Levi Roach reassesses Æthelred II, long reduced to the misleading epithet “the Unready” and blamed for England’s conquest by the Danes. The biography places his decisions within the difficult conditions of a long reign marked by renewed Viking armies, contested counsel and the heavy financial demands of defence.
Roach examines lawmaking, royal government, tribute, massacre and diplomacy, showing that Æthelred was neither passive nor uniformly incompetent. The book traces the collapse of his authority, his exile in 1013 and his brief restoration, while explaining how later accounts turned a complex political failure into a simple story of personal weakness.
Marc Morris