mund possessed all the qualifications of a resolute and vigilant chief.
He made a vigorous resistance, and when his presence was required
elsewhere, the bravery of the citizens repelled the efforts of the be-
siegers. While London was thus beleaguered with a hostile fleet, Ed-
mund fought two battles in the country, one at Pen, in Dorset-
shire, the other and more celebrated one at Scearston or Shcrston, in
Gloucestershire. The latter took place about mid-summer, and was
fought with determined obstinacy on both sides. Edmund selected his
bravest soldiers for the first line of attack, and placed the rest as auxi-
liary bodies ; then noticing many of them, individually, he appealed to
their patriotism and their courage with that force of eloquence which
rouses men to mighty deeds. He conjured them to remember their
country, their beloved families and paternal habitations ; for all these
they were to fight, for all these they would conquer. To rescue or
lose for ever those dear objects of their attachment would be the alter-
native of that day's struggle. He represented to them their country
overrun, their kindred massacred, and the insolence of oppression
everywhere triumphant. In the height of the enthusiasm which his
address had created, he commanded the trumpets to sound, and the
charge of battle to begin. Boldly they rushed against the invaders,
and were nobly led by their heroic king. He quitted his royal station
to mingle in the foremost ranks of the combat ; and, while his sword
strewed the plain with slaughter, his active mind watched with eager-
ness every movement of the enemy. He endeavoured to blend the



72 POLITICAL SERIES. [FlRS*

duty of commander with the gallant bearing of the soldier. On the
first day of the conflict, fortune seemed equally poised, both armies
fought with unprevailing courage, until mutual fatigue compelled them
to separate. In the morning the carnage was renewed. In the thickest
of the battle Edmund forced his way to Canute, and struck at him ve-
hemently with his sword. The shield of the Dane saved him from the
blow ; but it was given with such strength that it divided the shield,
and cut the neck of the horse below it. Canute was but slightly
wounded ; and a crowd of Danes having rushed on Edmund, he was
compelled to retire after committing great slaughter. The defeat of
the enemy seemed now inevitable, but for the treachery of Edric who
had joined the banner of Canute. He had struck off the head of one
Osmer, whose countenance resembled that of the English king ; and,
fixing it on his spear, he carried it through the ranks exclaiming aloud,
" Fly, ye men of Dorset and Devons : fly and save yourselves. Be-
hold the head of your sovereign !" The Anglo-Saxons gazed in terror
and dismay ; for the king was not then visible, having plunged into the
centre of the Danish host. The report of the infamous Edric was
believed, and panic began to spread its withering blight through the
whole army. At this juncture Edmund re-appeared, but his presence
was now unavailing. In vain he threw off his helmet, and gaining an
eminence, exposed his disarmed head to rally his flying troops. The
fatal spirit had taken possession ; its alarms could not be counteracted ;
and all the bravery and skill of Edmund could only sustain the combat
till night interposed. The victory was yet undecided, but Canute had
no inclination to renew the attempt. He left the contested field at
midnight, and marched soon afterwards to London to his shipping. 1 It
seems probable that had Canute trusted to strength instead of artifice,
Edmund would have cleared the land of the troublesome Danes. But
he employed intrigue, and the perfidious Edric was the instrument.
Pleading his early connection and near relationship with the king he
had married Edmund's sister he solicited and obtained a reconcilia-
tion. It seems strange, and was peculiarly unfortunate, that Edmund
should have placed any trust in so notorious a traitor. Yet he not only
received him on his oath of fidelity, but allowed him to marshal his
forces amongst the ranks of the English, and even gave him a consider-
able command in the army. Meantime Edmund followed Canute to
London, and raised the siege of the city. A conflict soon followed be-
tween them at Brentford, in which both parties claimed a triumph.
Baffled before the walls of London, Canute avenged himself on Mercia,
whose towns, as usual, were committed to the flames ; and he with-
drew up the Medway. Edmund again engaged the spoilers at Otford
in Kent, and drove them to Sheppey. A vigorous pursuit might have
destroyed all Canute's hopes ; but the evil star of Edric again inter-
posed. Eager to decide the fate of the harassed kingdom in one gene-
ral engagement, Edmund assembled all the strength of England, and
at Assandun, or Assington, in the north of Essex, the two armies met.
Edmund arranged his troops into three divisions, and, riding round
every rank, he roused them by his impressive exhortations to remem-
ber their own valour and their former victories. He entreated them

1 Chron. Sax. 148, 149. Flor. 385. Knytlinga Saga, 130.



PERIOD.] EDMUND IRONSIDE. '**

to protect the kingdom from foreign avarice, and to punish by anew do-
feat the enemies whom they had already conquered. Canute brought his
forces gradually into the field, and, when the hostile array stood front-
ing each other, Edmund ordered a general and impetuous attack. His
vigour and skill again promised a decisive victory, when Edrie, the se-
cret ally of Canute, deserted him in the very crisis of success, and fled
from the field with the men of Radnor and all the battalions under his
command. This treachery was the harbinger of total defeat. The
charge of Canute on the weakened and exposed Anglo-Saxons was re-
sistless. The valour of Edmund was forgotten. Flight and destruc-
tion overspread the plain. A few, jealous of their glory and anxious to
give a rallying point to the rest, fought desperately amidst surrounding
enemies, and were all cut off except one man. In this disastrous con-
flict nearly the whole of the ancient and valuable nobility of England
perished.* The betrayed Edmund disdained yielding to despair. He
had still resources, and attempted new efforts to deliver his oppressed
and afflicted country. He retired to Gloucester, and such was his ac-
tivity and eloquence that a fresh army was on foot before Canute over-
took him. His martial spirit was unconquerable, and never did his
magnanimity appear greater than on the present occasion. He could
not endure that the best blood of his subjects should be so lavished for
his personal advantage. Stepping forward, he challenged Canute to
single combat, expressing his pity that so many lives should be put in
jeopardy to satisfy their ambition. Malmesbury says, Canute declined
the challenge ; but Brompton, Huntingdon, Matthew of Westminster,
and other writers, declare that he accepted the proposal. The isle of
Olney was the appointed place of meeting, around which the two ar-
mies assembled. The kings received each other's spears upon their
shields. Their swords were drawn, and the combat became close. Their
dexterity was equal, their courage emulous, and, for a long time, the
duel was obstinately maintained. At last the strength of Canute be-
gan to fail before the impetuous Edmund. " Bravest of youths" he
exclaimed, as he felt his powers giving way " why should ever ambition
covet each other's life? Let us be brothers, and divide the kingdom for
which we contend." This proposal the respective armies hailed with
gladness ; and if the generous prudence of Edmund yielded, it must have
been in compliance with the clamorous wishes of his subjects. 3 England
was henceforth to be shared between the two monarchs, Canute being as-
signed the north, and Edmund the south. The princely competitors ex-
changed arms and garments, the money for the fleet was agreed upon
and the armies separated. It is a suspicious fact, that Edric, always
ready and alert to act against his natural sovereign, was at the head of
the council, by whom the partition of the kingdom was negotiated. The
brave Edmund did not long survive this pacification, he was assassinated
within one month after at Oxford. The circumstances attending this
barbarous deed are variously given, but there seems little doubt that
Edric was the perpetrator. Malmesbury mentions that the villain se-
duced two of his chamberlains to wound him at a most private moment

' In this battle fell the ealdormen Alfric. Godwin, Ulfketel, and Ethehvanl. Chron.
Sax. 150 Flor. 6J8.

1 Westm. 205 Hunt. 208. M.ilmeshury, p. 72, and the Encomium Emma, p. 169,
affirm that Canute declined this duel. The Saxon chronicle is silent respecting it.
I- K



74 POLITICAL SERIES. [ FIRST

with an iron hook, but he states this to be only a rumour. Other au-
thorities speak with less reserve both as to the king's violent death,
and its avowed author. 4 The northern accounts expressly state that
Edric was corrupted by Canute to commit the murder, which took
place in the night after the feast of St Andrew, in the year 1016. His
premature fate was greatly lamented by his people, who now beheld
their throne exclusively occupied by those foreigners who had so long
been their oppressors.



Canute.

SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE OF ENGLAND, A. D. 1017 DIED A. D. 1035.

CANUTE, from his warlike abilities, surnamed the Brave; from his
renown and empire, the Great; from his liberality, the Rich; and from
his devotion the Pious; obtained on Edmund's death the sovereignty of
all England, at the early age of twenty. On the death of his father
Sweyn, at Gainsborough, the Danish soldiers in England had appointed
him their king. He was shortly after outlawed, but the fortune of war
and the treachery of faction enabled him to triumph over his rival.
The murder of Ironside sealed the conquest of the English ; for if they
had found it impossible, under him, to maintain their liberty and inde-
pendence, it was not likely after his death they could resist the yoke of
the Danes led by so able a general at the head of so powerful a force.
Canute was chosen king without opposition, but his measures to secure
the crown were sanguinary and tyrannical. His first policy was directed
against the children of Ethelred and Edmund, who might become trou-
blesome competitors. He was anxious, however, to cover his injustice
with the appearance of law; and before seizing their part of the domin-
ions, he summoned a general assembly of the states, in order to fix the
succession of the kingdom. He here appealed to those who had been
witnesses of the convention between him and Edmund, as to the terms
of that agreement. They all loudly testified that Edmund had not in-
tended in that compact to reserve any right of succession to his
brothers; and as to his own children, that it was his wish that Canute
should be their tutor or guardian during their infancy. This evidence
was false, but it was extorted partly by force and partly for the purpose
of conciliating the favour of the monarch. Canute went farther ; he
urged the assembly to take the oath of fealty to him, to which they
consented, and immediately acknowledged him king. On his part he
gave them his pledge of peace and protection. All old enmities were to
be buried in oblivion. Full amnesty was granted for all that had been
said or done. Ethelred's descendants were outlawed and for ever ex-
cluded from the throne. Still the pretensions of these native princes
were sufficiently strong to excite the jealousy and apprehension of
Canute ; and here he was tempted to a repetition of those crimes which
in all countries have stained the annals of despotism. One of the scallds
or poets of his court has left it on record that he slew or banished all
the sons of Ethelred. 1 The Saxon chronicler assures us that he deter-

Ingul. 57 Hist. Ram. 434. Malm. 40. ' Knytlinga Saga, 140.



PEKIOD.J CANUTE. 75

mined at first to exile Edwy, the brother of Edmund, but finding the
English nobles submissive and complaisant, he ventured to gratify his am-
bition by taking the young prince's life. The nefarious Edric suggested
to him a man, Ethelwold, a nobleman of high descent, as a fitting instru-
ment to accomplish his criminal desires. The king incited him to the
guilty deed. " Acquiesce," said he, " with my wishes, and you shall enjoy
securely all the honour and dignity of your ancestors. Bring me his
head, and you shall be dearer to me than a brother." Ethelwold affect-
ed to comply, but his seeming readiness was but an artifice to get the
child into his own power and to preserve his life. Edwy however
did not ultimately escape. Next year he was betrayed and put to
death at the request and by the command of Canute. 2 Edwy, we are
told, bore the singular title of king of the churls, or peasantry, 3 a desig-
nation which could have no reference to a real dignity; and we can only
conjecture that it was a name given him on account of his popularity
with the lower classes, a circumstance which would be the more likely
to excite the jealousy of the Danish Sweyn. Edric persisted in his re-
lentless hatred to the family of the late king, and advised Canute that
the two sons of Ironside, Edmund and Edward, should also be sacrificed.
A feeling of shame rather than of compunction, and a fear of rendering
his government odious if he despatched them in England, prevented him
from adopting this advice without some measure of precaution ; he
resolved to send them to his ally and vassal the king of Sweden, intimat-
ing his desire that as soon as they arrived at his court these objects of
his suspicion should be put to death. The children's innocence moved
the pity of the Scandinavian chief, who had too much humanity to be a
deliberate murderer. But being afraid of incurring the displeasure of
Canute by continuing to protect them, he sent them to Stephen king
of Hungary, 4 by whom they were honourably treated and well-educated.
The younger brother died; but Edward was married to Agatha,
daughter of the emperor Henry II. and the fruits of this union were
Edgar, Atheling, Christina, and Margaret; the latter of whom after-
wards became the wife of Malcolm king of Scots ; and, through her, the
rights of the line of Cerdic were transmitted to Malcolm's progeny after
the conquest of England. The removal of Edmund's children to so
distant a country as Hungary, was, next to their death, regarded by
Canute as the greatest security to his throne. But there remained two
other claimants, equally young in years, but more formidable from the
power of their maternal relations. These were Edward and Alfred,
the sons of Ethelred by Emma, then residing in Normandy with their
uncle, Duke Richard, who treated them with all brotherly affection.
Richard even fitted out a large armament, in order to restore these
English princes to the crown of their ancestors ; 5 and though the navy
was dispersed by a storm, Canute saw the danger to which he was
exposed from the enmity of so warlike a people as the Normans. In
order to acquire the friendship of the duke, he paid his addresses to
his sister, Queen Emma, promising that the children whom he should

1 Flor. \Vigom. 290, 391.

Chron. Sax. 151.

* Hoved. 436. Flor. Wigorn. 619- Our chroniclers say Solomon king of Hungary :
but Papebroche shows it must have been Stephen, not Solomon, who was not born till
after the year 1051. Act. SS. Jan. II. 325

WalHngf. 550.



76 POLITICAL SERIES. [FlRST

have by that marriage, should be left his heirs and successors to the
English throne. Richard acceded to the demand, and Emma was sent
over to England, when she immediately bestowed her hand, without
reluctance, on the murderer of her husband. The English, though
they disapproved of this unnatural union, were pleased to find at court
a princess to whom they were accustomed, and who had already
formed connexions with them ; and thus Canute, besides securing the
alliance of Normandy, gradually acquired by the same means the con-
fidence of his own subjects. Duke Richard did not long survive the
marriage of Emma. He was succeeded by his eldest son, of the same
name, who, dying within a year after him, without children, the duchy
fell to his brother Robert, a man of valour and abilities, who sent an
embassy to England to demand, in the name of his cousins, the young
princes, the restoration of that kingdom. Emma was afterwards ac-
cused of incontinence, and, according to a well-known legend, she
proved her innocence by walking unhurt over seven burning plough-
shares ; but it would be difficult to find a test by which she could be
exonerated from the moral guilt of her union with Canute. The great
point of his ambition was gained in obtaining possession of the Eng-
lish crown. But this was obtained at the expense of many sacrifices.
To gratify the chiefs and nobles, he bestowed on them the most exten-
sive power and jurisdictions. Reserving to himself only the immediate
government of Wessex, he committed East Anglia to Thurkill, or
Turketul, whose valour had greatly contributed to the subjection of
England. Mercia he gave to Edric, and Northumbria to his friend
Eric, the Norwegian prince. He made a public treaty of amity with
his new subjects ; but within a year the solemn compact was violated,
for he slew three English noblemen without a fault, and divided their
estates among his Danish friends. Many others were put to death on
whose fidelity he could not rely, or whom he hated for their shameful
disloyalty to their native prince, alleging that, once traitors, they ought
never to be trusted. On the first opportunity, he expelled Thurkill
and Eric from their governments, and banished them the kingdom.
The treacherous' Edric met with his deserts, and his punishment would
have been ati homage to virtue from any other person than Canute.
He had used the profligate Saxon as a bloody accomplice in establish-
ing his authority, and Edric imprudently boasted of his services, and
murmured at the scantiness of his reward. " I first deserted Edmund
to benefit you! For you I killed him!" Canute felt the reproach and
coloured ; for the anger of conscious guilt and irrepressible shame
came upon him. " 'Tis fit then," he replied, " you should die for your
treason to God and me. You killed your own lord! him, who by
treaty and friendship was my brother. Your blood be upon your own
head for murdering the Lord's anointed ! Your own lips bear witness
against you." The villain who perpetrated the fact was confounded by
the hypocrite who countenanced it. The tone or the gesture of Canute
indicated his intentions. Eric of Northumbria was present, and con-
formably, as it would seem, to a preconcerted plan, he stept forward
and struck the wretch to the ground with his battle-axe. The body was
thrown from the window into the Thames, before any tumult could be
raised among his partisans ; and the ghastly head spiked on the highest
gate of London announced to the people that the felon had now paid



PERIOD.] CANUTE.

the penalty of his misdeeds. 6 The reward was suitable! to his multiplied
acts of perfidy and rebellion ; and though the punishment of so base a
traitor might wear the colouring of equity, the same excuse cannot be
urged for the many other assassinations and forfeitures of the English
nobility committed in the beginning of Canute's reign, and which have:
left a stigma of ferocity on the greatness of his character. These pro-
ceedings created considerable discontent among the; English, who felt
that they were really treated as a conquered people. The Danes, se-
cure in the protection of their king, behaved with great insolence.
According to popular traditions, if an Englishman and a Dane met on
a bridge, the native was compelled to dismount from his horse, and
make way for the victor. We learn from more authentic sources that
the Danish possessors of the confiscated property were in constant dan-
ger from an irritated people, who saw their lands taken from them and
given to strangers, new lords who tyrannized over them, increased their
toil, and oppressed them with taxes. The oppressors themselves were
in constant terror of revenge. They could not sleep in quietness. The
halls which they had usurped, were garrisoned like fortresses in an
enemy's country; and the law which imposed a fine on the township in
which a Dane was slain, attests the general hatred and insecurity
which prevailed. In addition to the forfeited estates Canute also found
himself obliged to load the people with heavy taxation in order to re-
ward his Danish followers. In the year 1018, he compelled the city of
London to pay ten thousand five-hundred pounds; and at the same
time he exacted seventy-two thousand from the rest of the kingdom.
The misery which these forced contributions must have produced on
the exhausted country, might be ascribed to necessity, or calculated to
complete its subjugation ; but such cruel exertions of power are a
dreadful scourge to the mass of mankind, a terrible aggravation to the
evils of poverty. Once fairly master of the kingdom, and freed from
the danger of turbulent and rebellious chiefs, Canute seemed anxious
that the English should be reconciled to the Danish yoke, by the jus-
tice and impartiality of his administration. He sent back the most
part of his Danish troops, retaining only forty vessels in England ; he
restored the Saxon customs in a general assembly of the states ; in the
distribution of justice and rank he made no distinction between the two
nations ; and he took care by a strict execution of law to extend equal
protection to their lives and properties. The taxes, however, continued
throughout the whole of his reign to be levied with great rigour; if the
proprietor could not pay his assessment by the end of the third day,
the land itself was seized by the revenue-officers, and sold for the benefit
of the king's exchequer. With all this it is surprising how soon the
Danes gradually incorporated themselves with their new fellow-subjects.
Both parties, weary of rapine and revolt, appeared glad to obtain a little
respite from those multiplied calamities, the sad consequences of which
the one no less than the other had experienced, in their fierce contests
for power.

So tranquil was England in 1019, that Canute passed over to Denmark
and spent the winter of that year in his -native country. In 1025 his
presence was again demanded in the Baltic, to defend his northern do-

Malm. 73. Mat. Wostm. 402.



78 POLITICAL SEIUES. [FlHST

minions from the fleet and army of the king of Sweden, commanded by
Ulfr, and Eglaf or Olave. He carried with him a large body of English
troops, of which the famous Earl Godwin was intrusted with the command.
In the first attempt he was unsuccessful ; but the young Godwin had soon
an opportunity of performing a signal service which gained him the
friendship of his sovereign and laid the foundation of that immense for-
tune which he acquired to his family. He was stationed next the
Swedish camp, and seizing a favourable moment, he attacked the enemy
by surprise in the night, drove them from their trenches, threw them
into disorder, and pursuing his advantage he obtained a decisive victory
over them. 1 In the morning Canute, seeing the English camp entirely
abandoned, imagined those disaffected troops must have deserted to
the enemy. But he was agreeably surprised to find them at that very
time engaged in pursuit of the discomfited Swedes. He was so
pleased with this success and the manner of obtaining it, that he be-
stowed his daughter in marriage upon Godwin, and treated him ever
afterwards with entire confidence and regard. Canute returned, but the
Swedes, trusting to his absence, repeatedly rose against him, refused
their tribute, and defied his power. In 1028 he made another voy-
age to Norway, the crown of which he now claimed as the right of
his father's conquest. The detail of his wars in that remote region
need not here be narrated. He expelled Olave, who had displeased
the Norwegians by his innovations, and took possession of his kingdom.
He descended, however, so far beneath the manly courage of a hero, as
to corrupt the subjects of Olave from their fidelity by money. 2 He
exacted for hostages the sons and dearest relations of the chiefs of Nor-
way ; and appointed Haco, the son of his friend Eric, to be his viceroy
or governor. Haco perished off the coast of Caithness in a storm, and
Olave was sacrificed in an insurrection of his countrymen, who took
offence at the laws intended to accelerate their civilization. Ulfr, who