Eadric the Grasper: Sons of Mercia: 1

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Another powerful device in this book is the use of secrecy and changing POVs. Without giving too much away that might spoil future readers, the personas that Eadric and Aydith assume when they are away from one another is truly fascinating and almost relatable at a modern, if simplified, level. Don’t think on it so much. The king does what he must to protect and feed us; I am sure your father is the same. And if he isn’t … then to hell with him!” He has done nothing to me.” The boy wiped his leaking nose. “But everyone else complains of him. They call him foolish and incompetent.” He fixed Eadric with a cruel glare. “I bet you don’t even know what that word means.” Eadric the Grasper (Eadric “Streona”) is a rich, swiftly moving story, set at the beginning of the 11th century in England—or as the book has it, Engla-lond. The research is intense (nice selected bibliography at the end), with both the descriptions and settings deep and provocative.

Wild Edric is a fabulous rose that scents the June air with its profusion of vivid pink roses at the end of very thorny stems. I always wondered who Wild Edric was and what made him ‘wild.’ In 1015, there was a council held in Oxford, to which Eadric invited the brothers Sigeferth and Morcar, who were two thegns from the Seven Burhs in the East Midlands. Unfortunately for them, Eadric had them killed – possibly due to their collaboration with the Danes. This enabled Prince Edmund to confiscate their lands. [9] Return of the Danes [ edit ] Accompanying his new liege Cnut, Eadric went on a campaign of plundering throughout England until in the summer of 1016, when a series of major battles were fought with Edmund Ironside, the successor of the deceased king Æthelred. The decisive battle was fought at Assandun on 18 October 1016. Eadric by that time had returned to his brother-in-law's side, but he fled the field with his men for uncertain reasons, though it was possibly pre-planned. After peace was made between Cnut and Edmund, Eadric was allowed to remain earl, however after a year Cnut had Eadric killed at London during the Christmas festivities in 1017. In 1007, he became Ealdorman of the Mercians, and subsequently married Ethelred's daughter Eadgyth. As Ealdorman, Eadric achieved a victory over the Welsh, for reasons unknown to history. (See the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). He is described by Sir Frank Stenton as someone "to whom unknown crimes may be safely attributed". He appears to have endeared himself to Ethelred II - to whom he was (on the whole) loyal - by arranging the assassinations of his internal opponents.

Lappenberg, Johann Martin and Benjamin Thorpe. History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, Volume 2. 1845. Web, Fall 2009

It was probably this combination of forces which was decisively defeated by William in a battle at Stafford in late 1069. Eadric apparently submitted to King William in 1070 and later participated in William's invasion of Scotland in 1072. [9] Another account states that he was captured by Ranulph de Mortimer "after long struggles and handed over to the king for life imprisonment, some of his lands afterwards descending to the abbey" [ citation needed] of Wigmore. 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. Despite his policy of appeasement, he is said to have persuaded Ethelred to undertake the genocide of Danish civilians in the St. Brice's Day Massacre - although this is uncertain - prompting Sir Frank Stenton's epigraphic footnote about him being the usual suspect for unknown crimes. A simple map of Britain is included, but one with more detail (cities, towns, etc.) would have been useful.Eadric is based on Eadric Streona who became infamous in the Middle Ages because of his traitorous actions during the Danish re-conquest of England.

Eadric or Edric the Wild was a local landowner along the Welsh Marches. He may have been the nephew of Eadric Streona a.k.a. the Grasper who in 1016 switched sides from Cnut to Edmund Ironside then promptly left the battle field half way through it. Edmund unsurprisingly lost the Battle of Ashingdon. He probably also had something to do with the St Brice’s Day Massacre of the Danes. The Grasper didn’t prosper because his Christmas gift from the new King Canute (who had undoubtedly benefited from the battlefield exit) was to have Eadric executed and thrown into a ditch. More positively, Edric the Wild was probably also related to the Princes of Gwynedd and Powys.Walter Map, in his De nugis curialium, recounts a legend where Edric and a hunting companion come across a house of succubi in the woods, one of whom Edric marries and bears him a son, Alnodus or Ælfnoth. Walter cites Alnodus as a rare example of a happy and successful offspring from a human-succubus relationship. [12] Eadric's byname [ edit ] On 18 October 1016, the Danes were engaged by Edmund's army as they retired towards their ships, leading to the Battle of Assandun – fought more probably at Ashingdon, in south-east, or Ashdon, in north-west Essex. In the ensuing struggle, Eadric, whose return to the English side was perhaps a ruse, withdrew his forces from the field of battle, and as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts it, he "betrayed his natural lord and all the people of England", bringing about a decisive English defeat. [14] Eadric will enter in the arena with 3 groups of Argent soldiers, each one composed of one Argent Lightwielder, Argent Monk and Argent Priestess. Once the last group is defeated, Eadric will engage the party. The early 12th-century historian John of Worcester writes that Eadric the Wild was a son of one Ælfric, whom he identifies as a brother of Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia under King Æthelred the Unready. [4] While five of Eadric Streona's brothers appear to attest witness-lists of King Æthelred's charters, no Ælfric makes a plausible candidate for identification with a brother of the ealdorman. [4] It is possible that Ælfric was not a brother but a nephew of the ealdorman. [5] If so, Eadric (the Wild) would belong to the same generation as his cousin Siward son of Æthelgar, who was himself a grandson of Eadric Streona. [5] Jones, Gwyn (1984), A History of the Vikings (2nded.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-285139-X