Product Description

Too often dismissed as the unready king, unprepared, ill-advised, and incapable of dealing with the military and political crises that faced the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, not least of which were a series of Viking onslaughts, King Aethelred has gone down in history as an incompetent failure. This new biography redresses the balance, placing Aethelred into his proper historical context. Illustrated and including original reconstruction paintings, this study gives an insight into the turbulent politics of a 38-year reign and addresses the manner in which King Aethelred used his authority as a medieval English monarch.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371737 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-11
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Medieval History at its Best
I have to admit, after years of reading stuffy texts about this period, I welcomed this publication with open arms. It is a really enjoyable book to read, and it does not compromise historical fact. This is the best book I have read in over 40 years. This book has pushed historiography forward, and I am sure it will inspire more people to write about and study this period.

Aethelred - Finally put to bed.
With an immense degree of mastery, Lavelle has produced a definitive publication; apropos this medieval monarch. Lavelle has smashed the zeitgeist, by producing a piece of work, which challenges out-dated views pertaining to this period. This is a book a great factual integrity, and ensures that Lavelle is now a name that can be mentioned alongside such eminent historians as AJP Taylor and AH McKinstrey. This is historical literature of the highest calibre.

Aethelred - the Unready?
Aethelred `the Unready' (more accurately, `the ill-advised'), has a reputation for idleness and cowardice which Ryan Lavelle sets out to challenge. He shows how even a small change in perspective produces a very different picture of a king who reigned for 38 years. It is true that within a year of his death a foreign, Danish dynasty was established on his throne, but to judge Aethelred's reign merely from its outcome is misleading. Dr Lavelle sets Aethelred's reign in the context of his predecessors' achievement, no less than the creation of the kingdom of England, and shows how Aethelred maintained and built upon his inheritance. In the process, Dr Lavelle demonstrates that Aethelred's England, far from being a backwater, was an integral part of European political and social life. The book is lavishly illustrated and equipped with a useful glossary. While it can be read with profit by undergraduates and others on history courses, the clear and readable style, refreshingly free from jargon, makes the book available to anyone with an interest in history. Dr Lavelle is to be congratulated on having produced an excellent survey, not just of the reign of Aethelred, but also of English, and indeed European history at the turn of the first millenium.