Book 2, Chapter 9, Edward 975 AD to 1016 AD – Ethelred
Ethelred was appointed to the vacant throne because he was the only surviving member of the blood royal, but he was only ten years of age, and as a child he gave no promise of character and ability which could successfully meet the gathering troubles of his kingdom. His spirit had been cowed and broken by the severities of his mother, and it is said that when he wept for the death of his half brother Edward, to whom he was much attached, she seized some large wax tapers which happened to be at hand, and beat him so cruelly that he fainted, and his life was endangered. In the popular estimate, he ascended a throne which was stained with blood, although he was not chargeable with the crime, and the reign thus inauspiciously commenced was one of deepening gloom and disgrace, more calamitous, on the ‘whole, than any other reign in English history.
Ethelred’s general conduct gained for him the appellation of “the Unready,” one which serves to express the national opinion concerning him. The ceremony of the coronation was performed at Kingston, on the Sunday after Easter, 14th April, 978, and the following is the oath which was administered to the king by Archbishop Dunstan, previously to the coronation. “In the name of the most holy Trinity: I promise, first, that the church of God and all Christian people shall enjoy true peace under my government, secondly, that I will prohibit all manner rapine and injustice to men of every condition: thirdly, that in all judgments I will cause equity to be united with mercy, that the most element God may, through his eternal mercy, forgive us all. Amen.”
Chapter 9, Edward the Martyr
Edward, Commonly Styled “the Martyr”
Chapter 9, Ethelred
Reign of Ethelred
Ethelred’s Marriage with Emma of Normandy
Chapter 9, Sweyn’s Revenge
Chapter 9, Thurkill Ravages England
Sweyn prepares for the Conquest of England
Sweyn Dies and’ is Followed by Canute
Chapter 9, Edmund Ironside
Divisions and Treachery among the English
Edmund Ironside Proclaimed King
Successive Battles with Canute
Categories: Book 2
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