In 1035, the throne of England was reportedly claimed by Alfred Ætheling, younger son of Emma of Normandy and Æthelred the Unready, and half-brother of Harthacnut.

This had not previously been an insurmountable obstacle: the earlier kings of England Eadwig, Edgar the Peaceful and Edward the Martyr had all come to the throne at a similar age, while Æthelred the Unready had been significantly younger at his accession.

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.

Harthacnut left no sons, however, and since his mother, Emma, had been married to Æthelred the Unready ( and borne him sons ) before his death and Cnut's accession, the throne passed back to the original Anglo-Saxon line in the form of her son ( Harthacnut's half-brother ) Edward the Confessor.

Æthelred the Unready, king of England, is said to have held an assembly at Woodstock at which he issued a legal code now known as IX Æthelred.

The Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon described the said battle between the Anglo-Saxon forces of Ethelred the Unready against a Viking invasion in 991.

* Æthelred the Unready married Emma of Normandy, Richard's I the fearless, duke of Normandy's daughter.

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.

He was the eldest son of Sweyn I of Denmark and Gunhilda, and was regent while his father was fighting Ethelred the Unready in England.

The point of naming Margaret's sons, Edward after her father Edward the Exile, Edmund for her grandfather Edmund Ironside, Ethelred for her great-grandfather Ethelred the Unready and Edgar for her great-great-grandfather Edgar and her brother, briefly the elected king, Edgar Ætheling, was unlikely to be missed in England, where William of Normandy's grasp on power was far from secure.

On Edgar's death, the leadership of England was contested, with some supporting Edward's claim to be king and others supporting his much younger half-brother Æthelred the Unready, recognized as a legitimate son of Edgar.

Although early records of Hampstead can be found in a grant by King Ethelred the Unready to the monastery of St. Peter ’ s at Westminster ( AD 986 ) and it is referred to in the Domesday Book ( 1086 ), the history of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 17th century.

In order to make certain that Lorealle will be not rescued in time by any knight, Morgana conspires so that the Union Hall picks the most incompetent and unworthy of them, Eric the Unready, the player character.

Hence Æthelred II was crowned, and although he reigned for thirty eight years, one of the longest reigns in English history, he earned the name " Æthelred the Unready ", as he proved to be one of England's most disastrous kings.

Thorkell the Tall was appalled at the brutality of his fellow raiders, and switched sides to the English king Æthelred the Unready following Ælfheah's death.

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.

His nickname Unræd is usually translated into present-day English as " The Unready ", though, because the present-day meaning of " unready " no longer resembles its ancient counterpart, this translation disguises the meaning of the Old English term.

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 English king Æthelred the Unready set up an early legal system through the Wantage Code of Ethelred, one provision of which stated that the twelve leading thegns ( minor nobles ) of each wapentake ( a small district ) were required to swear that they would investigate crimes without a bias.

In an effort to improve matters, King Æthelred the Unready took Emma of Normandy, sister of Duke Richard II, as his second wife in 1002.

* November 13 – St. Brice's Day massacre: English king Æthelred the Unready orders all Danes in England killed.

* Danegeld is paid by Æthelred the Unready to prevent Viking raids against England.

* Athelstan Aetheling, son of Ethelred the Unready, ( d. 1011 )

His nickname of the ' Unræd ' or ' Unready ' means ill-advised, indicating that contemporaries regarded those who sat in the witan as in part responsible for the failure of his reign.

In some cases, weak kings ( such as Ethelred the Unready ) were dependent on the witenagemot, while others used it as simply a group of advisers.

Edward the Confessor, (; ; 1003 – 05 to 4 or 5 January 1066 ), son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066.

Edward the Confessor was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife Emma, sister of Richard, Duke of Normandy.

In 1041 he invited his half-brother Edward the Confessor ( his mother Emma's son by Æthelred the Unready ) back from exile in Normandy and probably made him his heir.

The Fagrskinna has Edward point out that he was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, the brother to Edmund Ironside, the stepson of Cnut, the stepbrother of Harold Harefoot, and the half-brother of Harthacnut.

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

He was the third of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu, who was probably the daughter of Earl Thored of Northumbria.

Earlier in the same year he witnessed a charter of King Ethelred the Unready as Eaduuine dux.

This defensive role is highlighted by the use of the bridge in 1016 as a defence against King Sweyn and his son King Cnut by Ethelred the Unready and again, in 1066, against King William the Conqueror.

As the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal, Afonso was not expected to inherit the throne, which was destined to go to his elder brother Sancho.

This marriage was an attempt to inherit the throne of Castile as Joan was the sole daughter of Henry IV.

This provision has been dormant since Queen Victoria ascended the throne, because she did not inherit Hanover under the Salic Laws of the German states, but in principle it could again become relevant in the future.

" David Playing the Harp " by Jan de Bray, 1670. It is to Solomon that David gives his final instructions, including his promise that the line of Solomon and David will inherit the throne of Judah forever, and his request that Solomon kill his oldest enemies on his behalf.

Banquo reveals this to the audience, and while skeptical of the new King Macbeth, remembers the witches ' prophecy about how his own descendants would inherit the throne.

Stephen became increasingly concerned with ensuring that his son, Eustace, would inherit his throne after him.

A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, King Henry IV, also recognised the Beauforts ' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne.

When Anne was beheaded, Henry declared Elizabeth an illegitimate child and she would, therefore, not be able to inherit the throne.

Having killed his grandfather by accident, Perseus could not, or would not, inherit the throne of Argos.

They believed the Duke, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty and property.

As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward.

He also acted as the King's counsellor and was one of the nine godfathers of Henry's eldest son, Prince Edward, who would inherit the throne and become Edward I (" Longshanks ")

Francis was the only son of Charles, Count of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy and a great-great-grandson of King Charles V. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young, as was his father's cousin the Duke of Orléans.

The Salic Law prevailed in France, and women were ineligible to inherit the throne.

Although they could not inherit the throne, they did receive the royal title of Thampi and were members of the Ammaveedus which ensured a comfortable living and all royal luxuries.

The strict and conservative education he received from the Duc de La Vauguyon, " gouverneur des Enfants de France " ( governor of the Children of France ), from 1760 until his marriage in 1770, did not prepare him for the throne that he was to inherit in 1774 after the death of his grandfather, Louis XV.

Each son became king in turn but died young without male heirs, leaving only daughters who could not inherit the throne.

** Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, who will inherit the throne after her father, due to a 1991 act of succession which created full cognatic primogeniture, altering the order of succession from eldest son to eldest child.

James and Sancho negotiated a treaty whereby James would inherit Navarre on the old Sancho's death, but when this did occur, the Navarrese nobles instead elevated Theobald to the throne ( 1234 ), and James disputed it.

According to Heimskringla, Harald had appointed his sons as client kings over the various districts of the kingdom, and intended Eric, his favourite son, to inherit the throne after his death.

His claim to the throne was based on an agreement between his predecessor Magnus I of Norway, and the earlier King of England Harthacanute, whereby if either died without heir, the other would inherit both England and Norway.

He married the princes ' eldest sister, Elizabeth of York, to reinforce his hold on the throne, but her right to inherit depended on both her brothers being already dead.

Due to the tradition of Salic Law, which did not allow women to inherit the throne of France, he was succeeded by his first cousin's son, Francis I ( who was also his son-in-law ), who founded his own line of French kings.

Philip laid down the principle that Joan, as a woman, could not inherit the throne of France, played heavily upon the fact that he was now the anointed king, and consolidated what some authors have described as his effective " usurpation " of power.