Howbeit the common report of writers touching the death of Edmund varieth from this, who doo affirme, that after Cnute and Edmund were made friends, the serpent of enuie and false conspiracie burnt so in the hearts of some traitorous persons, that within a while after [Sidenote:  K. Edmund traitorouslie slaine at Oxford. Fabian. Simon Dun.] king Edmund was slaine at Oxford, as he sat on a priuie to doo the necessaries of nature.  The common report hath gone, that earle Edrike was the procurer of this villanous act, and that (as some write) his sonne did it.  But the author that wrote “Encomium Emmae,” writing of the death of Edmund, hath these words (immediatlie after he had first declared in what sort the two princes were agreed, and had made [Sidenote:  This is alleged againe for the proofe of Edmunds natural death.] partition of the realme betwixt them:) But God (saith he) being mindfull of his old doctrine, that Euerie kingdome diuided in it selfe can not long stand, shortlie after tooke Edmund out of this life:  and by such meanes seemed to take pitie vpon the English kingdome, least if both the kings should haue continued in life togither, they should both haue liued in great danger, and the realme in trouble.  With this agreeth also Simon Dunel. who saith, that king Edmund died of naturall [Sidenote:  Fabian.] sicknesse, by course of kind at London, about the feast of saint Andrew next insuing the late mentioned agreement.

[Sidenote:  Ranul.  Hig. Hen.  Hunt.] And this should seeme true:  for whereas these authors which report, that earle Edrike was the procurer of his death, doo also write, that when he knew the act to be done, he hasted vnto Cnute, and declared vnto him what he had brought to passe for his aduancement to the gouernment of the whole realme.  Wherevpon Cnute, abhorring such a detestable fact, said vnto him:  “Bicause thou hast for my sake, made away the worthiest bodie of the world, I shall raise thy head aboue all the lords of England,” and so caused him to be put to death. [Sidenote:  Some thinke that he was duke of Mercia before, and now had Essex adioined thereto.] Thus haue some bookes.  Howbeit this report agreeth not with other writers, which declare how Cnute aduanced Edrike in the beginning of his reigne vnto high honor, and made him gouernor of Mercia, and vsed his counsell in manie things after the death of king Edmund, as in banishing Edwin, the brother of king Edmund, with his sonnes also, Edmund and Edward.

[Sidenote:  Diuerse and discordant reports of Edmunds death. Ran.  Higd. Wil.  Malm.] But for that there is such discordance and variable report amongst writers touching the death of king Edmund, and some fables inuented thereof (as the manner is) we will let the residue of their reports passe; sith certeine it is, that to his end he came, after he had reigned about the space of one yeere, and so much more as is betweene the moneth of Iune