Ashingdon, battle of

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Ashingdon, battle of, 1016. This was the final battle in the struggle between Edmund Ironside and Cnut and took place south of the river Crouch in Essex. The defection of Eadric, ealdorman of Mercia, who led the Magonsaete from Herefordshire and Shropshire from the field, contributed to a crushing Danish victory, with ‘all the flower of the English nation’ cut down. The two leaders met subsequently at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire to divide the kingdom but Edmund's death weeks afterwards gave the whole realm into Cnut's hands.

J. A. Cannon

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Battle of Ashingdon

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