Thirty-Seven Years Reign of Aethelred Statute Over Wessex - Coursework Example

Farzeela Faisal Standard Academia Research Nov-23-2005 “Was internal dissent or external invasion more to blame for the troubles of Aethelred the Unready?” Thirty-seven years reign of Aethelred statute over Wessex could not save his era to be considered in history as the “Black Time”. Perhaps this is the reason why the history has not mentioned Ethelred in his ‘Good books’ as very little work is done in this respect. Aethelred personally was always involved to be blamed and held responsible for the political issues and crisis as is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is written by a single man after his death and the Chronicle is basically the result of the influences recorded in response to his several defeats. The title ‘the Unready’, or more accurately ‘the Ill-Advised’, given to Alfred’s successor derives largely from the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle who was an admirer of Alfred and disappointed in his successor. The author seems so much unknown of the real dilemma that he has kept the then public views in his mind while writing and the chronicle is not written keeping the real circumstances in consideration Ethelred had to face in that era, but its all about the reiterate defeats of Ethelred. This is the main reason as to why Ethelred has gained nothing but only the bad reputation in history. Another reason is while writing ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, he has been compared to Alfred. In 1979 the year after the accession of King Aethelred, the Danish invasions, long unintermitted under Edgar the Peaceful, recommenced as their main objective was to plunder only, not conquest, and they repeatedly attacked in 981, 982 and 988. A period of peace in the middle of the tenth century, in which took place a great monastic reform and revival of learning, was followed by renewed Danish attacks, which continued throughout the reign of Aethelred the Unready and culminated in the conquest by Cnut. In 991 the Danes burned Ipswich, and defeated and slew the East Saxon ealdorman Brihtnoth at Maldon. After this incident, Aethelred realizing the eruption of law and order offered them a price of freedom of £10,000, just to bring peace and serenity in England. As the Danes had to give something in the form of desistion from their ravages, they were still 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 devastate Lindsey and Northumbria. In 994 Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway, and King of Denmark, Sweyn Forkbeard united in a great invasion and attacked London. Frustrated by the bravery of the citizens, they sailed away and harried the coast from Essex to Hampshire. Now Aethelred had no option left except for paying another price of England, and once again he bought peace for £16,000 with a promise of supplies. Olaf after receiving such great favors assured Aethelred that he would never again come to England with hostile intent, an engagement that he faithfully kept. One of the reasons why he is acknowledged as ‘The Unready’ is he was not sure who to trust and who not to trust. For his defeat lies in the fact he trusted the wrong people. This led him towards the failure one after the next and finally the King of Denmark defeated him. The promise was made to Olaf Tryggvason, the King of Norway; Sweyn (the King of Denmark) was devoid of any kind of commitment made to Aethelred so he repeatedly attacked England in 997, 998, 999, and in 1000. These frequent attacks break down the national defense and made the Government weak. However Aethelred in these crucial state of affairs did what anyone could have done for the survival of his country, he offered the then Danes the sum of £24,000, but at the same time he ordered the slaughter of each and every Danish men who were in England, which was his greatest blunder. Such a violent behavior on part of the Aethelred made the situation worse and caused Sweyn to return for revenge and remained here for two years. In 1005 the Danes were no more 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 £36,000, and for two years the land was free. The last amount he paid to Sweyn was no less than £48,000, after which Sweyn sailed up the Trent and received the submission of northern England, and then marching south, he attacked London. Aethelred’s tributes paid in various years are an indication of a well-organized government but one cannot stop thinking of the coward attitude of Aethelred towards his opponents. Had Aethelred instead of paying large sum to his adversaries, prepared his soldiers and combatants and have invested all the amount that he attributed, the situation had not even turned to this point where he is remarkably remembered as an unfaithful or coward King. While having a brief look at the English history regarding Aethelred, I have collected some facts escorting as to how much King Ethelred II ‘The Unready’ was responsible for his unsuccessful era: 1. He was too young to be the King and rule under such circumstances in which he was orphaned, as he was the second son of King Edgar, his brother Edward was martyred. Ethelred succeeded to the throne aged about 10 following the death of his father Edgar, had no experience of managing state affairs, no guidance as to who he should trust, who he should consider his councellor. Aethelred was basically a bewildered personality, this I can say by analyzing all the facts that lead him towards destruction of his unsuccessful Kingdom. Also he was not confident enough to face the crucial realities which can be analyzed from the fact whenever any king wanted to conquer his kingdom he instead of taking necessary measures, offered him a handsome amount. As he had not trusted anyone, he was deprived of any moral support that a King usually possesses from one of his people. 2. The most important fact, which escorted him to the gates of destruction, was the lack of training of arms and ammunition to his men. It seems very strange that any Ruler survives without providing proper-armed training to his warriors and soldiers, as these men are the protectors of any kingdom, nation or country. Had Ethelred trained its warriors, the situation would no longer be worse as he had huge reserves of Silver and Gold and London at that time was a city of wealthy merchants. 3. As Ethelred was an unconfident King, he had not dealt with the Kings of Denmark and Norway as he was supposed to; instead what he did was to make them great handsome wealth offers. A huge portion of money was given to the then Scandinavian Invaders. This again shows his cowardliness within him. Ethelred, instead of investing all those amounts on training his armed personnel, or updating his warrior tools, made many huge offers to his opponents. This shows his lazy nature. He was such a king who was not aware of his own state affairs. 4. Because of fulfilling huge demands from the opponents he was repeatedly exposed to the threats by other leaders. He had become an easy meal for his opponents, and ultimately he was left with no choice other than to surrender. 5. After negotiating with the King of Denmark, when Ethelred came to knew that one third of his Kingdom possesses Danish men, he felt insecure of them as he wandered the Danish men would kill him and his people and afterwards possess his Kingdom, he committed the most irrational political crime of that era. He ordered to slaughter every single Danish residing in England. This was the worst mistake Ethelred had made. As soon as Sweyn was aware of this fact, he attacked England and this time without any price. No doubt Aethelred is considered to be an ineffective monarch, but this point cannot be ignored that the people of England had not accepted him since his start on the throne. Fate had also seems to be very harsh on him, but the reign of Ethelred is not as worse as it is considered due to the fact of the written work ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ which are a collection of documents written during the Anglo-Saxon period (between 450 AD - 1066 AD) of British history. The chronicle was started in the reign of King Alfred of Wessex near the end of the ninth century, and continued until 1154. (BBC - h2g2 - Anglo-Saxon Isle of Wight.htm) Recent studies of Aethelred show that he does not deserve to be an inefficient leader as is considered today in the history; he was an able administrator and was constructive in dealing with legal and financial matters of government. That is one of the main reasons why he offered adequate amount to its opponent leaders. What he lacked was Alfred’s warrior character and, despite a stand at the indecisive battle of Maldon, he found it difficult to protect his people from Danish attacks. The idea of buying them off with money came from his adviser Archbishop Sigeric, and the method by which the money was raised is evidence of Aethelred’s administrative skills. The money was collected from towns and villages by Aethelred’s tax collectors as protection money, not unlike the money or services paid by tenants to their lords under the feudal system. The main effect, however, was to destabilize the country and bring to the fore powerful lords, one of whom was Edmund Ironside. These lords created their private domains thus undoing all Alfreds efforts to create a unified kingdom. (Royalty. info, Aethelred the unready). The sophisticated royal administration at his disposal allowed Aethelred to exploit fully the great wealth of England for the defense of the realm. Between 1008 and 1013, while his subjects were fortifying boroughs, constructing ships, and gathering coats-of-mail on the basis of their land assessments, Aethelred raised enormous sums of danegeld to appease the raiders as well as monies and provisions to support a mercenary fleet of perhaps as many as 3600 men. (Military aspects of Scandinavian society in a European perspective, AD 1-1300 (1997)) Ethelred personally cannot be blamed responsible for the vain kingdom, he was courageous in a way, and he suffered clever opponents, hatred of his people, self-centered tycoons and poor councellors. These all were responsible in making his fate unkind on him, and today people judge him as a foolish king, who did nothing but surrender. Work Cited Aethelred the unready, Royalty. Info, 978-1016 A narrative history By Peter N.Williams, England, Part 4 The Anglo Saxons, Christopher Brooke; B.T. Batsford, The Saxon & Norman Kings, London, Year: 1963. D. P. Kirby, Routledge, The Earliest English Kings, London, Year: 2000. Ethelred II of England, Ethelred II of England Alternate Genie Search, Frank Barlow; Longmans, The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042-1216, Green, London; New York. 1955 Richard Abels, from Military aspects of Scandinavian society in a European perspective English Logistics and military administration, 871-1066, The Impact of the Viking Wars, AD 1-1300 (1997) Tracking the Entire World, King Ethelred II, NNDB, 25 Jul.2001 http://www.bbc.co.uk/ BBC - h2g2 - Anglo-Saxon Isle of Wight.htm Read More