AEthelred fled to Wight, and thence to Normandy.

He had married Ymma, the daughter of Richard the Fearless; and he now took refuge with her brother, Richard the Good.
Next year Swegen died, and the West Saxon witan sent back for AEthelred.
No lord was dearer to them, they said, than their lord by kin.

But the host had already chosen Cnut; and the host had a stronger claim than the witan.

For two years AEthelred carried on a desultory war with the intruders, and then died, leaving it undecided.

His son Eadmund, nicknamed Ironside, continued the contest for a few months; but in the autumn of 1016 he died--poisoned, the English said, by Cnut--and Cnut succeeded to undisputed sway.