Æthelred the Unready

A viking mercenary who fought on three sides, who was Thorkell the Tall?

When paying off the Vikings failed to yield lasting peace, on 13 November 1002 king Æthelred ordered the slaughter of England’s Danes instead.

As Anglo-Saxon England faced conquests and apocalypse, Archbishop Wulfstan saw hope for the kingdom in a radical restructuring of society.

Æthelred the Unready was king of a divided nation that lived in fear of the ‘divine punishment’ of the Vikings. Piety and prayer became his weapons of choice. 

Simon Keynes argues that the reign of the famously incompetent king, who died in London a thousand years ago, is in need of reappraisal.