Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/68

54 inclinations, he returned to England, and was received with great demonstrations of joy; and his subjects swore allegiance to him again, as if he had begun a new reign, his flight being considered as a sort of abdication of the crown. He, on his part, promised to reform whatever was amiss; and the eagerness of the English to throw off a foreign yoke, made them flock to the king with such zeal and haste, that he soon found himself at the head of a powerful army. His first expedition plainly showed his misfortunes had made no great alteration in him; for instead of marching against the Danes, he made use of his forces to be revenged on the men of Lindsey—one of the three divisions of Lincolnshire; the other two being named Holland and Kesteven, The inhabitants of the first-named place, it appeared, had provided the Danes with horses, and had also offered to join them.

After Ethelred had punished these traitors, he prepared to march, and fight the enemy, who little expected so sudden a revolution.

Although Canute was undoubtedly a great prince, and had the same forces his father Sweyn had conquered England with, he did not think fit to hazard a battle; but, on the contrary, before Ethelred was advanced near enough to oblige him to fight, he led his troops to the sea-side, and embarking them, set sail for Denmark. Before his departure, he ordered the hands and feet of the hostages he had in his power to be cut off, leaving them thus mangled on the shore.

The retreat of Canute appears strange, as he had never been worsted, and, besides, had many strong places still in is hands; and the only clue that can be obtained as to the use of this conduct is the account given by the Danish writers, who say that Canute had a younger brother, named Harold, who, being regent in the absence of his father, Sweyn, seized upon Denmark for himself, which obliged Canute to leave England with a precipitation that seemed to be an effect of fear rather than sound policy.



As soon as Ethelred found himself freed from the Danes he took no heed of his promise to his subjects, but, on the contrary, resumed his old maxims, and imposed, on several pretences, excessive taxes, which raised great murmurings among the nobles and people.

To these causes for public discontent he added others of a more private nature, which destroyed all the hopes entertained of his amendment. Morcard and Sifforth, lords of Danish extraction, who had all along firmly adhered to the interest of the king and their new country, were sacrificed to his avarice. To draw these two earls into his power, the king convened a great council at Oxford, where he caused them to be murdered, and then seized their estates, as if they had been condemned by the common forms of justice. Algitha, widow of Sifforth, was shut up in a monastery, to which confinement she was indebted for her after greatness; for Edmund, the king's eldest son, passing that way some time after, was desirous to see one so renowned for her beauty, and fell so desperately in love with her, that he married her, even against his father's consent.

The calm England enjoyed after the retreat of the Danes lasted but one year. Canute having got possession of the throne of Denmark, immediately re-embarked for England (A.D. 1015), and, when least expected, landed a numerous army at Sandwich. Ethelred being then unwell, Edmund, his son, with Streon, Duke of Mercia, his son-in-law, had the command of the army against the Danes; and Edmund