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Æthelred the Unready: The Failed King
In his fascinating new book in the Penguin Monarchs series, Richard Abels examines the long and troubled reign of Æthelred II the 'Unraedy', the 'Ill-Advised'. It is characteristic of Æthelred's reign that its greatest surviving work of literature, the poem The Battle of Maldon, should be a record of heroic defeat. Perhaps no ruler could have stemmed the encroachment of wave upon wave of Viking raiders, but Æthelred will always be associated with that failure.
Richard Abels is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy. He is the author of Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England and Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Richard Abels is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy. He is the author of Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England and Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2018
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244 people want to read
About the author
Richard P. Abels
13 books4 followersRichard Abels, FRHistS, is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
March 7, 2022
Interesting but dry
December 20, 2022
Interesting and fairly comprehensive but kind of dense in a bad way. Most of what we know comes from charters, legal deeds, and chronicles so the number-of-names-known to number-of-attributable-actions-known ratio is really high. We also don't know that much period, so this ratio is in a way necessary even for just an introductory book. Anglo-Saxon name soup in parts:
>"Because of their wealth and connections, Wulfheah and Ufegeat were Eadric's natural rivals within Mercia. If Eadric was to rise, the family of Aelfhelm had to fall. The power of Aelfhelm's kindred had only been reduced. The nephew's of Wolfric Spot, Morcar and Sigeferth, who would later also fall victim to Eadric, emerged as the leading theigns of the Five Boroughs. Ealdorman Aelfhelm's daughter Aelgifu of Northampton became the first wife and subsequent mistress of King Cnut following his second marriage to Emma of Normandy"
etc. etc.. On the whole well-written but not quite a great introduction. More I think for people who are already generally familiar with the period. Cant fault the accuracy though and notes are good. Only like 100 pages but took me forever to finish.
strong 3 stars
>"Because of their wealth and connections, Wulfheah and Ufegeat were Eadric's natural rivals within Mercia. If Eadric was to rise, the family of Aelfhelm had to fall. The power of Aelfhelm's kindred had only been reduced. The nephew's of Wolfric Spot, Morcar and Sigeferth, who would later also fall victim to Eadric, emerged as the leading theigns of the Five Boroughs. Ealdorman Aelfhelm's daughter Aelgifu of Northampton became the first wife and subsequent mistress of King Cnut following his second marriage to Emma of Normandy"
etc. etc.. On the whole well-written but not quite a great introduction. More I think for people who are already generally familiar with the period. Cant fault the accuracy though and notes are good. Only like 100 pages but took me forever to finish.
strong 3 stars
January 7, 2021
The "Penguin Monarchs" series is thinly populated for the period before the Norman Conquest, offering us (so far?) only Athelstan, Aethelred the Unready, Cnut, and Edward the Confessor. The present volume, written by a retired history professor, made rather dry reading; the text could have been much enlivened by including the vivid entries for the period that appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the famous poem of the Battle of Maldon, which is a highlight of early English literature.
As in other volumes of the series, the notes are in tiny print, and collected at the back instead of appearing at the foot of their relevant pages, where they would have been more useful; and the hardback binding doesn't seem robust enough to sustain repeated reading.
As in other volumes of the series, the notes are in tiny print, and collected at the back instead of appearing at the foot of their relevant pages, where they would have been more useful; and the hardback binding doesn't seem robust enough to sustain repeated reading.
January 19, 2022
Irregular. Far too much detail on certain secondary aspects, and way too less on the king himself. While there is certainly a lack of info in the sources, it sometimes seems that the author merely tried to fill pages with lots of those impossible saxon names. Interesting at times, but leaves too many questions open.
January 30, 2020
While reading Richard Abels’s biography of Æthelred II, I discovered that I now had a new point of assessment for my project. Whereas until now I have been comparing biographies of a particular monarch with each other, as a volume in the Penguin Monarchs series Abels’s book also provokes comparison with the previous book I read in the series, which was Tom Holland’s biography of Æthelstan. While I knew that both were part of the same series when I first identified which books I would read, it wasn’t until I was well into Abels’s book that I found myself comparing it not just to Williams’s biography of Æthelred but to Holland’s study of his predecessor as well. This ended up shaping my assessment of the book in some important respects.
For the rest of my review, click the link:
http://www.bestbritishbios.com/2019/1...
For the rest of my review, click the link:
http://www.bestbritishbios.com/2019/1...
January 23, 2026
Very well written introductory account of a king that seems to have been in an impossible position. Came to the throne at the peak of viking opportunism thanks to the young age of King Edward who preceded him. Was taken advantage of by opportune ealdorman and other members of the nobility when he took the throne at a young age. He amended this when he came of age. Still a bad judge of character, his support of Eadric Streona is unbelievable but his attempts to defend his kingdom failed. However from the near constant raiding by the Vikings, it is hard to see how any king could have weathered the storm and successfully defended England from the horrific brutality of the Vikings.
February 12, 2019
Very good short biography of a much-maligned Anglo-Saxon king.
I'd happily recommend this volume to people trying to get a grip on what the late Anglo-Saxon period was like, especially since, in addition to the basic life story of Æthelred, Abels capably sets the context in which Æthelred reigned and carefully and concisely explains a lot of difficult, complicated issues. This book has, for example, the best one-paragraph explanation of the difference between hides and carucates that I've seen, as well as a wonderfully clear and simple explanations of things like the witan and the social hierarchy—ealdormen, thegns, ceorls, etc.
Abels also gives us some insight into Æthelred the man, a tricky proposition given our sources, but one that Abels does well given the sources and the constraints of space in such a short book. Abels makes a good case that "the Unready," the Victorian image of a lazy, uninvolved king, is quite the opposite of the truth.
The Æthelred of this book begins as a callow youth elevated rapidly to the throne of a prosperous and growing kingdom, only gradually finding his way through the machinations of members of the court who may have conspired to assassinate his predecessor, and ruled the kingdom as an act of contrition, and eventually succumbing to large, well-coordinated assaults by the Danes and internal strife fomented by hangers on—like Eadric Streona, who also figures into Cnut's story—who took advantage of him. Æthelred proved a failure in the long run, certainly, but not for lack of effort.
As I've noted elsewhere, like the Penguin Monarchs volume on Æthelred's eventual successor, Cnut, any "biography" of a figure from this period almost necessarily has to include historiographical information, which can be a booger to incorporate into a narrative life without killing the reader's interest. Abels does an excellent job presenting what we know for certain about Æthelred, what we think we're pretty sure of, what we can safely conjecture, and what we just can't know. This last can prove a weakness for historians, who sometimes get so intimately involved with a period's evidence that they need to assert something the evidence really can't support. Abels avoids that.
So in addition to being a handy little biography of Æthelred, this book nicely and succinctly introduces some key concepts of Anglo-Saxon rule, ranges widely across important textual sources—from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf to the English to countless charters and witness lists—and does so in a smooth, easy to read style. It's an accomplishment.
Highly recommended.
I'd happily recommend this volume to people trying to get a grip on what the late Anglo-Saxon period was like, especially since, in addition to the basic life story of Æthelred, Abels capably sets the context in which Æthelred reigned and carefully and concisely explains a lot of difficult, complicated issues. This book has, for example, the best one-paragraph explanation of the difference between hides and carucates that I've seen, as well as a wonderfully clear and simple explanations of things like the witan and the social hierarchy—ealdormen, thegns, ceorls, etc.
Abels also gives us some insight into Æthelred the man, a tricky proposition given our sources, but one that Abels does well given the sources and the constraints of space in such a short book. Abels makes a good case that "the Unready," the Victorian image of a lazy, uninvolved king, is quite the opposite of the truth.
The Æthelred of this book begins as a callow youth elevated rapidly to the throne of a prosperous and growing kingdom, only gradually finding his way through the machinations of members of the court who may have conspired to assassinate his predecessor, and ruled the kingdom as an act of contrition, and eventually succumbing to large, well-coordinated assaults by the Danes and internal strife fomented by hangers on—like Eadric Streona, who also figures into Cnut's story—who took advantage of him. Æthelred proved a failure in the long run, certainly, but not for lack of effort.
As I've noted elsewhere, like the Penguin Monarchs volume on Æthelred's eventual successor, Cnut, any "biography" of a figure from this period almost necessarily has to include historiographical information, which can be a booger to incorporate into a narrative life without killing the reader's interest. Abels does an excellent job presenting what we know for certain about Æthelred, what we think we're pretty sure of, what we can safely conjecture, and what we just can't know. This last can prove a weakness for historians, who sometimes get so intimately involved with a period's evidence that they need to assert something the evidence really can't support. Abels avoids that.
So in addition to being a handy little biography of Æthelred, this book nicely and succinctly introduces some key concepts of Anglo-Saxon rule, ranges widely across important textual sources—from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf to the English to countless charters and witness lists—and does so in a smooth, easy to read style. It's an accomplishment.
Highly recommended.
February 12, 2020
This book is quite small in size, but it is perfectly formed. It's also by Richard Abels, so never mind the width, feel the quality! It's a brilliant book that took me a day and a half to read, but a lot of that time was spent making notes, because it is so full of good stuff.
It's dedicated to Ellen, who can only be Ellen Abels, a member of this site and that's really nice to see.
The first chapter covers the bumping off of Edward the Martyr with some of the background and just in that one chapter it was already superior to the whole of Norton's book on Ælfthryth. The whole book is very detailed, with names and dates given, links pointed out and sound conclusions drawn. It's also extremely readable. Abels has a great turn of phrase, such as with brat and buyer's remorse used in connection with Edward the Martyr. The book takes you from Æthelræd getting the top job all the way to Cnut finding himself king. However, it's more than just a straight account of political infighting (one can almost picture Æthelræd saying 'strong and stable' whilst people are being murdered, though) and the viking army's travelogue. It comments on law and government, too, which is fascinating.
There are some great end notes which include the sources used and some nice discussions. In addition to this, there is a detailed list of further reading, which contains some nice compliments about the books of others.
In contrast to some books I've read recently, this one has been edited and apart from one typo (mid 880s, instead of mid 980s) there is nothing to object to. Having said that, Abels doesn't mention the alleged English raid on Normandy and it would have been nice to hear his thoughts on it, but you can't have everything in a book of this size.
This book is one to buy. Scholarly and fun to read, that's a winning combination.
Three things you'll take away from it:
1, the fantastic legal case of Wulfbald and the four commands against him to restore stolen land.
2, between refurbishing the defences of burhs, ordering a coastal watch, shipbuilding, manufacturing armour and buying in mercenaries, Æthelræd did some sensible things to counter the vikings.
3, it'll reiterate just how rum Eadric Streona was.
It's dedicated to Ellen, who can only be Ellen Abels, a member of this site and that's really nice to see.
The first chapter covers the bumping off of Edward the Martyr with some of the background and just in that one chapter it was already superior to the whole of Norton's book on Ælfthryth. The whole book is very detailed, with names and dates given, links pointed out and sound conclusions drawn. It's also extremely readable. Abels has a great turn of phrase, such as with brat and buyer's remorse used in connection with Edward the Martyr. The book takes you from Æthelræd getting the top job all the way to Cnut finding himself king. However, it's more than just a straight account of political infighting (one can almost picture Æthelræd saying 'strong and stable' whilst people are being murdered, though) and the viking army's travelogue. It comments on law and government, too, which is fascinating.
There are some great end notes which include the sources used and some nice discussions. In addition to this, there is a detailed list of further reading, which contains some nice compliments about the books of others.
In contrast to some books I've read recently, this one has been edited and apart from one typo (mid 880s, instead of mid 980s) there is nothing to object to. Having said that, Abels doesn't mention the alleged English raid on Normandy and it would have been nice to hear his thoughts on it, but you can't have everything in a book of this size.
This book is one to buy. Scholarly and fun to read, that's a winning combination.
Three things you'll take away from it:
1, the fantastic legal case of Wulfbald and the four commands against him to restore stolen land.
2, between refurbishing the defences of burhs, ordering a coastal watch, shipbuilding, manufacturing armour and buying in mercenaries, Æthelræd did some sensible things to counter the vikings.
3, it'll reiterate just how rum Eadric Streona was.
October 30, 2025
Dense, detailed, and a little dry
Richard Abels’ Ethelred the Unready is an impressive piece of scholarship and a fine example of how much history can be packed into barely a hundred pages — but it’s also a reminder that the early medieval world doesn’t always make for easy reading. Written by an academic historian, the book inevitably leans toward the dry and dutiful rather than the dramatic.
The challenge for Abels is immense: most general readers don’t come to a study of Ethelred armed with much prior knowledge, so he has to conjure from first principles the people, places, and politics of an England over a thousand years distant. That means introducing a cast of unfamiliar names — Aelgifu, Wulfnith, Sigeferth, Aethelgar, Eadric Streona, Aelfhelm — that are tricky to remember, let alone tell apart.
Abels does his best to bring order and clarity to the chaos, and the book is undoubtedly packed with as much verified detail as can be squeezed in. Yet the brevity of the series (each volume running to around 100 pages) leaves little room for characterisation or atmosphere. The result feels rather like reading an exam answer distilled from a more engaging story that’s waiting just beyond the margins.
A bold and worthy effort, and essential for those with a real interest in Anglo-Saxon England — but for the casual reader, it’s likely to feel more like homework than history.
Richard Abels’ Ethelred the Unready is an impressive piece of scholarship and a fine example of how much history can be packed into barely a hundred pages — but it’s also a reminder that the early medieval world doesn’t always make for easy reading. Written by an academic historian, the book inevitably leans toward the dry and dutiful rather than the dramatic.
The challenge for Abels is immense: most general readers don’t come to a study of Ethelred armed with much prior knowledge, so he has to conjure from first principles the people, places, and politics of an England over a thousand years distant. That means introducing a cast of unfamiliar names — Aelgifu, Wulfnith, Sigeferth, Aethelgar, Eadric Streona, Aelfhelm — that are tricky to remember, let alone tell apart.
Abels does his best to bring order and clarity to the chaos, and the book is undoubtedly packed with as much verified detail as can be squeezed in. Yet the brevity of the series (each volume running to around 100 pages) leaves little room for characterisation or atmosphere. The result feels rather like reading an exam answer distilled from a more engaging story that’s waiting just beyond the margins.
A bold and worthy effort, and essential for those with a real interest in Anglo-Saxon England — but for the casual reader, it’s likely to feel more like homework than history.
Read
October 28, 2021This is an excellent little book, one that does what it says on the tin instead of rambling off into unsupported landscapes in order for the author to make a name for themselves. Abels is balanced in his view - showing the difficulties faced by Aethelred while accepting the undeniable fact that the man failed and his people asked him to rule them better when he returned in 1013. Yes, the fact he came to the throne as a child and was open to manipulation can be excused - the fact he failed to grow-up and become a king cannot. I think he and Henry VI would have got on well.
January 18, 2025
Generally engaging throughout. Remains fair in its analysis of sources, maybe tends to be a little biased in favour of the King. Gets a bit dense with names and events and what have you through the middle but that’s par for course I suppose. Doesn’t help that everyone is called either Æthelred, Æthelweard or Æthelboff
July 2, 2020
I found this a bit harder to follow than the previous one in the series, I think because the author sometimes skips back and forth in the timeline. Still, it did give me the basics and thereby filled some of the gaps in my historical knowledge.
October 10, 2020
A good insight into a ruler we don't know much about. Another good book in the "Penguin Monarchs" series. It is incredible that the rulers of the English in this period firmly believed that the Vikings were sent by God as a punishment!
November 27, 2020
This biography does its best to provide a clear unbiased portrait of Aethelred and his reign and I think it succeeds for the most part. However, Abels skips around in time a lot which makes things somewhat confusing at times.
June 26, 2022
Continuing my foray into early English history. A little dry at times, with a lot of hard to pronounce Old English names, but overall, an excellent introduction to a king and period of history that are both new to me.
January 21, 2024
This book simultaneously presumes a lot of prior knowledge while also not providing enough depth of facts or discussion to provide anything new to people who have that prior knowledge. I don’t know who the target audience is. I don’t think it was me. It certainly didn’t teach me much.
January 29, 2025
This is probably the best intro to the reign for a lay reader that anyone could ask for. It’s written by an expert and has been meticulously researched, but it’s readable and easy to understand for a newcomer. Can’t recommend it enough.
May 7, 2022
dull compared to the other penguin monarchs i’ve read
June 18, 2022
this one definitely ignores some of the most momentous moments near the end, but i'm hoping they'll be covered more in the next book?
January 26, 2023
Excellent!
February 16, 2023
Perfectly adequate, but if I’m honest (and I do try to be) not exactly a rattling good read. Great notes and sources.
August 4, 2024
For a 100 page book this was pretty repetitive!
September 19, 2023
This was a brief and condensed biography about Athelred II which is part of a series called Penguin Monarchs. Abels' book is a good starting point to research the king, and he gives detailed further reading notes and references to more substantial biographies as well as their focus.
It is a good book to give an overview, which can be read in a day or so, and gives depth and perspective on Aethelred and the period, which covers the 970s to 1016 in English history. Athelred's epithet is not used in the modern sense but from the Old English unræd meaning 'poorly advised' as a pun on his name meaning 'well counselled'. The biography covers Athelred's life from his childhood to his death and touches on his successor Edmund Ironside's fate.
Aethelred emerges as someone who inherited the throne when very young, and because of his youth, he naturally grew up with strong and powerful people influencing his actions as a king. Once he was an adult he claimed his independence and stamped his own authority, which is analysed in the context of the period. The author reviews and revises the historical perception of the king, by comparing evidence from charters and legal documents with the perspective from chronicles and descriptive sources.
A great little introduction, clearly written, and well structured, with sources and further reading supplied. I think that as it is part of a series, and meant to be a short introduction, naturally not all historical developments are explained, such as the Benedictine system, so it may be worth reading either the previous work, Aethelstan, or to read on Anglo-Saxon history in general. Great for those who are interested in the 'viking' age.
It is a good book to give an overview, which can be read in a day or so, and gives depth and perspective on Aethelred and the period, which covers the 970s to 1016 in English history. Athelred's epithet is not used in the modern sense but from the Old English unræd meaning 'poorly advised' as a pun on his name meaning 'well counselled'. The biography covers Athelred's life from his childhood to his death and touches on his successor Edmund Ironside's fate.
Aethelred emerges as someone who inherited the throne when very young, and because of his youth, he naturally grew up with strong and powerful people influencing his actions as a king. Once he was an adult he claimed his independence and stamped his own authority, which is analysed in the context of the period. The author reviews and revises the historical perception of the king, by comparing evidence from charters and legal documents with the perspective from chronicles and descriptive sources.
A great little introduction, clearly written, and well structured, with sources and further reading supplied. I think that as it is part of a series, and meant to be a short introduction, naturally not all historical developments are explained, such as the Benedictine system, so it may be worth reading either the previous work, Aethelstan, or to read on Anglo-Saxon history in general. Great for those who are interested in the 'viking' age.
October 16, 2024
Really enjoying these short, digestible volumes from the Penguin Monarchs series. I knew almost nothing of Aethelred going in, and emerge with my interest piqued. The further reading list alone is of great value.
December 25, 2025
Reading anything about the Anglo Saxon period, that liminal space after the Roman’s and before the Norman’s seems like peering into a murky pond, an aged unclean mirror. The fragments of paper and objects that managed to survive the proceeding centuries has left much to the imagination of academics.
.
Aethelred has probably the worst moniker in history. The unread, or the unready. Abels pains a picture of a young king, who had a poor judgement of character, surrounded by older men who were either unworthy, deceitful or just plain incompetent. With Aethelred being a relatively young monarch he seemed to have the inability to stick with a plan, or in fact being consistent with his judgments and military decisions.
.
Abels really paints the court life well, and illustrates near contemporary views of Aethelred, plus tries to balance and contextualizes somewhat the rather negative view history has given Aethelred. Still there’s no escaping that his leadership skills and general king skills were often severely lacking.
.
A good read. Although the plethora of Anglo Saxon names that all seem to merge in one confusing mass does make parts somewhat difficult. Also the book does jump around a bit making it unclear the timeline - I wished he would have kept to a more linear telling.
.
Still I wonder what can we learn from history? What can we learn from the past that feels so very much of the past. I suspect the far right and Farage will see the Vikings as a metaphor for modern day immigration. A population to be resisted. Yet there is another story of peoples from mixed cultures coming together. A true foundation of England.
.
The penguin monarch series is excellent. This is the second book in the series and for me it won’t be the last.
.
Aethelred has probably the worst moniker in history. The unread, or the unready. Abels pains a picture of a young king, who had a poor judgement of character, surrounded by older men who were either unworthy, deceitful or just plain incompetent. With Aethelred being a relatively young monarch he seemed to have the inability to stick with a plan, or in fact being consistent with his judgments and military decisions.
.
Abels really paints the court life well, and illustrates near contemporary views of Aethelred, plus tries to balance and contextualizes somewhat the rather negative view history has given Aethelred. Still there’s no escaping that his leadership skills and general king skills were often severely lacking.
.
A good read. Although the plethora of Anglo Saxon names that all seem to merge in one confusing mass does make parts somewhat difficult. Also the book does jump around a bit making it unclear the timeline - I wished he would have kept to a more linear telling.
.
Still I wonder what can we learn from history? What can we learn from the past that feels so very much of the past. I suspect the far right and Farage will see the Vikings as a metaphor for modern day immigration. A population to be resisted. Yet there is another story of peoples from mixed cultures coming together. A true foundation of England.
.
The penguin monarch series is excellent. This is the second book in the series and for me it won’t be the last.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews