Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/47

Rh was the attachment of the English people, by this time, to their incapable king and their forlorn country which could not protect them, that they welcomed Sweyn on all sides, as a deliverer. London faithfully stood out, as long as the king was within its walls ; but, when he sneaked away, it also welcomed the Dane. Then, all was over; and the king took refuge abroad with the Duke of Normandy, who had already given shelter to the king's wife, once the flower of that country, and to her children.

Still, the English people, in spite of their sad sufferings, could not quite forget the great King Alfred and the Saxon race. When Sweyn died suddenly, in little more than a month after he had been proclaimed King of England, they generously sent to Ethel red, to say that they would have him for their king again, "if he would only govern them better than he had governed them before." The Unready, instead of coming himself, sent, one of his sons, to make promises for him. At last, he followed, and the English declared him king. The Danes declared, the son of Sweyn, king. Thus, direful war began again, and lasted for three years, when the Unready died. And I know of nothing better that he did, in all his reign of eight and thirty years.

Was Canute to be king now ? Not over the Saxons, they said; they must have, one of the sons of the Unready, who was surnamed , because of his strength and stature. Edmund and Canute thereupon fell to, and fought five battles—O unhappy England, what a fighting-ground it was!—and then Ironside, who was a big man, proposed to Canute, who was a little man, that they two should fight it out in single combat. If Canute had been the big man, he would probably have said yes, but, being the little man, he decidedly said no. However, he declared that he was willing to divide the kingdom—to take all that lay north of Watling Street, as the old Roman military road from Dover to Chester was called, and to give Ironside all that lay south of it. Most men being weary of so much bloodshed, this was done. But Canute soon became sole King of England! for Ironside died suddenly within two months. Some think that he was killed, and killed by Canute's orders. No one knows.