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AEthelred - or AEthelred the Unready - was king of England from 978 to 1013 and then again from 1014-16.

Whereas his predecessors had fought long and hard to stave off Viking invaders, dismantle their settlement the Danelaw and unite England, AEthelred is seen to have squandered this legacy.

As a consequence of all that, we don’t just know him as King AEthelred - he’s AEthelred the Unready.

AEthelred was born in around 966. At the time of his birth his father King Edgar, had been on the English throne for around six years.

His mother AEltfthryth was King Edgar’s second wife and he had an older half brother called Edward, from Edgar’s first marriage.

Powerful opposing factions in England at the time of King Edgar’s passing disagreed on which son should be made king, Edward, or AEthelred (the son of England’s Queen AElfthryth) who was considered by some as Edgar’s legitimate heir.

In the end the crown was awarded to the eldest son Edward, who was only about 12 at the time.

Poor Edward was murdered less than three years into his reign and AEthelred ascended to the throne.

AEthelred’s reign was defined by his battles and bad relations with invading Danish forces.

Soon after AEthelred took over, the Viking Danes stepped up their attempts and started raiding the English coastline.

In 991 a large Danish fleet made landfall in Essex and a large-scale battle at Maldon ensued. Despite a brave resistance, the Danes were victorious.

Instead of trying to defeat the Viking raiders by fighting them them, AEthelred seems to have taken the decision to try and bribe the invaders with a £10,000 tribute.

Rather than buying peace, this appears to have led to more demands from the Vikings, who extracted a further £22,000 in gold and silver from the king.

The raids continued throughout the late 990s and again, in 1002, AEthelred tried to buy peace with a £24,000 tribute to the raiders.

The Vikings extracted more money from AEthelred as the decade wore on.

In 1007 he handed over £36,000; then in 1009 another Danish army invaded, which was eventually bought off with a peace bribe of £48,000.

In the middle of all this, things went from bad to worse. It was perhaps bad enough that the raiders were paid off, which seemed to have the effect of simply encouraging them, but in 1002, AEthelred ordered the massacre of all Danes in England on St Brice’s Day - 13th of November.

Though these tributes meant AEthelred’s kingdom was almost £150,000 lighter - a fortune equivalent to hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money - with still no guarantee of peace, the St Brice’s Day Massacre perhaps remains the most fateful decision AEthelred

Many of the Danes salughtered had been in England for generations and would possibly have considered themselves English.

So from the outside it looks like AEthelred paid off the Viking invaders, rather than fighting them; then, when they weren’t looking, had his men turn their swords on innocent, unarmed Danes living within England. It’s not a good look.

One of the victims of this massacre was a woman called Gunhilde who had married an English Ealdorman. Gunhilde also happened to be the sister of a man called Sweyn Forkbeard, who was the King of Norway.

Possibly in a fit of revenge, Sweyn eventually launched an all out an attack on England in 1013, less with the aim of extracting a tribute, more with the aim of conquering England and placing himself on the throne.

And this is exactly what he did do.

AEthelred was forced to abandon his kingdom and seek shelter in Normandy and Sweyn was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1013.

Seeking shelter with the Duke of Normandy, AEthelred remarries, this time to Emma, the sister of Richard II, the Duke of Normandy, a marriage that produces another future king, Edward the Confessor.

Lucky for AEthelred, Sweyn died just over one month later and AEthelred was crowned king of England again. In a late attempt to prevent being deposed again, AEthelred went to battle against Sweyn’s son Canute and drove him from England.

Canute did have support in Lindsey, where north Lincolnshire is today - so it’s no surprise that after Canute’s departure AEthelred made sure to take his recent out on the people there.

AEthelred died in 1016 and was buried in Old St Paul’s Cathedral. His tomb was destroyed exactly 650 years later during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

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