However, the Saxons were at last defeated in a sixth battle through
the act of a traitor. Edric, a Saxon noble, took his men out of
the fight and his treachery so weakened the Saxon army that Edmund
Ironside had to surrender to Canute.

But the young Dane had greatly admired Edmund for the way in which
he had fought against heavy odds, so he now treated him most generously.
Canute took certain portions of England and the remainder was given
to Edmund Ironside.

Thus for a short time the Anglo-Saxon people had at once a Danish
and a Saxon monarch.


II


Edmund died in 1016 and after his death Canute became sole ruler.

He ruled wisely. He determined to make his Anglo-Saxon subjects
forget that he was a foreign conqueror. To show his confidence in
them he sent back to Denmark the army he had brought over the sea,
keeping on a part of his fleet and a small body of soldiers to act
as guards at his palace.

He now depended on the support of his Anglo-Saxon subjects and he
won their love.

Although a king--and it is generally believed that kings like
flattery--Canute is said to have rebuked his courtiers when they