lish army. Its loss was terrible. The two chiefs
of East Anglia, Ulfcytel and AS Æthelweard, the son
of Æthelwine, lay amidst a host of dead. "All the
English nobles were slain," says the chronicler. The
old jealousies and suspicions, indeed, raged even on
the battle-field. The reconciliation with Eadric had
been sullenly submitted to by Eadmund's West-
Saxon followers, and their ill - will broke out in a
charge that Eadric and his men were the first to fly
from the field of Assandun. But in spite of these
charges of treason, it was Eadric who was now Ead-
mund's only hope. The king fell back with the
ealdorman on the Severn, pursued by Cnut as soon
as he learned the line of his retreat, and it was by
Eadric's interposition that further conflict was
averted. Pledges and oaths were given by the two
rivals to each other in the Isle of Olney in the
Severn by Deerburst, and the realm was divided be-
tween the English and the Danish leaders as in
Ælfred's day, Wessex and the English Mercia re-
maining to Eadmund. ¹ But the strain and failure
of his seven months' reign proved fatal to the young
king. He shared, no doubt, the weak constitution
of his race, and at the close of November his body
was borne to Glastonbury to lie beside his grand-
father Eadgar.

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