erth and Morcar, the eldest thanes
belonging to the Seven Towns. He allured them into his bower,
where they were shamefully slain. Then the king took all their
possessions, and ordered the widow of Sigferth to be secured, and
brought within Malmsbury. After a little interval, Edmund
Etheling went and seized her, against the king's will, and had
her to wife. Then, before the Nativity of St. Mary, went the
etheling west-north into the Five Towns, (58) and soon plundered
all the property of Sigferth and Morcar; and all the people
submitted to him. At the same time came King Knute to Sandwich,
and went soon all about Kent into Wessex, until he came to the
mouth of the Frome; and then plundered in Dorset, and in
Wiltshire, and in Somerset. King Ethelred, meanwhile, lay sick
at Corsham; and Alderman Edric collected an army there, and
Edmund the etheling in the north. When they came together, the
alderman designed to betray Edmund the etheling, but he could
not; whereupon they separated without an engagement, and sheered
off from their enemies. Alderman Edric then seduced forty ships
from the king, and submitted to Knute. The West-Saxons also
submitted, and gave hostages, and horsed the army. And he
continued there until midwinter.

A.D. 1016. This year came King Knute with a marine force of one
hundred and sixty ships, and Alderman Edric with him, over the
Thames into Mercia at Cricklade; whence they proceeded to
Warwickshire, during the middle of the winter, and plundered
therein, and burned, and slew all they met. Then began Edmund
the etheling to gather an army, which, when it was collected,
could avail him nothing, unless the king were there and they had
the assistance of the citizens of London. The expedition
therefore was frustrated, and each man betook himself home.
After this, an army was again ordered, under full penalties, that
every person, however distant, should go forth; and they sent to
the king in London, and besought him to come to meet the army
with the aid that he could collect. When they were all
assembled, it succeeded nothing better than it often did before;
and, when it was told the king, that those persons would betray
him who ought to assist him, then forsook he the army, and
returned again to London. Then rode Edmund the etheling to Earl
Utred in Northumbria; and every man supposed that they would
collect an army King Knute; but they went into Stafforddhire, and
to Shrewsbury, and