Battle of Assandun

Battle of Assandun
Edmund Ironside (left) fights Canute the Great (right).
Date 1016 Location Ashdon or Ashingdon Result Decisive Danish victory
Belligerents
Danes	England
Commanders and leaders
Canute the Great Thorkell the High Eiríkr Hákonarson	Edmund Ironside Eadric Streona

The Battle of Assandun was fought on 18 October 1016. There is dispute over whether Assandun may actually be Ashdon near Saffron Walden in north Essex, or the long supposed Ashingdon near Rochford in southeast Essex, England.

Ashingdon hill, likely location of the battle.

It was a victory for the Danes, led by Canute the Great (Cnut, Knut or Knud), who triumphed over the English army led by King Edmund II ('Ironside'). The battle was the conclusion to the Danish reconquest of England. In earlier times, England had been seven kingdoms, but by the late 900s, there were two kingdoms. The Danes ruled two thirds of England - The Danelaw, the area north of the Thames, along the Lee, northwest through the midlands including eastern Mercia to Chester and the River Dee. The Saxons ruled the area south of the Thames, the west - Wessex and western Mercia.

Canute had besieged London with major support from the English nobility against the Saxon hierarchy; particularly the Southampton nobles. The siege was in response to Edmund's reconquest of recently Danish-occupied Wessex, as well as conducting various indecisive offensives against Canute's army. London had withstood the siege and Edmund repulsed the Danes, but needed troops following a successful attack against the Danes in Mercia.

Leaving London, Edmund risked travelling into the countryside, dominated by enemies and at risk of being attacked by Danish soldiers. Canute's intelligence became aware of Edmund's movements, and while marching through Essex, Edmund's army was intercepted by Canute. The surprise interception overwhelmed the English, causing some of them to desert, and the Danes poured on the English, killing much of the nobility. Some sources claim that the Danes were losing ground, and that Eadric Streona had previously made a deal with Canute to desert the other English forces.

Following his defeat, King Edmund II was forced to sign a treaty with Canute in which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Canute, and when one of the kings should die, the other king would take all of England; and that king's son being the heir to the throne. After Edmund's death on 30 November, Canute then ruled the whole kingdom directly and thus, for the first time, England became a single united kingdom covering the same territory as it does today.

King Canute was accustomed to building a church, chapel or holy site after winning a battle to commemorate the soldiers who died in battle. A few years later saw the completion of construction in 1020 of of the memorial church known as Ashingdon Minster, located on the hill next to the presumed site of the Battle in Ashingdon. The church still stands to this day. King Canute attended the dedication of Ashingdon Minster with his bishops and he appointed his personal priest Stigand to be the priest there. The church is now dedicated to Saint Andrew, but it is believed that it was dedicated earlier to Saint Michael who was considered to be a military saint and churches dedicated to him are frequently located on a hill.

Reference source: "The History of Rochford Hundred", Philip Benton, 1867. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P2suAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Primary sources

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has a brief account of the battle.

“

When the king learned that the enemy army had gone inland, for the fifth time he collected all the English nation, and pursued them and overtook them in Essex at the hill which is called Ashingdon, and they stoutly joined battle there. Then Ealdorman Eadric did as he had often done before, he was the first to start the fight with the Magonsæte [i.e. of Herefordshire], and thus betrayed his liege lord and all the people of England. There Cnut had the victory and won for himself all the English people. There was Bishop Eadnoth killed, and Abbot Wulfsige, and Ealdorman Ælfric, and Godwine, the ealdorman of Lindsey, and Ulfcetel of East Anglia, and Æthelweard, son of Ealdorman Æthelwine, and all the nobility of England was there destroyed.

”

The battle is also mentioned briefly in Knýtlinga saga which quotes a verse of skaldic poetry by Óttarr svarti, one of Canute'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.

”

The most detailed account of the battle is in Encomium Emmae.