The Danes acknowledged Cnut as King, but the bulk of the English wished to retain the House of Cerdic, if Æthelred would pledge himself to rule better. This he promised to do, and his cause for a time was successful. Cnut had to retreat to his ships. Nevertheless, we hear of another large tribute, but it was paid probably to a fleet of Danish auxiliaries serving upon the English side. Eadric had of course again joined the victorious party; but again his persistent treachery was the destruction of the country. He enticed Sigeferth and Morkere, Thegns of the Five Danish Burghs, to Oxford, and there murdered them. Sigeferth’s widow was kept a prisoner, and taken in marriage by Edmund Ironside, Æthelred’s son. This prince thus acquired possession of the Five Burghs, and secured an influence which enabled him to take up a position in opposition to Eadric. On the renewal of the invasion by Cnut both Eadric and Edmund collected their forces; but, angry at the new rivalry he was experiencing, Eadric led his troops to join Cnut. Wessex was thus thrown open, and by a strange inversion of affairs, Edmund, with Utred of Northumberland, occupied the northern part of England, while the Danes, under Cnut and Eadric, held Wessex and the South. In 1016, Æthelred died. [Sidenote: Edmund Ironside. April to Nov. 1016.] [Sidenote: Five great battles.] [Sidenote: Division of England.] The Witan of the South immediately, under the influence of the conquerors, elected Cnut as his successor, but London and the rest of the Witan chose Edmund. It was plain that Wessex could acknowledge Cnut only through fear, and thither Edmund betook himself, and collected troops. As if to prove what the English could do if well commanded, in a few weeks he fought, on the whole successfully, five great battles. At Pen Selwood in Somerset; at Sherstone, where the English were only prevented from winning by a trick of Eadric’s, who, raising the head of another man, declared it was the head of the slain English king; at Brentford; and afterwards, when Eadric had again changed sides, at Otford in Kent; and Assandun in Essex. In this last battle the whole forces of England were arrayed. The sudden withdrawal of Eadric, who was commanding the Magesætas, or men of Hereford, secured a victory for the Danes, and Edmund had to retreat across England into the country of the Hwiccas, or Gloucestershire. Not yet wholly beaten, he was preparing for a sixth battle, when he was persuaded to make an arrangement similar, though not identical, with that which Alfred had made with Guthrum. He surrendered to Cnut Northumberland and Mercia, retaining for himself Wessex, Essex, East Anglia, and London. On St. Andrew’s Day of the same year, Edmund Ironside died, a misfortune, like most other acts of villainy of the time, attributed to Eadric. With him fell the hope of the English. The treachery of Eadric, the folly of Æthelred, met with their reward, and Cnut was acknowledged King of England.