The Odd Tale Of A Joust And Duel Between Edmund Ironside And Canute The Great

From 1013-1014, the Danish King, Sweyn Forkbeard, usurped power in England, displacing the Anglo-Saxon monarch, Æthelred the Unready, and his son, Edmund Ironside. After Sweyn’s death in 1014, Æthelred sailed back to England and was proclaimed king once again by his people. At the same time, Sweyn’s son, Canute, also had a claim to the throne of England. Canute was in a precarious political situation, however, for at the same time that much of England was siding with Æthelred against the Danes, a rival son of Sweyn Forkbeard, by the name of Harald (II) Sweynsen, was simultaneously staking his own claim to Denmark. Thus, unsure about the manpower he could muster or the resources he could access, Canute found himself unprepared for war against the resurging Anglo-Saxons. It would take him about a year to gather enough funds and troops to truly begin campaigning against Æthelred the Unready and Edmund Ironside in 1015 and 1016.

Æthelred the Unready died in early 1016, as a fleet led by Canute was closing in on London. With Æthelred’s death, his crown passed to Edmund Ironside. As his “Ironside” nickname suggests, King Edmund (II) put up a stout defense against Canute’s attempts to reclaim the throne of England. Throughout 1016, Edmund and Canute skirmished and battled in multiple clashes of various intensity, the final of which was said to have been the Battle of Ashingdon or Assandun. After that battle, the rival leaders (or their vassals) tired of war, and a peace meeting was arranged on an island then called Olney or Olanege.

According to the histories of Henry of Huntingdon (c. 1080-1160) and Roger of Wendover (d. 1236), Edmund Ironside and Canute were convinced by their supporters to settle their differences once and for all in a duel. As the story goes, an arena was prepared on the designated island and both monarchs arrived in their best sets of armor. They began their fight with spears at opposite ends of a list, competing in something like a joust, yet the two kings wore such exquisite sets of armor that the spears shattered on impact. Next, the kings unsheathed their blades to continue the duel. The English chroniclers claimed, of course, that Edmund Ironside was the superior of the two in the fight, and Henry of Huntingdon outlandishly claimed that Canute, in a moment of fear, offered Edmund control of Denmark in hopes of stopping the duel. Yet, Canute (in this odd scenario) apparently regained some momentum in the duel, and brought the fight back to a standstill. The peculiar tale concluded with Edmund and Canute ending the duel as friends and they agreed to partition England between themselves.

As you may have guessed, this entertaining but unlikely story is viewed with great skepticism, especially since older sources, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, make no mention of a duel occurring during the peace negations between Edmund Ironside and Canute that occurred on the island of Olney or Olanege. Either way, duel or not, Canute would be victorious in the long-run. Edmund Ironside died of illness before the end of 1016, leading to the ascension of Canute as king of all England. Canute would go on to add Denmark and Norway to his realm, and was eventually given the epithet of “the great.”

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Depiction of Edmund Ironside and Canute the Great at the Battle of Assandun, by Matthew Paris  (1200–1259), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester translated by Thomas Forester. London: Petter and Galpin, originally published in 1854. 
• https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang11.asp 
• https://archive.org/details/chroniclehenryh00foregoog/page/n235 
• https://archive.org/details/rogerofwendovers01rogemiss/page/292 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I  

Æthelred The Unready Lost A Large Portion Of His Navy Due To His Feuding Vassals

Æthelred the Unready (r. 978-1016) ruled England during one of its darkest ages. As early as 980, he was faced with an influx of Viking activity the likes of which had not been seen since the days of Alfred the Great (r. 871-899). Yet, unlike Alfred, who was eventually able to adapt his forces to effectively combat the Scandinavian threat to his kingdom, Æthelred the Unready seemed hopelessly incapable of utilizing his resources in a way that could defeat his enemies. As portrayed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Æthelred’s style of defense was evidently to let his regional ealdormen defend their own domains against the Vikings, and if the ealdormen failed, Æthelred would pay the Vikings money in hopes that they would leave. The king apparently mobilized his army on very few occasions, and when he did personally go on the march, it was often a punitive mission against his own people. Æthelred did, however, raise fleets against the Viking threat, yet something always seemed to go wrong when the English ships were gathered together.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was as late as 992 when Æthelred the Unready decided to make a concerted effort to mobilize his navy against the Vikings. That fiasco ended with the admiral in charge of the English fleet defecting to the Vikings (read about this in more detail HERE). After that incident, Æthelred the Unready apparently reverted to his previous strategy of paying money to the Vikings, especially when too many of his ealdormen began to die in battle. Yet, in 1007, after numerous ealdormen had been slain in Viking raids and after four payments of tribute had been made to the invaders, Æthelred the Unready finally announced a kingdom-wide edict commanding that new ships and armor be built across England.

By 1009, enough ships had been constructed to make some of the Englishmen feel hopeful of their future. Yet, as had happened the last time Æthelred raised his fleet against the Vikings, something bizarre occurred to thwart the unlucky king’s plans. Unfortunately for Æthelred, two of his powerful vassals decided to start quarreling in 1009. The two people in question were Ealdorman Brihtric and a certain powerful lord of Sussex called Wulfnoth Cild. Æthelred failed to reconcile the two noblemen, and, even worse, the king openly gave his support to Brihtric. Infuriated, Wutlfnoth Cild commandeered twenty English ships that were docked in his domain and used them to raid southern England.

When news of the raids spread, Ealdorman Brihtric quickly offered to hunt down his rogue rival and the king agreed to the plan.  In addition to his vocal support, King Æthelred the Unready also put Brihtric in command of eighty newly-built ships. Now at the helm of a large armada, Brihtric sailed off to capture or kill his enemy. Yet, the battle between the foes never occurred—in a tragic twist of fate, Brihtric’s fleet was ravaged by a massive tempest that left all eighty of his ships damaged or sunk. When Wulfnoth heard of his rival’s distress, he reportedly sailed to the shipwrecks and set fire to all of the vessels that happened to still be afloat.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the naval disaster between Brihtric and Wulfnoth was a breaking point in the reign of Æthelred the Unready. With the destruction of Brihtric’s eighty ships and the other twenty ships of Wulfnoth still on the loose, Æthelred the Unready apparently abandoned his shipbuilding project and England fell into a state of overwhelming depression. The chronicler in charge of recording the events of 1009 wrote, “When this was thus known to the other ships where the king was, how the others had fared, it was as if all counsel was at an end, and the king, and the ealdormen, and the high ‘witan’ went home, and thus lightly left the ships” (ASC, 1009).

The English ships lost that year were sorely missed. Before 1009 had ended, the general regions of Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, Sussex and Essex faced Viking activity, while the more specific locations of Sandwich, Canterbury, Chiltern, Oxford, Staines and London were also mentioned as having been targeted by raiders. With such a combination of bad luck and ineffective defense, it is unsurprising that the Danes overran England by 1013 and forced Æthelred the Unready to flee to Normandy.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Bayeux Tapestry. Scene 39, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I  

The English Navy Fiasco Of 992

The reaction of King Æthelred the Unready (r. 978-1016) to Danish invasions of England perfectly matched his lackluster name. In his reign, a new wave of Scandinavian raids and invasions hit the British Isles with a ferocity that had not been seen since the days of King Alfred the Great a century earlier. Unfortunately for England, King Æthelred the Unready was no Alfred the Great, and his reign would be a long, painful story of disappointment and incompetence.

By the year 980, various Viking crews were rampaging in Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that in England, alone, the regions of Thanet, Cheshire, Padstow, Devonshire, Dorsetshire (and Portland), London, Hampshire (especially Southampton) and Sussex were all ravaged by Vikings between the years 980 and 982. For around a decade, Viking activity seemed more like widespread solitary raids instead of a coordinated invasion by multiple groups, but by 991 the scale of Viking attacks increased dramatically. That year, Æthelred the Unready had the misfortune of facing Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and King Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, who had launched a joint raid of England with over ninety ships. Up to this point, King Æthelred the Unready had apparently taken no personal action against the Vikings, instead deferring the defense of England to the noble ealdormen who administered the regions that were under attack. Therefore, Olaf and Sweyn received fairly light resistance as they raided in Staines, Ipswitch and Maldon.

Ealdorman Brihtnoth attempted to defend Maldon from the Vikings, but he was slain in the ensuing battle. Not long after the ealdorman was defeated, Æthelred the Unready organized his first national response to the Vikings. Yet, it was not a military campaign—instead, Æthelred decided to pay the Vikings monetary tribute. The payment did, however, seem to buy Æthelred a little time, and he spent this period gathering the sea power of England.

With his English navy, King Æthelred the Unready hoped to be able to fight back against the ships mustered by Sweyn Forkbeard and Olaf Tryggvason, or at least to hunt down and deter smaller crews of Viking raiders. At the head of the English fleet, Æthelred placed a trusted ealdorman named Ælfric. Unfortunately, Ælfric would turn out not to be worth Æthelred’s trust.

According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the English fleet was able to track down one of the large Viking fleets, and the Englishmen planned to attack the next day. Yet, Ealdorman Ælfric was apparently not confident in the strength of the English navy and doubted that King Æthelred could overcome the Vikings. Instead of leading the English fleet into battle, Ealdorman Ælfric reportedly deserted during the night and defected to the side of the Vikings.

With Ælfric’s help, the Viking fleet was able to evade the English navy and escape. Frustrated both figuratively and literally, the English fleet evidently disbanded and the different ships began sailing back to their home regions. Adding insult to injury, before the year 992 ended, the Vikings ambushed the isolated branch of the English navy that had been mustered from the regions of East Anglia and London, inflicting a great slaughter on the Englishmen.

The naval defeat in 992, combined with more horrific raids in 993 (in Lindsey and Northumbria), as well as the reappearance of Svein Forkbeard and Olaf Tryggvason in 994, compelled King Æthelred the Unready to revert to his previous tactic—monetary tribute. The payment sated Olaf Tryggvason, who went on to become king of Norway in 995 and reportedly never returned to England. Yet, the money was not a long-term solution to King Sweyn of Denmark. In fact, by 1013, Sweyn would force Æthelred to flee to Normandy, leaving England to be overrun by the Danes.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Ethelred the Unready Embarking for Normandy, Illustration By Ernest Prater, c. 1920, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson and translated by Lee Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964, 2018. 
• https://books.google.com/books?id=f8B4NAl2r48C&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=anglo+saxon+chronicle+992&source=bl&ots=zzboc8pNlw&sig=ACfU3U3iUdla55DExLPhRzmcj8tzhf1gMA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivwP2nv_PfAhVimuAKHfB1AL4Q6AEwD3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=anglo%20saxon%20chronicle%20992&f=false 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf-Tryggvason 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I  

The Tragic Reign Of King Edward The Martyr

England was left shocked when King Edgar the Peaceful died suddenly on July 8, 975, at the young age of only about thirty-two years old. As the late king, himself, was a youthful man, the two living sons that he left behind were also young. The eldest son, Edward, was reportedly thirteen years old at the time of his father’s death. Although Edgar had named Edward as his heir, the boy’s claim to the throne was not absolute. King Edgar had divorced Edward’s mother, Æthelflæd, and married a new queen, named Ælfthryth (also known as Elfrida). Queen Ælfthryth was the mother of King Edgar’s other living son, Æthelred, who was reportedly seven years old at the time of his father’s death in 975. As both potential claimants to the throne of England were children, the nobles of the country split into rival camps, backing either Edward or Æthelred. To Queen Ælfthryth’s annoyance, Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury and the faction backing the eldest son moved quickest and successfully placed King Edward I on the throne.

Despite being described as a saintly young man, the teenage King Edward did not have fate on his side.  Edward was a magnet for unlucky natural disasters and phenomena. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a comet appeared in the autumn of 975, a sign that was often considered a bad omen in the superstitious Middle Ages. His luck worsened in 976, when a great famine struck England, further destabilizing the realm. Additionally, Edgar was faced by a slew of disgruntled nobles who had not supported his claim to the throne—among the worst was Ealdorman Ælfhere of Mercia, a particularly insubordinate noble, who began seizing monastic lands without the king’s permission.

Although Edward had already faced incredibly rough years during his short reign, 978 would be the worst. To start the year off, the Witan—a counsel of the king’s powerful advisors—met at Calne for deliberations in an upper floor of a building. Adding to the odd disasters that plagued Edward’s period of rule, the floor upon which the members of the Witan were standing suddenly gave way, sending most of the king’s counselors free-falling to the ground. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, only Archbishop Dunstan was spared the fall, as he had unknowingly been standing atop a sturdy support beam that withstood the collapse. The other members of the Witan, however, did not fare so well. Many were reportedly injured and a few died from the incident.

Despite the drama between the rival political factions that supported Edward and Æthelred, the two young half-brothers reportedly had a warm sibling relationship. In fact, on March 18, 978, King Edward was in Corfe to spend some time with his brother. Yet, the youthful king did not enjoy any family fun on that visit. Instead, the fifteen-year-old king was intercepted and violently murdered by assassins. The slain king was eventually remembered as Edward the Martyr, but his death likely was not perpetrated for religious reasons. Although no evidence was found, many people, both medieval and modern, believe that the assassins were working for Queen Ælfthryth. After the murder of King Edward, his approximately ten-year-old brother, Æthelred, became the new king.  He would be remembered infamously as Æthelred the Unready, the king who could not stop a new wave of Vikings from occupying England.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image depicting the assassination of Edward the Martyr, by Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810–1896), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-king-of-England-circa-963-978 
• https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=edwardmartyr 
• http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_13.htm 
• http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_12.htm 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edgar-king-of-England
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready
• https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=edgar
• http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-8915
• https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=ethelred2 
• http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/7254545