EDMUND IRONSIDE AND CANUTE.
A Double Election--Battles of Pen Selwood and
Sherstone--Treacheries of Edric--Division of the Kingdom--Death
of Edmund--Election of Canute--His Treatment of his Rivals--The
Four Earldoms--Canute's Marriage with Emma--His Popular
Government--His Expeditions to Northern Europe--Submission of the
King of Scots--Canute at Rome--The Story of his Rebuke to his
Courtiers--His Death.
Immediately on the death of Ethelred, his son Edmund, who had given so
many proofs of courage and devotion to this unhappy country, was elected
king by the citizens of London. But most of the chief men of the kingdom,
weary of the war, elected Canute, and joined him at Southampton, where
they swore allegiance to him. Thus there were two kings in England, and
of the two Edmund had a great advantage in being the holder of London.
This city the Danish monarch felt it necessary to possess; and in the
absence of the new king, who was gathering troops in Wessex, he laid
siege to it with a very considerable force; but the citizens defended
themselves so well, that Canute broke up the siege and went back into
Wessex in search of Edmund.
Both parties were impatient to decide their claims by battle. The armies
met at Pen Selwood, where the English gained a victory. After which a
second battle took place at Sherstone, in Wiltshire, and so obstinately
was it contested that neither side could claim the victory, although the
English, it is recorded, were nearly being defeated by the cunning of
Edric Streona, who fought on the side of the Danes. Perceiving that the
English troops fought with such desperate courage, he cut off the head of
Osmer, a soldier who so resembled Edmund that he might easily have been
mistaken for him. Placing the bleeding head upon his lance, he advanced
with it to the front of the English army, and exclaimed, "Fly, English,
fly! Edmund is dead." This stratagem had nearly succeeded; the soldiers
of Edmund began to waver, on seeing which the king threw aside his helmet
and rode bareheaded through the ranks, when he was received with cheers
of delight.
The battle lasted till night, without any decisive advantage on either
side. In the morning Edmund intended to renew the battle, but Canute, who
had other intentions, retired to his ships and set sail, hastily landed
his forces, and besieged London a second time with no better success than
the first.
As soon as Edric saw that Canute's fortunes were on the decline, he
changed sides again, and Edmund, yielding to the extraordinary influence
which this villain appears to have possessed, admitted him into his
confidence. He soon had to rue his folly, for after winning three battles
against the Danes, and freeing London of their presence, Edmund would
have utterly overthrown them at Otford had not the advice of Edric
dissuaded him from continuing the pursuit. His pretext was that, if
hardly pressed, despair might cause them to rally, and convert defeat
into victory. Perhaps his idea was to weary out both sides, and so
establish himself upon the ruins of their power.
A fifth battle was accordingly fought at Ashdon, in Essex, and here Edric
once more acted the part of a traitor, for perceiving that the Danes
were being put to flight, he drew off his men, and Canute finally won
a crushing victory, slaying many of the chief men on the side of the
English. It is hard to believe that his conduct on this occasion can
have been as openly base as the chroniclers represent it, for we find
that he is still trusted by the king, who, undaunted by his previous
disasters, prepared to renew the conflict yet a sixth time. The two
armies, therefore, confronted one another yet again, but no battle took
place. A famous story is told concerning the two kings on this occasion,
but it is not found in the more trustworthy accounts. It is said that
Edmund proposed that they should decide their claims to the crown in
single combat; an offer which his rival declined, under the plea that he
was small of stature and of a sickly constitution; but added that, if the
English king wished to avoid the effusion of blood, he was quite willing
to consent to a division of the kingdom.
The more probable account of what occurred is that Edric Streona
persuaded Edmund that it would be unwise to risk another battle, and that
he had better agree to a partition of the kingdom. Anyhow, no battle was
fought, and the two kings met on the island of Olney, in the Severn,
and agreed that Edmund should be over-king, and should possess Wessex,
Essex, and East Anglia, with London, while Canute should have Mercia and
Northumberland. As Professor Freeman points out, the division differed
from that made between Alfred and Guthrum, for Edmund gave to Canute all
that part of Mercia which Alfred had kept, while he retained East Anglia
and Essex, which by the old partition had belonged to Guthrum.
[Illustration: MEETING OF EDMUND IRONSIDE AND CANUTE ON THE ISLAND OF
OLNEY. (_See p._ 63.)]
Edmund did not live to enjoy the rest he had won so dearly for many
weeks, for on St. Andrew's Day, 1017, he died, and his death, like other
unexpected events of the period, was attributed to Edric Streona. Upon
this point, however, nothing can be asserted with safety, despite the
circumstantial accounts of the chroniclers. Edmund had reigned only seven
months, but in that brief space he had proved himself a very different
man to his father.
On the death of Edmund Ironside, Canute's position in England was
naturally much stronger than when he was maintaining an obstinate contest
with the brave English king. Edmund's children were very young, and their
claims were not to be entertained when it was of the utmost importance
to have a man of courage and resource at the head of affairs. There
was, however, a formidable competitor in Edwy, the late king's brother,
who was much beloved by the people. But the Witena-gemot, weary of the
contest for the kingdom, was convened at London, and Canute was chosen
king over all England. It is said that in order to weaken the claims of
his rivals he exacted from the assembly a promise that none of Edmund's
sons or brothers should be king, and they even advised that Edwy should
be outlawed. The pretext for this exclusion was that no mention had been
made of the members of the line of Wessex in the treaty between Canute
and Edmund.
Edwy was outlawed in 1017, and shortly afterwards died, murdered
apparently by order of Canute, although there is another story that
an unsuccessful attempt at his assassination was made shortly before
his outlawry. In any case he disappears from history. The children of
Ethelred and Emma were in Normandy with their mother. Edmund's two sons,
Edward and Edmund, were sent to the King of Sweden, with secret orders,
it is said, that they should be put to death. But Olaf, though placed
in an embarrassing position by this infamous request, resolved to spare
them. However, to avoid being drawn into war with his powerful neighbour
he in his turn sent them to Stephen, King of Hungary, to be educated at
his court. There Edmund died young; but Edward lived and married Agatha,
the niece of Stephen's queen. She bore him Edgar Atheling, of whom we
shall hear again, and Margaret, who afterwards became Queen of the Scots.
Canute, having rid himself of his rivals, divided England into four
parts, keeping Wessex under his immediate rule, making Danes the Earls of
East Anglia and Northumberland, and giving Mercia to Edric Streona. But
he speedily caused Edric to be put to death, "and very rightly too," says
the Chronicle, because no doubt he feared to have such a perfidious man
among his chief men and Edric's body was thrown into the Thames. These
earldoms continued until the Conquest, and their holders played a great
part in the history of the subsequent reigns. It is remarkable that this
arrangement of the government of the kingdom was very much in agreement
with the policy of Dunstan.
In the same year Canute put away his Danish wife and contracted an
alliance of a very wise character if regarded as a measure of precaution.
Alfred and Edward, Ethelred's sons, were still a source of anxiety to
him, and a quarrel was, above all things, to be avoided with Richard
Duke of Normandy. In order to acquire the friendship of the duke, he
paid addresses to Queen Emma, the widow of Ethelred, and the curious
marriage was concluded. It is said, but the story is probably without
foundation, that she made him promise that the crown of England should go
to the issue of her second marriage, to the exclusion of her children by
Ethelred and of Canute's two sons.
Canute was an admirable ruler, although we find him, in 1018, laying a
very heavy tax upon the kingdom, especially in London, which, it will be
remembered, had held out so bravely for Ethelred. The money, however,
which amounted to £83,000, was used for a good purpose, namely, to
pay off the Danish fleet. With the fleet departed the larger part of
the Danish army, a bodyguard remaining which was known as the King's
_House-carls_, and which formed a little standing army. Canute had
doubtless seen that the English national levies were not to be relied
upon at a pinch, and wished to have a trusty force with which to oppose
a sudden invasion.
Having thus established himself upon the throne, he proceeded to rule
England by the English and for the English. The chief Danes were banished
from the kingdom, or put to death one by one, and their places were
taken by Englishmen. Leofric became Earl of Mercia in the room of Edric
Streona, and the famous Godwin was made Earl of Wessex, which the king no
longer kept under his special care. He also renewed the English laws and
customs, King Edgar's laws, as they were called, and made no distinction
between Dane and Englishman in the administration of justice. He sought
also to gain the favour of the people by religious foundations, by gifts
to monasteries and churches, by doing reverence to the saints and holy
places they revered, by preferring the churchmen they honoured, and by
many other gracious acts. A very politic proceeding was his translation
of the bones of St. Alphege from Greenwich to Canterbury, by which he
sought to bury the bitter memories of the past.
But though Canute spent most of his time in England, and valued his
English possessions more than any other of his lands, he was during
the greater part of his reign occupied in foreign wars with the object
of building up a grand empire in northern Europe. It was in the first
of these wars that Earl Godwin gained his confidence. In 1019, Canute
having settled his power beyond all danger of a revolution, made a voyage
to Denmark, in order to make a campaign against the King of Sweden;
and he carried along with him a large body of the English, under the
command of Earl Godwin. The Earl was stationed next the Swedish camp;
and observing a favourable opportunity, which he was obliged suddenly
to seize, he attacked the enemy in the night, drove them from their
trenches, threw them into disorder, pursued his advantage, and obtained
a decisive victory over them. Next morning, Canute, seeing the English
camp abandoned, imagined that those disaffected troops had deserted to
the enemy: he was agreeably surprised to find that they were at that time
engaged in pursuit of the discomfited Swedes. He was so pleased with this
success, and with the manner of obtaining it, that he bestowed his niece
in marriage on Godwin, and treated him ever after with entire confidence
and regard.
The wars with Sweden terminated in the submission of that kingdom to
Canute as over-king, and in 1028 he attacked Norway, and drove the just,
but unwarlike Olaf from the land. Canute was thus ruler over Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, and none of the English kings, either before or since
his time, have ever been rulers over so large a portion of Europe.
It was not likely that so powerful a monarch would tolerate the existence
of an independent kingdom to the north of England, and Malcolm of
Scotland forced an issue by invading Northumberland at the beginning of
the reign. In 1031, therefore, Canute found occasion to approach the
Scottish frontier with a powerful army. The King of Scots had no choice
but to submit, and acknowledge Canute as his lord, and his nephew,
Duncan, did homage for Cumberland at the same time. Duncan is well known
to us through Shakespeare's play, and it is remarkable that among the
under-kings who did homage to Canute was a certain Mælboethe, who is
doubtless identical with Macbeth.
Meanwhile England was at peace, in spite of a threatened invasion from
Normandy in 1028, which was driven back by storms in the Channel. Canute,
despite the crimes which had stained his earlier career, was developing
more and more into an admirable monarch and good man. In 1027 he made a
pilgrimage to Rome, and wrote from thence a letter to the English people
full of penitence for his past misdeeds, promises for the future, and
much elevated moral sentiment.
In particular he ordered the royal officers to do justice to all men
of whatever estate, and not to exact money wrongfully under pretext of
the royal necessities. "I have no need," he says, "of money gathered
by unrighteousness." There is also a famous story told of him by Henry
of Huntingdon, which shows that he was not blinded by the greatness of
his position, but estimated his authority at its true value. He was
at Southampton; and there, in answer probably to some over-charged
flatteries from his courtiers, bade a chair be placed at the water's
edge, challenging the sea at the same time to wet the feet of him whose
ships sailed over it, and against whose land it dashed. The tide came
rushing in, and soon it had wetted the feet and clothes of the king. Then
he turned to his followers and said, "Behold how feeble is the power of
kings and of men, for the waves will not hear my voice. Honour the Lord
only, and serve him, for to him all things give obedience."
Men lived hard in those days, and the span of life was short, for when
Canute died, in 1035, he was only forty years old.