Edmund II,surnamed Ironside, a king of the Anglo-Saxons, son and successor of Ethel-red II., born in 989, ascended the throne in 1016, and died the same year. Even before his accession he was recognized as the champion of the English cause against the Danes under Canute, but his abilities and hardy valor were unable to prevent the subjugation of the kingdom. Canute was proclaimed at Southampton at the same time that Edmund was recognized by the burgesses of London, which was immediately besieged by the Danes. Edmund fled, raised an army in Wessex, and at Scoer-ston in Gloucestershire gave battle to Canute, who was assisted by many disaffected English nobles and prelates under Edric. The battle raged for two days, and fortune seemed to have declared for Edmund, when a stratagem of Edric made the victory undecided. He again met his enemies at Brentford and at Ot-ford; but by the perfidy of Edric, who had joined Edmund, and fled with his division at the onset, he sustained a decisive discomfiture at Assington. Edmund was prepared to meet Canute with a new army, when both the Danish and English troops, wearied of the strife, obliged their kings to compromise by dividing the kingdom.

Mercia and Northumbria were the portion of Canute, and the southern parts were left to Edmund, with the provision that on the death of either the survivor should succeed to the entire kingdom. He is believed to have been murdered at Oxford, thus making way for the accession of Canute.