Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/71

 himself at the head of an army more powerful than the one he had lost.

His rival, unwilling to give him too much time to recover his defeat, hastened to meet him; and the two kings, each at the head of his respective army, confronted each other once more; but neither appeared willing to give the signal to commence the contest.

Edmund knew that if he lost the battle it was irretrievable ruin to his cause; nor was Canute without apprehension that, in case of a defeat, all the English would rise and unite against him.

In this position, Edmund proposed to 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 refer the cause of quarrel between them to arbitration.

The Bartlow Hills, Danish Tumuli, near Ashdon, Essex.

To this offer the nobles, who desired to put an end to the war, compelled Edmund to accede, and plenipotentiaries were named on either side; they met on a small island in the Severn, named Alney, opposite Gloucester, and peace was concluded by the division of the kingdom. Wessex, and all the country south of the Thames, including London and the greater portion of the ancient kingdom of Essex, being assigned to Edmund; whilst his rival had Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia.

The kings afterwards met on the Isle of Alney, and swore to observe the peace, after which ceremony they separated.

Edmund did not long enjoy the repose which he had suffered so much to establish: his old enemy, Edric Streon, fearing that his life might be endangered from the union between the two kings, caused him to be assassinated by his chamberlains, whom he bribed to commit the crime (November 30).

The murdered king had not occupied the throne a complete year; but even in that short time he had given frequent proofs of an undaunted courage, a consummate prudence, and a generous nature. He was buried next his grandfather, Edgar, at Glastonbury; and with him fell the glory of the English Saxons; for by his death the Danes prevailed, and the Saxon monarchy in reality ended, after it had lasted one hundred and ninety years from its establishment by Egbert, four hundred and thirty-two from the founding of the heptarchy, or octarchy, and five hundred and sixty-eight from the arrival of the Saxons under Hengist.

He left, by Algitha, his wife, two sons, Alfred and Edward; and he had also a natural son, named Edwy, who was afterwards put to death by Canute.

The infamous Streon, who prided himself upon doing Canute so signal a service, hastened to carry him the first news of it; but Canute detested the barbarous deed. He, however, concealed his sentiments at the time, feeling he should have further occasion for him, and consequently promised to advance him above all the nobles of the realm; a promise which he kept in a very different manner from that which the traitor expected.

  CHAPTER XVIII.

Reign of Canute the Great—His Reproof to his Courtiers—His Marriage and Death.

saw that the time had arrived in which he might hope to obtain possession of the entire kingdom. For this purpose he caused an assembly of nobles to be convened, and bribed several of them to depose that, by the treaty concluded between himself and Edmund, it had been verbally agreed that in the event of the death of the latter he was to succeed to his dominions.

Under this pretence the claims of the English heir were set aside, and Canute became the monarch of the country—the nobility being tired of war, and unwilling to risk their lives and fortunes to support the rights of a prince who was too young to bear the burden of a crown.

Conscious that whilst the sons of Edmund lived he held his throne by an insecure tenure, he sent the princes to his ally, the King of Sweden, with secret orders to put them to death on their arrival, and so rid him of his fears.

The Swedish monarch found himself placed in an embarrassing position by this infamous request, and resolved to spare them. But to avoid being drawn into a war with his powerful neighbour, he in his turn sent them to Stephen, King of Hungary, to be educated at his court. The eldest son was afterwards married to a sister of that king; but dying without issue, Stephen gave his sister-in-law, Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II., to Edward, the younger,