He appears for a time to have reigned jointly with his nephew Eadric, son of Ecgberht I, since a code of laws still extant was issued under both their names.

Æthelstan probably did not approve of the increasing influence of ealdorman Eadric Streona from 1007, and he seems to have formed a friendship with Sigeferth and Morcar, two of the leading thegns of the Five Boroughs of the East Midlands.

Wulfhere may have had an interest in the succession, as through his marriage to Eormenhild he was the uncle of Egbert's two sons, Eadric and Wihtred.

Some believe that the name referred to Eadric Streona, but this is highly unlikely due to chronological considerations: Streona died in 1017 so the naming of Streoneshalh would have preceded his birth by several hundred years.

Some accounts claim this was triggered by an argument over a game of chess ; Page suggests that Eadric held the fort as Ealdorman of Mercia and after his death it may have been granted to Osgod Clapa, who was a " staller ", a standard-bearer and representative of the king ( see Privileges section ).

This is said to have been as a result of Eadric beating Canute at chess and refusing to change the rules in Canute's favour.

During the ensuing row, Eadric is said to have argued that he had assassinated King Edmund Ironside for Canute's benefit-a fact of which Canute had been unaware-and Canute had him executed on the spot.

Eadric Streona's head was said to have been placed on London Bridge and his body thrown into the Thames.

The last reference to Mercia by name is in the annal for 1017, when Eadric Streona was awarded the government of Mercia by Cnut.

In 1015 Sigeferth and Morcar came to an assembly in Oxford, probably hoping for a royal pardon, but they were murdered by Eadric Streona.

In 686 the South Saxons attacked Hlothhere, king of Kent, in support of his nephew Eadric, but soon afterwards Berhthun was killed and the kingdom subjugated for a time by Ceadwalla, who had now become king of Wessex.

Eadric was for a time co-ruler alongside his uncle Hlothhere, and a code of laws issued in both their names has survived.

Eadric died the following year, and according to Bede, whose Ecclesiastical History of the English People is one of the primary sources for this period, the kingdom fell apart into disorder.

It is said that Alphege refused to be exchanged for ransom organised by Eadric Streona as he did not wish to further impoverish his countrymen.

Parentages advanced for Eadric are Wulfric Spot ( which would make Aelfhelm of York whom he assassinated, his own uncle ) or Aethelric, Ealdorman of Mercia who was his predecessor as Ealdorman.

As Ealdorman, Eadric achieved a victory over the Welsh, for reasons unknown to history.

Although loyal to Ethelred, he had a personal enmity towards Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside, who favoured a confrontational policy towards the Danes, while Eadric Streona was a major proponent of the payment of Danegeld ( presumably influenced by the opportunities for corruption it offered ).

In 686 the South Saxons attacked Hlothhere, King of Kent, in support of his nephew Eadric, but soon after Berhthun was killed and the kingdom subjugated for a time by Ceadwalla, who had now become King of Wessex.

According to Florence of Worcester, Eadric was of non-noble birth but advanced to high dignity through the favour of the English King Ethelred the Unready.

When Ethelred in 1009 proposed a great attack on the Danes, Eadric dissuaded him from carrying it into effect.

During Canute's reign, Eadric accompanied the Queen consort Emma of Normandy, widow of Ethelred and wife of Canute, to the Duchy of Normandy.

It was given by Egfrith son of Offa in the first year of his reign to abbot Eadric second abbot of St Alban's Monastery and to the monks of St Albans.

English resistance had also begun, with Eadric the Wild attacking Hereford and revolts at Exeter, where Harold's mother Gytha was a focus of resistance.

She was an ally of her husband's most trusted adviser, the deeply distrusted Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia, and he took her side, but she was opposed by Æthelred's oldest surviving son, Edmund Ironside, and his allies, who naturally regarded him as the heir.

In late 1015 Edmund raised an army, possibly assisted by his wife's and mother's links with the midlands and the north, but the Mercians under Eadric Streona joined the West Saxons in submitting to Cnut.

Edmund then raised a new army and in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria ravaged Eadric Streona's Mercian territories, but when Cnut occupied Northumbria Uhtred submitted to him, only to be killed by Cnut.

Eadric Streona now went over to Edmund, but at the decisive Battle of Assandun on 18 October, Eadric and his men fled and Cnut decisively defeated Edmund.

In 685, Eadric went into exile and led the South Saxons against Hlothhere, who was defeated and died of his wounds.

A law code, the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric, is jointly attributed to him and his successor Eadric.

In the same year the Shropshire landowner Eadric the Wild, in alliance with the Welsh rulers of Gwynedd and Powys, raised a revolt in western Mercia, fighting Norman forces based in Hereford.

At the same time resistance flared up again in western Mercia, where the forces of Eadric the Wild, together with his Welsh allies and further rebel forces from Cheshire and Shropshire, attacked the castle at Shrewsbury.

It has been postulated that Æthelweard and his siblings Ælfweard, Ælfgifu and Ælfwaru were the children of Eadric, ealdorman of Hampshire.

In the 670s or 680s, a code was issued in the names of Hlothhere and Eadric of Kent.

Eadric ( All of these are at the lower left of the page.

* Eadric Streona, ealdorman of the Saxon Mercians ( d. 1017 )

Ecgberht was succeeded by his brother Hlothhere, who was in turn succeeded by Eadric and still later by Wihtred.

However, Eadric eventually revolted and defeated Hlothhere with the aid of the South Saxons.

Ecgberht's sons, Eadric and Wihtred, were probably no more than infants of two or three years old when their father died, and Wulfhere was their uncle by virtue of his marriage to Eormenhild, Ecgberht's sister.

Before the Norman invasion, the manor of Clun was owned by Eadric the Wild.

To the first division belong the laws of the Kentish kings, Æthelberht, Hlothhere and Eadric, Withraed ; those of Ine of Wessex, of Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan ( The Judicia civitatis Lundoniae are a guild statute confirmed by King Æthelstan ), Edmund I, Edgar, Æthelred and Cnut ; the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum and the so-called treaty between Edward and Guthrum.

) again come under the control of Æþelræd Unræd, when Morcar and his brother were murdered by Eadric in 1015.

Before the Norman Conquest Walcott was held by Eadric de Laxfield.

Again, on the invasion of the Kingdom of England by Canute the Great in 1015, Eadric deserted Edmund II of England and joined Canute.

The later chronicler Geoffrey Gaimar relates the story of Edmund Ironside being murdered on the privy by the sons of Eadric Streona, using a crossbow positioned in the midden pit to fire through the toilet seat.

* Eadric is the central character of Eadric the Grasper, a 2010 historical novel by Jayden Woods.