292 ROGER OP WENDOVEB. [A.D. 1017. and arms in token of peace, and Eadmund became Cnute and Cnute Eadmund. B y his wife Aldgiva, a noble woman, king Eadmund had two sons, Eadward and Eadmund, of whom more shall be said in the proper place. Death of king Eadmund. While king Eadmund showed himself clement and pitiful to the good, his government was equally terrible and severe to the wicked. Envious of his goodness, the treacherous earl Eadric, lord of Mercia, was indefatigable in devising means to destroy him. A t length, when king Eadmund was passing a night at Oxford, as he retired to a closet for the purpose of easing nature, the son of the said Eadric, at the instigation of his father, concealed himself in the sink, on the night of St. Andrew the apostle, and thrust a very sharp knife into the king's bowels, where he left it, and fled, leaving the king mortally wounded. He was buried at Glastonbury near his grandfather king Eadgar the Pacific, exceedingly lamented by all England, which under his rule had hoped to breathe again from the oppressions of the Danes. King Cnute acquires the rule of all England. A.D. 1017. On the death of Eadmund king of England, Cnute king of Denmark acquired the English kingdom and reigned twenty years. In the beginning of his reign he divided England into four parts, of which he kept Wessex to himself, and committed Mercia to Eadric, East-Anglia to Turkil, and Northumberland to Hyric. Hearing that he was deprived of the earldom of Mercia, which he had held many years, Eadric was greatly disturbed, and coming to Cnute in a rage, he upbraided him sharply with the many benefits he had done, and among them he mentioned these two, " I first," said he, " deserted king Eadmund for thy sake, and afterwards slew him to show my fidelity to thee ; and now thou hast taken from me the earldom of Mercia." The crimson that mounted into Cnute's cheek showed his excessive rage, which broke forth in these words, "Thou shalt meet with merited death for thy treason against me and against God, in slaying thy lawful lord and my brother with whom I was in league. His blood be on thy head, who hast stretched out thy hand against the Lord's anointed." Then,