Ethelred II (Ethelred the Unready) was a son
of Edgar and succeeded Edward the Martyr as King of England from
978 to 1016. Ethelred's reign was plagued by his murdered brother
becoming a posthumous rallying point for political unrest; a hostile
Church transformed Edward into a royal martyr. Known as the Un-raed
or 'Unready' (meaning no counsel, or that he was unwise), Ethelred
failed to win or retain the allegiance of many of his subjects.
In 1002, he ordered the massacre of all Danes in England to eliminate
potential treachery. Not being an able soldier, Ethelred defended
the country against increasingly rapacious Viking raids from the
980s onwards by diplomatic alliance with the duke of Normandy
in 991 (he later married the duke's daughter Emma) and by buying
off renewed attacks by the Danes with money levied through a tax
called the Danegeld. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1006 was dismissive:
'in spite of it all, the Danish army went about as it pleased'.
By 1012, 48,000 pounds of silver was being paid in Danegeld to
Danes camped in London. Eventually, in 1013, Ethelred fled to
Normandy when king Sweyn of Denmark dispossessed him. Ethelred
returned to rule after Sweyn's death in 1014. Ethelred's son Edmund
set himself up as an independent ruler in the Danelaw. After Ethelred's
death in 1015, Edmund cleared southern England of Danish marauders
in a series of fiercely fought and highly mobile fighting, but
he lost the battle of Ashingdon of 1016 (his Mercian allies deserted
him) against Sweyn's son Canute, and died in the same year. Before
his death, Edmund made an agreement with Canute giving Canute
territorial concessions, including Wessex. Edmund was buried at
Glastonbury.
Source: www.probertencyclopaedia.com