This barbarous and perfidious policy, however, in stead of relieving the English from their miseries, was only a prelude to greater misfortunes. Sweyn, king of Denmark, exasperated by the slaughter of his country men, and of his own sister, seon filled the kingdom with his vengeance. The English, though now prepared to make a vigorous resistance, were dispirited and betray ed by their leaders. Alfric, the commander of the Eng lish armies, feigned sick, and refused to lead them against the enemy. Their calamities were augmented by famine; and they were obliged to buy a precarious peace with 30,000/. New and formidable preparations were made against the return of the enemy. Every proprietor of eight hides of land, was commanded to provide a horseman and a complete suit of armour; and those possessing 310 hides, were to equip a ship for the defence of the coast.. This equipment amounted to about 800 ships, and 30 000 cavalry. But all these pre parations were frustrated, by the treachery of Duke Edric, and the animosities and factions of the nobility. Edric had succeeded his father Alfric in the govern ment of Mercia, and in the command of the English ar mies ; and had married the king's daughter. He was even a greater traitor than his father, and, like him, found it his interest to prevent all successes that might tend to establish the royal authority, and consequently endeavoured to counteract every plan that was formed for the defence of the country. General consternation, and mutual diffidence and dissension, prevailed. The enemy appeared in every quarter of the kingdom. The governors of one province refused to march to the as sistance of another. General councils were summoned, but nothing was done; and they at last agreed to sti pulate for peace at the expense of 48,000/ The Danes accepted the money ; but finding themselves masters of the country, disregarded the treaty. They continued their ravages, and even levied new contributions; and the nobility saw no prospect of relief but in swearing allegiance to the Danish monarch. Ethelied imme diately fled into Normandy, whither he had previously sent his Queen Emma and her two sons, and where they were treated by Richard with every mark of kindness and honour.
Sweyn, however, survived his exaltation to the throne of England but a few weeks, and Ethelred v, as recalled by the prelates and nobles. But adversity had wrought no change upon his character, and cowardice and cre dulity were its prominent features. His son-in-law, the perfidious Edric, notwithstanding his repeated treasons, still retained his influence at court. Affairs soon became as desperate as formerly; and the English found in Ca nute, the son and successor of Sweyn, an enemy no less terrible than his father. He ravaged the eastern coast with merciless fury, and then broke into the counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts. An army was there as sembled to oppose him, under the command of Prince Edmund, the eldest son of Ethelred, and Duke Edric. But Edric again betrayed his trust; and, after attempting to get the Prince into his power, he deserted to Canute. Edmund still kept the field, but was obliged to commit equal ravages with the Danes, in order to procure sup plies for his soldiers. lie afterwards retired to London, determined to lose the capital only with his life. On his arrival there, however, he found every thing in confu sion by the death of the king, who expired after an un happy reign of 35 years. Edmund immediately ascend
ed the throne. He was surnamed Ironside, from his hardy valour ; but his abilities and courage, though great, were unable to save his sinking country. Ile protracted for a while an unequal war, but was at last obliged by his subjects to put an end to those convul sions, by dividing the kingdom with his rival. Canute retained the northern division, consisting of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumberland, while Edmund kept possession of the southern part. He was soon after mur dered at Oxford by his two chamberlains, at the insti gation of the infamous Edric.
The tender years of Edmund's children, were unable to oppose the ambition and the power of Canute. But to give some appearance of justice to his usurpation, he pretended that in the last treaty with Edmund it was agreed, that, in case of Edmund's death, Canute should either succeed to his dominions, or be guardian to his children. He had no sooner taken possession of the throne, than he sent the two sons of Edmund to Sweden, with secret orders to the king, to Free him from all fu ture anxiety by their death. The Swedish monarch, too humane for such a deed, sent them to be educated at the court of Hungary. Edwin the elder brother died without issue, and Edward married Agatha, the sister in-law of the king of Hungary, by whom he had Edgar Atheling, Margaret, afterwards queen of Scotland, and Christina, who retired to a convent.
Canute, to secure himself in his dominions, cut off many of the English nobility on whom he could not rely, and whom he hated on account of their disloyalty to their former sovereign; and among the rest perished the trai tor Edric, who was publicly executed, and his body thrown into the Thames. He then married Emma, the queen of Ethelred, whose children, supported by their uncle Richard Duke of Normandy, had laid claim to the English throne, and thus he acquired both the friendship of that prince, and the confidence of his English sub jects. Though the beginning of Canute's reign was marked with severity and injustice, he afterwards re conciled the English to the Danish yoke, by the impar tiality of his administration. lie made no distinction be tween the two nations in the distribution of justice ; he restored the Saxon customs in a general assembly of the states, and thus gradually incorporated the Danes with his new subjects. Having firmly established his power in England, he made an expedition to Denmark, to re sist the invasion of the Swedes. Here Earl Godwin, and the English troops under his command, performed such important services, that the king gave him his daughter in marriage, and treated him ever after with the greatest confidence. Canute afterwards attacked and added Norway to his dominions ; and also compelled Malcolm king of Scotland, to acknowledge himself a vassal to the English crown for the county of Cumber land. The latter years of his life were spent in the ex ercises of religion. He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, built churches, and endowed monasteries; and died at Shaftesbury, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, after a reign of 18 years. He left three sous, Sweyn and Harold by his first wife Alfwcn, the daughter of the Earl of Hampshire, and Hardicanute by Queen Emma. Sweyn was crowned in Norway ; Har dicanute u as in possession of Denmark; and Harold succeeded to the crown of England.