Posted by Hovite
on 18/10/2009, 19:42:26, in reply to "On This Day"
81.98.144.133
Eadmund and Cnut signed a treaty whereby they agreed to divide the kingdom between them, and who ever should survive the longest would succeed to the whole. But by signing that treaty, Eadmund condemned himself to death, and, as it turned out, to a particularly unpleasant disembowelling incident.
The assassination was arranged by Eadric Streona, a brother-in-law of Eadmund, and an archtraitor. He secreted a spearman in the cesspit below Eadmund’s privy, so that the king could be attacked where he was least expecting an assault.
Eadric hoped to be richly rewarded by Cnut, but the Dane had him executed. Perhaps Cnut thought that murder should not go unpunished, or maybe Canute decided that Eadric was altogether too good at treachery, and therefore too dangerous a man to have hanging about.
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