Death of Ethelred the Unready

April 23, 1016

The long-suffering English king who had spent forty years paying Danegeld and watching his kingdom burn finally died at London, leaving his unlucky son Edmund Ironside to fight Cnut for the throne. He was buried at St. Paul's. Anglo-Saxon rule was a year from its abrupt end. His epithet unraed, meaning ill-counseled, was a pun on his name, which ironically meant noble counsel.