968 – April 23, 1016), also known as Ethelred the Unready or Aethelred the Unready (Old English Æþelræd Unræd), was King of England (978–1013, and 1014–1016). He was the son of Edgar, King of all England (959–975) and Ælfthryth. The majority of his reign (991–1016) was marked by a defensive war against Viking invaders.

      Contents [hide]
      1 Æþelræd Unræd
      2 Early life
      3 Conflict with the Danes
      4 Marriages and issue
      5 Legacy
      6 Cultural references
      7 See also
      8 References
      9 In Literature
      10 External links



      [edit] Æþelræd Unræd
      It is not true that contemporaries considered him ill-prepared. Rather, his nickname "the unready" derives from the Anglo-Saxon Unræd, which means "without counsel", "ill-advised" or "indecisive". This can be seen as a pun on his name, Æþelræd, which may be understood to mean "noble counsel" in Old English. So he was 'Noble counsel, No counsel'. There are 2 spellings of his name, the one here being 'Ethelred', and the second being 'Aethelred', which is closer to the original Anglo-Saxon spelling 'Æþelræd'. Books about him will use one of the two spellings, but they both refer to the same person.


      [edit] Early life
      According to William of Malmesbury, Ethelred defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, almost certainly a complete fabrication (a similar story is told of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another medieval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects).

      Following the death of his father King Edgar and subsequent murder of his half-brother Edward the Martyr by servants of Ethelred's mother, Ethelred succeeded to the throne at about age ten.


      [edit] Conflict with the Danes

      A coin bearing Ethelred the Unready's profileEngland had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century. However, a new wave of raids began in 980 and a sizable Danish force began a sustained campaign in 991. During the next quarter of a century England was devastated by a succession of large Danish armies, either under the leadership of King Sweyn I of Denmark or of other commanders such as Olaf Tryggvason and Thorkell the Tall, which Ethelred's government failed to combat effectively. He was only able to halt the depredations of these armies by the payment of large sums of money known as Danegeld. Each payment led to the withdrawal of the Danes, but on each occasion a fresh onslaught began after a year or two, and each Danegeld payment was much larger than the last. Ethelred's most desperate response was the massacre of the Danes living in England on St Brice's Day (November 13) 1002. Finally in 1013 English resistance collapsed and Sweyn conquered the country, forcing Ethelred into exile, but after his victory Sweyn lived for only another five weeks. In 1014, Canute the Great was proclaimed King of England by the Danish army in England but was forced out of England that year. Canute launched a new invasion in 1015 and Ethelred's control of England was collapsing once again when he died at London on 23 April 1016. He was buried in St Paul's and was succeeded by his son, Edmund Ironside.


      [edit] Marriages and issue

      A charter of Aethelred's in 1003 to his follower, Aethelred.Ethelred married first Ælfgifu, daughter of Thored, the ealdorman of York, by whom he had six sons: Æthelstan Ætheling (died 1011), Edmund Ironside, Ecgberht Ætheling, Eadred Ætheling, Eadwig Ætheling (killed 1017) and Eadgar Ætheling the Elder. They also had as many as four daughters: Edith, who married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia, and Ælfgifu, who married Uchtred the Bold, ealdorman of Bamburgh. Less certainly there may also have been a daughter named Wulfhild married to Ulfcytel Snillingr, and perhaps a fourth daughter, whose name is not recorded, who was abbess of Wherwell.

      His second marriage, in 1002, was to Emma of Normandy, whose grandnephew, William I of England, would later use this relationship as the basis of his claim on the throne. They had two sons, Eadweard (later King of England and known now as Edward the Confessor) and Ælfred Ætheling. By this marriage, he also had Goda of England, who married Drogo of Mantes, Count of Vexin.


      [edit] Legacy
      Despite the total failure of his government in the face of the Danish threat, Ethelred's reign was not without some achievements. The quality of the coinage, a good indicator of the prevailing economic conditions, significantly improved during his reign due to his numerous coinage reform laws.[citation needed]

      His formation of an investigative body charged with the duty of accusing no innocent person and sheltering no guilty one is credited as being the historical root of the grand jury.[1]


      [edit] Cultural references
      Ethelred was the subject of a stageplay by Ronald Ribman titled The Ceremony of Innocence. It was first performed in 1968, and depicted interactions between Ethelred and his court, family and advisors, and also with the Danish king.

      In the game Civilization IV, Ethelred the Unready is one of the leadership rankings you can achieve (though, true to his nickname, it denotes a very low achievement).

      Eddie Izzard comments about Ethelred the Unready in one of his comedy stand-up routines:

      "Ethelred the Unready? What did he do to be called that? 'My Lord the armies of...' 'Just give me a moment'".


      [edit] See also
      House of Wessex family tree

      [edit] References
      ^ Grand Jury handbook of the Florida Supreme Court.
      Ann Williams: Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London: Hambledon Press, 2003. ISBN 1-85285-382-4
      Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959

      [edit] In Literature
      Helen Hollick. The Hollow Crown. (August 2004) William Heinemann, Random House. ISBN 0-434-00491-X; Arrow paperback ISBN 0-09-927234-2. This is a historical novel about Queen Emma of Normandy, including her first marriage to Ethelred.

      [edit] External links
      Æthelred 32 (Male) the Unready; king of the English, 978-1016. Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
      Miller, Sean. Æthelred the Unready. Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
      Documentary - The Making of England: Aethelred the Unready
      Preceded by
      Edward the Martyr King of England
      978–1013 Succeeded by
      Sweyn
      Preceded by
      Sweyn King of England
      1014–1016 Succeeded by
      Edmund II

      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      King of the English 979 - 1013. King of the English 1014 - 1016. Events: Coronation April 14, 979. Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England. Deposition about October 1013. Resumption February 1014. Ethelreds mother, Elfthryth beat him with candles so hard and so often that he had a life-long phobia of them. In the face of the Danish raids, he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danengeld) the enemy. He was driven in exile by Sweyn but returned after his death. Ethelred did during Canutes invasion of England. Source: RoyaList, Leo van de Pas. *Burke* says he died 1010. Faced with an upsurge of Viking activity, he beggared the kingdom to buy the invaders off. By the time of his death, the Vikings were powerful enough to take over the kingdom and install one of their own as king, which was Canute. Source: Plantagenet Somerset Fry.
    • Æthelred II, the Unready (978-1016 AD)

      He succeeded to the throne after the murder of his half-brother, Edward II, the Martyr, at the age of ten. His reign was plagued by poor advice from his personal favorites and suspicions of his complicity in Edward's murder. His was a rather long and ineffective reign, which was notable for little other than the payment of the Danegeld, an attempt to buy off the Viking invaders with money. The relentless invasions by the Danish Vikings, coupled with their ever-escalating demands for more money, forced him to abandon his throne in 1013. He fled to Normandy for safety, but was later recalled to his old throne at the death of Svein Forkbeard in 1014. He died in London in 1016.

      Source: Britannia.com
    • (Research):Ethelred II "the Unready", King of England (978-1013)+(1014-16) -cr Kingston-upon-Thames 4.4.978, *ca 966/8, +London 23.4.1016, bur Old St.Paul’s Cathedral, London; 1m: ca 980/5 Elgiva (*ca 963, +Winchester II.1002, bur Winchester Cathedral), dau.of either Ealdorman Ethelbert or Thored, Ealdorman of York; 2m: Winchester Cathedral 5.4.1002 Emma of Normandy (*ca 985/7 +14.3.1052)
    • (Research):Ethelred II "the Unready", King of England (978-1013)+(1014-16) -cr Kingston-upon-Thames 4.4.978, *ca 966/8, +London 23.4.1016, bur Old St.Paul’s Cathedral, London; 1m: ca 980/5 Elgiva (*ca 963, +Winchester II.1002, bur Winchester Cathedral), dau.of either Ealdorman Ethelbert or Thored, Ealdorman of York; 2m: Winchester Cathedral 5.4.1002 Emma of Normandy (*ca 985/7 +14.3.1052)
    • Crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames in 979, he later fled to Normandy afte rthe
      Danish invasion in the autumn of 1013. He was restored to his throneu pon the
      death of Sweyn, Feb 1014. [His regain of the throne is not shown in th eBegin
      Reign-End Reign Events, only the initial reign. (ph)]
    • [Jeremiah Brown.FTW]

      [from Ancestry.com 139798.GED]
      Aethelred reigned 979-1013, in which year he was deposed, and 1014-1016.In the face of Danish raids he was forced to pay huge tributes (Danegeld) to the enemy. He was driven into exile by Sweyn Forkbeard, but returned after his death. Died during Canute's invasion of England. His tomb was lost when the old St Pauls was destroyed in the great fire of London.
      Born in 968, he was 10 when he became King. He reigned for thirty-eight years. He was the last of the boy kings. The epitaph "Unready" usually assigned to him is a misrepresentation of a word which properly means the Rede-less, or without counsel.
    • [Kopi av ROYALS.FTW]

      His marriage to Emma provided the basis for the subsequent Norman claim to the
      English throne. "The Unready" is a corruption of the Old English unraed, "bad
      counsel," which is a reference to his misfortunes.His marriage to Emma provided the basis for the subsequent Norman claim to the
      English throne. "The Unready" is a corruption of the Old English unraed, "bad
      counsel," which is a reference to his misfortunes.
      [] Aethelred II, The Unready. Ethelred: Known as the Unreaed or the
      Redeless, both meaning without counsel. His tomb was lost in the Great
      Fire of London in 1666.
      [Jak King, soc.gen.medieval, July 26 '95, quoting from Tapsell 1983]
      England (Kingson) Ethelred II Redeless rules 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
      [The Saxon & Norman Kings, by Christopher Brooke] (978-1016), Ethelred
      Unraed, first wife, Aelfgifu.
      [Alan Wilson , qoting Weis 7th ed., 1992,
      and others][] Aethelred II, The Unready. Ethelred: Known as the Unreaed or the
      Redeless, both meaning without counsel. His tomb was lost in the Great
      Fire of London in 1666.
      [Jak King, soc.gen.medieval, July 26 '95, quoting from Tapsell 1983]
      England (Kingson) Ethelred II Redeless rules 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
      [The Saxon & Norman Kings, by Christopher Brooke] (978-1016), Ethelred
      Unraed, first wife, Aelfgifu.
      [Alan Wilson , qoting Weis 7th ed., 1992,
      and others]His marriage to Emma provided the basis for the subsequent Norman claim to the
      English throne. "The Unready" is a corruption of the Old English unraed, "bad
      counsel," which is a reference to his misfortunes.
      [] Aethelred II, The Unready. Ethelred: Known as the Unreaed or the
      Redeless, both meaning without counsel. His tomb was lost in the Great
      Fire of London in 1666.
      [Jak King, soc.gen.medieval, July 26 '95, quoting from Tapsell 1983]
      England (Kingson) Ethelred II Redeless rules 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
      [The Saxon & Norman Kings, by Christopher Brooke] (978-1016), Ethelred
      Unraed, first wife, Aelfgifu.
      [Alan Wilson , qoting Weis 7th ed., 1992,
      and others][] Aethelred II, The Unready. Ethelred: Known as the Unreaed or the
      Redeless, both meaning without counsel. His tomb was lost in the Great
      Fire of London in 1666.
      [Jak King, soc.gen.medieval, July 26 '95, quoting from Tapsell 1983]
      England (Kingson) Ethelred II Redeless rules 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
      [The Saxon & Norman Kings, by Christopher Brooke] (978-1016), Ethelred
      Unraed, first wife, Aelfgifu.
      [Alan Wilson , qoting Weis 7th ed., 1992,
      and others][] Aethelred II, The Unready. Ethelred: Known as the Unreaed or the
      Redeless, both meaning without counsel. His tomb was lost in the Great
      Fire of London in 1666.
      [Jak King, soc.gen.medieval, July 26 '95, quoting from Tapsell 1983]
      England (Kingson) Ethelred II Redeless rules 978-1013 and 1014-1016.
      [The Saxon & Norman Kings, by Christopher Brooke] (978-1016), Ethelred
      Unraed, first wife, Aelfgifu.
      [Alan Wilson , qoting Weis 7th ed., 1992,
      and others]
    • GIVN Ethelred II "the Unready"
      SURN von Kent
      NSFX King of England
      AFN B19R-5C
      DATE 9 SEP 2000
      TIME 13:15:48
    • SOURCE CITATION:
      Title: Ancestral File (TM)
      Author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
      Publication Information: July 1996 (c), data as of 2 January 1996
      Repository Name: Family History Library
      Address: 35 N West Temple Street
      Salt Lake City, UT 84150 USA
    • #Générale#inhumation : Saint-Paul Uk

      #Générale#Profession : Roi des Anglo-Saxons de 978 à 1016.
    • [alfred_descendants10gen_fromrootsweb_bartont.FTW]

      The redeless, King of England 979-1016; m. (1) Alfflaed, dau of Thored. (CP IV, 504, IX, 704, Benerations 12-31; Thatcher, 321; Gardiner, xxvii-xxix).
    Person ID I6000000000769899901  Ancestors of Donald Ross
    Last Modified 5 Jun 2020 

    Father Ēadgār "sē friþ-georna" Taikusis,   b. 7 Aug 943,   d. 8 Jul 975  (Age 31 years) 
    Mother Ælfthryth,   b. Abt 945,   d. 17 Nov 1002, Wherwell, South Stoneham, Hampshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 57 years) 
    Married 965  Wessex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F6000000002957726452  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Ælfgifu,   b. 963, Wessex Kingdom, Anglo Saxon Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Feb 1002  (Age 39 years) 
    Married 985 
    Address:
    England
    England 
    Children 
     1. Edmund,   b. 988,   d. 30 Nov 1016  (Age 28 years)
     2. Ælfgifu,   b. 1002, Mercia, The Land of the Tomsaetians Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1042  (Age 40 years)
    Last Modified 14 Mar 2021 
    Family ID F6000000002602683168  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Emma iš Normandijos,   b. 23 Jun 985,   d. 23 Apr 1016  (Age 30 years) 
    Married 5 Apr 1002 
    Address:
    Normandy France
    Normandy
    France 
    Children 
     1. Godgifu,   b. Abt 1004,   d. 1055, Lewes Priory, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 51 years)
    Last Modified 14 Mar 2021 
    Family ID F6000000002916874244  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart