General 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 was destroyed in the great fire of London.[v55t3120.ftw]

Facts about this person:

Fact 1
King of England from 978 to 1016

Fact 2
Known as Aethlered the UnreadyETHELRED 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.


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 was destroyed in the great fire of London.