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.