his sugred wordes he continued a whyle in the kynges fauour) at length escaped not condigne reward for hys deceaueable dealing. For (as the history of Iornalensis recordeth) as þ^e king was in his palace beyond Thames, this Edricke (being beliked accused, or els suspected of the king before) comming vnto him, began to recken vp his benefites and labours bestowed for his sake. First in forsaking and betraying Egelred: thē in slaying king Edmund hys sonne, wyth manye suche other deedes mo: which al, for his sake he had bone. Well sayth the king, thou hast here rightlye iudged thy selfe, and worthelye thou shalt dye, for slaying thy naturall Prince, and my sworne brother. MarginaliaDuke Edrike the false traytour and murtherer of his king, worthely rewarded for his wicked falsehode.And so commaunded hym to be bound immediately hand & foote, & to be thrown into Thames. Some stories say, þ^t whē he had saluted the king w^t Aue rex solus, and shewed him the slaying of Edmund: Canutus (promising that he would make him therfore higher then all the Lordes of the realme) commaunded hys head to be stryken of, & to be set vpon London bridge, & hys body to be cast in the towne diche. MarginaliaThe end of pernicious traytours.And thus wyth shame ended he hys wretched lyfe, as all they commonly do, which wyth lyke dissimulation seeke the destructiō of their Prince and of their country.

MarginaliaThe brother of Edmond Yronsyde, banished, recōciled, & lastly slaine.Thys Canutus (shortly after the death of king Edmund, by the counsayle of Edricke) exiled Edmund, being brother to king Edmūd, called rex rusticorum, the kyng of Choorels. But afterward, he was reconciled agayne to the kynges fauour: and lastlye slayne by certayne of the kynges Secretaries or seruauntes. MarginaliaEdmond and Edward two sonnes of Edmond Yronsyd sent out to be slaine.Also, through the counsayle of the sayd Edricke, and of Emma hys wyfe, he sent the two sonnes of Edmund Yronside (Edmund & Edward) to his brother Suanus king of Denmarke, to be slayne, as is aboue sayd.

MarginaliaCanutus king of Denmarke.In thys meane time, Suanus king of Denmarke, brother to Canutus, dyed. Wherefore that lande fell to Canutus: which anon after sayled thether, and tooke therof possessiō. And after he had set it in order, he returned into England, MarginaliaCanutus marieth Emma, wife before of Egelred.& married Emma, late wyfe before of Egelred: & by her had a sonne called Hardeknyght or Hardeknoutus. Moreouer this Canutus assēbled a parlamēt at Oxford: where it was agreed, MarginaliaLawes of king Edgar.þ^t Englishmen & Danes should hold the lawes made by king Edgar, because they were thought so good and reasonable aboue any other lawes.

Thus the Danes being in England, began by little and litle to be christen mē. And Canutus went to Rome and so returning agayne to Englande, gouerned that land the space of. xx. yeares, leauing after him. 2. sōnes, Harold and Hardeknoutus: which Hardeknoutus was made king of Denmarke in hys fathers tyme.

MarginaliaHarold Harefote king of England a Dane.Harold (called Harefoote, for his deliuernes & swiftnes) sonne to Canutus by Elgina his first wyfe: began his raygne ouer England an. 1039. Of hym is litle left in memory, for he raygned but. iiij. yeares, saue that he banished his Stepmother Emma, and tooke her goods and Iewels from her.

MarginaliaHardeknout king last of the Danes that reigned in England.Hardeknoutous, being king of Denmarke, and second sonne to Canutus by his last wyfe Emma, was next kyng of Englande. In the time of these Danyshe kinges, MarginaliaErle Godwyn.there was one Godwyn an Earle in England, which had bene before in great fauour with Canutus, for his actes done in Denmarke agaynst the Northwegians: and afterward maryed the syster (some saye the daughter) of Canutus. This Godwyn was of a cruell and subtyll wyt, as he declared no les by the two sōnes of king Egelred: For when these. ii. aforesayde (whose names were Alfride, and Edward) came from Normādie into Englande, to visit their mother Emma, and brought with them a great companye of Normandes: this Godwyn (hauyng a daughter called Godith, whom he thought to marry to Edwarde, and set him vp to beking, to bring his purpose about) vsed this practise: that is, to persuade king Hardeknout, and the Lordes not to suffer those Normandes to be within the realme for ieoberdy, but rather to punish them for exāple. By which meanes he gat authoritye to order the matter himselfe. Wherfore he met with thē on Guilde down, MarginaliaThe miserable wretchednes of Godwyn against the Normandes.& ther most wretchedly murthered, or rather martyred þ^e most number of the Normandes, & that innocently. For as Suanus before had tythed the monkes of Canterbury: MarginaliaThe Normandes tythed. And yet the tenthes retithed again.so he with the cruel company of english soldiours, slewe. ix. of the sayd Normandes, and saued the tenth. And yet passing the fury of Suanus (as not contented with that tyranny) he tythed agayne the sayd tythe, and slew euerye tenth knight, & that by cruel torment: as wynding their guts out of their bodies, as writeth Ranulphus. MarginaliaAlfredus sonne of Edgelred right heire of the crowne, tormented with cruel death.And among other, put out the eyes of the elder brother Alfridus, and sent him to an abbey of Ely: wher he being fed with bread and water, endured not long after. Of some wryters it is recorded, that he was there slayn with the forenamed torment: & Edward was conueyed by some other to his mother. Who fearing the treason of Godwyn, sent hym soone ouer the sea to Normandy again. MarginaliaThe cause expended, why God suffred this land to be conquered by the Normandes. Example of Gods righteous iudgement.This cruel fact of Godwin and hys men agaynst the innocent Normandes, whether it came of hym selfe, or of the kynges setting on: seemeth to me to bee the cause, why the iustice of God did shortly after reuenge þ^e quarel of these Normandes, in conquering and subduyng the Englishe nation by William Conquerour, and the Normands which came with him. For so iust and right it was, that as the Normandes comming with a natural English prince, were murthered of English men: so afterward the English men shoulde be slayne and conquered by the Normandes, comming with a foren king being none of their natural country.

MarginaliaThe death of king Hardeknout.Then it followeth in the story, that this king Canut or Hardeknout: when he had raygned two yeares (being mery at Lambeth) sodainly was strickē dumb, and fell downe to the grounde, and within. viij. dayes after dyed, without issue of his bodye. Who was the last that raygned in England of the blood of the Danes.

This foresayd Godwyn, had by the daughter of Canutus his wife, but one sonne, which was drowned. MarginaliaThe sonnes of earle Godwyn.Of his second wyfe he receiued. vj. sonnes, to wit: Suanus, Harold, Tostius, Wilinotus, Sirthe or Surth, and Leofricus, with one daughter called Goditha, which was after maried to king Edward the Confessor.

MarginaliaThe story of Alphred repeated.Cōcerning this story of this Alfred, I find it somthing otherwise reported in our Englishe Chronicles: that it should be after the death of Hardeknout: for as muche as the Earles and Barons after hys death, assembled & made a councel: that neuer after any of the Danes blood should be king of England, for þ^t despite þ^t they had done to English men. For euermore before, if the english mē and the Danes happened to meete vppon a bridge, the English men shoulde not so hardye to moue a foote, but stand styll tyll the Dane were passed forth. MarginaliaTaken out of the English story or chronicle cōpyled of certayne Englishe clerkes.And moreouer, if the English mē had not bowed down theyr heads to de reuerence vnto the Danes, they shoulde haue bene beaten and defyled. For the which despites and villany, they were dryuen out of the land after the death of Hardeknout: for they had no Lorde that might mayntayne them. And after this maner auoyded the Danes England, that they neuer came agayne.

The Earles and Barons, by their common assent and counsayle: sent vnto Normandy for these twoo brethren, Alphred and Edwarde: intending to crowne Alphred the elder brother, & to make him king of Englād. And to this the earles and Barons made their othe: but the earle Godwyn of Westsax (falsly and trayterously) thought to slea these two brethren, as soone as they cam into England, to that intent to make Harold hys sonne