Ethelred II of England - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Biography

Third child of the king Edgar, it is isolated throne into 975, with died of his father, in favor of his half-brother Edouard " Martyr". He becomes king after the assassination of this last into 978. He cannot be suspected of having soaked in this too young assassination because he at that time, but his/her mother Elfrida/Ælfthryth was suspected. Married three times, at least 10 children are known to him: 4 wire and 3 girls of her first Ælflaed wife, girl of Thored, lord of Northumbrie, (of which Edmond Coast-of-Iron, which succeeded to him); two wire, Edwig and Edgar, of its second wife, Ælfgifu, girl of the Æthelberth lord, with whom it Maria in 997; its third and last marriage with Emma of Normandy, in 1002, gave him three wire, of which Edouard the Confessor, who reigned of 1042 to 1066. The great nephew of Emma of Normandy, Guillaume Ier of England, will use later this union like argument allowing him to claim with the throne.

England lived one long period of peace since the reconquest of Danelaw, during first half of Xe century. However, in 991, Ethelred II had to face the revival of the invasions Viking S: the largest fleet since " the army of été" of Guthrum, one century earlier, led by Olaf Trygvasson, arrived. Olaf Trygvasson the Norwegian had as an ambition to release its country of the Danish domination. In 991, the English army under the command of the Byrhtnoth lord is crushed with the battle of Maldon and Ethelred is forced to pour in Olaf a heavy annual tribute, which returns to Norway. That brings a certain respite to Ethelred, but England still frequently undergoes the raids Vikings. Although Ethelred fights them, he chooses the policy followed regularly for a long time, in particular by Alfred the Large one, i.e. he pours of the money to the invaders. This practice had been secularized under the name of Danegeld (literally " money of Danois").

Eager to get rid of the Danes, Ethelred would have financed the massacre of the Saint-Brice of November 13rd, 1002 (massacre of the Danes, of which the sister of king Svein of Denmark) what is described by the Chronicles of John of Wallingford. In answer to that, in 1013, Svein of Denmark starts a series of campaigns in order to conquer England, it in what it succeeds. However, Svein saw only five weeks after its success.

Taken refuge in Normandy near his/her brother-in-law the duke Richard II, Ethelred thus finds its throne in February 1014, because, after the untimely death of Sven, the large ones of the kingdom of England recall it to the capacity. He dies two years later, on April 23rd, 1016, in London, where he is buried. His/her son, Edmond Coast-of-Iron succeeds to him, whereas the country is plunged in full civil war between its partisans and those of Cnut, the son of Svein.

According to the " fable" of Guillaume de Malmesbury, Ethelred would have déféqué in the baptismal font being child, which would have led Saint Dunstan to prophesy the fall of English monarchy under the reign of Ethelred. This history is nevertheless, in way quasi some, an invention. In spite of the ceaseless flood of the attacks of the Vikings, the reign of Ethelred was not as disastrous as would have liked it prophecy. Ethelred introduces major reforms into the operation of the English government, and is the creator of the first magistrates of county, Shire Reeves, or Shérif S. the quality of the striking of the currency, which always constitutes a good indicator of the economic conditions, remained very good during its reign.

Simple: Ethelred the Unready

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