The Battle of Assandun
The invading Danes fought so fiercely that Edmund Ironside, the young English king, threw all caution to the wind.
1016
King Cnut (Canute) 1016-1035 to King Edmund Ironside 1016
The invading Danes fought so fiercely that Edmund Ironside, the young English king, threw all caution to the wind.
1016
King Cnut (Canute) 1016-1035 to King Edmund Ironside 1016
In 1016, Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, attempted to build a North Sea empire that encompassed the British Isles. In a bruising series of battles, Cnut had learnt that Edmund, the young English king, was a steely warrior worthy of respect, and that English nobleman Edric, who had defected to Edmund’s side, could not be trusted. Both lessons were confirmed on October 18th that year.
THE sixth battle was fought between Edmund, at the head of a powerful army, and Cnut, who had assembled the whole force of the Danes at Assandun.* The engagement was obstinate and decisive, for both armies stood their ground undaunted and despising death. Then the young King Edmund distinguished himself for his valour. For perceiving that the Danes were fighting with more than ordinary vigour, he quitted his royal station which, as was wont, he had taken between the dragon and the ensign called the Standard, and rushed impetuously on the foremost rank. He fell on it like lightning, wielding a chosen sword fit for the hand of the royal youth, and hewing a passage through the centre, exposed himself and those who followed him to being cut off by the enemy.
* This was on October 18th, 1016. The precise location of the battle remains unknown, though the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that it was in Essex. Ashingdon near Rochford in southeast Essex has long been a favourite. Assandun is the name of the place as it appears in the Old English text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Thomas Forester, who translated Henry’s Latin, kept the name as Henry gave it, Esesdune.