A great accession of dignity was granted by King Ethelred. While his brother, King Edward, was on the throne, Ethelred, with his mother, had visited the tomb of S. Etheldreda, and professed great admiration for her character and work. When Ethelred became king he granted to the churches of Ely, Canterbury, and Glastonbury the office of Chancellor of the King's Court, putting, as it were, the office in commission; so the abbot of each place, or his deputy, officiated as chancellor for periods of four months each. This privilege was only retained till the time of the Normans. Elsin died in a good old age, "after a life of great sanctity and observance of the commandments of God, and after the acquisition of much honour and great possessions to the church." His death took place, according to the "Liber Eliensis," in King Ethelred's time--that is, not later than 1016. Wharton gives 1019 as the date. Possibly the unsettled state of the kingdom may have caused the abbey to be vacant for three years. At the Battle of Assendun, 1016, some of the monks of Ely, as well as Ednod, Bishop of Dorchester, and the Abbot of Ramsey, were slain. The Ely monks took with them to the camp the relics of S. Wendreda, which were there lost and never recovered. Canute is thought to have acquired them, and to have bestowed them upon the Church of Canterbury. The body of Bishop Ednod was brought to Ely, with the intention of taking it on to Ramsey, where he had been abbot, for interment. But when the body arrived at Ely it was buried privately by night in the church. Of #Leofwin#, called also Oschitel (1019?-1022), who is given in the lists as the third abbot, nothing whatever is known, except that he was deposed by the monks, and reinstated, after a journey to Rome, by the pope. His successor, #Leofric# (1022-1029), who had been prior, is remembered only as being abbot when Archbishop Wulstan of York and Bishop Alfwin of Elmham were buried at Ely, and when divers possessions were acquired by gift or bequest of a certain Countess Godiva. #Leofsin# (1029-1045), like his predecessor, was appointed by King Canute. Canute was much in the eastern counties; and he is said to have made a point, when possible, of keeping the Feast of the Purification at Ely, that being the date on which the abbot's turn as chancellor commenced. It was on one of these occasions, while coming by water with his queen and nobles, that the remarkable incident occurred of his hearing the monks singing in the distance, and breaking out himself into verse. Four lines of his song have been preserved.[9] The Latin of them, as given in the "Liber Eliensis," runs thus: "Dulce cantaverunt monachi in Ely Dum Canutus rex navigaret prope ibi, Nunc milites navigate propius ad terram, Et simul audiamus monachorum harmoniam." The incident has attracted many writers, and not a few poems have been written upon it. Wordsworth's sonnet on the subject commences: