MarginaliaThe persecution of Suanus kyng of Danes.Northwatlyng streate: and subduing the people there, forced them to geue hym pledges: which pledges he committed with his nauy vnto Canutus his sonne to kepe, while he went further into þ^e land. And so with a great host came to Mercia, killyng and sleyng. Then he tooke by strength Winchester, and Oxforde, and dyd there what him lyked. That done, he came toward London, and hearing the kyng was there, passed by the riuer Thamis, and came into Keēt, MarginaliaCaūterbury besieged
Treason of a false deacō.and there besieged Caunterbury: where, he was resisted the space of 20. dayes. At length, by treason of a Deacon called Almaricus (whome the bishop had preserued fromMarginaliaCaūterbury takē & brent.
The tything of the monkes of Caūt.
A cruel murther of the Danes.
Elphegus the Archb. of Caūt. stoned to death.death before) wan it: and tooke the goods of the people & fyred the citie, and tythed the Monkes of S. Austens abbay (that is to meane: they slue 9. by cruel torment, and the tenth they kept aliue as for their slaues.) So they slewe there of religious men, to the number of 900. persones: of other men, women, and childrē they slue aboue 8000. And finally when they had kept the bishop Elphegus in straite prison the space of 7. monethes: and because he would not condescend to geue vnto them. 3000. pounde: after many villanies vnto hym done, they brought hym to Grenewich and there stoned hym to death.

Kyng Egelred in the meane tyme, fearyng the ende of this persecution: sent his wyfe Emma with his ij. sonnes Alphred and Edward, to the Duke of Normandy: with whom also he sent the bishop of London. The Danes proceded still in their fury and rage: and when they had won a great part of Westsaxonie, they returned againe to Londō. Wherof hearing the Londiners, sent vnto them certaine great giftes and pledges. Marginalia1013.
K. Egelred driuen to the Ile of Wight, frō thence to NormandieAt last the king about the 35. an. of his reigne was chased vnto the Ile of Wight, and with a a secret company he spent there a great part of the winter: and finally, without cattell or comfort sailed into Normādy to his wyfe. Suanus beyng acertayned therof, (inflamed with pryde) reired excedyng impositions vpon þ^e people. And among other he required a great summe of mony of S. Edmundes landes: which the people there, claiming to be free from kinges tributes, denied to paye. For this, Suanus entred the territory of S. Edmund, and wasted, and spoyled the countrey, despisyng the holy martyr, & manasing also the place of hys sepulture. Wherfore the men of that countrey fearyng his tiranny, fell to prayer & fastyng: MarginaliaThe vertue of christen mēs prayer.so that shortly after, Suanus died sodenly, crying & yellyng among hys Knightes. MarginaliaThe death and end of Suanus.Some say that he was striken with the sword of S. Edmund, wherof he dyed the 3. day after. In feare whereof, Canutus hys sōne, which ruled as king after hys father, graunted them the freedome of all their liberty, & moreouer ditched the land of the sayd Martyr with a depe ditch: and graunted to the inhabitauntes therof great freedomes, quityng them from all taske or tribute. MarginaliaThe abbey of S. Edmundes burie buildedAnd after builded a Church ouer the place of his sepulture, & ordeined there an house of Monckes, and endued them with riche possessions. And after that tyme it was vsed, þ^t kings of England, when they were crowned: sent their crownes for an offering to S. Edmunds shrine, & redemed the same agayne afterwardes, with a condigne pryce.

MarginaliaKing Egelred returneth into Englād.
Canutus cutteth of the noses and handes of his pledges.When kyng Egelred heard of the death of Suanus: he made prouision, & returned into england. Of whose sodaine comming Canutus, beyng vnprouided fled to Sandwiche. And there cuttyng of the noses and handes of the pledges, which hys father left with hym, sayled into Denmarke: who the next yere returned agayne with a great nauy, and landed in the South country. Wherfore the eldest sonne of kyng Egelred called Edmond Yronside: made prouision, with þ^e ayde of Edrike Duke of Mercia to mete him. But Edrike feyning himselfe sicke came not, but deceaued hym. For as it was after proued, Edrike had promised hys allegeance to Canutus. MarginaliaCanutus taketh Westsaxon.By reason wherof, Canutus entred þ^e coūtry of Westsaxon, and forced the people to be sworn vnto hym, and to geue hym pledges. In this season: king Egelred beyng at London, was taken with great sicknes, & there dyed: and was buried in the Northside of Paules church behynd the quiere, after he had raigned vnprosperously 36. yeres: leauyng after hym hys sayd eldest sonne Edmund Yronside, and Alphred, and Edward, which were in Normandy: sent thither before as is aboue reharsed. This Egelred although he was miserably impugned and vexed of hys enemies: yet he wyth hys coūsaile gaue forth wholesome lawes. Wherof thys is one parcell conteinyng good rules and lessons, for all Iudges and Iustices to learne and follow.

MarginaliaA lesson for all iudges & iustices.OMnis iudex iustus misericordiam e& iudicium liberet in omnibus: vt inprimis per rectam scientiam dicat emendationem secundum culpam, & eam tamen admensuret propter indulgentiam. Quædam culpæ reputantur a bonis iu-dicibus secundum rectum emendandæ. Quædam per Dei misericordiam condonandæ. Iudieia debent esse sine omni haderunga, quòd non parcatur diuiti alicui, vel egeno, amico, vel inimico ius publicum recitari. Nihil autem iniustius est, quam susceptio munerum pro iudicio subuertēdo: MarginaliaBrybes.Quia munera excœcant corda sapientum, & subuertunt verba iustorum: Dominus Iesus dixit: In quo iudicio iudicaueritis, iudicabimini. Timeat omnis iudex ac diligat Deum iudicem suum, ne in die iudicij mutus fiat, & humilatus ante oculos iudicis cuncta videntis. Qui innocentem opprimit, & dimittit noxium pro pecunia, vel amicitia, vel odio, vel quacūq̀ factione, opprimetur ab omnipotente iudice. Et nullus Dominus, nulla potestas stultos aut improbos iudices constituant, quia stultus per ignauiam, improbus per cupiditatem vitat quam didicit veritatem. MarginaliaEuil Iudges worse in a cōmon wealth, thē bloudy enemies.Grauius enim lacerantur pauperes a prauis iudicibus, quam a cruentis hostibus. Nullus hostis acerbior, nulla pestis efficacior quam familiaris inimicus. Potest aliquocies homo fuga, vel defensione vitare prauos inimicos: Non ita possunt iudices quocies aduersus subditos malis desiderijs inflammantur. Sæpe etiam boni iudicies habent malos vicarios & ministros nephandos: MarginaliaWicked officers.quorum reatibus ipsi domini constringuntur, si non eos coerceant, & a rapacitate cohibeant Quia dominus & minister seculorum ait: Non solum male agentes, sed omnes consentientes digni sunt æterna morte. Sæpe etiam praui iudices iudicium peruertunt, vel respectant & non finiunt causam, donec voluntas eorum impleatur. Et quando iudicant, non opera, sed munera considerant. MarginaliaAgainst wicked Iudges.Impij iudices, iuxta verbum sapientum, sicut rapaces lupi vespere nil residuant vsque mane id est, de præsenti solum vita cogitant: de futura nihil considerant. Malorum præpositorum mos est, vt quicquid possunt, auferant: et vix necessarium parum quid relinquant sustentationi. Iracundus iudex non potest attendere rectam iudicij satisfactionem. Nam per furoris excœcationem, non perspicit rectitundinis claritatem. Iustum iudicium, vbi non persona consideratur. Scriptum est: Non attendas personam hominis in iudicio, nec pro aliquo facies, vt a vero declines, et iniuste iudices. Susceptio muneris est dimissio veritatis. Ex historia bibliothecæ Iornal.

MarginaliaA wicked iudge deposed and depriued by the kyng.Of thys kyng Egelred I finde noted in the booke of Roger Houeden, that he deposed and depriued from all possessions, a certayne iudge or iusticer named Walgeatus, the sonne of one Leonet, for false iudgement and other proude doynges: whome notwithstandyng he loued aboue all other.

¶ Edmonde Yronside a Saxone, and Canutus Dane, Kynges together in Englande.  

Commentary     Close

Foxe's narrative of the reign of Edmund Ironside and the conflict with Cnut, Foxe used his preferred sources of Fabian's Chronicle (R. Fabyan, The Chronicle of Fabian (London, 1559), book 6, ch. 204) and Brompton's Chronicle (J. Brompton, 'Chronicon Johannis Brompton Abbatis Jornalensis.' In Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores X. [....], ed. by Roger Twysden [London, 1652], col. 908). The latter is his exclusive source for the death of Edmund and the family's exile, and Cnut's establishment of control in England. Fabyan is used to identify the children of Earl Godwin. At the crucial point when the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy tried to prevent any further Danes being crowned kings of England, Foxe took pains to support his narrative with a passage 'taken out of the English story or chronicle copyied of certayne English clerkes' - almost certainly a further example of his further use of the Worcester manuscript version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, now BL MS Cotton Tib. B IV, fols 3-86; 88-90, which had belonged to Archbishop Matthew Parker (listed as J1.14 in T. Graham, and A. G. Watson, The recovery of the past in early Elizabethan England. Documents by John Bale and John Joscelyn from the Circle of Matthew Parker, Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monograph, No. 13 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 58). We suppose that access to the manuscript, or information about it, had been furnished by John Joscelyn to Foxe. For the passage in question, see Michael Swanton (ed. and trans.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [London, 1996], pp. 175; 187-8). For the attempted invasion of Alfred from Normandy, and the story claiming that Harold banished him to the Isle of Ely and had been blinded, Foxe's marginal note intriguingly refers to a 'Historia ignoti Iutoris [leg: Autoris']' (i.e. 'history by an unknown author'). The work in question has not been identified. Fabian (book 6, ch. 209) is again used as his source for Cnut's daughters, perhaps confirmed by William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum (book 2, ch. 189). The famous story of Cnut trying to repel the sea was too vivid for Foxe to ignore - his sources here were Henry Huntingdon's Chronicle (T. Arnold, ed. Henry of Huntingdon. Henrici Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum, the History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, from B. C. 55 to A. D. 1154 [London: Rolls Series, 1879], book 6, ch. 17, with confirmation and emendation from Polydore Vergil (pp. 276-7) and Fabian. The laws of Cnut were probably taken from Brompton's Chronicle (cols. 918-932) though there is no way of knowing whether Foxe had also consulted Lambarde's Archainomia ([London, 1568], fols 94-124) at this juncture.

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MarginaliaAn.1016.
Edmund Ironsyde sonne of Egelred, kyngAFter the death of Egelred, variance fell betwene the englishmen for the election of their king. For the citezens of London, with certaine other Lordes: named Edmond the eldest sonne of Egelred (a yong man of lusty and valiant courage) in martial aduentures, both hardy and wise, and could very well endure all paynes. Wherfore he was surnamed Yronside. MarginaliaCanutus sone of Suanus, kyngBut the more of þ^e lordes, fauored Canutus the sonne of Swanus: especially þ^e Abbots, bishops, and men of the spiritualtie, which before had sworne to hys father. MarginaliaThe battels betweene Edmundus & Canutus.By meanes wherof betwene these two martial princes were faught many great battails, first in Dorsetshire, where Canutus was compelled to flee the field. And after that they fought an other battail in Worcetershire, so sore, that none could tell, who had the better: but eyther for werines, or for lacke of day, they departed one frō the other and on the next morow fought agayne: but then Canutus was compelled to forsake the field. After this they met in Mercia, and there fought againe: where, Edmund (as stories say) by the treason of that false Eduke Duke of Mercia (whom he before had receaued to fauor) had the worsse. Thus many great conflicts there were betwene these il. princes. But vpon a season, when the hostes were redy to ioyne, and at a certaine tyme of a truce taken before battaile: a knight of the party of Edmund stode vp vpon an high place, and sayd these wordes.

MarginaliaA witty oration to stay bloude betwene two armyes.Daily we dye, and none hath the victory: And when the knightes be dead on either part, then the Dukes compelled by neede, shall accord: or els they must fight alone. And this kingdome is now sufficient for 2. men, which some tyme sufficed 7. But if the couetousnes of Lordship in these twayne be so great, that neither can be content to take part and lyue by the other, nor the one vnder the other: then let them fight alone, that will be Lordes alone. If all mē fight still, at the last all men shall be slayne, and none left to bee vnder their Lordship, nor able to defend the kyng that shal be, agaynst straunge enemies and nations.