The nickname that has applied to Æthelred for centuries comes from the Old English, Unræd, and means not that he was unprepared, but that he was ill-advised, and is a play on his Christian name, which means ‘noble counsel’. The people always preferred to place the blame for the calamities that befell them through Æthelred’s long reign on the men around the king rather than the king himself. Æthelred, ever one to pass the buck, was likely all too happy to allow his councillors to take the blame. He even managed to escape the blame for how he came to the throne in the first place.
On the death of his father, Edgar the Peaceful, in 975, Æthelred’s elder half brother, Edward, took the throne. Edward reigned for three years until he made the mistake of visiting his half-brother and step-mother, Elfrida, at Corfe Castle.