Africa 15Further reading: Milton M. Gatch, Preaching and
Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Aelfric and Wulfstan
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977); Caroline
Louisa White, Aelfric: A New Study of His Life and Writing
(Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1974); James Hurt,
Ælfric(New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972).
Aeneas Silvius SeePIUSII, POPE.
Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians (d. 918)daughter of
Alfred of Wessex, one of the few medieval women who ruled
a kingdom
During the Middle Ages, women were sometimes permit-
ted to act as regents for underage sons. Though
Æthelflæd had no son, from the death of her husband,
Æthelred, lord of the Mercians, in 911, until her own
death, she apparently acted as regent for her late hus-
band, ruling the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia alone.
During these years she conducted a defense against
Viking attacks and built fortifications in the northwest
against incursions from the Irish Sea and in the northeast
against English Viking settlements. She was responsible
for campaigns that recovered Leicester and Derby from
Viking rule, and her military power was such that the
Danish settlers at York sought her as their “lord” and
Welsh kings submitted to her. As a king did, she granted
land by charter in her own name.
This extraordinary personal rule continued the
power she had possessed and exercised during her hus-
band’s lifetime. By 900 her name was already associated
with his in joint grants of land. The political situation of
the late ninth and early 10th centuries was crucial to her
singular role. Her marriage sealed an important alliance
between Mercia and Wessex. On her death in 918, a sec-
tion of the Mercian nobility attempted to make her
daughter Ælfwyn their ruler, but Edward the king of
Wessex dominated the future of Mercia.
Further reading:Pauline Stafford, “The King’s Wife
in Wessex, 800–1066,” Past and Present91 (1981): 3–27;
Frederick T. Wainwright, “Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mer-
cians,” in Scandinavian England: Collected Papers,ed. H. P.
R. Finberg (Chichester: Phillimore, 1975), 305–324.
Æthelred II the Unready (Unraed, Ill advised)(ca.
969–1016)Anglo-Saxon king of England
Born about 969 into the royal house of Wessex, at that
time the effective ruler of all the Anglo-Saxons, Æthelred
was a direct descendant of ALFREDthe Great and the son
of King Edgar, who had ruled a united and peaceful En-
gland for 16 years. At Edgar’s death in 975, the realm
passed to Æthelred’s elder brother, Edward, who was also
still a child. The nobles of the kingdom formed rival par-
ties around Edward and Æthelred, and the latter’s sup-
porters murdered Edward on March 18, 978, thus making
Æthelred king. Edward was soon widely honored as a
martyred saint; as a result many withheld allegiance from
Æthelred, so from the time of his accession at the age of
nine or 10, his reign was marred by the treason and revolt
of his leading thegns, or noblemen. The ensuing disorder
was nourished by his own indecisive character and by the
renewal of Danish raids on England in 980 after a pause
of some 25 years. In 991 Æthelred instituted a demoraliz-
ing policy of buying off Danish raiders with payments of
silver.
In 1009 an enormous army, sent by King Sven Fork-
beard (985/986–1014) of Denmark, arrived in England to
depose Æthelred. Although the English bought the
invaders off in 1012, the following year Sven launched
another invasion. Æthelred resisted from London for a
short period, then finally fled to Normandy. After Sven
died suddenly in February 1014, Æthelred was reinstated
as king. His rule was challenged by CANUTE, Sven’s
younger son, and apparently by his own son, Edmund
Ironsides (ca. 988–1016). Canute’s first campaign failed,
and he retreated to Denmark, only to return to England
with a new army in 1015. Æthelred and Edmund joined
forces against the invader early in 1016, then on April 23,
1016, Æthelred died. Edmund succeeded him but on
November 30, Edmund, too, died. Canute became the
ruler of England.
See alsoANGLO-SAXONCHRONICLES.
Further reading: David Hill, ed., Ethelred the
Unready: Papers from the Millenary Conference(Oxford:
British Archaeological Reports, 1978); Simon Keynes, The
Diplomats of King Æthelred “The Unready” (978–1016): A
Study in Their Use as Historical Evidence (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1980): Simon Keynes, “The
Vikings in England,” in The Oxford Illustrated History of
the Vikings,ed. Peter Sawyer (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1997), 48–82; F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England,
3d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970).Afarabus SeeAL-FARABI.Africa The areas along the northern coast of Africa, the
continent south of Europe across the Mediterranean Sea,
played fundamental roles in the development of Euro-
pean culture and civilization. As in ancient times, only a
part of it was known in the Middle Ages, principally the
northern and eastern parts, near the Mediterranean and
Red Sea coasts. After the conquests of ISLAMand the pen-
etration of Muslim influence in eastern and central
Africa, Arab travelers and geographers described a larger
part of the continent, mainly Sudan and the Sahara. In
the Middle Ages, the African continent was divided into
four distinct regions, according to our knowledge and the
development of the historical civilization. The first part,
northern Africa, from the Mediterranean shores to the
ATLAS Mountains, including the Valley of the Nile in