Came to the crown in 978 through the murder of his brother Edward the Martyr. Induced by covetnous and the representations of his favourite, Aethelsine, to ravage the see of Rochester, 986. Bought the alliance of the Norwegian invader, Olaf Tryggvason, 991. Defeated Olaf's fleet, 992. Bought off an attack by Olaf and Swend, 994. Published laws regulating surety and bail and (997) a police code. Unsuccessfully invaded Cotentin, 1000. Married (2) Emma, daughter of Richard the Fearless, duke of Normandy. Massacred the Danes settled in England, 1002. Attacked by Malcolm, King of Scots, 1006. Promulgated code of military regulations, 1008. Orderd "the whole nation" to be called out against the Danes. Crippled by Danish sympathies of his favoite, Edric Streona. Bought off the Danes, 1012. Fled to Rouen, 1013 after Swend of Denmark had been formally chosen King of England, 1013. Brought back by Olaf and the witan after Swend's death, 1014. Expelled King Cnut, 1014. Implicated in the assassination of The Danish thegns Sigferth and Morkere, 1015 (The concise dictionary of national biography. Part 1 : from the beginnings till 1900. London : Oxford University Press, 1969, pg. 409). Buried St. Paul's (Paul B. McBride web site).
English Monarch, House of Wessex. He reigned as King of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. The son of King Edgar, he succeeded his half-brother, Edward the Marytr, to the throne at the age of 10 years. During his long reign, Viking invaders routinely plundered the country, and he was forced to pay them off in hope of peace. In 1002, in retaliation, he ordered the massacre of all Danes in England. The King of the Danes, Sweyn I (or Sweyn Forkbeard), invaded England, and Æthelred was forced to flee to Normandy in 1013. He returned in 1014, after Sweyn's death. He died 2 years later in London. He was succeeded by his son, Edmund II Ironside.