Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

==== Æthelred and the return of the Scandinavians (978–1016) ====
The reign of King [[Æthelred the Unready]] witnessed the resumption of Viking raids on England, putting the country and its leadership under strains as severe as they were long sustained. Raids began on a relatively small scale in the 980s but became far more serious in the 990s, and brought the people to their knees in 1009–12, when a large part of the country was devastated by the army of [[Thorkell the Tall]]. It remained for [[Swein Forkbeard]], king of Denmark, to conquer the kingdom of England in 1013–14, and (after Æthelred's restoration) for his son Cnut to achieve the same in 1015–16. The tale of these years incorporated in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' must be read in its own right,<ref>ASC, pp. 230–251</ref> and set beside other material which reflects in one way or another on the conduct of government and warfare during Æthelred's reign.<ref>See, e.g., EHD, no. 10 (the poem on the battle of Maldon), nos. 42–6 (law-codes), nos. 117–29 (charters, etc.), nos.230–1 (letters), and no. 240 (Archbishop Wulfstan's Sermo ad Anglos).</ref> It is this evidence which is the basis for Keynes's view that the king lacked the strength, judgement and resolve to give adequate leadership to his people in a time of grave national crisis; who soon found out that he could rely on little but the treachery of his military commanders; and who, throughout his reign, tasted nothing but the ignominy of defeat. The raids exposed tensions and weaknesses which went deep into the fabric of the late Anglo-Saxon state, and it is apparent that events proceeded against a background more complex than the chronicler probably knew. It seems, for example, that the death of Bishop Æthelwold in 984 had precipitated further reaction against certain ecclesiastical interests; that by 993 the king had come to regret the error of his ways, leading to a period when the internal affairs of the kingdom appear to have prospered.<ref>White, Stephen D. "Timothy Reuter, ed., The New Cambridge Medieval History, 3: C. 900–c. 1024. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xxv." Speculum 77.01 (2002): pp455-485.</ref>
[[File:Londoncnut.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Cnut's 'Quatrefoil' type penny with the legend "CNUT REX ANGLORU[M]" (''Cnut, King of the English''), struck in London by the moneyer Edwin.]]

The increasingly difficult times brought on by the Viking attacks are reflected in both [[Ælfric of Eynsham|Ælfric]]'s and [[Wulfstan the Cantor|Wulfstan]]'s works, but most notably in Wulfstan's fierce rhetoric in the ''Sermo Lupi ad Anglos'', dated to 1014.<ref>Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, 2. ed., Methuen's Old English Library B. Prose selections (London: Methuen, 1952).</ref> Malcolm Godden suggests that ordinary people saw the return of the Vikings as the imminent "expectation of the apocalypse", and this was given voice in Ælfric and Wulfstan writings,<ref>Malcolm Godden, "Apocalypse and Invasion in Late Anglo-Saxon England," in From Anglo-Saxon to Early Middle English: Studies Presented to E. G. Stanley, ed. Malcolm Godden, Douglas Gray, and Terry Hoad (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).</ref> which is similar to that of Gildas and Bede. Raids were taken as signs of God punishing his people; Ælfric refers to people adopting the customs of the Danish and exhorts people not to abandon the native customs on behalf of the Danish ones, and then requests a "brother Edward" to try to put an end to a "shameful habit" of drinking and eating in the outhouse, which some of the countrywomen practised at beer parties.<ref>Mary Clayton, "An Edition of Ælfric's Letter to Brother Edward," in Early Medieval English Texts and Interpretations: Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg, ed. Elaine Treharne and Susan Rosser (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002), 280–283.</ref>

In April 1016, Æthelred died of illness, leaving his son and successor [[Edmund Ironside]] to defend the country. The final struggles were complicated by internal dissension, and especially by the treacherous acts of Ealdorman Eadric of Mercia, who opportunistically changed sides to Cnut's party. After the defeat of the English in the [[Battle of Assandun]] in October 1016, Edmund and Cnut agreed to divide the kingdom so that Edmund would rule Wessex and Cnut Mercia, but Edmund died soon after his defeat in November 1016, making it possible for Cnut to seize power over all England.<ref>Keynes, S. The Diplomas of King Æthelred "the Unready", 226–228.</ref>