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 Glocester, he was again in 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. The 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.
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