8. This Formidable King Differed Greatly From His Weak Father
Medieval England’s King Edmund II, commonly known as Edmund Ironside (circa 993 – 1016), had a brief reign from April 23rd to November 30th, 1016, but a memorable life. A formidable man, Edmund was a case of the apple falling far from the tree, as his father, the weak and vacillating King Ethelred the Unready, was one of England’s worst monarchs. Edmund was a vast improvement over his father and proved himself made of sterner stuff than his predecessor. He earned the surname “Ironside” for his staunch resistance to a massive invasion led by the Danish King Canute.
Starting in 991, Edmund’s father Ethelred the Unready unwisely sought to buy off the Danes then occupy northern England. He figured that paying them tribute known as Danegeld, or “Danish Gold”, would get them to stop their incessant raids into his kingdom. Unsurprisingly, that simply emboldened the Danes. They upped their demands for more and more gold, and fearing little from Ethelred, kept on raiding his domain. Finally, after bankrupting his kingdom and beggaring its people with the high taxes necessary to pay the Danegeld, Ethelred ordered a massacre of Danish settlers in 1002. Things were already bad, but that made them worse.
