The Battle of Assandún/Ashdon

This year is the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Assandún, one of the great battles of English history and the victory through which the Danish king Cnút finally defeated the line of Alfred and so conquered all of England. It was a heroic but disastrous defeat for the English and arguably more significant than the Battle of Hastings, yet is far less well-known. Even the location of the battle is a matter of controversy. Using the evidence of the near contemporary entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Old Norse skaldic poetry, we shall reconsider the background and the dramatic events of 1016, a year which included five battles and the greatest siege in the history of London, before addressing anew the question of the site of this battle in the Essex landscape.