Ann
Williams.
Aethelred the Unready: The Ill-counselled King.
Hambledon
and London Ltd, 2003.
256pp.
Hardback ISBN
1852853824.
Publisher's
recommended price £25.00
Æthelred
became
king of England in 978, following the murder of his brother Edward the
Martyr (possibly at the instigation of their mother) at Corfe. On his
own
death in April 1016, his son Edmund Ironside succeeded him and fought
the
invading Danes bravely, but died in November of the same year after
being
defeated at the battle of Assandun, leading to the House of Wessex
being
replaced by a Danish king, Cnut. Æthelred, in contrast to his
predecessor
and successor, reigned (except for a few months in 1013-14), largely
unchallenged
for thirty-eight years, despite presiding over a period which saw many
Danish invasions and much internal strife. If not a great king, he was
certainly a survivor whose posthumous reputation and nickname (meaning
"Noble Council the No Council") do him little justice. In Æthelred
the Unready Ann Williams, a leading scholar on his reign,
discounts the
later rumours and misinterpretations that have dogged his reputation to
construct a record of his reign from contemporary sources.
"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 treacherously deprive him, and then all his counsellors, of life,
and possess the kingdom afterwards." - ANGLO-SAXON
CHRONICLE, AD
1002.
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