Edmund Ironside was the son of Aethelred the Unready. His family battled the Danes in the 11th Century. In 1016, his father died and Edmund became king of the English. In the next few months he fought several battles with Cnut. He lost the last one, the Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016. He was forced to divided his kingdom, keeping Wessex and giving the rest to Cnut. On the night of Nov. 30, 1016 he went to the privy in the castle he was sleeping in. As he sat on the bench, an assassin who had climbed up the latrine shaft stabbed him in his privates, resulting in his death. As per the treaty, Cnut succeeded Edmund to the throne of Wessex and ruled England alone for the next 20 years. He was a good king. It is unclear if this cause of death was added to put some pizzazz into an otherwise boring death from exhaustion from all that fighting. The blame was assigned to Eadric Streona, a Mercian noble who had shifted allegiances between the English and the Danes several times. He was given the name “streona” which means “acquisitive” because of his greed for church lands and funds. He could just as easily been called Eadric the Crafty or Eadric the Treacherous. Actually, the murder was done by Eadric’s son, since you could not expect a noble to shinny up the latrine shaft. This was not the first dastardly deed on Eadric’s resume. Besides the death of Edmund, Eadric had fought against him on the side of the Danes. In one battle, Eadric cut off the head of a Dane who looked like Edmund. He held up the head and proclaimed that Edmund was dead. This broke the morale of the English army causing it to retreat. By the time of the Battle of Assandun, he was back in the fold, supposedly. In the battle, he withdrew his forces at a crucial moment which brought defeat to the English and the crown to Cnut. Cnut knew a slime-ball when he dealt with one and on Christmas Day of 1017, he had Eadric beheaded. The official cause of this death was his “fraudulent tergiversation” (deceitfulness). His body was thrown over the wall of London and his head was put on a pole in London. The picture below shows him being speared in the back (for purposes of decorum) and his assassin being rewarded with a kiss (after he cleaned himself up). In 2005, Eadric Streona was selected by historians as the 11th century’s worst Briton.
https://historycollection.com/bizarre-deaths-12-historys-weirdest-deaths-antiquity-middle-ages/8/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Ironside
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadric_Streona
https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-death-of-edmund-ironside.html
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