Ethelred the Unready

Ethelred, or Æthelred reigned between 978 and 1013, and again from 1014-1016. He died in London and was buried in Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. Like Edred, he owed his ascent to the throne to an assassination, in this case of his elder half-brother, Edward the Martyr. His nickname was actually a pun on his name and did not mean ‘unready’ but rather ‘ill-advised’, suggesting the meaning of his name was rather ‘wise advisor’, not so far removed from the Eldridge meaning of ‘noble ruler’ that has been suggested. Ethelred spent most of his own reign in conflict with the Danes, and despite a brief interregnum when he fled to Normandy, he was King for 37 years, and was the longest ruling Anglo-Saxon King. He was the father of Edward the Confessor. When he died, Cnut was on the verge of conquering most of England. Ethelred’s tomb was lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666.