Somewhere between hard scholarly writing and customer-level historical biography, Roach examines the life of Æthelred. Roach's thesis is that Æthelred was not as "Unready" as history has made out.
It does get dry at times, but if you are willing to push through, this is a great historical work on one of England's most misunderstood leaders.


**I received this copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

British history is full of strange figures. Aethelred the Unready is one who may have received undeserved approbation by posterity. At least that is the strategy Levi Roach follows in Aethelred the Unready.

In six chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion, Levi Roach presses his case that Aethelred is more competent than portrayed in general histories. Chapter one digs into his father's court, his mother's role in the court and the milieu of Aethelred's childhood. Chapter 2 continues his childhood after his father's death, his brother's rule and death, and his ascension to the throne. Chapters 3 through 6 covers his reign, digging into all possible sources of information (charters, The Chronicle, sermons, and various archival material, etc). Roach lays the groundwork of his argument in the Introduction and then, in the Conclusion, he presents the fruit of his scholarship and argues that while Aethelred was not successful in combating Viking invasions, it was not because of incompetency of the king, but instead a combination of bad counsel, in-fighting at court, competent opponents, and sheer bad luck. Ultimately, the reader need to look at the evidence and make up his/her mind regarding King Aethelred.

I usually don't read non-fiction books, but I really liked this one. The writing flows really well and it's easy to follow. The life and reign of Aethelred was quite fascinating and reading about 10th century England, how it was ruled, what the people of the time were afraid of, and how England fell to the Vikings (at least for a short period of time), was quite fascinating.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in English history.

One for the personal collection. Well researched and highly informative with a focus on the years preceeding Aethelred's reign, especially the growing and influential monastic movement, in addition to Aethelred's family and court.