MarginaliaTwo kings fight hand to hand.These wordes were so well alowed of both þ^e hostes, & Princes: that both were content to try the quarell betwene them two onely. Then the place and tyme was appoynted where they both met, in sight of both hostes. And when either had assayed other with sharpe swordes and strokes: first, by the motion of Canutus (as some write) hastly they were both agreed, and kissed eche other to the comfort of both hostes. And shortly after they agreed vpon particiō of the land: and after that, during theyr liues they loued as brethren. Sone after, a sonne of wicked Edricus, by þ^e mind (as appeared afterward) of his father: espied, when kyng Edmund was at the draught: MarginaliaThe wicked murther of kyng Edmund.and with a speare (some say with a long knife) thrust him into the fundament, wherof the said Edmund shortly after dyed, after that he had raigned two yeres. MarginaliaTwo sonnes of Edmund Yrōsyde.He left behynd him two sonnes, Edmund & Edward: whom Edricke the wicked Duke, after the death of their father, tooke from their mother (not knowyng yet of the death of Edmund her husband) and presented them to king Canutus, saluting him in these wordes: Aue Rex solus. Thus Canutus after the death of Edmund Ironside, was king alone of the whole realme of England. And afterward by the aduise of his counsaile: he sent the foresayd sonnes of Edmund Ironside, to his brother Suanus king of Sueueland to be slayn: who abhorryng that dede, sent them to Salomon king of Hungary, where Edmund beyng maried to the kinges daughter dyed. Edward was maried to Agatha daughter of hys brother Henry the. iiij. emperour.

When Canutus was stablished in the kingdome: he called a parlyament at Londō, where (among other things there debated) it was propounded to the Byshops, Barons, and Lordes of the parliament there present: whether that in the composition made betweene Edmund and Canutus, any speciall remembraunce was made for the children, or brethren of Edmund, for any particion of any part of the land. MarginaliaFlattery, infidelitie, & vntruth in English Lordes.Whereunto the englishe Lordes falsly flattering wyth the foreine kyng, and speaking agaynst their owne myndes, as also agaynst their natiue countrey, answered, and sayd nay. Affirmyng moreuer with an oth (for the kynges pleasure) that they to the vttermost of their powers, would put of the bloud of Edmund, in all that they might. By reason of which aunswere and promise, they thought (many of them) to haue purchased with the kyng great fauour. MarginaliaFalse vnfaithfulnes & vnc?stant mutabilitie in Englishe Lordes well rewarded.But by the iust retribution of God, it chanced farre otherwise. For many of them, or the most part (such especially as Canutus did perceaue to be sworne before tyme to Edmund, and his heyres, and also considering that they were natiue Englishmen) he mistrusted and disdayned euer after. In so much that some he exiled: a great sort he beheaded: and some by Gods punishment dyed sodainely. Among whom wicked Edricke also the traytor (although wyth hys sugred wordes he continued a while in the kynges fauour) at length escaped not condigne reward for hys deceaueable dealing. For (as the history of Iornalensis recordeth) as the kyng was in his palace beyond Thames, this Edricke (beyng belike accused, or els suspected of the kyng before) comming vnto hym, began to recken vp his benefites and labours bestowed for his sake. First in forsaking and betraying Egelred: then in slaying kyng Edmund his sonne, with many such other deedes moe: which all for his sake he had bone. Well saith þ^e king, thou hast here rightly iudged thy selfe, and worthelye thou shalt dye, for slaying thy naturall Prince, and my sworne brother. MarginaliaDuke Edrike the false traytour & murtherer of his king, worthely rewarded for his wicked falshode.And so commaunded hym to be bound immediately hand and foote, and to be thrown into Thames. Some stories say, that when he had saluted the king with Aue rex solus, and shewed him the slaying of Edmund: Canutus (promising that he would make him therefore higher then all the Lordes of the Realme) commaunded his head to be stricken of, and to be set vpon London bridge, and hys body to be cast in the towne dich. MarginaliaThe end of pernicious traytors.And thus wyth shame ended he his wretched lyfe, as all they commonly do, which wyth like dissimulatiō seeke the destruction of their prince and of their countrey.

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

MarginaliaCanutus kyng of Denmarke.In thys meane tyme, Suanus kyng of Denmarke, brother to Canutus, dyed. Wherfore that land fell to Ca-nutus: which anon after sayled thether, and tooke therof possession. And after he had set it in order, he returned into england, MarginaliaCanutus marieth Emma, wife before of Egelred.
Lawes of kyng Edgar.and marryed Emma, late wyfe before of Egelred: & by her had a sonne called Hardeknight or Hardeknoutus. Moreouer thys Canutus assembled a parlamēt at Oxford: where it was agreed, that englishmen & Danes should hold the lawes made by king Edgar, because they were thought so good & reasonable aboue any other lawes.

Thus the Danes being in england, began by little and little to be christen men. And Canutus went to Rome and so returning agayne to england, gouerned that land þ^e space of. xx. yeares, leauing after him two sonnes, Harold and Hardeknoutus: which Hardeknoutus was made kyng of Denmarke in his fathers time.

MarginaliaHarold Harefote kyng of england a Dane.Harold (called Harefoote, for his deliuernes and swiftnes) sonne to Canutus by Elgina his first wife: begā his raigne ouer england an. 1039. Of hym is little left in memory, for he raygned but. iiij. yeares, saue þ^t he banished his Stepmother Emma, & tooke her goods & Iewels frō her.

Marginalia1039.
Hardeknout king last of the Danes that reigned in england.Hardeknoutous, beyng kyng of Denmarke, and second sonne to Canutus by his last wife Emma, was next king of England. In the tyme of these Danishe kinges, 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 afterwarde maryed the sister (some saye the daughter) of Canutus. MarginaliaErle Godwyn.This Godwyn was of a cruel and subtill wit, as he declared no lesse by the two sonnes of kyng Egelred: For when these two aforesayd (whose names were Alfride, and Edward) came from Normandy into england, to visite their mother Emma, and brought with them a great company of Normandes: this Godwine (hauing a daughter called Godith, whom he thought to marry to Edward, and set him vp to be king, to bring hys purpose about) vsed this practise: that is, to perswade king Hardeknout, & the lordes not to suffer those Normandes to be within the realme for ieoberdy, but rather to punish them for example. By which meanes he gate authority to order þ^e matter himselfe. Wherfore he met them on Guild downe, & there most wretchedly murthered,MarginaliaThe miserable wretchednes of Godwyn against the Normands.or rather martired the most number of þ^e Normandes, and that innocently. For as Swanus before had tithed the Monkes of Canterbury: MarginaliaThe Normandes tythed: and yet the tenthes retithed agayn.so he with the cruell company of english soldiors, slew. ix. of the said Normands, and saued the x. And yet passing the fury of Swanus (as not contented with that tiranny) he tithed againe the sayd tithe, and slew euery x. knight, and that by cruel torment, as windyng their guts out of their bodies, as writteth 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: where he beyng fed with bread and water, endured not long after. Of some writers it was recorded, that he was there slaine with the forenamed torment: and Edward was conueyed by some other to his mother. Who fearing the treason of Godwine, 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 cruell fact of Godwine and his men against the innocent Normandes, whether it came of himselfe, or of the kinges setting on: semeth to me to be the cause, why the iustice of God, did shortly after reuenge the quarell of these Normandes, in conquering and subduing the english natiō by William Conquerour, and the Normandes which came with hym. For so iust and right it was, that as the Normandes commyng with a naturall English Prince, were murthered of English men: so afterwarde the Englishe men should be slayne and conquered by the Normandes, commyng with a foraine kyng beyng none of their naturall countrey.

MarginaliaThe death of k. Hardeknout.Then it followeth in the story that this king Canute or Hardeknout: when he had reigned ij. yeres (being mery at Lambeth) sodainly was stricken dumbe, and fell downe to the ground, and within 8. dayes after died, without issue of his body. Who was the last that raigned in england of the bloud of the Danes.

This foresayd Godwine, had by the daughter of Canutus his wife, but one sonne, which was drowned. MarginaliaThe sonnes of erle Godwyn.Of his second wife 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 kyng Edward the Confessor.

MarginaliaThe story of Alphred repeated.Concerning the story of this Alfred, I find it somthing otherwise reported in our english chronicles: that it should be after the death of Hardeknout: for as much as þ^e Earles and Barons after hys death, assembled and made a coūcel: that neuer after any of the Danes bloud should be king of england, for the despite that they had done to english men. For euermore before, if the english men and the Danes had happened to mete vpon a bridge, the english men should