Ethelred the unready
| Æthelred | |
|---|---|
Æthelred in an early thirteenth-century copy of the Abingdon Chronicle
|
|
| King of the English | |
| Reign | 18 March 978 – 1013 (first time) |
| Predecessor | Edward the Martyr |
| Successor | Sweyn Forkbeard |
| Reign | 1014 – 23 April 1016 (second time) |
| Predecessor | Sweyn Forkbeard |
| Successor | Edmund Ironside |
| Born | c. 966 |
| Died | 23 April 1016 (aged about 50) London, England |
| Burial | Old St Paul's Cathedral, London, now lost |
| Spouse |
Ælfgifu of York Emma of Normandy |
| Issue Detail |
See list
|
| House | Wessex |
| Father | Edgar, King of England |
| Mother | Ælfthryth |
| Religion | Catholicism |
Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II (Old English: Æþelræd (Old English pronunciation: [æðelræːd])), (c. 966 – 23 April 1016) was King of the English (978–1013 and 1014–1016). He was the son of King Edgar the Peaceful and Queen Ælfthryth and was around 12 years old when his half-brother Edward the Martyr was murdered on 18 March 978. Although Æthelred was not personally suspected of participation, the murder was committed at Corfe Castle by his attendants, making it more difficult for the new king to rally the nation against the military raids by Danes, especially as the legend of St Edward the Martyr grew.
From 991 onwards, Æthelred paid tribute, or Danegeld, to the Danish king. In 1002, Æthelred ordered what became known as the St. Brice's Day massacre of Danish settlers. In 1003, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded England, as a result of which Æthelred fled to Normandy in 1013 and was replaced by Sweyn. He would return as king, however, after Sweyn's death in 1014.
"Unready" is a mistranslation of the Old English word (meaning bad-counselled, the ræd being cognate with Rat in German; its modern English descendant is , although this word is now obsolete), a twist on his name "Æthelred", meaning noble-counseled. It should not be "unprepared", but rather "ill-advised".
The story of Æthelred's notorious nickname, from Old English Æþelræd Unræd (Old English pronunciation: [æðelræːd unræːd]), goes a long way toward explaining how his reputation has declined through history. His first name, composed of the elements æðele (comparable to Dutch and , as in Old Saxon ), meaning "noble", and ræd (comparable to Dutch and Old Dutch rat), meaning "counsel" or "advice", is typical of the compound names of those who belonged to the royal House of Wessex, and it characteristically alliterates with the names of his ancestors, like Æthelwulf ("noble-wolf"), Ælfred ("elf-counsel"), Edward ("rich-protection"), and Edgar ("rich-spear"). His nickname Unræd is usually translated into present-day English as "The Unready" (less often, though less confusingly, as "The Redeless"), though, because the present-day meaning of "unready" no longer resembles its ancient counterpart, this translation disguises the meaning of the Old English term. Bosworth-Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary defines the noun unræd in various ways, though it seems always to have been used pejoratively. Generally, it means "evil counsel", "bad plan", "folly". Bosworth-Toller do not record it as describing a person directly; it most often describes decisions and deeds, and once refers to the nature of Satan's deceit (see Fall of Man). The element ræd in unræd is the element in Æthelred's name which means "counsel". Thus Æþelræd Unræd is a pun meaning "Noble counsel, No counsel". The nickname has alternatively been taken adjectivally as "ill-advised", "ill-prepared", "indecisive", thus "Æthelred the ill-advised".
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