Of all the the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England, a few may have heard of Alfred the Great, perhaps even a few might remember King Harald, who lost to William of Normandy. But perhaps the most "famous" is the one with the unfortunate sobriquet Ethelred the Unready (Æthelred Unræd)
"Unready" is a misunderstanding of the actual term "Unræd", which means not "unready" but rather "ill-advised - his name Æthelred meaning "well advised".
Æthelred's story actually begins with the death of his father, Edgar, in 975 A.D. Edgar had two sons, Edward and Æthelred. Edward, Æthelred's half brother was elevated to the kingship in a contested succession (Æthelred being only 7 years old at the time of his father's death). We do not know a great deal of his reign: there was an anti-clerical reaction and only a few charters issued. In fact, the thing we know most about the Edward is his murder.
Like all really good historical murders, we do not know a great deal. We know it near Corfe Castle on the evening of 18 March 978 A.D. We know that he was buried without ceremony - and it is written that when his body was exhumed a year later, it was noted to be uncorrupted and Edward became Saint Edward the Martyr (a saint, although never formally canonized). What we do not know is who performed the act or why it was performed.
Blame, for better or worse, fell up on the remaining son of Edgar, Æthelred, who was now 10 years old. Whether done at his instigation or on his behalf or perhaps just a beneficiary of events, his reign started on an unfortunate note.
What made it more unfortunate was the return of the Vikings.
In 980 A.D., the Danes were back - first a small series of raids from 980 to 982 A.D., then larger ones in 988 and 991 A.D. The raids themselves were not devastating in the way the Great Heathen Army of the last century had been, but they did introduce one interesting and previously unknown relationship: It was said that the Vikings sheltered in Normandy upon their return from England - perhaps not surprising, as this was still within 100 years of the Normans having gone a-viking themselves. It created enough of an issue that the current pope of the time, John XV, engineered a peace treaty between England and Normandy (Treaty of Rouen, 991 A.D.).
Normandy. That might be a name that comes up later....
After the raid of 994 A.D., Æthelred came up with a familiar (to us) policy: The Danegeld, or payment for peace. 22,000 pounds of gold and silver were paid to relieve England from the attacks. That worked...until three years later, when the raids began again: 997, 998, 999 A.D. - the Danes returned, then left in 1000 A.D. (leaving time for Æthelred to attack Scotland) before returning in 1001 A.D and receiving 24,000 pounds of gold and silver in 1002 A.D. to depart.
Æthelred's solution to the issue? Call for a massacre of all men of Danish descent on the Day of St. Brice (13 November 1002 A.D.). Obviously not everywhere was strong enough to kill Danish-descended men (or wanted too), but some locations did. One location, as it so happened, executed Gunhilde, the sister of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark (son of Harald Bluetooth, whom he revolted against, and for whom the runic letters of his name are used in the Bluetooth symbol).
Sweyn did not take this well.
Sweyn invaded in 1004 and left in 1005 A.D. after a tactical defeat, but the Danes returned in 1007 A.D. and were bought off with 36,000 pounds of gold and silver. They returned again in 1009 A.D. under Thorkell the Tall and harried England until 1012 A.D, when they were bought off with 48,000 pounds of gold and silver.
The next year, Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England with the intent to conquer it - which he did in 1013 A.D. Æthelred and his family were forced into exile in Normandy - but then in 1014 A.D. Sweyn Forkbeard died, and Æthelred returned to England, where - with exception of parts of Lincolnshire - he successful reconquered the country. Swein's son, Canute, now whose older brother was now King of Denmark retreated - but then returned in 1015 A.D. to find the country at war with itself: Æthelred's son, Edmund "Ironside", had revolted against his father and claimed power in the Midlands and North, who remembered Æthelred's re-invasion following his return. Canute rolled in and then began the Danish reconquest of England all over again, undoubtedly assisted by a memory of the Anglo-Danish nobility and commoners of the St. Brice Day Massacre.
Æthelred died in April of 1016; his son Edmund began king and continued to battle against the Danes until the Battle of Assandun in October of 1016 A.D. It was a strong victory for Canute but, apparently in respect of Edmund's reputation as warrior, he split the country: Canute would hold all of the country beyond the Thames, Edmund would hold Wessex. The agreement barely lasted a month: Edmund died on 30 November 1016 A.D. and the whole of the country passed to Canute.
England, in the first time in her history since the retreat of Rome, had become a part of a larger empire.
One final note on Æthelred: in 1002 A.D. his first wife Ælgifu died. The king remarried - to Emma of Normandy. Her brother was Richard the II of Normandy, whose grandson William of Normandy we will meet soon enough.
Works cited:
Brooke, Christopher: From Alfred to Henry III 871-1272. Norton Library: USA, 1961.
Trevelyan, G.M.: History of England Volume 1: From the Earliest Times to the Reformation. Anchor Books: USA, 1953
Wikipedia: Edward the Martyr, Athelred the Unready, Sweyn Forkbeard, Harald Bluetooth
Interesting how the amount of Danegeld went up, guessing gold and silver miners were kept busy. Huh.....did not know about the Bluetooth symbol TB.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, it is interesting. What is more interesting is that the Danegeld did not effectively go away; it became a tax levied for defense by successive kings at least through the Plantagenets. Never let a good tax go to waste.
DeleteI actually learned about the Bluetooth symbol about a year ago. Apparently the idea was that as Harald Bluetooth united the various Danish tribes, so Bluetooth would unite technology. Kind of a cool tribute.
Although you are in a knowledge black hole for me, in another two hundred years, you will be in the time of William Wallace when I know a little more thanks to the Gibson movie very loosely based upon his life.
ReplyDeleteEd, a lot of this was terra incognito for me as well. Honestly, I knew vaguely of Æthelred, but not that the Danes suddenly reappeared. I had sort of thought they were there the whole time. Unfortunate for the Anglo-Saxons that another Alfred was not in the wings, or (in the case of Edmund Ironsides), did not survive long enough.
DeleteGlad to see you still have your sense of humor!
ReplyDeleteI'm another for which these years fill a knowledge gap. And the names change so frequently over just a few years, that it's hard to remember.
The Danegeld concept seems to have never gone away. Even though it's easy to observe that paying someone to not do (or do) something is only a temporary fix and ultimately a drain on one's economy. I suppose the politicians' mindset is to pay for a popular short-term fix, and hope that the consequences are delayed long enough to be someone else's problem.
It is hard to keep me down for long, Leigh!
DeleteThe Danegeld did not go away. It became transmuted into a sort of defense tasks which kings through the Plantagenets continued to levy (sort of like the phone tax that ultimately traced back to the Spanish-American War). What does not seem to have occurred to Æthelred (or many politicians) is that once you have shown you are open to bribery, it just because standard operating procedure.