The nickname given to King Ethelred (who ruled England from 978 to 1016) is one of the great jokes of British history. This was the king who was so unprepared for what was going to happen that he would forever be known as “Unready”.
Ethelred – Ready for Nothing?
Maybe, but that is not what the name meant. A better
translation of “unred” is “ill-advised” and the nickname was a pun on his own
name, which meant “well-advised”. It was
only after his death that “Unready” was added to his name, and it was done so
as a condemnation of his behaviour. It was not as much that the advice was bad
but that he failed to take heed of advice that was good.
Ethelred was certainly no great shakes as a king. England
was coming under considerable pressure from the Danes who had left England in
peace for decades but sensed an opportunity for plunder now that a weak king
was in charge.
Ethelred displayed incompetence as a military leader and
seemed to manage to have his army in precisely the wrong part of the country
whenever a new raiding party turned up. Perhaps there was indeed a sense in
which he was “unready” in the generally understood meaning of the word.
There had been Danes living in England for many years, these
being concentrated mostly in the eastern part of the country known as the
“Danelaw” because English law was not enforced in those areas. Ethelred decided
that the Danes already settled in his country were a dangerous fifth column and
must be removed. In 1002 he therefore ordered their wholesale destruction.
This was a disastrous step to take. For one thing, it was
guaranteed to infuriate the Danish raiders even more, and for another there was
little chance that the policy would work. Ethelred could never have carried out
this act of ethnic cleansing without the support of his lords, and only a few
were keen to participate. Some local scores were settled, but that was about
it.
However, one victim of the massacres that did take place was
Gunnhilda, the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, the Danish king. Sweyn was determined
to punish Ethelred for this act, and, after several campaigns, he did so.
Ethelred was forced into exile in 1013.
On Sweyn’s death in 1014 Ethelred had to negotiate with the
Anglo-Saxon council of lords (known as the Witan) to be allowed back into the
country to resume his monarchy. He had to promise that he “would govern more
justly than he had before”, and this is therefore the first example in British
history of a king agreeing to rule with the consent of the ruled.
Ethelred’s resumed rule did not last long because he died in
1016, and so did his son Edmund later that same year. Sweyn’s son Cnut then
became king to make England part of the Danish empire for a time.
Ethelred was one of the worst kings to rule during the
pre-Conquest period and he well deserved to be remembered with an unflattering
nickname.
© John Welford
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