England on March 18, 978 after the murder of his half-brother
Edward, known as
Edward the Martyr. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says of the murder of King Edward that “No worse deed than this was ever done by the English nation since they first sought the land of Britain.”
There is no evidence that Æthelred – who was about 12 years old at the time – had anything to do with the murder, but it was a miserable start to a miserable reign that lasted almost 38 miserable years. Æthelred’s reign is little more than a long litany of
Viking invasions.
After his death, Æthelred became known as “