Battle of Assandun | |||||||
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Part of the Viking Invasions of England | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of England | Kingdom of Denmark Jomsborg Vikings | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edmund Ironside Ulfcytel Snillingr † | Cnut the Great Thorkell the Tall | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Thousands of Danish and Jomsviking army | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Heavier | Lighter |
The Battle of Assandun (or Essendune) [1] was fought between Danish and English armies on 18 October 1016. There is disagreement whether Assandun may be Ashdon near Saffron Walden in north Essex, England, or, as long supposed, Ashingdon near Rochford in south-east Essex. It ended in victory for the Danes, led by King Cnut, who triumphed over the English army led by King Edmund Ironside. The battle was the conclusion to the Danish conquest of England.
On 23 April 1016, King Æthelred the Unready died from an illness that he had been suffering from since the previous year. Two opposing assemblies gathered to name his successor; an assembly of London citizens declared Edmund king and the larger Witan at Southampton declared Cnut as king. [2] During the autumn of 1016, King Edmund raised an army consisting of West-Saxon troops as well as men from Southern England to defeat a Danish force led by King Cnut that had sailed across the Thames into Essex. [3]
On 18 October, as the Danes returned to their ships, the two forces finally engaged with each other at a place called Assandun, the exact location being disputed. Edmund formed his men into three lines and fought amongst the front lines to encourage his men, while Cnut, more of a strategist than a warrior, did not fight amongst his ranks. [4] During the battle, Eadric Streona the ealdorman of Mercia, left the battle allowing the Scandinavians to break through the English lines and win a decisive victory. [5] The version in the Encomium Emmae Reginae says that Eadric urged his men to flee before the battle began, saying “Let us flee and snatch our lives from imminent death, or else we will fall forthwith, for I know the hardihood of the Danes”. However it also infers that this statement is a deception by Eadric: "And according to some, it was afterwards evident that he did this not out of fear but in guile ; and what many assert is that he had promised this secretly to the Danes in return for some favour." Seeing a good chunk of his army leave the field, Edmund was undeterred. He told his warriors that they were better off without the craven men who deserted them, and he advanced into the midst of the enemy, cutting down the Danes on all sides. Eadric Streona had previously defected to Cnut when he landed in England but after Cnut's defeat at the Battle of Otford he came back to the English. However, this was a trick, as he again betrayed the English at Assandun. [5]
During the course of the battle, Eadnoth the Younger, Bishop of Dorchester on Thames, was killed by Cnut's men whilst in the act of saying mass on behalf of Edmund Ironside's men. According to the Liber Eliensis , Eadnoth's hand was first cut off for a ring, and then his body cut to pieces. [6] The ealdorman Ulfcytel Snillingr also died in the battle.
Following his defeat, Edmund was forced to sign a treaty with Cnut. By this treaty, all of England except Wessex would be controlled by Cnut and when one of the kings should die the other would take all of England, that king's son being the heir to the throne. After Edmund's death on 30 November, Cnut became the king of all of England. [7] On 18 October 1032, a church at Assandun was consecrated to commemorate the battle and those who had died during it. [8]
There is another possible location of the battle; Ashdon, also in Essex, or closer to nearby Hadstock. There have been many finds of Roman and Anglo-Saxon coins in the area and the construction of the Saffron Walden to Bartlow branch line through the 'Red Field' between Hadstock and Linton in the 1860s discovered a large number of skeletal remains. Historians have argued inconclusively over the different sites for years. Ashdon's 10th-century wooden village church, itself possibly built on the site of a pre-Christian temple, was probably rebuilt in stone in the early 11th century, about the right time for Cnut's conquest. Little remains of the earlier structures, which were largely obliterated by the construction of the current church of All Saints during the late 13th to early 15th centuries. A possible site for Cnut's church is St Botolph's Church in Hadstock, known to date from the early 11th century, still largely extant, and much closer to an alternative battle site. [9] [10]
The battle is mentioned briefly in Knýtlinga saga which quotes a verse of skaldic poetry by Óttarr svarti, one of Cnut's court poets.
King Knut fought the third battle, a major one, against the sons of Æthelred at a place called Ashington, north of the Danes' Woods. In the words of Ottar:
- At Ashington, you worked well
- in the shield-war, warrior-king;
- brown was the flesh of bodies
- served to the blood-bird:
- in the slaughter, you won,
- sire, with your sword
- enough of a name there,
- north of the Danes' Woods. [11]
In 2016, the one thousandth anniversary of the battle was celebrated in Ashingdon with a re-enactment. [12]
Æthelred II, known as Æthelred the Unready, was King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death in 1016. His epithet comes from the Old English word unræd meaning "poorly advised"; it is a pun on his name, which means "well advised".
Emma of Normandy was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the Danish king Cnut the Great. A daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor, she was Queen of the English during her marriage to King Æthelred from 1002 to 1016, except during a brief interruption in 1013–14 when the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard occupied the English throne. Æthelred died in 1016, and Emma married Sweyn's son Cnut. As Cnut's wife, she was Queen of England from their marriage in 1017, Queen of Denmark from 1018, and Queen of Norway from 1028 until Cnut died in 1035.
Cnut, also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire by historians.
Edmund Ironside was King of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. Edmund's reign was marred by a war he had inherited from his father; his cognomen "Ironside" was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut.
Leofwine was appointed Ealdorman of the Hwicce by King Æthelred the Unready of England in 994. The territory of the Hwicce was a kingdom in the Western Midlands in the early Anglo-Saxon period, which soon became a subdivision of Mercia. Leofwine was the son of Ælfwine, who is otherwise unknown, but the family appears to have originated in the East Midlands. Leofwine and his sons were considered by the See of Worcester as spoliators who seized church land, but East Midlands religious establishments regarded them as benefactors.
Eadric Streona was Ealdorman of Mercia from 1007 until he was killed by King Cnut. Eadric was given the epithet "Streona" in Hemming's Cartulary because he appropriated church land and funds for himself. Eadric became infamous in the Middle Ages because of his traitorous actions during the Danish re-conquest of England.
The Battle of Brentford was fought in 1016 between invading forces of the Kingdom of Denmark under Cnut and the defending forces of the Kingdom of England led by Edmund Ironside. The battle was fought as part of a campaign by Cnut to conquer England. The battle was a victory for the English, who nevertheless lost a large number of men.
Ælfric was Ealdorman of Hampshire from c. 982 to 1016.
The Anglo-Saxon period of the history of London lasted from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
Ealdgyth, modern English Edith may have been the name of the wife of Sigeferth son of Earngrim, thegn of the Seven Burghs, and later of King Edmund Ironside. She was probably the mother of Edmund's sons Edward the Exile and Edmund Ætheling.
Eadnoth the Younger or Eadnoth I was a medieval monk and prelate, successively Abbot of Ramsey and Bishop of Dorchester. From a prominent family of priests in the Fens, he was related to Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, Archbishop of York and founder of Ramsey Abbey. Following in the footsteps of his illustrious kinsman, he initially became a monk at Worcester. He is found at Ramsey supervising construction works in the 980s, and around 992 actually became Abbot of Ramsey. As abbot, he founded two daughter houses in what is now Cambridgeshire, namely, a monastery at St Ives and a nunnery at Chatteris. At some point between 1007 and 1009, he became Bishop of Dorchester, a see that encompassed much of the eastern Danelaw. He died at the Battle of Assandun in 1016, fighting Cnut the Great.
UlfcytelSnillingr, or Snylling, was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman. He was apparently the ealdorman of East Anglia from 1004 to his death at the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016, although he is not called an ealdorman in any of the charters he witnessed. Scandinavian sources refer to him as Ulfkell Snillingr, the byname meaning bold.
Events from the 1010s in England.
Ælfgifu of York was the first wife of Æthelred the Unready, King of the English; as such, she was Queen of the English from their marriage in the 980s until her death in 1002. They had many children together, including Edmund Ironside. It is most probable that Ælfgifu was a daughter of Thored, Earl of southern Northumbria and his wife, Hilda.
Ælfhelm was the ealdorman of Northumbria, in practice southern Northumbria, from about 994 until his death. An ealdorman was a senior nobleman who governed a province—a shire or group of shires—on behalf of the king. Ælfhelm's powerful and wealthy family came from Mercia, a territory and former kingdom incorporating most of central England, and he achieved his position despite being an outsider. Ælfhelm first appears in charters as dux ("ealdorman") in about 994.
Northman was a Mercian chieftain of the early 11th century. A member of a powerful Mercian kinship (clan), he is known primarily for receiving the village of Twywell in Northamptonshire from King Æthelred II in 1013, and for his death by order of King Cnut the Great (Canute) in 1017. His violent end by Cnut contrasts with the successful career enjoyed by his brother Leofric, as Earl of Mercia during Cnut's reign. Northman is believed to have been an associate of the troublesome ealdorman Eadric Streona, who was killed with him.
Very little is known for certain of the ancestry of the Godwins, the family of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold II. When King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 his closest relative was his great-nephew, Edgar the Ætheling, but he was young and lacked powerful supporters. Harold was the head of the most powerful family in England and Edward's brother-in-law, and he became king. In September 1066 Harold defeated and killed King Harald Hardrada of Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and Harold was himself defeated and killed the following month by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
The Danish House of Knýtlinga was a ruling royal house in Middle Age Scandinavia and England. Its most famous king was Cnut the Great, who gave his name to this dynasty. Other notable members were Cnut's father Sweyn Forkbeard, grandfather Harald Bluetooth, and sons Harthacnut, Harold Harefoot, and Svein Knutsson. It has also been called the House of Canute, the House of Denmark, the House of Gorm, or the Jelling dynasty.
Edmund Ætheling was a son of Edmund Ironside and his wife Ealdgyth. Edmund Ironside briefly ruled as king of England following the death of his father Æthelred the Unready in April 1016. Æthelred had spent most of his reign unsuccessfully resisting incursions by Danish Vikings, and as king Edmund Ironside put up a strong fight until his death in November 1016, when the Viking leader Cnut became the undisputed king of all England.
In the autumn of 1016, the Danish prince Cnut the Great (Canute) together with the Norwegian fleet of Eiríkr Hákonarson successfully invaded England. Cnut's father, Sweyn Forkbeard, had previously conquered and briefly ruled England for less than five weeks.