Ethelred the Unready Trivia Quiz

Answer: ill-advised

The churchmen who wrote the chonicles of the time were labeling Ethelred as one who listened to bad counsel, but the name was also a word play on his first name. That's what makes Ethelred the Unready stand out in the list of Anglo-Saxon kings.

Answer: Ethelred's mother

When King Edgar died, the ruling council was at odds over which son should succeed his father. When the older son, Edward, from the king's first marriage, was chosen, Edgar's second wife, Elfrida, did not take the decision well. She invited the teenaged Edward to visit her at Corfe Castle, then had several henchmen shoot him with arrows as he approached. Later, St. Dunstan gave this as the reason the Ethelred's reign was so cursed.

Answer: They were now Christians

During the century since the last invasion, the Scandanavian countries had been Christianized. The Danes sacked and pillaged as eagerly as their forebears, but they did not attack Church property. Since all the chronicles were written by churchmen, this left them with a better reputation than the pagan Vikings.

Answer: Danegeld

On six different occasions Ethelred handed over payments to the Danes. The total probably amounted to 160,000 pounds of silver.

Answer: The approach of the year 1000 AD

Most people in Ethelred's day had no idea what year it was, but the Monks who wrote the chronicles did. Ever since the Veneralble Bede, they had been noting dates with Anno Domini (Year of our Lord), so they grew wary as the big One Triple-Oh approached.

Some Bible texts appeared to hint that Christ's rule on Earth would last a thousand years, so some churchmen thought their time was up.

Answer: London Bridge is Falling Down

The bridge was so wide, two wagons could pass each other (and the fact that this was amazing shows how much engineering had retreated since the Romans). King Olaf, later to be named Saint Olaf, destroyed the bridge and cut off the Danes from their supplies.

Answer: Edmund Ironside

According to one account, when Edmund Ironside was having a battle parley with Canute, he challenged the Dane to single combat. The winner would get England as a prize. Canute replied that Edmund was too big and strong, and he was no fool. They divided the country between them and agreed that if one died, the other would inherit the whole kingdom. Seven months later. when Edmund went to the "necessary", a henchman was hiding in the cesspit and used a spear to disembowel the king. Canute quickly claimed the throne and had a long and fairly successful reign.

Answer: Normandy

William the Conqueror had no real right to the crown, but this was an example of might trumping right (with a lot of luck thrown in). William was a cousin of Edward the Confessor, but on his mother's side. He was not a descendant of the House of Wessex that had ruled since Alfred the Great's time.

Answer: beget an heir

Though Edward the Confessor never took the vows of a religious order, he decided to live a celibate life. Earl Godwin, the chief baron at the time, forced Edward to take his daughter, Edith, as queen, but although Edward married her in Westminster Abbey, the great church he had built, he refused to ever consumate the marriage.

This led to a three-way struggle for the throne after his death and the end of the Saxon line of kings.

Answer: married Canute

Emma of Normandy seems to have been a very ambitious woman. After Canute's death she pushed to have her young son, Hardicanute, become king. After an older son, Harold Harefoot, died, Hardicanute did take the throne. His reign was brief, however, and when he died, the English barons sent for Ethelred's only surviving son, Edward the Confessor. Thus, Emma was the mother of two English kings and the great aunt of a third, William the Conqueror.