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Ethelred was controlled by his mother, Queen Elfrida, who dismissed Dunstan as chancellor and reigned herself as regent in association with Elfhere, the Earl of Mercia, whom she appointed as the new chancellor. Dunstan lectured the queen and foretold of the calamities which were to befall the country in expiation for Edward's murder, and returned to Canterbury and devoted his remaining years to church matters. The king's mother, Queen Elfrida, was an unscrupulous, treacherous, manipulative woman, who stopped at nothing to achieve her ambitions. She murdered her first husband, Earl Ethelwald of East Anglia, to marry King Edgar as his second wife, when she learned that he was interested in her; and then murdered her step-son, the teenage-king, Edward, the son of Edgar's first wife, to make way for the succession of her son, Ethelred, thus achieving her aims. She dominated the early years of her son's [Ethelred's] reign, though her influence declined after he came of age. Ethelred took the throne in an atmosphere of suspicion, uncertainty, and apprehension, with the nation stunned over the murder of the late king. Ethelred was crowned according to custom at Kingston in 979 by Dunstan, the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. The reign of Ethelred was one of the most disastrous in English History. Nothing went right for him. Ethelred was a mannerly, handsome, and personable youth; but as he reached manhood displayed an incredible incompetence. Ethelred was under the tutelage of his mother and her circle of friends the first five years of his reign. Earl Elfhere of Mercia, whom his mother had appointed chancellor, led the anti-monastic movement during his regency and succeeded in reducing the wealth, influence, and power of the monasteries, though Ethelred later reversed this. Elfhere also had to deal with the Danes who after thirty years renewed their attacks on England finding the country unprepared and its defenses ineffective. The "burhs" [fortified camps] were still in existence, though in disrepair. There was some refurbishment of the "burhs" undertaken, and the armed-forces were also strengthened, however, these measures failed as a result of bad leadership. Then, suddenly, the Danes ceased their attacks for several years which lulled the English into a false sense of security, and the country's military-preparedness was neglected and allowed to erode more and more.
Ethelred came of age in 983. The death of Earl Elfhere that year left Ethelred free to act on his own. He showed lack of good judgment and listened to bad advice, and consequently was totally incompetent as a ruler. The great men who had surrounded his father gradually died off in the early years of Ethelred's reign. His mother, Queen Elfrida, was the dominant personality at his court. She brought-up Ethelred's children, seven sons and three daughters, of his first wife, Aelfgifu, while Ethelred reveled in all sorts of vice during his middle years. Her objection to her son's life-style caused her to be banished from court in 985, but she was forgiven and restored in 990. The queen-mother, Elfrida, in later life, perhaps overtaken by remorse of her past deeds, retired from public life and entered a nunnery where she spent her remaining years. In his later years Ethelred was sobered by the increasing intensity of the Danish attacks on the country which had begun again. His inability to mount any serious challenge to the Danes allowed the invaders to rob, pillage, and burn English towns with little resistance. In 991 the Danes under King Sven "The Dane" or "Fork-Beard" of Denmark completely wiped-out an English army under Byrhtnoth (Beortnoth), the Earl of Essex, in a major battle at Maldon. Ethelred sought to appease the Sven "The Dane" by the payment of an enormous tribute in 994, but many of his councilors feared that it would just encourage him. There were some English earls who threw in their lot with the Danish invaders in their selfish attempts to maintain themselves. This prompted Ethelred to initiate his policy to reorganize the country's provincial governments, which culminated in the "Wantage Code". Ethelred also sought to bind the great nobles of England to him by means of marriage alliances. He married one of his daughters to Earl Athelstan of East Anglia; another daughter was given in marriage to Earl Eadric Streona of Mercia, whom he appointed as his chancellor; and, still another married Earl Uchtred of Northumbria. He, too, contracted the marriage of his eldest son, Athelstan, to one of the daughters of Earl Ethelwerd of Wessex. There is a story that upon the death of his first wife in 991 Ethelred married as his second wife, Elfflede, the daughter of the Danish jarl/earl Thored of Northampton, to secure the earl's loyalty, however, divorced her after her father's death in 992. The marriage produced one daughter. Sven "The Dane" returned to England seeking easy boodle, and made raids all over England from 997 to 1002. Ethelred could do little more than to negotiate a temporary truce. Ethelred used diplomacy this time to neutralize the Danish menace and married the sister of the Viking-Duke Richard II of Normandy, Emma, his third wife; for Normandy was a haven for the Danish Fleet attacking England, and, with Normandy now as an ally, the Danes were obliged to withdraw. Ethelred by Emma had further issue of two sons and one daughter. In 1002, Ethelred, fearing that the Danes were about to seize the kingdom, issued an edict ordering all Danes in England to be put to death on St. Bryce's Day [13 Nov.], and there was a great slaughter throughout the country. The whole-sale genocide of the Danes in England defies imagination. Following this atrocity, the King of Denmark, Sven "The Dane", renewed his attacks on England to avenge the massacre. He converged on England in 1003 with great fury and campaigned almost unchecked up and down the country sacking, looting, and burning towns, until 1007 when Ethelred sued for peace. He agreed to pay the Danish king an immense tribute. Ethelred levied a special tax on his subjects, called the "danegeld", or "Dane-Gold", to raise the tribute. From 1009 to 1012 England was ravaged by Danes under Thorkell "The Tall", one of King Sven's generals, who reeked havoc and destruction all over the country. Faced with this new invasion Ethelred ordered the country's bishops to say prayers after Mass beginning with the third psalm, "O Lord, how they are multiplied who trouble me!" The Vikings sacked Canterbury Cathedral in 1011, and seized, tortured, and murdered the Arch-Bishop, Alphege. In 1013 King Sven "The Dane" returned to England and this time was bent on conquest, and overran the whole country. The English, worn out by years of continuous warfare and heavy tributes, could take no more and offered surrender, which forced Ethelred to flee the country. Ethelred escaped across the English Channel with his family and some retainers just as the Danes entered Winchester [the capital city], and Ethelred found refuge at the court of his wife's brother in Normandy, which left Sven "The Dane" in possession of England.
In 1013, Ethelred fled to Normandy, seeking protection by his brother-in-law, Robert of Normandy, when England was over-run by Svein Haraldsson of Denmark and his forces. He returned in February, 1014, following the death of Svein Haraldsson. Ethelred died on April 23, 1016, in London, where he was buried. He was succeeded by his son, Edmund II of England.
Ethelred's daughter, Edith, was married to Edric Streona, the traitor who betrayed both Ethelred and later Edmund. Edric may have either murdered or instigated the murder of Edmund after Edmund made peace with Canute. Canute later executed Edric for his services.