Ælfred Æþeling of Alfred Aetheing, was one of the eight sons of the English king Ethelred II, called 'The Unready'. He and his brother Edward the Confessor were sons of Ethelred's third wife Emma of Normandy. In 1013 during the siege of London by the Danes, Ethelred fled England to exile in Normandy accompanied by a retinue of close family members which included Alfred, Edward and several more of his children. Ethelred regained the throne in 1014, but Alfred and his family remained in Normandy. After Ethelred died in 1015, and England was conquered by Canute of Denmark in the following year.