AETHELRED, II
966 - 1016 (50 years)
Set As Default Person 
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Name AETHELRED, II [1] Birth 966 Gender Male Differentiator Æthelred has been credited with the formation of a local investigative body made up of twelve thegns who were charged with publishing the names of any notorious or wicked men in their respective districts. Because the members of these bodies were under solemn oath to act in accordance with the law and their own good consciences, they have been seen by some legal historians as the prototype for the English Grand Jury. Relation to Me 32 GGF Royalty & Nobility 18 Mar 978-1013, 1014-23 Apr 1016 King of the English Name Æthelred the Unready, King Æthelred the II Death 23 Apr 1016 London, England 
Person ID I7272 My Genealogy | Laviolette Ancestry Last Modified 4 Feb 2024
Father EDGAR, King I, b. 943 d. 8 Jul 975, Winchester, Hampshire, England (Age 32 years) Relationship natural Mother AELFTHRYTH, b. 945 d. 1000 (Age 55 years) Relationship natural Family ID F1782 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family 1 YORK, Elfgifu of, b. 970 d. 1002 (Age 32 years) Children + 1. IRONSIDE, Edmund d. 30 Nov 1016 [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] + 2. Living Family ID F1781 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 4 Feb 2024
Family 2 NORMANDY, Emma of, b. 985 d. 6 Mar 1052 (Age 67 years) Marriage 1002 Children + 1. GODGIFU, b. Between 1002 and 1014 [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] Family ID F9347 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 4 Feb 2024
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Event Map 
Death - 23 Apr 1016 - London, England 
= Link to Google Earth
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Photos 
Documents 
Æthelred the Unready - Wikipedia
Albums 
Royal Connections (3)
When you find a Gateway Ancestor in your family tree, it is almost impossible not to go down a rabbit hole of ancestry leading to connections with countless ancestors of the royal and noble classes. These lines have been extensively researched and documented by historians, so it is really just a matter of following the line. I've spent countless hours engrossed in the stories these royal lines have uncovered. In this album, I will link to ancestors who were members of the Royal class. Royalty refers to the ruling monarch and their immediate family. This includes kings, queens, princes, and princesses. The monarch is typically the highest authority in the land and has the power to grant titles of nobility.
Keep in mind that it is not necessarily unusual to be descended from royalty. After all, many of these connections go back to my 25th great grandparents and beyond. Theoretically, we have 67,108,864 sets of 25th great grandparents (In reality, due to a phenomenon known as pedigree collapse, where ancestors appear in the family tree multiple times in different generations due to intermarriage within a community, the actual number of unique 25th great-grandparents a person has is likely to be much lower). With this many, it might be more unusual NOT to descend from royalty. However, what makes our ancestry so unique is that we can TRACE it that far back, person to person to person. Since my fascination with our ancestry lies in my curiosity about the stories of the individual people, this is beyond compelling to me. It is like getting lost in a series of medieval novels in which I have an actual connection to the characters. It brings history to life.
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Notes - Later perspectives of Æthelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080-c. 1143), who reports that Æthelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another mediaeval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.
Efforts to rehabilitate Æthelred's reputation have gained momentum since about 1980. Chief among the rehabilitators has been Simon Keynes, who has often argued that our poor impression of Æthelred is almost entirely based upon after-the-fact accounts of, and later accretions to, the narrative of events during Æthelred's long and complex reign.
- Later perspectives of Æthelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080-c. 1143), who reports that Æthelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another mediaeval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.
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Sources - [S1747] Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants, (Name: Genealogical Publishing Company; Location: Baltimore, Maryland; Date: 2018;), Volume II; pgs 857-858.
- [S1747] Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants, (Name: Genealogical Publishing Company; Location: Baltimore, Maryland; Date: 2018;), Volume II; pgs 857-858.