MATTHEW OV WE8TMTJT8TEB. A.D. 1015. year, on the twenty-ninth of September, the sea breaking beyond ita proper bounds, destroyed many towns in England, and an incalculable multitude of people. A.D. 1015. A great conference between the Danes and English was held at Oxford, where the king of England, by the advice of the wicked duke Eadric, ordered many of the Danish nobles to be put to death, on the ground of their having been convicted of treachery towards the king ; and their depend* ente, endeavouring to avenge the death of their masters, were repulsed by the garrison of armed men, and pursued fiercely, till, at last, they were compelled to enter the tower of the church of the holy virgin Frideswitha. And as they could not be expelled from thence, they were all burnt in the tower. But soon after, by the command of the king, the church was purified and rebuilt. Among others who were slain, were Sigeferth and Morchar, counts of Northumberland, the sons of Cargrinus, whom the wicked duke Eadric had invited to a banquet, and then, after he had received them on his own couch, he treacherously caused them to be murdered. After this, the king commanded Aldgitha, the wife of count Sigeferth, to be conveyed to Malmesbury, and there kept in custody as a woman of eminent nobility. And while she was being kept there, Edmund, the son of the king, came thither, whom the English nation, on account of his great vigour of mind and strength of body, called Crtntftìtt, which is in Latin, Lotus ferreum, and, contrary to his father's will, he took her for his wife ; and going, between the time of the Assumption and the Nativity of the blessed Mary, into Northumberland, with his wife, he invaded the whole district which had been the property of the counts Sigeferth and Morchar, and reduced then* subjects under his own power. But this Edmund was the son not of Emma, the queen, but of some woman of low birth ; however, he redeemed the lowness of his origin on the side of his mother, by the genius of his mind, and the strength and activity of his body. The same year, Canute, king of the Danes, having arranged his affairs in Denmark, and having made treaties of peace with the neighbouring kings, came into England, with the determination either to conquer, or, if conquered, to perish. Therefore, he landed in the port of Sandwich, with a powerful fleet, and from thence he proceeded into Wessex, polluting every place with bloodshed and rapine. And, as king Ethelred was