And because this is Anglo-Saxon England with a definite hint of the Dane about it – the story ends in a way that makes Game of Thrones look positively restrained – Ædric’s body was thrown over city wall and left to rot. If you had given up finding derring to match do in an exciting historical romance because Sir Walter Scott was dead, weep no more. There is no evidence that Eadric’s father, Ethelric, held any titles or contributed to the court in any significant way.

Eadric Streona (died 1017) ealdorman of the Mercians, who, though a man of ignoble birth, was advanced to the revived office of ealdorman by the English king Ethelred II, whose daughter Eadgyth Eadric married. Eadric does other small favors for Ethelred, such as assassinating an inconvenient nobleman who could be his uncle, and wins the sobriquet “Grasper” by using forged charters to steal land from monasteries. When she awoke this morning, she did so with the determination to save her baby brother no matter what.seems to have been accompanied from the mid-990s onwards by one or more of his sons (not including Ælfric). Edmund assembled an army to resist them but his Mercian forces refused to fight the Danes and disbanded. This blood feud happened between the years 1016 and 1073 oblivious of events happening in Southern England.

Edmund then succeeded in rescuing London from the invaders, driving Eadric and Cnut out of the city and defeating them after crossing the Thames at Brentford; but he suffered heavy losses. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact.Eadric’s advice to the young man lands him an audience with King Ethelred and changes his life forever.

When at last he uncovers the rebel's identity, his entire world will fall apart, and he must face a terrible choice. In the struggle between the English and the Danes, Eadric Streona appears in the character of an arch-traitor. Eadric appears to have acted as a go-between for Ethelred and the Danes, attempting to rescue Saint Alphege (Alfheah) in 1012 by collecting a ransom. Alphege at Greenwich by Thorkell the Tall's men, Thorkell defected to Ethelred, possibly through Eadric's agency.

Cnut rewarded Ædric with his old earldom of Mercia, but having met the man and been advised by him was under no illusion as to the man’s inability to demonstrate even a modicum of loyalty. This was sealed when Edmund rebelled against his father and married Aelgifu, the daughter of one of Eadric Streona's victim's in his role as Ethelred's hitman, giving him a northern power base. Edmund was declared Aethelred’s successor and immediately set about to bring Wessex back to fold, so to speak. Eadric was one of eight or more children, born to a father who worked at the court of King Aethelred Unraed.

Fortunately for Canute, Edmund died of battle injuries not long afterwards; Canute now ruled all of England. I think he needed Eadric’s men more than he needed Eadric and, yes, Eadric was married to his sister so there is probably some truth in that too. Let us be brothers by adoption,” the Dane continued, “and divide the kingdom, governing so that I may rule your affairs, and you mine. The thought of a roof over his head and soft blankets under his back made Eadric ache with yearning. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s comment on this act is revealing: “No greater folly was ever agreed to than this one.This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. This Englishman, at the start of the 12th century, might have thought that if only Edmund Ironside, as he came to be known, had beaten Cnut at the Battle of Assandun the world would have been a more English place. Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. While at the royal palace in London, Eadric was killed at the command of King Cnut, along with three other prominent English nobles: Northman, son of Leofwine, Æthelweard, son of Æthelmær the Stout, and Brihtric, son of Ælfhheah, Ealdorman of Devon.