ted force.
Nothing seemed able to oppose them. The king dies. A great part of the
land was surrendered, without resistance, to Canute. Edmund, the eldest
son of Ethelred, supported, however, the declining hopes of the English
for some time; in three months he fought three victorious battles; he
attempted a fourth, but lost it by the base desertion of Edric, the
principal author of all these troubles. It is common with the conquered
side to attribute all their misfortunes to the treachery of their own
party. They choose to be thought subdued by the treachery of their
friends rather than the superior bravery of their enemies. All the old
historians talk in this strain; and it must be acknowledged that all
adherents to a declining party have many temptations to infidelity.

Edmund, defeated, but not discouraged, retreated to the Severn, where he
recruited his forces. Canute followed at his heels. And now the two
armies were drawn up which were to decide the fate of England, when it
was proposed to determine the war by a single combat between the two
kings. Neither was unwilling; the Isle of Alney in the Severn was chosen
for the lists. Edmund had the advantage by the greatness of his
strength, Canute by his address; for when Edmund had so far prevailed as
to disarm him, he proposed a parley, in which he persuaded Edmund to a
peace, and to a division of the kingdom. Their armies accepted the
agreement, and both kings departed in a seeming friendship. But Edmund
died soon after, with a probable suspicion of being murdered by the
instruments of his associate in the empire.

[Sidenote: The Danish race.

Canute.]

[Sidenote: Harold I., A.D. 1035.]

[Sidenote: Hardicanute, A.D. 1035]

[Sidenote: The Saxon line restored.]

Canute, on this event, assembled the states of the kingdom, by whom he
was acknowledged King of all England. He was a prince truly great; for,
having acquired the kingdom by his valor, he maintained and improved it
by his justice and clemency. Choosing rather to rule by the inclination
of his subjects than the right of conquest, he dismissed his Danish
army, and committed his safety to the laws. He reestablished the order
and tranquillity which so long a series of bloody wars had banished. He
revived the ancient statutes of the Saxon princes, and governed through
his whole reign with such steadiness and moderation that the English
were much happier under this foreign prince than they had been under
the