Ethelred or �thelred II, wrongly referred to as the Unready c.968-1016
King of England

The son of King Edgar and his second wife, �lfryth (Elfryth), he was 10 when he succeeded to the throne (978) after the murder of his half-brother Edward, the Martyr. He married Emma, daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy. He at first attempted to buy off Viking invaders (hence his Anglo-Saxon nickname of Unr?d, meaning 'lack of counsel' - mistranslated as 'Unready' - meant as a pun on his name Ethelred, which means 'good counsel'). However, in 1002, he ordered a savage massacre of all Danish settlers. In 1013, beleaguered by the invasion of Svein I Haraldsson of Denmark, he abandoned his throne and fled to Normandy but was recalled in 1014. Recent scholarship has seen his reign in more positive light than the hostile Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and has emphasized the efficient financial and secretarial system and the flowering of vernacular literature. By a first marriage he left a son, Edmund II, Ironside, who succeeded him for a few months, and by Emma he was the father of Edward the Confessor.