View from Assa's Hill, north of Ashingdon church to the site of the Battle of Assundun, 1016 AD, and the River Crouch in the far distance. Essex.

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Looking northwards from Assa's Hill, north of Ashingdon church, to the River Crouch in the far distance and the site of the Battle of Assundun. View over arable farmland from the weedy edge of an oil seed rape field; the blue flowers of flax (left) look like water, some of the oilseed rape has been harvested. In 1016. Edmund Ironside led the Saxon army against the invading Danish army lead by King Cnut who had sailed their ships up the River Crouch. The battle raged all St Luke’s Day in the fields to north and east. The Danes won when Edric of Mercia (Eric Streona) deserted to Cnut. During the battle Saxon monks carried the body of St Wendreda as a force/talisman against the Danes. Her relics were captured by the Danes. The Anglo Saxon Cronicle records that Cnut, converted to Christianity by the saint's story, built a church where the present Ashingdon church now stands ‘for the souls of the men who were slain’. It is recorded as a place of miracles, and pilgrims crawled up the hill on hands & knees to the church. Cnut’s camp was on Beacon Hill to the east, while Edmund’s camp was just to the south.

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Size: 5045px × 3783px
Location: Ashingdon, Essex, England, UK
Photo credit: © Jean Williamson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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