It was indeed a levy of all England.
So we were to fight in line, as Eadmund had given us our places on the day before, when we neared the battlefield.

He himself was in the centre with his Wessex men, and Edric Streone and his Mercians were with him.

There were some of us who had cried out at that, but the earl had said proudly that he would make amends for former ill, and the council had listened to and believed his words.
Ulfkytel was on the left, and there our line was flanked by the marshes that lie between the long slope where we were to fight and Ashingdon hill.

At least he would have no horsemen upon him from the side, and that flank was safe from turning.

The right wing was given to the Lindsey men under their own ealdorman, and with them were the men of the Five Boroughs {14}.
So our line was drawn up, and Eadmund rode out before them and they cheered, and then he unhelmed, and Bishop Ednoth of Dorchester, clad in his robes over chain mail, and with a heavy mace at his saddle bow, rode up beside him, and a monk who was with him brought forward and raised aloft a golden cross, and at that sign the host knelt, and the bishop shrived them and blessed them before the fight, and the sound of the "Amen" they spoke was like a thunder roll from end to end of the line.