Æthelred the Unready

Mid-America Medieval Association, 2019

This paper was presented at the 43rd annual Mid-America Medieval Association Conference (14 September 2019), whose theme was "What Lies Beneath." This paper provides a brief overview of post-Norman Conquest interpretations of the life, personality, and activity of Æthelred II "the Unready" of England, comparing them to what contemporary Anglo-Saxon sources say about the king. Numerous unflattering legends surrounding King Æthelred can be traced to the 12th century historian William of Malmesbury, while material from John of Worcester's 12th century chronicle will also be examined. In addition, popular interpretations from the 19th and 20th centuries show how Æthelred's unenviable reputation has progressed into the modern era. These interpretations are then compared to Anglo-Saxon sources for the activity and behavior of Æthelred. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for example, portrays the king more favorably-as a relatively typical, if unlucky, Anglo-Saxon king-and the Life of Oswald, while not an unbiased source, casts doubt on his supposed personality flaws. By revisiting these earliest sources, this paper argues that many of the commonly-repeated legends about Æthelred the Unready do not comfortably align with the earliest sources for the reign.

This is a teaching document that I wrote for my war in the Middle Ages class. It summarizes my thoughts about the Viking wars in England. As I am currently preparing a revised edition of my biography of Alfred the Great and am writing a short biography of Æthelred the Unready for Penguin, I welcome comments and criticisms. I am particularly interested in recent trends in viking studies.

Rounded Globe, 2019

In the realm of popular history, it’s common to hear the claim that Æthelred the Unready, King of the English, was a military failure in an age where kings had to be warriors. Due to the unflattering nickname (unraed actually means “poorly-advised”) and the Danish Conquest of England, it might seem that these critics have won the argument before it’s even started. That isn’t the case, though, as Bender’s research has found. This book seeks to redress King Æthelred’s military reputation, arguing that he was militarily prepared and often successful against his many enemies, including the Vikings. Tracking the king’s movement and activity over his 38-year reign, this book argues that Æthelred the Unready was anything but a battle-avoider. NOTE: The current file listed here corresponds to the book's printed form. Versions of this book downloaded prior to 14 August 2019 may have different page numbers. This book is available in ebook form, free of charge, on the Rounded Globe website. Its print form is available on Amazon.

Stephen Baxter, ‘The Death of Burgheard son of Ælfgar and its Context’, in Frankland: The Franks and the World of Early Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Dame Jinty Nelson, ed. P. Fouracre and D. Ganz (Manchester University Press: Manchester, 2008), pp. 266–84

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (c. 1004-1066) was the last great Saxon king of England. He reigned at a time when England had been enduring sustained attacks from the Danes and when relations with the Scots to the north were tenuous at best. His reign was followed by the brief reign of the less-than-capable Harold II, who died at the Battle of Hastings and thus lost control of England to William of Normandy. Relations between the Saxons and their conquerors for the next century were defined by intense animosity, as Saxon nobles were divested of their holdings by Norman lords and Normans began to occupy all the important civil and ecclesiastical offices. It was within this difficult situation that ^lred of Rievaulx (1110-67) emerged as a prominent scholar, political advisor, and monastic. After serving for ten years at the court of King David I of Scotland, JEktd came into contact with the Cistercian monastic movement and was attracted to its manner of life.' He entered the order at the English Cistercian abbey at Rievaulx, where in 1141 he became master of novices.^ In 1147 he was elected abbot.' Even as a monastic, i^lred continued to be involved in worldly affairs. Marsha L. Dutton writes:

An Orthodox Life of King Aethelred, the Anglo-Saxon King.

Providing an introduction to a special edition of English Studies, this paper reflects on the relationship of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the various 1000-year anniversaries of the reign of Aethelred II (978-1016) of the last four decades.

The English Historical Review

This article explains why Æthelflaed, ruler of Mercia, mattered to writers of history in twelfth-century England. It argues that these writers evaluated and compared rulers based not on sex or bloodline, but on the quality of a ruler’s achievements relative to the set and scale of challenges the ruler faced. They thought Æthelflaed remarkable because her triumphs for Mercia distinguished her from other rulers. The article shows that a new understanding of attitudes in twelfth-century England towards rulers, past and present, is required. It accounts for the absence of gendered comments about rulers, as well as the presence of non-binary concepts of gender, in medieval writing. It also challenges the enduring idea that Latin writers imposed a shared, Wessex-dominated national vision on the English past. They asserted Mercia’s independence under Æthelflaed’s sole rule, which shows that English regional interests persisted in the historical imagination long after the Norman Conquest.

There are few mentions of Aethelflaed of Mercia in modern secondary scholarship, and only tantalizing information on her in the primary sources. 1 Most secondary sources outlined the basics of Aethelflaed's place in history --admittedly a small part in the unification of England from Alfred to Aethelstan. Despite this, I always suspected there was more to Aethelflaed's story than we could get to; another forgotten memory destroyed by the vagaries of time and the chronicler's pen. And then, during a lecture on Alfred's kingdom in my Medieval English History course, a student excitedly raised his hand as I spoke about Edward's role in the destruction of Aethelflaed's realm in Mercia. A native of Ireland, he said he'd heard stories about Aethelflaed from his grandmother, stories that dwelt on English perfidy against rightful rulers. I asked him to write the story down for me, as best he could recall. His tale outlined Aethelflaed and her daughter as the rightful rulers of Mercia, rulers who had close connections and warm relations with Irish kings. This remained true until Aethelflaed's death, when Edward claimed Mercia as

The Kansas Association of Historians, 2019