ETII ELRED IL, surnamed the Unready, King of the Anglo-Saxons, was the youngest son of King Edgar, by Lie second wife, the infamous Elfrida. On the murder by Elfrida of his elder brother, Edward the Martyr, iu 973, he was reluctantly acknowledged as king by the Witan,in the absence of any other individual having pretensions to the crown ; even Dunstan, who had steadily opposed the party of Elfrida throughout the late reign, finding himself now obliged to acquiesce in the accession of her son. He was crowned by Duuatan at Kingston-on-the-Thames on the 14th of April, being at this time only a boy of ten years old ; but the haughty prelate is stated by Malmesbury to have declared as he placed the crown on the boy's head that the sins of his mother and her accomplices should be visited on the head of her son, and that in his reign such evils should befall the English as they had never yet suffered since they came into Britain. The curse thus solemnly denounced by the chief priest and leading statesman in the kingdom, no doubt did something towards working out its own accomplishment. Certain it is that the reign of Ethelred the Unready is on the whole the most calamitous and dis graceful in English history. The feeble and distracted government that arose out of his minority, the circumstances of his accession, and the unpatriotic conduct of Dunstan, immediately drew once more upon England the attention 'of the northern piratical powers, who had now remitted their attacks for nearly a century. ''A small body of Danes lauded at Southampton in 980; and scarcely a year passed after wards in which one part or other of the coast was not in like manner visited and ravaged, usually with impunity. At length, in 991, a much larger force than had before appeared arrived under two leaders named Justin and Gurthmund, and after taking the town of Ipswich, pro ceeded to Malden, and there encountering the English army commanded by the alderman Brithnod, obtained a complete victory, Brithnod him self being slain. On this it was resolved by the English Witan, on the advice, it is said, of Siric, who had succeeded Dunstan as the king's chief counsellor, to buy off the invaders with a sum of money. They
agreed to accept 10,000 pounds of silver, which was accordingly paid to them, being raised by an impost on all the landed property in the kingdom, which from this time became a regular tax, under the name of the Danegcld, and was perhaps the first direct tax imposed in England. It was felt however that this was a very precarious expe dient to trust to ; and as soon as the Danes were gone, the govern ment proceeded to fit out a formidable fleet, which might perhaps have been of service if it had been ready to meet them when they arrived. As it was, it was no sooner afloat than it was rendered useless by treachery and mismanagement. A squadron of Danes having again appeared on the coast in 992, Alfric, the commander of the English fleet, when sent to surprise them, secretly gave them information of the intended attack, and then went over and joined them. The next year, when the Northmeu made a descent upon the coast of Northum berland and took by storm the castle of Bamborough, the leaders of the force sent against them in like manner deserted to the enemy. In 994 a much more powerful armament than had yet appeared sailed up the Thames under the command of Sweyn or Sveio, king of Denmark, and Olave king of Norway ; it consisted of ninety-four ships, and directed its first efforts against London, which however defended itself successfully against the assault. The invaders then overran and laid waste a great part of Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. In the end they were again bought off by the payment of a sum of money, their demand this time rising to 16,000 pounds of silver, Olave now consented to embrace Christianity ; and he faithfully kept his promise of never again molesting England. Not so the king of Denmark ; his forces continued their attacks year after year ; and at last, in 1001, Ethelred found himself once more compelled to rid himself of them by his old expedient. He was now obliged to pay them 24,000 pounds of silver.