sute was begun and tooke such good successe, that the king
[Sidenote: 1002. Emma daughter of R. duke of Normandie maried to
K. Edgar.]
obteined his purpose. And so in the yeare of our Lord 1002, which was
about the 24 yeare of king Egelreds reigne, he maried the said Emma
with great solemnitie.

This mariage was thought to be right necessarie, honorable, and
profitable for the realme of England, because of the great puissance
of the Norman princes in those daies: but as things afterward came to
passe, it turned to the subuersion of the whole English state: for by
such affinitie and dealing as happened hereby betwixt the Normans and
Englishmen, occasion in the end was ministred to the same Normans to
pretend a title to the crowne of England, in prosecuting of which
title, they obteined and made the whole conquest of the land, as after
shall appeare. Egelred being greatlie aduanced (as he thought) by
reason of his mariage, deuised vpon presumption thereof, to cause all
the Danes within the land to be murthered in one day. Herevpon he sent
priuie commissioners to all cities, burrowes and townes within his
dominions, commanding the rulers and officers in the same, to kill
all such Danes as remained within their liberties, at a certeine day
prefixed, being saint Brices day, in the yeare 1012, and in the 34
[Sidenote: 1012. The 18 of Nouember. The murder of the Danes.]
yeare of king Egelreds reigne. Herevpon (as sundrie writers agree)
in one day & houre this murther began, and was according to the
commission and iniunction executed. But where it first began, the same
is vncerteine: some say at Wellowin in Herefordshire, some at a
[Sidenote: Hownhill, or Houndhill, a place within Merchington parish
beside the forest of Néedwood, somewhat more than two miles from
Vtoxcester.]