On this day, 30 November 1016
Edmund Ironside died and Cnut became King of all England
To start this post, I would like to very highly recommend listening to The British History Podcast by Jamie Jeffers. Here on substack you can find it at @thebhp. Without having previously listened to episodes 333-339, I can honestly tell you I would not have been able to understand this portion of Anglo-Saxon history nearly so well. Besides, it’s an amazing podcast running from pre-history on chronologically. Go give it a listen!
On this day, 30 November 1016, Edmund II, aka Edmund Ironside, died as Cnut the Great became king of England.
Edmund Ironside as shown in a genealogical manuscript, MS Royal 14 B VI.
Edmund was not expected to become king, being the 3rd of 5 brothers. However, with the elder two predeceasing their father, Æthelred aka Æthelred the Unræd – so named for his lack of leadership skills and terrible counseling during his reign – Edmund became Ætheling (meaning the heir to the throne).
Æthelstan Ætheling, eldest son of the king, became mortally ill and died on 25 June 1014, leaving “the sword of King Offa” to his younger brother Edmund, and lands, a horse, a sword, and shield to Sigeferth, a “chief thegn” in the Five Boroughs and an enemy of the king’s chief advisor, Ædric Streona. It seems like everyone except the king despised Ædric Streona, an upstart who repeatedly changed sides at opportune moments. Apparently assassinated along with his brother, Morcar, on the king’s orders soon after, Sigeferth‘s lands were seized and his widow, Ældgith, was brought to Malmsbury to be forced into a nunnery.
Note: The Five Boroughs was the term used to describe the five main administrative centers in the east midlands of Danelaw. Danelaw at this time was the eastern land of England, between the Rivers Tee and Thames, that used customarily Scandinavian-style law. The Five Borough towns were Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford.
In 1015, Edmund defied the orders of his father, having picked up the anti-Ædric mantle of his late brother. He travelled north to Danelaw and married Sigeferth’s widow, saving her from her fate. They rode quickly to the Five Boroughs. In August 1015, he seized for himself the lands of Sigeferth and his brother. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, all the people in the Five Boroughs submitted to him.
Cnut as shown in a genealogical manuscript, MS Royal 14 B VI.
Around that same time, in the summer of 1015, Cnut, son of Sweyn Forkbeard and now king of Denmark, came to England to press his claims. He went to Sandwich, sailed along the south coast to Dorset, and then started ravaging deep into Wessex. Edmund Ætheling attempted multiple times to rally the English against the Danes, but with little success. In desperation, Edmund rode to Northumbria and succeeded in convincing Earl Uhtred to join the cause; however, as soon as Cnut moved through the midlands and started against York, Uhtred defected, along with all his Northumbrian numbers. Feeling the defeat, Edmund went to join his father in London, who succumbed to illness and died on 23 April 1016. Edmund was now nominally king of England. However, only some counselors and the general public of London agreed that Edmund should be king; the rest of the Witan voted for Cnut.
Edmund Ironside battling Cnut the Great in the manuscript by Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora
Edmund rallied his troops to fight for his kingdom, skirmishing several times against Cnut and his forces, earning his moniker in the meantime for his bravery. Edmund Ironside succeeded in recovering Wessex and saving London from a siege. However, he was decisively defeated by Cnut at the Battle of Assandun (probably Ashdown, Essex) on 18 October 1016, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Of course, this was due to that terrible counselor, Ædric Streona, who (again and unsurprisingly) defected to the Danes. Edmund survived the battle but afterwards was forced to divide the country. He retained Wessex while Cnut was to rule Mercia (along with the other lands in the north who supported him). However, within weeks, on 30 November 1016, Edmund Ironside died, possibly from wounds sustained at Assandun. Cnut then became king of all England as well as his previous dominions of Denmark and Norway.
Cnut the Great’s dominions
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Sources for this post:
The British History Podcast, episodes 333-339: https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang11.asp
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Aethelred-The-Unready/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Sweyn-Forkbeard/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Cnut-The-Great/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Edmund-Ironside/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmund-II
https://www.momentousbritain.co.uk/go/battle_of_assandun
https://www.britannica.com/place/Danelaw
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Canute_the_Great
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Genealogical_roll_of_the_kings_of_England_(1300-1308)_-_BL_Royal_MS_14_B_VI
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EdmundIronside_Canutethe_Dane1.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Midland_Map_-_5_Boroughs_912_Ad.svg