Ryan Lavelle

Definitely not a book for beginners, if you don't know anything about Aethelred II than this book isn't for you. It assumes you have at least a basic knowledge of the period and then sets out to put forward the authors opinions. This is not a straight out history, it is an academics look at the Kings reign and how and why people have criticized him.

The author has some interesting insights on the control of the King over England during this period and his relationships with his nobles. I don't agree with some of his opinions, but as the author points out there is much we do not know about the King and his reign, much that we must assume because the documents don't always tell us what we want to know.

I read the book as a stand alone book, but for a student of Anglo-Saxon England who is reading a number of opinions I think this book would really shine. I loved the maps and photos of modern England talking about the Kings reign as well as the drawing on the backcover of a Hill fort.… (mere)

Excellent account of the life and times of this somewhat misunderstood ruler (the Unready). Unlike for the reign and life of his father, Edgar, it is possible to construct much more of the course of events of his reign and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle is much more informative, supplemented by other primary sources of evidence. The author's central contention is that Ethelred's reputation suffers because of the Viking invasions of the last half dozen or so years of his reign, particularly of course that of Swein Forkbeard who effectively took over the Kingdom and saw Ethelred exiled to the Isle of Wight until he was recalled after Swein's opportune death. These traumatic events have implanted the image of Ethelred as weak in the face of the Viking onslaught onto the earlier much less serious Viking incursions of the 990s. But the evidence is that those earlier Viking incursions were less serious at least partly because there was an effective system of defence which the King was able to use. His reputation has also suffered because of his coming to the throne at the expense of his murdered half brother, King Edward called the Martyr, traditionally said to have been killed on the orders of Ethelred's mother Aelfthryth. Even if this account is true (and there is room for doubt - the killing may have been in a brawl), Ethelred was almost certainly a mere boy at the time. What emerges from this book is a picture of a King and an era much more interesting than the simple one of a ruler and country weak and helpless before the Viking onslaught. This is well worth reading and is not too dry or academic for the general reader. There is a useful chronology and a glossary also. The only slight criticism is that the photographs are not well reproduced. 5/5… (mere)