Treachery gains more purchase on the imagination when people are at war. The fateful year 1000 had come and the wretched, ever-worsening state of the world provided manifest evidence to support the view that the Last Days were in progress. Venerable bishops added their voices to those of wandering scoundrels who intoned the End of Days: ‘War shall come upon war, tribulation upon tribulation, famine upon famine, nation upon nation and yet the bridegroom does not come.’
‘War shall come upon war, tribulation upon tribulation, famine upon famine, nation upon nation and yet the bridegroom does not come.’In these circumstances England found itself beset by Viking attacks for twenty and more years, failing to resist incursions, its kingship paralysed by poor leadership and treachery.
Aethelred
