that of Edmond,
fixed it on a spear, carried it through the ranks in triumph, and
called aloud to the English, that it was time to fly; for, behold! the
head of their sovereign. And though Edmond, observing the
consternation of the troops, took off his helmet and showed himself to
them, the utmost he could gain by his activity and valour was to leave
the victory undecided. Edric now took a surer method to ruin him, by
pretending to desert to him, and as Edmond was well acquainted with
his power, and probably knew no other of the chief nobility in whom he
could repose more confidence, he was obliged, notwithstanding the
repeated perfidy of the man, to give him a considerable command in the
army. A battle soon after ensued at Assington in Essex, where Edric,
flying in the beginning of the day, occasioned the total defeat of the
English, followed by a great slaughter of the nobility. The
indefatigable Edmond, however, had still resources; assembling a new
army at Gloucester, he was again in a condition to dispute the field;
when the Danish and English nobility, equally harassed with those
convulsions, obliged their kings to come to a compromise, and to
divide the kingdom between them by treaty. Canute reserved to himself
the northern division, consisting of Mercia, East Anglia, and
Northumberland, which he had entirely subdued; the southern parts were
left to Edmond. This prince survived the treaty about a month. He
was murdered at Oxford by two of his chamberlains, accomplices of
Edric, who thereby made way for the succession of Canute the Dane to
the crown of England.

[MN Canute 1017.]
The English, who had been unable to defend their country, and maintain
their independency, under so active and brave a prince as Edmond,
could, after his death, expect nothing but total subjection from
Canute, who, active and brave himself, and at the head of a great
force, was ready to take advantage of the minority of Edwin and
Edward, the two sons of Edmond. Yet this conqueror, who was commonly
so little scrupulous, showed himself anxious to cover his injustice
under plausible pretences; before he seized the dominions of the
English princes, he summoned a general assembly of the states, in
order to fix the succession of the kingdom. He here suborned some
nobles to depose that, in the treaty of Gloucester, it had been
verbally agreed either to name Canute, in case of Edmond's death,
successor to his dominions, or tutor to hi