1.22 - 14 Aethelred the Unready and the Rising Tide

The History of England

David Crowther

Europe, Queen, England, Medieval, Politics, Royal, History, Parliament, English, King, Modern, Early Modern, Monarchy

4.8 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2011

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aethelred's mother gets her son onto the throne at last. But it's not long before the disadvantages of kingship become clear, as the Danes begin to return with increasing force. Aethelred turned 18 in 983, and by 984 has sent his mother away ...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History of England, episode 14, the Rising Tide. Before I get going,
0:27.5	I could have just mentioned that one of you got in touch interested about the kind of books I've been reading to prepare this podcast.
0:34.5	So for all of you who have glutt and sub-punishment out there, I've put a few titles up on the website,
0:40.5	www.historyofengland.typepad.com, so that you can enjoy them too and send me nasty messages about all the things I've got wrong. I really look forward to that.
0:52.5	Last week we heard about the circumstances in which one of England's most infamous kings came to the throne,
0:58.5	that is, Atharad II, or Atharad III, as he's known.
1:03.5	In 978, Atharad came to the throne of probably the most organised and prosperous nation in Europe.
1:10.5	By 1016, the year of his death, this kingdom had been comprehensively defeated and was under the rule of a foreign king.
1:18.5	So is Atharad the worst English king ever, or simply the most misunderstood?
1:24.5	Not all the opinions from medieval sources are completely negative about Atharad, but it is very close.
1:31.5	We must also bear in mind that pretty much everything written about Atharad was retrospective,
1:37.5	and therefore in the full knowledge of the outcome, i.e. he lost.
1:41.5	Strangely enough, despite the Huha about the murder of Edward, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles report at the accession is reasonably positive,
1:49.5	and Atharad is described generally as being, gracefully manners and good-looking.
1:55.5	But other comments from later chroniclers, which may very probably reflect older traditions,
2:00.5	reflect a man who lacks energy and who is weak.
2:03.5	Therefore much given to sudden acts of overreaction and willful violence in a desperate attempt to reassert control over his situation.
2:14.5	His nickname, Unready, does not actually mean Unready, by the way.
2:18.5	It's actually an Old English pun. Atharad in Old English means Wise Council,
2:23.5	whereas Unraid means Poor Council.
2:26.5	So we get something on the lines of a couple of bloke sitting in a pub somewhere,
2:29.5	and one of them says Wise Council, Rabish Council more like.
	...

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