The neighbouring town of Brentford has a less happy fate, and Ealing doubtless shared to some extent in the events at Brentford. In the year 1016, Ethelred, the King, dying, the country was torn by the rival claims of Edmund Ironside and Canute. London and the parts about it declared for Edmund, the remoter counties ranging themselves with the Danish King. A sharp engagement between the hostile forces gave a temporary victory to Edmund, and the Danes fled across the Thames, many of the Saxons being, in the ardour of the pursuit, drowned in the river near where Kew Bridge now stands. Edmund did not live to reap substantial advantages from this triumph, for not long afterwards he was assassinated at Brentford. The murderer was the son of Edric Strone who had allied himself with Canute. The event is narrated by Henry de Huntingdon: “King Edmund some days after this was killed treacherously at Brentford. Thus he fell while he flourished in his Kingdom, feared and dreaded by his enemies. In the night he went in some house, where the son of Edric the leader, hid in a secret cave by the advice of his father, stabbed the King twice in the belly, and taking flight, left the knife in the viscera. Then Edric came to King Canute and saluted him, saying, ‘Hail to thee, sole King’ and made the circumstances known to him. The King answered, ‘I am so much beholden to thee for this service, I will set thee higher than any of the English nobility’ Therefore he caused him to be beheaded, and his head to be placed on the highest tower in London.” ~Battle Of Brentford.~