Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/424

 which taken by themselves are altogether inexplicable. Nor is it too much to assume that Æthelred's ineffectual opposition to his son's marriage was offered in the interest of the favourite.

When Cnut invaded England in the summer of the same year, Eadric raised an army and joined forces with Eadmund. A quarrel broke out between them. Eadric is said to have endeavoured to betray the ætheling (A.-S. Chron.; by Florence to have tried to slay him), and the two leaders parted company. Æthelred was now lying dangerously ill at Corsham, and the succession of Eadmund would have been followed by the ruin of Eadric, who accordingly made alliance with Cnut, and joined him with forty ships, the remains probably of Thurkill's fleet (Norman Conquest, i. 414). Cnut now received the submission of the West-Saxons, and raised forces from them, while Eadmund's marriage had made him powerful in the north. This explains the conduct of Eadric, who, early in 1016, marched with Cnut into Mercia; he wished to strike at the seat of the ætheling's power. The allied army met with no resistance; Earl Uhtred submitted to Cnut, and was assassinated. This murder, which is attributed to Eadric's counsel (A.-S. Chron. 1016), was really the result of an old Northumbrian feud (, 80; Norman Conquest, i. 416). Æthelred was now dead, Cnut and Eadmund were each recognised as king in different parts of the kingdom, and the Danish king's army was largely composed of Englishmen. Eadric no doubt shared in its various movements during the first half of this year. His presence at the battle of Sherston in Wiltshire in July is specially recorded. It is said that, seeing that Eadmund's army was getting the better of the army of Cnut, he cut off the head of a man who was like Eadmund, and holding it aloft cried aloud to the English army to flee, for their king was dead This story is not in the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,’ and may or may not be true. It evidently comes from some ballad which was used by Henry of Huntingdon in writing his account of the battle of Assandun; he represents Eadric as using this stratagem at Assandun, and gives the very words he is said to have shouted, ‘Flet Engle, flet Engle, ded is Edmund’ (756). William of Malmesbury follows Florence. Later in the year Eadric, impressed, we are told, by the gallant resistance of Eadmund, was reconciled to him and owned him as his ‘royal lord’ At the moment when Eadmund's success was at its height, and he had driven the army of Cnut into Sheppey, Eadric met him at Aylesford and persuaded him to forbear attacking the Danes in their place of refuge, and to lead his army into Essex. The chronicler declares that his counsel was evil, and so very likely it was. Florence says that he deceived the king, but it is difficult to see what room there was for deceit in the matter. Eadmund was able to act upon his own judgment, and whether he agreed with Eadric or allowed himself to be swayed by advice which he did not approve of, the responsibility must rest on him. While Eadric may have intentionally given him evil counsel, he may, on the other hand, have advised him as he thought best; anyway, Eadmund must have known exactly what his chances of success were, and it is quite possible that they were not so great as the chronicler believed. At the battle of Assandun or Ashington in Essex, Eadric led the men of Herefordshire and other forces from Mercia. He and his men were the first to flee: he ‘did as he had often done before; first began the flight with the men of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, and so betrayed his royal lord and all the people of the English kin’ (A.-S. Chron.) The ‘Encomiast’ represents him as fleeing before the battle began, and mentions, though with doubt, the belief that he had secretly promised the Danes to desert Eadmund (Encomium Emmæ, ii. 9). Florence says that Cnut's army was getting worsted until Eadric, according to a previous arrangement with the Danish king, fled with all his men. Henry of Huntingdon gives the Sherston story of the false assertion of Eadmund's death as happening at Assandun, and the Ramsey historian (c. 72) combines the stories of the two battles, asserting that Eadric was the first to flee, and that he called out as he fled that Eadmund was slain. The fact of his flight is certain, and it may fairly be assumed that he acted a traitor's part. In common with the other nobles of the land he wished to bring the war to an end, and was foremost in proposing a reconciliation and a division of the kingdom between the two kings at Olney in Gloucestershire (Enc. Emmæ, ii. 12). Very shortly after this meeting, on 30 Nov., Eadmund died at London (A.-S. Chron.; ) His death is ascribed to Eadric by Scandinavian historians, by William of Malmesbury, and by other later English writers. That his death was sudden is certain, that it was violent may fairly be inferred, and that Eadric, his old enemy, had a hand in it seems probable [on this subject see under ]. According to Henry of Huntingdon the deed was actually done by Eadric's son; Eadric came before Cnut and hailed him as sole king, and Cnut forthwith had him slain for his treachery. This is mere legend, and its connec-