Æthelred I
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115
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Search complete. 115 mentions across 12 episodes found for "Æthelred I".
Sep 20, 2026
John GreenmanNARRATOR
But the pagans, like cunning foxes, burst from their camp by night, and setting at naught their engagements, and spurning at the promised money, which they knew was less than they could get by plunder, they ravaged all the eastern coast of Kent.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
In the year of our Lord's incarnation 866, which was the eighteenth of King Alfred, Æthelred, brother of Æthelbert, king of the West Saxons, undertook the government of the kingdom for five years.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
And the same year, a large fleet of pagans came to Britain from the Danube, and wintered in the kingdom of the Eastern Saxons, which is called in Saxon East Anglia.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
and there they became principally an army of cavalry.
11 MINS LATER
John GreenmanNARRATOR
The mother of this lady was named Edburga, of the royal line of Mercia, whom we have often seen with our own eyes a few years before her death.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
She was a venerable lady, and after the decease of her husband she remained many years a widow even till her own death.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
in the same year the above-named army of pagans leaving northumberland invaded mercia and advanced to nottingham which is called in the british tongue tingocoboc but in latin the house of caves and they wintered there that same year Immediately on their approach, Borred, king of Mercia and all the nobles of that nation, sent messengers to Æthelred, king of the West Saxons and his brother Alfred, suppliantly entreating them to come and aid them in fighting against the aforesaid army.
John GreenmanNARRATOR
Their request was easily obtained, for the brothers, as soon as promised, assembled an immense army from all parts of their dominions, and entering Mercia, came to Nottingham all eager for battle.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
Whilst Alfred was learning to weed and hunt, a life or death struggle was happening around him.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
When Alfred was 18, his elder brother, Æthelred, inherited the throne of Wessex.
Juan NaulaSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It happened that Æthelred succeeded to the throne.
Juan NaulaSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I asked him before all our counsellors to divide our inheritance and give me what was mine.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
When the Vikings burst out of their stronghold in a bold counterattack, the Saxons broke and fled.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
Viking military expertise had triumphed.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
both Alfred and his brother escaped the carnage.
Juan NaulaNARRATOR
They both now desperately set about reorganizing their armies before the Vikings could exploit the fruits of victory.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
If not, I will no longer stay in East Anglia, which I see is destined to fall piecemeal into the hands of the Danes.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
But we will journey down to Somerset, and I will pray that King Ethelred to assign me lands there and to take me as his thane.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
While they had thus been talking, Egbert had been broiling the eels and wild ducks over the fire.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
He was a freeman and a distant relation of Edmund's father, Eldred, who was an ealderman in West Norfolk, his lands lying beyond Thetford, and upon whom, therefore, the first brunt of the Danish invasion from Mercia had fallen.
5 MINS LATER
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
Ethelwolf died a few months afterwards, leaving Kent to Ethelbert, his second surviving son.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
The following year, to the horror and indignation of the people of the country, Ethelbald married his stepmother Judith, but two years afterwards died, and Ethelbert, king of Kent, again united Wessex to his own dominions, which consisted of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
Ethelbert reigned for but a short time, and at his death Ethelred, his next brother, ascended the throne.
Mike HarrisNARRATOR
Last year Alfred, the youngest brother, married Eswitha, the daughter of Ethelred Musil, Earl of Gainey in Lincolnshire, whose mother was one of the royal family of Mercia.
OllieHOST
The campaign of the year 871 was savage beyond measure.
OllieHOST
Hafton and King Bagsegg led the Viking host against King Æthelred and his younger brother Alfred.
OllieHOST
At Reading, the Vikings shattered the West Saxon army and drove their enemies from the field.
OllieHOST
Victory seemed to follow Hafton like a raven across the winter sky.
1 HR 17 MINS LATER
OllieHOST
His objective was Wessex.
OllieHOST
The West Saxons had already endured years of warfare.
OllieHOST
Alfred had become king in the year 871 after the death of his brother Æthelred.
OllieHOST
During that year alone, the West Saxons fought a series of major battles against Viking armies at Reading, Ashdown, Basing and Merton.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
The kingdom of Wessex seemed alone to remain, and that was the subject of this contest.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
Æthelred was the king.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
The Danes advanced into his dominions to attack him.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
In the battle that ensued, Æthelred was killed.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
The successor to his throne was his brother, Halford, the subject of this history, who thus found himself suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to assume the responsibilities and powers of supreme command.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
In as dark End of chapter 3 Recording by Ryan Cherick Chapter 4 of King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott This is a LibriVox recording.
47 MINS LATER
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ryan Cherick.
Ryan CherickNARRATOR
King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
But the pagans, like cunning foxes, burst from their camp by night, and setting at naught their engagements, and spurning at the promised money, which they knew was less than they could get by plunder, they ravaged all the eastern coast of Kent.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
In the year of our Lord's incarnation 866, which was the 18th of King Alfred, Æthelred, brother of Æthelbert, king of the West Saxons, undertook the government of the kingdom for five years.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
And the same year, a large fleet of pagans came to Britain from the Danube and wintered in the kingdom of the Eastern Saxons, which is called in Saxon East Anglia.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
and there they became principally an army of cavalry.
12 MINS LATER
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
The mother of this lady was named Edburga, of the royal line of Mercia, whom we have often seen with our own eyes a few years before her death.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
She was a venerable lady, and after the decease of her husband she remained many years a widow, even till her own death.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
in the same year the above-named army of pagans leaving northumberland invaded mercia and advanced to nottingham which is called in the british tongue tingocoboc but in latin the house of caves and they wintered there that same year Immediately on their approach, Borred, king of Mercia and all the nobles of that nation, sent messengers to Æthelred, king of the West Saxons and his brother Alfred, suppliantly entreating them to come and aid them in fighting against the aforesaid army.
Aaron ElliottNARRATOR
Their request was easily obtained, for the brothers, as soon as promised, assembled an immense army from all parts of their dominions, and entering Mercia, came to Nottingham all eager for battle.
KamiyaNARRATOR
He was buried in the Cathedral of Sherborne in Dorset.
KamiyaNARRATOR
Though by Æthelwulf's will Æthelred should have succeeded to Wessex, the Witten, or Assembly of Chief Men, which then supplied the pace of our Parliament, decided that the union of Wessex and Kent under Æthelbert would ensure greater strength against the Danes.
KamiyaNARRATOR
Æthelred seems to have been quite willing to surrender his claims, so Æthelbert was made ruler of both kingdoms.
KamiyaNARRATOR
The new king, like his father, was peacefully inclined, and during his reign of five years avoided taking the field in person against the Danes, nor did he attempt to stop their ravages, which consequently were renewed.
KamiyaNARRATOR
On a certain foggy night a few months after Athelbert came to the throne, a fleet of Danes arrived off the coast of Hampshire.
7 MINS LATER
KamiyaNARRATOR
End of section 5 VI.
KamiyaNARRATOR
PRINCE ALFRED'S MARRIAGE While the Danes thus ravaged the lands north of the Humber, Wessex was left in peace.
KamiyaNARRATOR
In 868, Alfred, who was then nineteen, was betrothed to Elswither, the daughter of Æthelred, a powerful alderman, the ruler of part of Lincolnshire.
speaker_0NARRATOR
up across windy wastes and up went alfred over the shaws shaken of the joy of giants the joy without a cause in the slopes away to the western bays where blows not ever a tree he washed his soul in the west wind and his body in the sea and he set to rhyme his ale measures and he sang aloud his laws because of the joy of the giants the joy without a cause for the king went gathering wessex men as grain out of the chaff the few that were alive to die laughing as littered skulls that lie after lost battles turn to the sky an everlasting laugh the king went gathering christian men as wheat out of the husk eldred the franklin by the sea and mark the man from italy and colan of the sacred tree from the old tribe on usk the rook croaked homeward heavily the west was clear and warm the smoke of evening food and ease rose like a blue tree in the trees when he came to eldred's farm but eldred's farm was fallen awry like an old cripple's bones and eldred's tools were red with rust and on his well was a green crust and purple thistles upward thrust between the kitchen stones but smoke of some good feasting went upwards evermore and eldred's doors stood wide apart for loitering foot or laboring cart and eldred's great and foolish heart stood open like his door A mighty man was Eldred, a bulk for casks to fill, his face a dreaming furnace, his body a walking hill.
speaker_0NARRATOR
In the old wars of Wessex his sword had sunken deep, but all his friends, he sighed and said, were broken about Æthelred, and between the deep drink and the dead he had fallen upon sleep.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Come not to me, King Alfred, Save always for the ale.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Why should my harmless hinds be slain, Because the chiefs cry once again, As in all fights, that we shall gain, And in all fights we fail? Your scalds still thunder and prophesy That crown that never comes.
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