When King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession, Æthelbald, Æthelbert and Æthelred.

From about 883 until 911 Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians ruled Mercia under the overlordship of Wessex.

These were followed in the 10th century by their direct descendants Æthelstan and Æthelred II, who ruled as kings of England.

Penda had continued in his traditional paganism despite the widespread conversions of Anglo-Saxon monarchs to Christianity, and a number of Christian kings had suffered death in defeat against him ; after Penda's death, Mercia was converted, and all the kings who ruled thereafter ( including Penda's sons Peada, Wulfhere and Æthelred ) were Christian.

" Simon Keynes takes the West Saxon view, arguing that Alfred created the ' kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons ', inherited by his son Edward the Elder in 899, and Æthelred ruled Mercia under the king.

As the " Southumbrians " were those who lived south of the Humber, Mercia's northern boundary, the two annals have proved difficult to interpret: Coenred and Æthelred may have ruled jointly for two years before Æthelred abdicated, or the chroniclers may have recorded the same event twice, once from a source that was two years in error.

King Æthelred II-nicknamed Æthelred ' The Unready ' - ruled England from 978-1016.

From AD 874 – 879 the western half of Mercia was ruled by Ceowulf II, who was succeeded by Æthelred.

The story of Æthelred's notorious nickname, " Æthelred the Unready ", from Old English Æþelræd Unræd, goes a long way toward explaining how his reputation has declined through history.

For example, German Rat ( pronounced with a long " a ") (= " council ") is cognate with English " read " and German and Dutch Rede (= " speech ", often religious in nature ) ( hence Æthelred the ' Unready ' would not heed the speech of his advisors, and the word ' unready ' is cognate with the Dutch word " onraad " meaning trouble, danger ), while English and Dutch " rat " for the rodent has its German cognate Ratte.

The next king, Æthelred defeated Northumbria in the Battle of the Trent in 679, settling once and for all the long disputed control of the former kingdom of Lindsey.

The epithet would seem to describe the poor quality of advice which Æthelred received throughout his reign, presumably from those around him, specifically from the royal council, known as the Witan.

He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready.

Simon Keynes in 1980 showed that it belongs to the so-called Orthodoxorum group of charters, so named after the initial word of their proem, which he concluded were forgeries based on a charter of Æthelred II's reign.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives Penda ’ s age as fifty in 626, and credits him with a thirty-year reign, but this would put Penda at eighty years old at the time of his death, which is generally thought unlikely as two of his sons ( Wulfhere and Æthelred ) were young when he was killed.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives Penda's age as fifty in 626, and credits him with a thirty-year reign, but this would put Penda at eighty years old at the time of his death, which is generally thought unlikely as two of his sons ( Wulfhere and Æthelred ) are recorded as being young when he was killed.

A witness named Frithuric is recorded on a charter in the reign of Wulfhere's successor, Æthelred, making a grant to the monastery of Peterborough, and the alliteration common in Anglo-Saxon dynasties has led to speculation that the two men may have both come from a Middle Anglian dynasty, with Wulfhere perhaps having placed Frithuwold on the throne of Surrey.

Æthelweard was father of Æthelmær the Stout, who was ealdorman of the Western provinces towards the end of Æthelred II's reign.

Æthelred appears to have retained influence during his nephew's reign: the Life of St Wilfrid relates how he summoned Coenred and made him swear to support Wilfrid in his conflict with the church hierarchy.

This period of the English monarchy is known as the Saxon period, though their rule was often contested, notably by the Danelaw and later by the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard who claimed the throne from 1013 to 1014, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready.

Tradition seems to be at fault in putting Guy's adventures anachronistically in the reign of Athelstan ; the Anlaf of the story is probably Olaf Tryggvason, who, with Sweyn I of Denmark, harried the southern counties of England in 993 and pitched his winter quarters in Southampton ; this means the King of England at the time was Æthelred Unready II.

Wulfstan must have early on garnered the favour of powerful men, particularly Æthelred king of England, for we find him personally drafting all royal law codes promulgated under Æthelred's reign from 1005 to 1016.

His law codes, which were written under Æthelred and Cnut, remained in effect through the reign of King Edward the Confessor, and were still being reaffirmed in 1100, when King Henry I of England swore a coronation oath to observe the laws of King Edward.

However, Edward's participation became quite direct when he was murdered three years into his reign by servants of his stepmother, allowing Æthelred to ascend the throne.

Æthelred " the Unready " spent the bulk of his reign unsuccessfully defending the realm against Viking invaders.

Sir Frank Stenton considered that " Scuffanhalch ", along with " Costesford " ( Cosford ) and " Stretford ", formed part of a list of places which had once been connected with Medeshamstede ; and the charter purports to have been issued by King Æthelred of Mercia, during much of whose reign the bishop of Mercia was Sexwulf ( or " Saxwulf "), founder and first abbot of Medeshamstede.

When the succession became an issue late in Edgar's reign, Æthelwold supported the claim of Æthelred, the son of his major patron, Ælfthryth, whereas Dunstan and Oswald appear to have supported Edgar's son by an earlier wife, Edward the Martyr, who succeeded to the throne.

Warwickshire was invaded in 1016 during the Christmas period by Cnut as part of his ultimately successful invasion against Æthelred the Unready and his son Edmund Ironside, destroying Coventry and massacring the local saint, Osberg, virgin and martyr.

Some of the English leaders decided to support Cnut rather than Æthelred, so ultimately Æthelred retreated to London.

This sudden relief from attack Æthelred used to gather his thoughts, resources, and armies: the fleet's departure in 1000 " allowed Æthelred to carry out a devastation of Strathclyde, the motive for which is part of the lost history of the north.

In 1036, Ælfred Ætheling, Emma's son by the long-dead Æthelred, returned to the kingdom from exile in the Duchy of Normandy with his brother Edward the Confessor, with some show of arms.

It appears that Æthelred continued to have influence in the kingdom after his abdication: a passage in Stephen of Ripon's Life of Wilfrid shows Æthelred summoning Coenred to him and advising him to make peace with Wilfrid.

This Synod was attended by Æthelred, King of Mercia, and his nephew Berthwald ( who had been granted the southern part of his uncle's kingdom ); Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury ; Bosel, Bishop of Worcester ; Seaxwulf, Bishop of Lichfield ; Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury ; and many others.

Æthelred abdicated in 704 and went to Rome, leaving the kingdom to his nephew Coenred, Wulfhere's son.

Æthelred, roundly criticised by historians as ineffectual in the face of the Viking onslaught, was never able to mount a successful offense against the nimble Viking fleets, and his efforts to defend his kingdom against Viking armies were continually undermined.

William of Malmesbury, writing in his " Chronicle of the kings of England " about one hundred years later, was scathing in his criticism of Æthelred, saying that he occupied the kingdom, rather than governed it.

In 1003, King Sweyn invaded England and in 1013, Æthelred fled to Normandy and was replaced by Sweyn, who was also king of Denmark.

However, Æthelred returned as king after Sweyn died in 1014.

In the year 1013 King Æthelred II fled the country from Sweyn Forkbeard, who then had the witan proclaim him king.

Within a few weeks, however, Sweyn died and Æthelred was called back to England by the witan.

In 1013 Æthelred sent Emma and her children to her brother in Normandy to escape Sweyn's invasion, and soon followed himself, but they were able to return when Sweyn died in February 1014.

Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule ' more justly ' than before.

When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the throne at the end of 1013 and Æthelred fled to France, the brothers do not appear to have followed him, but stayed in England.

By the late 9th century, Danish invasions prompted at least a partial reoccupation of London by the Saxons ; the bridge may have been rebuilt around 990 under the Saxon king Æthelred the Unready, to hasten Saxon troop movements against Sweyn Forkbeard, father of Cnut.

Æthelred took power in 978 following the murder of his brother Edward, but England was then invaded by Sweyn Forkbeard, the son of a Danish king.

However in 994 King Æthelred II of England had paid a Danegeld ( protection money ) to King Sweyn I of Denmark and King Olaf I of Norway in return for peace.

It was Sigeric who advised King Æthelred to pay a tribute to the invading Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard in 991.

Æthelred presented Sweyn with 10, 000 pounds of silver, in response to which Sweyn temporarily ceased his destructive advance into England, though he later returned for further tribute.