Aethelred the unready: the failed king

Richard Abels examines the long and troubled reign of Aethelred II the 'Unraed', the 'Ill-Advised'.

It is characteristic of Aethelred'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 Aethelred will always be associated with that failure.