Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England 1016

d. 30 Nov 1016

Even before his father, King Aethelred's, death on 23 April 1016, Edmund had demonstrated his ability to lead and act decisively. He had become the driving force behind English resistance to the Danish forces of Sweyn and his son Cnut and in 1015, to his father's displeasure, he had established himself as lord of Danelaw.

On Aethelred's death, Edmund was proclaimed king in London but Cnut was adopted as king by a more representative assembly meeting in Southampton. In the campaigning that followed Edmund seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but when the two forces met at Ashingdon in Essex, his army suffered an overwhelming defeat. Edmund managed to escape and set about regrouping the English forces. It says much about Edmund's ability to lead and inspire the English that even after the victory at Ashingdon Cnut did not press home his advantage but agreed to meet his rival at Deerhurst, on an island in the river Seven. Here the two kings divided England between them, with Wessex retaining the Anglo-Saxon power base of Wessex, and Cnut having the lands to the north of the Thames, including London.

The settlement was short-lived however, for on 30 November 1016, Edmund died, and Cnut was accepted as king of all England.

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