AETHELRED THE UNREADY, KING OF ENGLAND

Mid-America Medieval Association, 2019

This paper was presented at the 43rd annual Mid-America Medieval Association Conference (14 September 2019), whose theme was "What Lies Beneath." This paper provides a brief overview of post-Norman Conquest interpretations of the life, personality, and activity of Æthelred II "the Unready" of England, comparing them to what contemporary Anglo-Saxon sources say about the king. Numerous unflattering legends surrounding King Æthelred can be traced to the 12th century historian William of Malmesbury, while material from John of Worcester's 12th century chronicle will also be examined. In addition, popular interpretations from the 19th and 20th centuries show how Æthelred's unenviable reputation has progressed into the modern era. These interpretations are then compared to Anglo-Saxon sources for the activity and behavior of Æthelred. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for example, portrays the king more favorably-as a relatively typical, if unlucky, Anglo-Saxon king-and the Life of Oswald, while not an unbiased source, casts doubt on his supposed personality flaws. By revisiting these earliest sources, this paper argues that many of the commonly-repeated legends about Æthelred the Unready do not comfortably align with the earliest sources for the reign.

There are few mentions of Aethelflaed of Mercia in modern secondary scholarship, and only tantalizing information on her in the primary sources. 1 Most secondary sources outlined the basics of Aethelflaed's place in history --admittedly a small part in the unification of England from Alfred to Aethelstan. Despite this, I always suspected there was more to Aethelflaed's story than we could get to; another forgotten memory destroyed by the vagaries of time and the chronicler's pen. And then, during a lecture on Alfred's kingdom in my Medieval English History course, a student excitedly raised his hand as I spoke about Edward's role in the destruction of Aethelflaed's realm in Mercia. A native of Ireland, he said he'd heard stories about Aethelflaed from his grandmother, stories that dwelt on English perfidy against rightful rulers. I asked him to write the story down for me, as best he could recall. His tale outlined Aethelflaed and her daughter as the rightful rulers of Mercia, rulers who had close connections and warm relations with Irish kings. This remained true until Aethelflaed's death, when Edward claimed Mercia as

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (c. 1004-1066) was the last great Saxon king of England. He reigned at a time when England had been enduring sustained attacks from the Danes and when relations with the Scots to the north were tenuous at best. His reign was followed by the brief reign of the less-than-capable Harold II, who died at the Battle of Hastings and thus lost control of England to William of Normandy. Relations between the Saxons and their conquerors for the next century were defined by intense animosity, as Saxon nobles were divested of their holdings by Norman lords and Normans began to occupy all the important civil and ecclesiastical offices. It was within this difficult situation that ^lred of Rievaulx (1110-67) emerged as a prominent scholar, political advisor, and monastic. After serving for ten years at the court of King David I of Scotland, JEktd came into contact with the Cistercian monastic movement and was attracted to its manner of life.' He entered the order at the English Cistercian abbey at Rievaulx, where in 1141 he became master of novices.^ In 1147 he was elected abbot.' Even as a monastic, i^lred continued to be involved in worldly affairs. Marsha L. Dutton writes:

The life and writings of Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-67) provide some of the most important material for the study of Cistercian monasticism in 12th-century England, Cistercian teachings and beliefs, and the relationship of the order with other ecclesiastical and secular bodies. To date, the corpus of surviving works attributed to Aelred includes almost 200 sermons, 13 treatises and seven historical and hagiographical works. Among modern audiences, Aelred is regarded as one of the foremost thinkers of 12th-century England, at times on par with the great Bernard of Clairvaux, with whom Aelred is known to have had regular contact and with whom Aelred's biographer; a link which inspired Knowles' now famous description of Aelred as the 'Bernard of the North'.(1) Aelred provides the subject for the latest addition to the Brill Companions to the Christian Tradition series. This is a book which easily fulfils Brill's brief to produce 'full balanced accounts at an advanced level' and 'synthesis of debate and the state of scholarship', with particularly notable strengths in the latter.(2) This collection has been curated by Marsha Dutton who, as Professor Emerita at Ohio State University, Executive Editor of Cistercian Publications, editor of several of Aelred's works, and author of numerous studies on Aelred's life and themes within his writings, needs little introduction to Aelred specialists.(3) Dutton is author of two chapters, with the remaining eight authors drawn from the ranks of the established academic field of Aelred and Cistercian studies. This companion makes a worthy and timely addition to Brill's series, focusing on one of the most important thinkers in 12th-century English theology and spirituality, and drawing on a number of recent new editions of Aelred's works, many of which have been produced by Dutton. Dutton's introduction is carefully planned, introducing the reader to Aelred's life and works in just enough detail so as to provide sufficient coverage, but without too much content so as to confuse the novice. Dutton expertly outlines the case for Aelred as a subject for attention, describing his treatises on spiritualism as his 'greatest contribution to Western thought', and portraying Aelred as a 'significant contributor' to his three main fields of writing, noted here as spiritual thought; history-writing, and discourse on English conquests abroad, which is here termed 'paracolonialism' (p. 1). Dutton's summary of Aelredian scholarship reflects on the major trends in Aelred studies from Dumont and Squire to more recent developments, recognising debts owed to modern Cistercian scholars, before setting out the agenda for the rest of the volume.

Rounded Globe, 2019

In the realm of popular history, it’s common to hear the claim that Æthelred the Unready, King of the English, was a military failure in an age where kings had to be warriors. Due to the unflattering nickname (unraed actually means “poorly-advised”) and the Danish Conquest of England, it might seem that these critics have won the argument before it’s even started. That isn’t the case, though, as Bender’s research has found. This book seeks to redress King Æthelred’s military reputation, arguing that he was militarily prepared and often successful against his many enemies, including the Vikings. Tracking the king’s movement and activity over his 38-year reign, this book argues that Æthelred the Unready was anything but a battle-avoider. NOTE: The current file listed here corresponds to the book's printed form. Versions of this book downloaded prior to 14 August 2019 may have different page numbers. This book is available in ebook form, free of charge, on the Rounded Globe website. Its print form is available on Amazon.

An introduction to Aelred's life and works.

English Studies 97:2, 2016

If the origins of the first companion in this two-volume celebration of King AEthelred II's millennial anniversary were "by any measure humbler than similar commemorative projects" (as the present editors admitted in its preface roughly two years ago), then the genesis of the present collection of essays, published on the occasion of AEthelred's second millennial anniversary, emerges from even more plebeian beginnings. 1 In the spirit of full disclosure (lest history deny credit, or censure, from those to whom it belongs most rightfully), publishing a second volume was not at all part of our original plan. That outcome (which is probably now safe to reveal to the authors) was devised instead as an impromptu solution intended to avert a disaster. Here's the story: as it happened, during the waning days of preparing the final drafts of Unraed: Intellectual Thought and Rule in AEthelredian England to hand over to the publisher, we discovered that, due to a misunderstanding about our maximum permitted word count-a mistake Kristen attributes solely to the unraed (if not searuwrencas or outright swicdom) of Sándor, her chief advisor, and for which she herself stands utterly and completely blameless in every sense-we had accepted more articles than could be printed in a single issue. Truth be told, when the final tally came in, we realized that we had accepted about a volume and a half of worthy material, some of which … uh … ummmmm … would have to be somehow otherwise accommodated.

English Studies 95:7, 2014

The Court Historian, 2020

Episodes of travel to foreign courts are a feature of Íslendingasögur — Icelandic family sagas. It is a trope particularly ubiquitous of the skáldasögur — poets’ sagas — where a skáld’s reputation as warrior and hero is augmented through interactions with historical figures of the Scandinavian world. The resultant depictions of various cultures and societies are one of the interesting features of the corpus. The late thirteenth-century Gunnlaugs saga provides a notably rich exemplar of the motif of the travelling skáld. The hero, Gunnlaug Illugason, travels widely, visiting the royal courts of England, Viking Dublin and Sweden, alongside various non-royal courts including that of Norway. Of particular interest is the portrayal of Æthelred II (978–1016) and the English court, which is not only at odds with the depictions of other courts within the narrative, but with the historical tradition of Æthelred’s fraught kingship. This article examines the differing portrayals of kingship within Gunnlaugs saga, questioning how Icelanders perceived English rulers in contrast to their Scandinavian counterparts, and whether Æthelred’s characterisation as a good king is authorial invention, or remnant cultural memory of his kingship.