General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> King Of England
Name Suffix:<NSFX> "The Unready", King Of England
AETHELRED II or ETHELRED (c. 968-1016), king of the English (surnamed THE 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 Danes in 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 a fleet "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 he best 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. In this 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 a policy 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 in 1035 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 dis