Documentary – The Making of England: Aethelred the Unready; Portraits of King Ethelred II at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Æthelred I (alt. Aethelred, Ethelred; Old English: Æthel-ræd, lit. 'noble counsel'; [1] 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death in 871. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king.

Æthelred (died 911) became Lord of the Mercians in England shortly after the death or disappearance of Mercia's last king, Ceolwulf II, in 879.He is also sometimes called the Ealdorman of Mercia. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw.His ancestry is unknown.

World History Encyclopedia - Aethelred the Unready Ancient origins - Aethelred II: Aethelred the Unready, or Was He Just Unlucky? University of Cambridge - Æthelred the Unready, King of the English: 1,000 years of bad press

Aug 11, 2022 · King Aethelred the Unready was King of England during a turbulent time of consistent Viking threats to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom culminating in the reign of King Cnut. To make matters worse, his epithet which originated from a play on the word “unraed” meaning no council, has since allowed him to garner one of the worst reputations of all ...

Mar 28, 2025 · Aethelred I (died April 871) was the king of Wessex and of Kent (865/866–871), son of Aethelwulf of Wessex. By his father’s will he should have succeeded to Wessex on the death of his eldest brother Aethelbald (d. 860).

Mar 24, 2025 · Aethelred II – best known by the epithet, ‘the Unready’ – was king of the English for two periods, from AD 978 to 1013, and a brief second spell from 1014 to 1016. His combined reign of nearly 38 years stands as the longest of any Anglo-Saxon ruler, but was marked by continuous conflict with ...

Prince Æthelred of Wessex (Old English: Æthel-ræd; meaning "noble counsel") is the son of Judith and Aethelwulf, and half-brother of Alfred. After the Battle of Repton, Æthelred and his family flees Winchester. Æthelred, Athelwulf, Alfred, and Judith are in exile in the marshes, Alfred is sick. He has a vision in which Athelstan tells him …

Aug 16, 2024 · Aethelred II, also known as Aethelred the Unready, was king of the English from 978-1013 and 1014-1016. His long reign was initially stable, but Viking attacks on England escalated from the 990s onward.

Apr 3, 2023 · Born around 966, the reign of King Ethelred II was almost entirely dominated by war against the Vikings and in particular, Swein Forkbeard. While Æthelred the Unready – as he came to be known to history – won’t necessarily be mentioned in the same breath as England’s greatest monarchs, his seeming incompetence and misfortune may not be down to inherent character flaws, rather due to ...