Ethelred II (968?-1016) was king of England from 978 until 1016. During his reign, England suffered many Viking invasions and was briefly conquered. Ethelred’s name, also spelled Æthelred, means well-advised. Because of the disasters during his reign, the king came to be called Ethelred Unræd, meaning well-advised the badly-advised. Later, the Old English word unræd was mistranslated, so he is often called Ethelred the Unready.
When Ethelred’s father, King Edgar, died in 975, neither Ethelred nor his older half-brother, Edward, was old enough to rule. The English nobles formed two rival parties. One group wanted Ethelred to be king. But the other group gained power by putting Edward on the throne. In 978, Ethelred’s supporters murdered the young king and made Ethelred king.
England suffered small Viking raids in the 980’s, but the raids grew larger and better organized in the 990’s. Ethelred paid tribute several times so the Vikings would stop their attacks. He led troops and built a navy. But his actions were often ineffective, and the invaders kept returning.
In 1013, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded England with a large Viking force that overwhelmed the exhausted English. The English accepted Sweyn as king in late 1013, and Ethelred fled to Normandy. But Sweyn died the following February. Ethelred returned to England, and the Viking armies withdrew. In 1015, Sweyn’s son Canute invaded. Ethelred’s son Edmund Ironside led England’s defense. Ethelred died of illness in April 1016.
Although the people of London chose Edmund to succeed to the throne, he could not drive out Canute. The two men agreed to divide England, but Edmund died in November 1016. Canute became king of all England. He and his descendants ruled the kingdom until 1042, when Ethelred’s son Edward, later known as Edward the Confessor, reclaimed the throne.
