The king himself irresolute in so momentous an affair, died without making any settlement.

His reign was properly that of his great men, or rather of their factions.

All of it that was his own was good.

He was careful of the privileges of his subjects, and took care to have a body of the Saxon laws, very favorable to them, digested and enforced.

He remitted the heavy imposition called Danegelt, amounting to 40,000_l._ a year, which had been constantly collected after the occasion had ceased; he even repaid to his subjects what he found in the treasury at his accession.