Æthelred the Unready
Simon Keynes argues that the reign of the famously incompetent king, who died in London a thousand years ago, is in need of reappraisal.
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation
To puff and look important and to say:-
‘Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.’And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.