The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

ETHELRED II

Ethelred II (Ethelred the Unready) was a son of Edgar and succeeded Edward the Martyr as King of England from 978 to 1016. Ethelred's reign was plagued by his murdered brother becoming 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.
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