AEthelmaer, and a member of the royal family of Wessex. He
became a monk at Glastonbury, then dean of the monastery of
Christ Church, Canterbury, and chaplain to King Canute, and
on the 13th of November 1020 was consecrated archbishop of
Canterbury. In 1022 he went to Rome to obtain the pallium,
and was received with great respect by Pope Benedict VIII.
Returning from Rome he purchased at Pavia a relic said to
be an arm of St Augustine of Hippo, for a hundred talents
of silver and one of gold, and presented it to the abbey of
Coventry. He appears to have exercised considerable influence
over Canute, largely by whose aid he restored his cathedral at
Canterbury. A story of doubtful authenticity tells how he
refused to crown King Harold I., as he had promised Canute
to crown none but a son of the king by his wife, Emma.
AEthelnoth, who was called the ``Good,'' died on the 29th of
October 1038, and his name appears in the lists of saints.
AETHELRED, king of Mercia, succeeded his brother Wulfhere
in A.D. 675. In 676 he ravaged Kent with fire and sword,
destroying the monasteries and churches and taking Rochester.
AEthelred married Osthryth, the sister of Ecgfrith, king of
Northumbria, but in spite of this connexion a quarrel arose
between the two kings, presumably over the possession of the
province of Lindsey, which Ecgfrith had won back at the close of
the reign of Wulfhere. In a battle on the banks of the Trent in
679, the king of Mercia was victorious and regained the province.
AElfwine, the brother of Ecgfrith, was slain on this occasion,
but at the intervention of Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury,
AEthelred agreed to pay a wergild for the Northumbrian prince
and so prevented further hostilities. Osthryth was murdered
in 697 and AEthelred abdicated in 704, choosing Coenred as his
successor. He then became abbot of Bardney, and, according
to Eddius, recommended Wilfrid to Coenred on his return from
Rome. AEthelred died at Bardney in 716. (See WILFRID.)
SOURCES.--Eddius, Vita Wilfridi (Raine), 23, 40, 43, 45-48,
57; Bede, Hist. Ecc. (ed. Plummer), iii. 11, iv. 12, 21;
Saxon Chronicle, s.a. 676, 679, 704, 716. (F. G. M. B.)
AETHELRED I., king of Wessex and Kent (866-871), was the
fourth son of AEthelwulf of Wessex, and should, by his father's
will, have succeeded to Wessex on the death of his eldest brother
AEthelbald. He seems, however, to have stood aside in favour of
his brother AEthelberht, king of Kent, to whose joint kingdoms
he succeeded in 866. AEthelred's reign was one long struggle
against the Danes. In the year of his succession a large Danish
force landed in East Anglia, and in the year 868 AEthelred and
his brother Alfred went to help Burgred, or Burhred, of Mercia,
against this host, but the Mercians soon made peace with their
foes. In 871 the Danes encamped at Reading, where they
defeated AEthelred and his brother, but later in the year
the English won a great victory at ``AEscesdun.'' A fortnight
later they were defeated at Basing, but partially retrieved
their fortune by a victory at ``Maeretun'' (perhaps Marden in
Wiltshire), though the Danes held the field. In the Easter
of this year AEthelred died, perhaps of wounds received in
the wars against the Danes, and was buried at Wimborne. He
left a son, AEthelwold, who gave some trouble to his cousin
Edward the Elder, when the latter succeeded to the kingdom.
AEthelweard the historian was also a descendant of this king.
AUTHORITIES.--The Saxon Chronicle, sub ann.; Birch,
Cartul. Saxon. vol. ii. Nos. 516-526; D.N.B.,
s.v.; Eng. Hist. Review, i. 218-234. (A. Mw.)
AETHELRED II. (or ETHELRED) (c. 968--1016), king of
the English (surnamed THE UNREADY, i.e. without rede or
counsel), son of King Edgar by his second wife AElfthryth, was
born in 968 or 969 and succeeded to the throne on the murder
of his step-brother Edward (the Martyr) in 979. His reign was
disastrous from the beginning. The year after his accession
the Danish invasions, long unintermitted under Edgar the
Peaceful, recommenced; though as yet their object was plunder
only, not conquest, and the attacks were repeated in 981,
982 and 988. In 991 the Danes burned Ipswich, and defeated
and slew the East Saxon ealdorman Brihtnoth at Maldon. After
this, peace was purchased by a payment of L. 10,000-a disastrous
expedient. The Danes were to desist from their ravages, but
were allowed to stay in England. Next year AEthelred himself
broke the peace by an attack on the Danish ships. Despite
the treachery of AElfric, the English were victorious; and the
Danes sailed off to ravage Lindsey and Northumbria. In 994
Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway, and Sweyn, king of Denmark,
united in a great invasion and attacked London. Foiled by the
valour of the citizens, they sailed away and harried the coast
from Essex to Hampshire. AEthelred now resorted to the old
experiment and bought them off for L. 16,000 and a promise of
supplies. Olaf also visited AEthelred at the latter's request
and, receiving a most honourable welcome, was induced to promise
that he would never again come to England with hostile intent,
an engagement which he faithfully kept. The Danish attacks
were repeated in 997, 998, 999, and in 1000 AEthelred availed
himself of the temporary absence of the Danes in Normandy to
invade Cumberland, at that time a Viking stronghold. Next
year, however, the Northmen returned and inflicted worse evil
than ever. The national defence seemed to have broken down
altogether. In despair AEthelred again offered them money,
which they again accepted, the sum paid on this occasion
being L. 24,000. But soon afterwards the king, suspecting
treachery, resolved to get rid of his enemies once and for
all. Orders were issued commanding the slaughter on St
Brice's day (December 2) of ``all the Danish men who were
in England.'' Such a decree could obviously not be carried
out literally; but we cannot doubt that the slaughter was
great. This violence, however, only made matters worse. Next
year Sweyn returned, his hostility fanned by the desire for
revenge. For two years he ravaged and slew; in 1003 Exeter
was destroyed; Norwich and Thetford in 1004. No effectual
resistance was offered, despite a gallant effort here and there;
the disorganization of the country was complete. In 1005 the
Danes were absent in Denmark, but came back next year, and
emboldened by the utter lack of resistance, they ranged far
inland. In 1007 AEthelred bought them off for a larger sum
than ever (L. 36,000), and for two years the land enjoyed
peace. In 1009, however, in accordance with a resolution
made by the witan in the preceding year, AEthelred collected
such a fleet ``as never before had been in England in any
king's day''; but owing to a miserable court quarrel the
effort came to nothing. The king then summoned a general
levy of the nation, with no better result. Just as he
was about to attack, the traitor Edric prevented him from
doing so, and the opportunity was lost. In 1010 the Danes
returned, to find the kingdom more utterly disorganized than
ever. ``There was not a chief man in the kingdom who could
gather a force, but each fled as he best might; nor even at
last would any there resist another.'' Incapable of offering
resistance, the king again offered money, this time no less than
L. 48,000. While it was being collected, the Danes sacked
Canterbury and barbarously slew the archbishop Alphege. The
tribute was paid soon afterwards; and about the same time the
Danish leader Thurkill entered the English service. From 1013
an important change is discernible in the character of the
Danish attacks, which now became definitely political in their
aim. In this year Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the
submission of northern England, and then marching south, he
attacked London. Failing to take it, he hastened west and
at Bath received the submission of Wessex. Then he returned
northwards, and after that ``all the nation considered him as
full king.'' London soon acknowledged him, and AEthelred, after
taking refuge for a while with Thurkill's fleet, escaped to
Normandy. Sweyn died in February 1014, and AEthelred was
recalled by the witan, on giving a promise to reign better in
future. At once he hastened north against Canute, Sweyn's son,
who claimed to succeed his father, but Canute sailed away, only
to return next year, when the traitor Edric joined him and Wessex
submitted. Together Canute and Edric harried Mercia, and
were preparing to reduce London, when AEthelred died there on
the 23rd of April 1016. Weak, self-indulgent, improvident,
he had pursued a policy of opportunism to a fatal conclusion.
AEthelred's wife was Emma, or AElfgifu, daughter of Richard
I. the Fearless, duke of the Nurmans, whom he married in
1002. After the king's death Emma became the wife of Canute
the Great, and after his death in 1035 she struggled hard to
secure England for her son, Hardicanute. In 1037, however,
when Harold Harefoot became sole king, she was banished; she
went to Flanders, returning to England with Hardicanute in
1040. In 1043, after Edward the Confessor had become king
he seized the greater part of Emma's great wealth, and the
queen lived in retirement at Winchester until her death
on the 6th of March 1052. By AEthelred Emma had two sons,
Edward the Confessor and the aetheling AElfred (d. 1036),
and by Canute she was the mother of Hardicanute. Emma's
marriage with AEthelred was an important step in the history
of the relations between England and Normandy, and J. R.
Green says ``it suddenly opened for its rulers a distinct
policy, a distinct course of action, which led to the Norman
conquest of England. From the moment of Emma's marriage
Normandy became a chief factor in English politics.''
AUTHORITIES.---The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (edition by C.
Plummer, 2 vols. Oxford, 1892-1899); Florence of Worcester
(ed. B. Thorpe, London, 1848-1849); Encomium Emmae (ed. by
G. H. Pertz in the Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, Band xix.,
Hanover, 1866) for the latter part of the reign. See also J. M.
Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus acti Saxonici (London, 1839--1848);
and B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws (London, 1840). (C. S. P.*)
AETHELSTAN (c. 894-940), Saxon king, was the son (probably
illegitimate) of Edward the elder. He had been the favourite
of his grandfather Alfred, and was brought up in the household
of his aunt AEthelflaed, the ``Lady of the Mercians.'' On the
death of his father in 924, at some date after the 12th of
November, AEthelstan succeeded him and was crowned at Kingston
shortly after. The succession did not, however, take place
without opposition. One AElfred, probably a descendant of
AEthelred I., formed a plot to seize the king at Winchester;
the plot was discovered and AElfred was sent to Rome to defend
himself, but died shortly after. The king's own legitimate
brother Edwin made no attempt on the throne, but in 933 he
was drowned at sea under somewhat mysterious circumstances;
the later chroniclers ascribe his death to foul play on
the part of the king, but this seems more than doubtful.
One of AEthelstan's first public acts was to hold a conference
at Tamworth with Sihtric, the Scandinavian king of Northumbria,
and as a result Sihtric received AEthelstan's sister in
marriage. In the next year Sihtric died and AEthelstan took
over the Northumbrian kingdom. He now received, at Dacre in
Cumberland, the submission of all the kings of the island,
viz. Howel Dda, king of West Wales, Owen, king of Cumbria,
Constantine, king of the Scots, and Ealdred of Bamburgh, and
