Canute the Great
Encyclopedia
Cnut the Great also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark
, England
, Norway
and parts of Sweden
. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England
in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F. Cantor has made the paradoxical statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".
Cnut was of Danish and Slavic descent. His father was Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark (which gave Cnut the patronym Sweynsson, Old Norse Sveinsson). Cnut's mother was the daughter of the first duke of the Polans
, Mieszko I; her name may have been Świętosława (see: Sigrid Storråda), but the Oxford DNB
article on Cnut states that her name is unknown.
As a prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish
throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut held this power-base together by uniting Danes and Englishmen under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than sheer brutality. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia
, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim
in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna
was held by Cnut. He had coins struck which called him king there, but there is no narrative record of his occupation.
The kingship of England of course lent the Danes an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of Great Britain
and Ireland
, where Cnut like his father before him had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the Gall-Ghaedhil.
Cnut's possession of England's diocese
s and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire
's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen – was a source of great leverage within the Church, gaining notable concessions from Pope Benedict VIII
, and his successor John XIX, such as one on the price of the pallium
of his bishops. Cnut also gained concessions on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome
from other magnates of medieval Christendom
, at the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor
. After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way to Rome for this coronation, Cnut, in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects, stated himself "king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes".
, came to Denmark from Northmania. Gorm the Old
, Harthacnut's son, being the first in the official line (the 'Old' in his name being to this effect) and his son, Harald Bluetooth, the Danish king at the time of the Christianization of Denmark (his acceptance of Christianity being the first among all Scandinavian kings).
Cnut's mother's name is unknown, although a Slavic
princess, daughter to Mieszko I of Poland
(in accord with the Monk
of St Omer
's, Encomium Emmae
and Thietmar of Merseburg
's contemporary Chronicon), is likely. Norse
sources of the high medieval period
, most prominently Snorri Sturluson
's Heimskringla
, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they call Gunhild
and a daughter of Burislav
, the king of Vindland
. Since in the Norse sagas
the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko (not his son Bolesław). Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
is unique in equating Cnut's mother (for whom he also produces no name) with the former queen of Sweden, wife of Eric the Victorious and by this marriage mother of Olof Skötkonung. To complicate the matter, Heimskringla and other Sagas also have Sweyn marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, by name of Sigrid the Haughty, whom Sweyn only marries after Gunhild, the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, has died. Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Sweyn's wives (or wife) have been brought forward (see Sigrid the Haughty
and Gunhild
). But since Adam is the only source to state the identity of Cnut's with Olof Skötkonung's mother, this is often seen as an error of Adam, and it is often assumed that Sweyn had two wives, the first being Cnut's mother, and the second being the former queen of Sweden.
Cnut's brother Harald
was the first born and crown prince
.
Some hint of Cnut's childhood can be found in the Flateyjarbók
, a 13th-century source, stating at one point that Cnut was taught his soldiery by the chieftain Thorkell the Tall, brother to Sigurd, Jarl of mythical Jomsborg
, and the legendary Joms, at their Viking
stronghold on the Island of Wollin
, off the coast of Pomerania
. His date of birth, like his mother's name, is unknown. Contemporary works such as the Chronicon and the Encomium Emmae
, do not mention it. Even so, in a Knútsdrápa by the skald
Óttarr svarti
, there is a statement that Cnut was "of no great age" when he first went to war. It also mentions a battle identifiable with Forkbeard's invasion of England, and attack on the city of Norwich
, in 1003/04, after the St. Brice's Day massacre
of Danes by the English, in 1002. If it is the case that Cnut was part of this, his birthdate may be near 990, or even 980. If not, and the skald's poetic verse envisages another assault, with Forkbeard's conquest of England in 1013/14, it may even suggest a birth date nearer 1000. There is a passage of the Encomiast's (as the author of the Encomium Emmae is known) with a reference to the force Cnut led in his English conquest of 1015/16. Here (see below) it says all the Vikings were of "mature age" under Cnut "the king".
A description of Cnut can be found within the 13th-century Knýtlinga saga
:
Hardly anything is known for sure of Cnut's life until the year he was part of a Scandinavian force under his father, King Sweyn; with his invasion of England in summer 1013. It was the climax to a succession of Viking
raids spread over a number of decades. With their landing in the Humber
the kingdom fell to the Vikings quickly, and near the end of the year King Aethelred
fled to Normandy
, leaving Sweyn in possession of England. In the winter, Forkbeard was in the process of consolidating his kingship, with Cnut left in charge of the fleet, and the base of the army at Gainsborough
.
On the death of Forkbeard after a few months as king, on Candlemas Sunday 3 February 1014, Harald succeeded him as King of Denmark, while Cnut was immediately elected king by the Vikings, and the people of the Danelaw
. However, the English nobility took a different view, and the Witenagemot
recalled Aethelred from Normandy
. The restored king swiftly led an army against Cnut, who fled with his army to Denmark, along the way mutilating the hostages they had taken and abandoning them on the beach at Sandwich
. Cnut went to Harald and supposedly made the suggestion they might have a joint kingship, although this found no favour with his brother. Harald is thought to have offered Cnut command of his forces for another invasion of England, on the condition he did not continue to press his claim. In any case, Cnut was able to assemble a large fleet with which to launch another invasion.
Among the allies of Denmark was Boleslaw the Brave, the Duke of Poland and a relative to the Danish royal house. He lent some Polish
troops, likely to have been a pledge made to Cnut and Harald when, in the winter, they "went amongst the Wends
" to fetch their mother back to the Danish court. She had been sent away by their father after the death of the Swedish king Eric the Victorious in 995, and his marriage to Sigrid the Haughty
, the Swedish queen mother
. With this wedlock there was a strong alliance between the successor to the throne of Sweden, Olof Skötkonung, and the rulers of Denmark, his in-laws. Swedes were certainly among the allies in the English conquest. Another in-law to the Danish royal house, Eiríkr Hákonarson
, was Trondejarl
(Earl of Lade
) and the co-ruler of Norway, with his brother Svein Hakonarson
– Norway having been under Danish sovereignty since the Battle of Svolder
, in 999. Eiríkr's participation in the invasion left his son Hakon to rule Norway, with Svein.
In the summer of 1015, Cnut's fleet set sail for England with a Danish army of perhaps 10,000 in 200 longships. Cnut was at the head of an array of Viking
s from all over Scandinavia
. The invasion force was to be in often close and grisly warfare with the English for the next fourteen months. Practically all of the battles were fought against Aethelred's son, Edmund Ironside
.
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, early in September 1015 "[Cnut] came into Sandwich
, and straightway sailed around Kent
to Wessex
, until he came to the mouth of the Frome
, and harried in Dorset
and Wiltshire
and Somerset
", beginning a campaign of an intensity not seen since the days of Alfred the Great
. A passage from Emma's Encomium provides a picture of Cnut's fleet:
Wessex
, long ruled by the dynasty of Alfred and Aethelred, submitted to Cnut late in 1015, as it had to his father two years earlier. At this point Eadric Streona
, the Ealdorman of Mercia, deserted Aethelred together with 40 ships and their crews and joined forces with Cnut. Another defector was Thorkell the Tall, a Jomsviking chief who had fought against the Viking invasion of Sweyn Forkbeard, with a pledge of allegiance to the English in 1012 – some explanation for this shift of allegiance may be found in a stanza of the Jómsvíkinga saga
which mentions two attacks against Jomsborg's mercenaries while they were in England, with a man known as Henninge among their casualties, a brother of Thorkell's. If the Flateyjarbók
is correct in its statement this man was Cnut's childhood mentor, it explains his acceptance of his allegiance – with Jomvikings ultimately in the service of Jomsborg
. The 40 ships Eadric came with, often thought to be of the Danelaw
were probably Thorkell's.
, while Aethelred's eldest son Edmund Ironside
's attempts at opposition seem to have come to nothing – the chronicler says the English army disbanded because the king and the citizenry of London were not present. Cnut's mid-winter assault devastated its way northwards across eastern Mercia
. Another summons of the army brought the Englishmen together, and they were met this time by the king although 'it came to nothing as so often before', and Aethelred returned to London with fears of betrayal. Edmund then went north to join Uhtred the Earl of Northumbria
and together harried Staffordshire
, Shropshire
and Cheshire
in western Mercia
, possibly targeting the estates of Eadric Streona. Cnut's occupation of Northumbria
meant Uhtred returned home to submit himself to Cnut who seems to have sent a Northumbrian rival, Thurbrand the Hold
, to massacre Uhtred and his retinue. Eiríkr Hákonarson
, most likely with another force of Scandinavians, came to support Cnut at this point, and the veteran Norwegian jarl was put in charge of Northumbria.
In London, still unsubdued behind its famous walls
, Edmund was elected king after the death of Aethelred on 23 April 1016.
, the traditional heartland of the English monarchy – some besieging London – with the construction of dikes on the northern and southern flanks and a channel dug across the banks of the Thames to the south of the city for the longships to cut off communications up-river.
There was a battle fought at Penselwood
, in Somerset
– with a hill in Selwood Forest
as the likely location – and a subsequent battle at Sherston
, in Wiltshire
, which was fought over two days but left neither side victorious.
Edmund was able to temporarily relieve London, driving the enemy away and defeating them after crossing the Thames at Brentford
. Suffering heavy losses he withdrew to Wessex to gather fresh troops, and the Danes again brought London under siege, but after another unsuccessful assault themselves withdrew into Kent under attack by the English, with a battle fought at Otford
. At this point Eadric Streona went over to Edmund, and Cnut set sail northwards across the sea to Essex
, and from the landing of the ships up the River Orwell went to ravage Mercia.
, in south-east, or Ashdon
, in north-west Essex
. In the ensuing struggle, Eadric Streona, whose return to the English side had perhaps only been a ruse, withdrew his forces from the fray, bringing about a decisive English defeat. Edmund fled westwards and Cnut went after him into Gloucestershire
, with another battle probably fought near the Forest of Dean
– for Edmund had an alliance with some of the Welsh.
Through intermediaries Cnut and Edmund agreed to come to a negotiated settlement, and on an island near Deerhurst
they made peace, dividing the kingdom between them. All of England north of the Thames was to be the domain of the Danish prince, while all to the south was kept by the English king, along with London. Edmund died on 30 November, within weeks of the agreement. The circumstances of his death are unknown. In accord with his treaty with Ironside, Cnut was left as king of all England. His coronation was in London, at Christmas, with recognition by the nobility in January the next year at Oxford.
Cnut was to rule England
for almost twenty years. The protection he lent against Viking raiders – with many of them under his command – restored the prosperity that had been increasingly impaired since the resumption of Viking attacks in the 980s
. The resources he commanded in England helped him to establish control of the majority of Scandinavia
too.
, the widow of Aethelred, and daughter of Richard the Fearless, the first Duke of Normandy
. With Edmund dead, Cnut was quick to eliminate any prospective challenge from the survivors of the legitimate dynasty. The first year of his reign was marked by the executions of a number of English noblemen whom he considered suspect. Aethelred's son Eadwig fled from England but was killed on Cnut's orders. Edmund Ironside's sons Edward and Edmund likewise fled abroad, Edward eventually to Hungary
. Emma's sons by Aethelred, Edward the Confessor
and Alfred Atheling
went into exile among their relatives in Normandy. Cnut put forward Harthacnut, his son by Emma, to be his heir; Svein Knutsson and Harold Harefoot
, his two sons from his marriage to Ælfgifu of Northampton, his handfast
wife, were kept on the sidelines.
In 1018, having collected a Danegeld
amounting to the colossal sum of £72,000 levied nationwide, with an additional £10,500 extracted from London, Cnut paid off his army and sent most of them home. He retained 40 ships and their crews as a standing force in England. An annual tax called heregeld (army payment) was collected through the same system Aethelred had instituted in 1012 to reward Scandinavians in his service
Cnut extended the existing trend for multiple shires to be grouped together under a single ealdorman
, dividing the country into four large administrative units whose geographical extent was based on the largest and most durable of the separate kingdoms which had preceded the unification of England. The officials responsible for these provinces were designated earls, a title of Scandinavian origin already in localised use in England which now everywhere replaced that of ealdorman. Wessex
was initially kept under Cnut's personal control, while Northumbria
went to Erik of Hlathir, East Anglia
to Thorkell the Tall, and Mercia
remained in the hands of Eadric Streona.
This initial distribution of power was short-lived. The chronically treacherous Eadric was executed within a year of Cnut's accession. Mercia passed to one of the leading families of the region, probably first to Leofwine
, ealdorman of the Hwicce
under Aethelred, but certainly soon to his son Leofric
. In 1021 Thorkel the Tall also fell from favour and was outlawed. Following the death of Erik in the 1020s, he was succeeded as Earl of Northumbria by Siward, who's grandmother, Estrid (married to Úlfr Thorgilsson), was Canut's sister. Bernicia
, the northern part of Northumbria, was theoretically part of Erik and Siward's earldom but throughout Cnut's reign it effectively remained under the control of the English dynasty based at Bamburgh
who had dominated the area at least since the early tenth century. They served as junior Earls of Bernicia under the titular authority of the Earl of Northumbria. By the 1030s Cnut's direct administration of Wessex had come to an end, with the establishment of an earldom under Godwin
, an Englishman from a powerful Sussex
family. In general, after an attempt to govern through his Scandinavian followers in the first few years of his reign, Cnut reverted to reliance on the leading families of the existing English aristocracy.
, in 1016, Olaf Haraldsson
won the kingdom of Norway from the Danes. It was at some time after Eirkr left for England, and on the death of Svein while retreating to Sweden, maybe intent on returning to Norway with reinforcements, Erikr's son Hakon went to join his father and support Cnut in England too.
Cnut's brother Harald was possibly at Cnut's coronation, in 1016, with his return to Denmark, as its king, with part of the fleet, at some point thereafter. It is only certain, though, there was an entry of his name, alongside Cnut's, in confraternity with Christ Church, Canterbury
, in 1018. This, though, is not conclusive, for the entry may have been made in Harald's absence, by the hand of Cnut himself even, which means, while it is usually thought that Harald died in 1018, it is unsure if he was even alive to do this. Entry of his brother's name in the Canterbury codex
may have been Cnut's attempt to make his vengeance for Harald's murder good with the Church. Of course, this was maybe just a gesture for a soul to be under God's protection. There is evidence Cnut was in battle with pirates in 1018, with his destruction of the crews of thirty ships, although it is unknown if this was off the English or Danish shores. He himself mentions troubles in his 1019 letter (to England, from Denmark), written as the King of England and Denmark. These events can be seen, with plausibility, to be in connection with the death of Harald. Cnut says he dealt with dissenters to ensure Denmark was free to assist England:
ful relationship, with two wives, and the harsh treatment he dealt his fellow Christian opponents.
Under his reign, Cnut brought together the English and Danish kingdoms, and the people saw a golden age of dominance across Scandinavia
, as well as within the British Isles
. His campaigns abroad meant the tables of Viking supremacy were stacked in favour of the English, turning the prows of the longships towards Scandinavia. He reinstated the Laws of King Edgar to allow for the constitution of a Danelaw
, and the activity of Scandinavians at large. He also reinstituted the extant laws with a series of proclamations to assuage common grievances brought to his attention. Two significant ones were: On Inheritance
in case of Intestacy
, and, On Heriot
s and Reliefs. He strengthened the currency, initiating a series of coins of equal weight to those being used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia. This meant the markets grew, and the economy of England was able to spread itself, as well as widen the scope of goods to be bought and sold.
of Pomerania
may have had something to do with this. In this expedition at least one of Cnut's English men, Godwin
, apparently won the king's trust after a night-time raid he personally led against a Wendish encampment.
His hold on the Danish throne presumably stable, Cnut was back in England in 1020. Ulf Jarl
, the husband of his sister Estrid Svendsdatter, was his appointee as regent of Denmark, with the entrustment of his young son by Queen Emma
, Harthacnut, whom he had made the crown prince
of his kingdom.
Thorkell the Tall's banishment in 1021 may be seen in relation to the attack on the Wends for the death of Olof Skötkonung in 1022, and the succession to the Swedish throne of his son, Anund Jacob
, bringing Sweden into alliance with Norway. Thus, there was cause for a demonstration of Danish strength in the Baltic. Jomsborg
, the legendary stronghold of the Jomsvikings, thought to be on an island off the coast of Pomerania
, was probably the target of Cnut's expedition. After this clear display of Cnut's intentions to dominate Scandinavian affairs, it seems Thorkell was wont to reconcile himself with Cnut in 1023.
When Olaf Haraldsson
and Anund Jakob
took advantage of Cnut's commitment to England and began to launch attacks against Denmark, Ulf gave the freemen cause to accept Harthacnut, still a child, as king. This was a ruse on Ulf's part since the role he had as the caretaker of Harthacnut consequently gave him the reign of the kingdom. Upon news of these events Cnut set sail for Denmark, to restore himself and deal with Ulf, who then got back in line. In a battle known as the Battle of the Helgeå
, Cnut and his men fought the Norwegians and Swedes at the mouth of the river Helgea. 1026 is the likely date for the battle, and the apparent victory left Cnut as the dominant leader in Scandinavia. Ulf the usurper's realignment and participation in the battle did not, in the end, earn him Cnut's forgiveness. Some sources state, at a banquet in Roskilde
, the brothers-in-law were playing chess
when an argument arose between them, and the next day, Christmas
of 1026, one of Cnut's housecarl
s, with his blessing, killed the jarl, in Trinity Church, the predecessor to Roskilde Cathedral
.
His enemies in Scandinavia subdued, and apparently at his leisure, Cnut was able to accept an invitation to witness the accession of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II
. He left his affairs in the north, and went from Denmark to the coronation of the King of the Romans
, at Easter 1027, in Rome
– a pilgrimage of considerable prestige for rulers of Europe in the Middle-Ages
, to the heart of Christendom
.
On the return journey his letter of 1027, like his letter of 1019, was written to inform his subjects in England of his intentions from abroad. It is in this letter he proclaims himself ‘king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes’.
Consistent with his role as a Christian king, Cnut says he went to Rome to repent for his sins, pray for redemption and the security of his subjects, and negotiate with the Pope for a reduction in the costs of the pallium
for English archbishops, and for a resolution to the competition of the archdioceses of Canterbury
, and Hamburg-Bremen, for superiority over the Danish dioceses. He also sought to improve the conditions for pilgrims, as well as merchants, on the road to Rome. In his own words:
"Robert" in Cnut's text is probably a clerical error for Rudolph
, the last ruler of an independent Kingdom of Burgundy
. Hence, the solemn word of the Pope, the Emperor, and Rudolph, was given with the witness of four archbishops, twenty bishops, and 'innumerable multitudes of dukes and nobles'. This suggests it was before the ceremonies were at an end. It is without doubt Cnut threw himself into his role with zest. His image as the just Christian king, statesman and diplomat, and crusader against unjustness, seems to be one with its roots in reality, as well as one he sought to project.
A good illustration of his status within Europe is the fact Cnut, and the King of Burgundy went alongside the emperor in the imperial procession, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him on the same pedestal. Cnut and the emperor, in accord with various sources, took one another's company like brothers, for they were of a similar age. Conrad gave Cnut lands in the Mark
of Schleswig—the land-bridge between the Scandinavian kingdoms and the continent—as a token of their treaty of friendship. Centuries of conflict in this area between the Danes and the Germans was the cause for the construction of the Danevirke
, from Schleswig, on the Schlei
, an inlet of the Baltic Sea
, to the North Sea
.
His visit to Rome was a triumph. In the verse of Knútsdrápa
, Sigvatr Þórðarson
praises Cnut, his king, as being "dear to the Emperor, close to Peter". In the days of Christendom, a king seen to be in favour with God could expect to be ruler over a happy kingdom. He was surely in a stronger position, not only with the Church, and the people, but with the alliance with his southern rivals he was able to conclude his conflicts with his rivals in the north. His letter not only tells his countrymen of his achievements in Rome, but also of his ambitions within the Scandinavian world at his arrival home:
Cnut was to return to Denmark from Rome, arrange for some kind of pact with the peoples of Scandinavia, and afterwards sail to England.
and not the one in eastern Scania
, while Sweden's king appears to have been made a renegade. He also stated his intention of proceeding to Denmark, for the securing of a peace between the kingdoms of Scandinavia
, which fits John of Worcester
's writing that in 1027 Cnut heard some Norwegians were discontented and sent them sums of gold and silver to gain their support in his claim on the throne.
In 1028, after his return from Rome, through Denmark, Cnut set off from England with a fleet of fifty ships, to Norway, and the city of Trondheim. Olaf Haraldsson stood down, unable to put up any fight, as his nobles were against him for a tendency to flay their wives for sorcery. Cnut was crowned king, now of England and Denmark, and Norway (he was not King of Sweden, only some of the Swedes). He entrusted the Earldom of Lade
to the former line of earls, in Håkon Eiriksson, with Earl Eiríkr Hákonarson probably dead at this date. Hakon was possibly the Earl of Northumbria after Erik too.
Hakon, a member of a family with a long tradition of hostility towards the independent Norwegian kings, and a relative of Cnut's, was already in lordship over the Isles, with the earldom of Worcester
, possibly from 1016–17. The sea-lanes through the Irish Sea
and Hebrides
, led to Orkney and Norway
, and were central to Cnut's ambitions for dominance of Scandinavia, as well as the British Isles. Hakon was meant to be Cnut's lieutenant of this strategic chain. And the final component was his installation as the king's deputy in Norway, after the expulsion of Olaf Haraldsson in 1028. Hakon, though, died in a shipwreck in the Pentland Firth
, between the Orkneys and the Scottish mainland, either late 1029 or early 1030.
Upon the death of Hakon, Olaf Haraldsson was to return to Norway, with Swedes in his army. He, though, was to meet his death at the hands of his own people, at the Battle of Stiklestad
, in 1030. Cnut's subsequent attempt to rule Norway without the key support of the Trondejarls
, through Ælfgifu of Northampton, and his eldest son by her, Sweyn Knutsson, was not a success. It is known as Aelfgifu's Time in Norway, with heavy taxation, a rebellion, and the restoration of the former Norwegian dynasty under Saint Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus the Good
.
on 23 April 1014—even as Cnut was preparing his re-invasion of England—there was an epic array of armies laid out on the fields before the walls of Dublin. Máel Mórda, king of Leinster, and Sigtrygg Silkbeard
, ruler of the Norse-Gaelic kingdom of Dublin, had sent out emissaries to all the Viking kingdoms to request assistance in their rebellion against Brian Bóruma, the high king of Ireland. Sigurd the Stout, the Earl of Orkney
, was offered command of all the Norse forces. Likewise, the High King had sought assistance from the Albannaich, who were led by Domhnall Mac Eiminn Mac Cainnich, Mormaer of Ce (Marr & Buchan).
The Leinster-Norse alliance was defeated, with both commanders, Sigurd and Máel Mórda, being killed. However, Brian, his son, his grandson, and the Mormaer Domhnall were slain too. Sigtrygg's alliance was broken, although he was left alive, and the high-kingship of Ireland went back to the Uí Néill
, again under Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill
.
There was a brief period of freedom in the Irish Sea
zone for the Vikings of Dublin with a political vacuum felt throughout the entire Western Maritime Zone of the North Atlantic Archipelago, and prominent among those who stood to fill it was Cnut, "whose leadership of the Scandinavian world gave him a unique influence over the western colonies and whose control of their commercial arteries gave an economic edge to political domination". A strong piece of evidence for Dublin's involvement with Cnut is that its king, Sitric Silkbeard, struck coinage of Cnut's quatrefoil type—in issue c. 1017–25 – sporadically replacing the legend with one bearing his own name and styling him as ruler either 'of Dublin' or 'among the Irish'. Another is the entry of one Sihtric dux in three of Cnut's charters.
In one of his verses, Cnut's court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson
recounts that famous princes brought their heads to Cnut and bought peace. This verse mentions Olaf Haraldsson
in the past tense, with his death at the Battle of Stiklestad
, in 1030. It was therefore at some point after this, and the consolidation of Norway, Cnut went to Scotland, with an army, and the navy in the Irish Sea
, in 1031, to receive, without bloodshed, the submission of three Scottish kings: Maelcolm, Maelbeth, and Iehmarc. One of these kings, Iehmarc, may be one Echmarcach mac Ragnaill
, an Uí Ímair
chieftain, and the ruler of a sea-kingdom of the Irish Sea, with Galloway
among his domains. Furtherly, a Lausavísa
attributable to the skald
Óttarr svarti
greets the ruler of the Danes, Irish, English and Island-dwellers – use of Irish here being likely to mean the Gall Ghaedil kingdoms, rather than the Gaelic
kingdoms too, while it "brings to mind Sweyn Forkbeard's putative activities in the Irish Sea and Adam of Bremen's story of his stay with a rex Scothorum (? king of the Irish) [&] can also be linked to... Iehmarc, who submitted in 1031 [&] could be relevant to Cnut's relations with the Irish".
was not at all complete in his day
. His ruthless treatment of the overthrown dynasty, as well as his open relationship with a concubine
—Ælfgifu of Northampton, his handfast
wife, whom he kept as his northern queen when he wed Emma of Normandy
, confusingly also Ælfgifu in Old English, who was kept in the south, with an estate in Exeter
— was a bone of contention, to say the least. It was important for him to reconcile himself with his churchmen, and he made considerable efforts to do so. In this effort Cnut repaired all the English churches and monasteries that were victims of the Viking love for plunder, and refilled their coffers. He also built new churches and was an earnest patron of monastic communities. His homeland of Denmark was a Christian nation on the rise, and the desire to enhance the religion still fresh. As an example, the first stone church recorded to have been built in Scandinavia, was in Roskilde
c. 1027, and its patron was Cnut's sister Estrid.
It is hard to conclude if Cnut's attitude towards the Church came out of deep religious devotion, or merely as a means to reinforce his regime's hold on the people. There is evidence of a respect for the Viking religion in his praise poetry, which he was happy enough for his skalds to embellish in Norse mythology
, while other Viking leaders were insistent on the rigid observation of the Christian line, like St Olaf
. We see too the desire for a respectable Christian nationhood within Europe. In 1018, some sources suggest he was at Canterbury on the return of its Archbishop Lyfing from Rome, to receive letters of exhortation from the Pope. If this chronology is correct, he probably went from Canturbury to the Witan at Oxford, with Archbishop Wulfstan of York in attendance to record the event.
Cnut's ecumenical gifts were widespread, and often exuberant. Commonly land was given, exemption from taxes, as well as relic
s. Christ Church
, was probably given rights at the important port of Sandwich, as well as tax exemption, with confirmation in the placement of their charters on the altar. while it got the relics of St Ælfheah, which was at the displeasure of the people of London. Another see in the king's favour was Winchester, second only to the Canturbury see in terms of its wealth. New Minster
's Liber Vitae
records Cnut as a benefactor of the monastery, and the Winchester Cross, with 500 marks of silver and 30 marks of gold in, as well as relics of various saints was given to it. Old Minster
was the recipient of a shrine
for the relics of St Birinus
, and the probable confirmation of its privileges. The monastery at Evesham, with its Abbot Ælfweard purportedly a relative of the king, through Ælfgifu the Lady (probably Ælfgifu of Northampton, rather than Queen Emma, also known as Ælfgifu
), the ruler of the monastery, got the relics of St Wigstan
. Cnut's generosity towards his subjects, a thing his skalds called destroying treasure, was of course popular with the English. Still, it is important to remember, not all Englishmen were in his favour, and the burden of taxation was widely felt. His attitude towards London's see was clearly not benign. The monasteries at Ely and Glastonbury were not it seems on good terms either. Other gifts were also given to his neighbours. Among these were a gift to Chartres
, of which its bishop wrote; "When we saw the gift that you sent us, we were amazed at your knowledge as well as your faith ... since you, whom we had heard to be a pagan prince, we now know to be not only a Christian, but also a most generous donor to God's churches and servants". He is known to have sent a psalter
and sacramentary
made in Peterborough
, famous for its illustrations
to Cologne
, and a book written in gold, among other gifts, to William the Great of Aquitaine
. This golden book was apparently to support Aquitanian claims St Martial
, patron saint of Aquitaine was an apostle
. Of some consequnce, its recipient was an avid artisan
, scholar
, and devout Christian, and the Abbey of Saint-Martial was a great library
and scriptorium
, second only to the one at Cluny
. It is probable Cnut's gifts were well beyond anything we can now prove.
Cnut’s journey to Rome in 1027 is another sign of his dedication to the Christian religion. It may be he went to attend Emperor Conrad II
’s coronation in order to improve relations between the two powers, yet he had made a vow previously to seek the favour of St Peter, the keeper of the keys to the heavenly kingdom. While in Rome, Cnut got an agreement from the Pope to reduce the fees paid by the English archbishops to receive their pallium. He also arranged for the travelers of his realm that they should pay reduced or no tolls, and that they should be safeguarded on their way to and from Rome. Some evidence exists for a second journey in 1030.
Cnut died in 1035, at the Abbey in Shaftesbury, Dorset
. His burial was in Winchester
, the English capital of the time, and stronghold of the royal house of Wessex, whom the Danes had overthrown more or less two decades before.
In Denmark he was succeeded by Harthacnut, reigning as Cnut III, although with a war in Scandinavia against Magnus I of Norway
, Harthacnut was "forsaken (by the English) because he was too long in Denmark", and his mother Queen Emma
, previously resident at Winchester
with some of her son's housecarl
s, was made to flee to Bruges
, in Flanders
; under pressure from supporters of Cnut's other son – after Svein – by Ælfgifu of Northampton. Harold Harefoot
– regent
in England 1035–37 – succeeded to claim the throne, in 1037, reigning until his death in 1040. Eventual peace in Scandinavia left Harthacnut free to claim the throne himself, in 1040, and regain his mother her place. He brought the crowns of Denmark and England together again, until his death, in 1042. Denmark fell into a period of disorder with the power struggle between the pretender to the throne Sweyn Estridsson
, son of Ulf, and the Norwegian king, until Magnus' death in 1047 and restoration of the Danish sovereignty. And the inheritance of England was briefly to return to its Anglo-Saxon lineage.
The house of Wessex was to reign again in Edward the Confessor
, whom Harthacnut had brought out of exile in Normandy and made a treaty with. Like in his treaty with Magnus, it was decreed the throne was to go to Edward if Harthacnut died with no legitimate male heir. In 1042, Harthacnut died, and Edward was king. His reign meant Norman influence at Court was on the rise thereafter, and the ambitions of its dukes finally found fruition in 1066, with William the Conqueror's invasion of England, and crowning, fifty years after Cnut was crowned in 1016.
Had the sons of Cnut not died within a decade of him, and his (only known) daughter Cunigund – set to marry Conrad II's son Henry III eight months after his death – not died in Italy before she became empress, Cnut's reign may well have been the foundation for a complete political union between England and Scandinavia.
. Winchester Cathedral
was built on the old Anglo-Saxon
site (Old Minster
) and the previous burials were set in mortuary chests there. Then, during the English Civil War
, in the 17th century, plundering Roundhead
soldiers scattered the bones on the floor, and the bones of Cnut were spread amongst the various other chests of rulers: notably William Rufus.
, the 12th-century chronicler, tells how Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet "continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix
, and never wore it again "to the honour of God the almighty King". This incident is usually misrepresented by popular commentators and politicians as an example of Cnut's arrogance.
This story may be apocryphal. While the contemporary Encomium Emmae
has no mention of it, it would seem that so pious a dedication might have been recorded there, since the same source gives an "eye-witness account of his lavish gifts to the monasteries and poor of St Omer
when on the way to Rome, and of the tears and breast-beating which accompanied them". Goscelin
, writing later in the 11th century, instead has Cnut place his crown on a crucifix at Winchester one Easter, with no mention of the sea, and "with the explanation that the king of kings was more worthy of it than he". Nevertheless, there may be a "basis of fact, in a planned act of piety" behind this story, and Henry of Huntingdon cites it as an example of the king's "nobleness and greatness of mind." Later historians repeated the story, most of them adjusting it to have Cnut more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him, and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers; and there are earlier Celtic parallels in stories of men who commanded the tides, namely Saint Illtud
, Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd
, and Tuirbe, of Tuirbe's Strand, in Brittany
.
The encounter with the waves is said to have taken place at Bosham
in West Sussex, or Southampton
in Hampshire.
According to the House of Commons Information Office (The Palace of Westminster Factsheet G11, General Series Revised March 2008), Cnut set up a Royal palace during his reign on Thorney Island (later to become known as Westminster) as the area was sufficiently far away from the busy settlement to the east known as London. It is believed that, on this site, Cnut tried to command the tide of the river to prove to his courtiers that they were fools to think that he could command the waves.
s known as Skáldatal
lists eight skalds who were active at Cnut's court. Four of them, namely Sigvatr Þórðarson
, Óttarr svarti
, Þórarinn loftunga
and Hallvarðr háreksblesi
, composed verses in honour of Cnut which have survived in some form, while no such thing is apparent from the four other skalds Bersi Torfuson
, Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld
(known from other works), Steinn Skaptason and Óðarkeptr (unknown). The principal works for Cnut are the three Knútsdrápur
by Sigvatr Þórðarson
, Óttarr svarti
and Hallvarðr háreksblesi
, and the Höfuðlausn
and Tøgdrápa by Þórarinn loftunga
. Cnut also features in two other contemporary skaldic poems, namely Þórðr Kolbeinsson
's Eiríksdrápa and the anonymous Liðsmannaflokkr.
Cnut's skalds emphasize the parallelism between Cnut's rule of his earthly kingdom and God's rule of Heaven. This is particularly apparent in their refrains. Thus the refrain of Þórarinn's Höfuðlausn translates to "Cnut protects the land as the guardian of Byzantium [God] [does] Heaven" and the refrain of Hallvarðr's Knútsdrápa translates to "Cnut protects the land as the Lord of all [does] the splendid hall of the mountains [Heaven]". Despite the Christian message, the poets also make use of traditional pagan references and this is particularly true of Hallvarðr. As an example, one of his half-stanzas translates to "The Freyr of the noise of weapons [warrior] has also cast under him Norway; the battle-server [warrior] diminishes the hunger of the valcyrie's hawks [ravens]." The skald here refers to Cnut as "Freyr of battle", a kenning
using the name of the pagan god Freyr
. References of this sort were avoided by poets composing for the contemporary kings of Norway but Cnut seems to have had a more relaxed attitude towards pagan literary allusions.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and parts of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F. Cantor has made the paradoxical statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".
Cnut was of Danish and Slavic descent. His father was Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark (which gave Cnut the patronym Sweynsson, Old Norse Sveinsson). Cnut's mother was the daughter of the first duke of the Polans
Polans (western)
The Polans were a West Slavic tribe, part of the Lechitic group, inhabiting the Warta river basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century.During the reign of King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia , who subdued the tribes of the Vistulans and Ślężanie...
, Mieszko I; her name may have been Świętosława (see: Sigrid Storråda), but the Oxford DNB
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
article on Cnut states that her name is unknown.
As a prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut held this power-base together by uniting Danes and Englishmen under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than sheer brutality. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna
Sigtuna
Sigtuna is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 18 inhabitants in 2005. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta....
was held by Cnut. He had coins struck which called him king there, but there is no narrative record of his occupation.
The kingship of England of course lent the Danes an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, where Cnut like his father before him had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the Gall-Ghaedhil.
Cnut's possession of England's diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
s and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen – was a source of great leverage within the Church, gaining notable concessions from Pope Benedict VIII
Pope Benedict VIII
Pope Benedict VIII , born Theophylactus, Pope from 1012 to 1024, of the noble family of the counts of Tusculum , descended from Theophylact, Count of Tusculum like his predecessor Pope Benedict VI .Benedict VIII was opposed by an antipope, Gregory...
, and his successor John XIX, such as one on the price of the pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
of his bishops. Cnut also gained concessions on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
from other magnates of medieval Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
, at the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
. After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way to Rome for this coronation, Cnut, in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects, stated himself "king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes".
Birth and kingship
Cnut was a son of the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, and an heir to a line of Scandinavian rulers central to the unification of Denmark. Harthacnut was the semi-legendary founder of the Danish royal house who, according to Adam of BremenAdam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
, came to Denmark from Northmania. Gorm the Old
Gorm the Old
Gorm the Old , also called Gorm the Sleepy , was the first historically recognized King of Denmark, reigning from to his death . He ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling Stones in honour of his wife Thyra. Gorm was born before 900 and died .-Ancestry and reign:Gorm is the reported...
, Harthacnut's son, being the first in the official line (the 'Old' in his name being to this effect) and his son, Harald Bluetooth, the Danish king at the time of the Christianization of Denmark (his acceptance of Christianity being the first among all Scandinavian kings).
Cnut's mother's name is unknown, although a Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
princess, daughter to Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of Siemomysł; grandchild of Lestek; father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland; likely father of Świętosława , a Nordic Queen; and grandfather of her son, Cnut the...
(in accord with the Monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
of St Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
's, Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
and Thietmar of Merseburg
Thietmar of Merseburg
Thietmar of Merseburg was a German chronicler who was also bishop of Merseburg.-Life:...
's contemporary Chronicon), is likely. Norse
Old Norse literature
Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to ca. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings.See:* Old Norse poetry* Edda* Norse saga* Icelanders' sagas* Kings' sagas* Legendary sagas...
sources of the high medieval period
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, most prominently Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
's Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they call Gunhild
Gunhild of Wenden
Princess Gunhilda of Wenden was a semi-legendary Slavic princess and Danish Viking age queen consort, the supposed spouse of 10th-century King Sweyn I of Denmark .- Heimskringla :...
and a daughter of Burislav
Burislav
Burislav, Burisleif, Burysław is the name of a mythical Wendish king from Scandinavian sagas who is said to rule over Wendland. He is said to be father of Gunhild, Astrid and Geira...
, the king of Vindland
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
. Since in the Norse sagas
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko (not his son Bolesław). Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is a historical treatise written between 1075 and 1080 by Adam of Bremen. It covers the period from 788 to the time it was written. The treatise consist of:*Liber I...
is unique in equating Cnut's mother (for whom he also produces no name) with the former queen of Sweden, wife of Eric the Victorious and by this marriage mother of Olof Skötkonung. To complicate the matter, Heimskringla and other Sagas also have Sweyn marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, by name of Sigrid the Haughty, whom Sweyn only marries after Gunhild, the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, has died. Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Sweyn's wives (or wife) have been brought forward (see Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas as wife, first of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. While given the Nordic ancestry in sagas, she has been hypothesized to be identical to historically attested Polish or Pomeranian...
and Gunhild
Gunhild of Wenden
Princess Gunhilda of Wenden was a semi-legendary Slavic princess and Danish Viking age queen consort, the supposed spouse of 10th-century King Sweyn I of Denmark .- Heimskringla :...
). But since Adam is the only source to state the identity of Cnut's with Olof Skötkonung's mother, this is often seen as an error of Adam, and it is often assumed that Sweyn had two wives, the first being Cnut's mother, and the second being the former queen of Sweden.
Cnut's brother Harald
Harald II of Denmark
Harald II of Denmark was King of Denmark from 1014 to 1018. He was the eldest son of Sweyn I of Denmark and Gunhilda, and was regent while his father was fighting Ethelred the Unready in England. He inherited the Danish throne in 1014, and held it while his brother, the later king Cnut the Great...
was the first born and crown prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
.
Some hint of Cnut's childhood can be found in the Flateyjarbók
Flateyjarbók
The Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.- Description :...
, a 13th-century source, stating at one point that Cnut was taught his soldiery by the chieftain Thorkell the Tall, brother to Sigurd, Jarl of mythical Jomsborg
Jomsborg
Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea , that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants are known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location has not yet been established, though it is maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of...
, and the legendary Joms, at their Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
stronghold on the Island of Wollin
Wolin
Wolin is the name both of an island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. It is separated from the island of Usedom by the Świna river, and from mainland Pomerania by the Dziwna river...
, off the coast of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
. His date of birth, like his mother's name, is unknown. Contemporary works such as the Chronicon and the Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
, do not mention it. Even so, in a Knútsdrápa by the skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti was an 11th century Icelandic skald. He was the court poet first of Óláfr skautkonungr of Sweden, then of Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, the Swedish king Anund Jacob and finally of Cnut the Great of Denmark and England...
, there is a statement that Cnut was "of no great age" when he first went to war. It also mentions a battle identifiable with Forkbeard's invasion of England, and attack on the city of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, in 1003/04, after the St. Brice's Day massacre
St. Brice's Day massacre
The St. Brice's Day massacre was the killing of Danes in the Kingdom of England on 13 November 1002, ordered by King Æthelred the Unready. The name refers to St Brice, fifth century Bishop of Tours, whose feast day is 13 November.-Background:...
of Danes by the English, in 1002. If it is the case that Cnut was part of this, his birthdate may be near 990, or even 980. If not, and the skald's poetic verse envisages another assault, with Forkbeard's conquest of England in 1013/14, it may even suggest a birth date nearer 1000. There is a passage of the Encomiast's (as the author of the Encomium Emmae is known) with a reference to the force Cnut led in his English conquest of 1015/16. Here (see below) it says all the Vikings were of "mature age" under Cnut "the king".
Knýtlinga saga
Knýtlinga saga is an Icelandic kings' saga written in the 1250s, which deals with the kings who ruled Denmark since the early 10th century....
:
Hardly anything is known for sure of Cnut's life until the year he was part of a Scandinavian force under his father, King Sweyn; with his invasion of England in summer 1013. It was the climax to a succession of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
raids spread over a number of decades. With their landing in the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
the kingdom fell to the Vikings quickly, and near the end of the year King Aethelred
Ethelred the Unready
Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II , was king of England . He was son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered...
fled to Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, leaving Sweyn in possession of England. In the winter, Forkbeard was in the process of consolidating his kingship, with Cnut left in charge of the fleet, and the base of the army at Gainsborough
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
Gainsborough is a town 15 miles north-west of Lincoln on the River Trent within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. At one time it served as an important port with trade downstream to Hull, and was the most inland in England, being more than 55 miles from the North...
.
On the death of Forkbeard after a few months as king, on Candlemas Sunday 3 February 1014, Harald succeeded him as King of Denmark, while Cnut was immediately elected king by the Vikings, and the people of the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
. However, the English nobility took a different view, and the Witenagemot
Witenagemot
The Witenagemot , also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century.The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and whose membership was...
recalled Aethelred from Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. The restored king swiftly led an army against Cnut, who fled with his army to Denmark, along the way mutilating the hostages they had taken and abandoning them on the beach at Sandwich
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
. Cnut went to Harald and supposedly made the suggestion they might have a joint kingship, although this found no favour with his brother. Harald is thought to have offered Cnut command of his forces for another invasion of England, on the condition he did not continue to press his claim. In any case, Cnut was able to assemble a large fleet with which to launch another invasion.
Conquest of England
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
troops, likely to have been a pledge made to Cnut and Harald when, in the winter, they "went amongst the Wends
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
" to fetch their mother back to the Danish court. She had been sent away by their father after the death of the Swedish king Eric the Victorious in 995, and his marriage to Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas as wife, first of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. While given the Nordic ancestry in sagas, she has been hypothesized to be identical to historically attested Polish or Pomeranian...
, the Swedish queen mother
Queen mother
Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...
. With this wedlock there was a strong alliance between the successor to the throne of Sweden, Olof Skötkonung, and the rulers of Denmark, his in-laws. Swedes were certainly among the allies in the English conquest. Another in-law to the Danish royal house, Eiríkr Hákonarson
Eiríkr Hákonarson
Eiríkr Hákonarson or Eric of Norway or Eric of Hlathir was earl of Lade, ruler of Norway and earl of Northumbria.-Background:...
, was Trondejarl
Jarls of Lade
The Jarls of Lade or Old Norse Hlaðir were a dynasty of Norwegian rulers, who ruled Trøndelag and Hålogaland from the 9th century to the 11th century. -Lade Gaard:...
(Earl of Lade
Jarls of Lade
The Jarls of Lade or Old Norse Hlaðir were a dynasty of Norwegian rulers, who ruled Trøndelag and Hålogaland from the 9th century to the 11th century. -Lade Gaard:...
) and the co-ruler of Norway, with his brother Svein Hakonarson
Sveinn Hákonarson
Sveinn Hákonarson was an earl of the house of Hlaðir and co-ruler of Norway from 1000 to c. 1015. He was the son of earl Hákon Sigurðarson. He is first mentioned in connection with the battle of Hjörungavágr, where the Heimskringla says he commanded 60 ships...
– Norway having been under Danish sovereignty since the Battle of Svolder
Battle of Svolder
The Battle of Svolder was a naval battle fought in September 999 or 1000 in the western Baltic Sea between King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and an alliance of his enemies...
, in 999. Eiríkr's participation in the invasion left his son Hakon to rule Norway, with Svein.
In the summer of 1015, Cnut's fleet set sail for England with a Danish army of perhaps 10,000 in 200 longships. Cnut was at the head of an array of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s from all over Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. The invasion force was to be in often close and grisly warfare with the English for the next fourteen months. Practically all of the battles were fought against Aethelred's son, Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II was king of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016. His cognomen "Ironside" is not recorded until 1057, but may have been contemporary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut...
.
Landing in Wessex
According to the Peterborough manuscriptPeterborough Chronicle
The Peterborough Chronicle , one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest. According to philologist J.A.W...
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, early in September 1015 "[Cnut] came into Sandwich
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
, and straightway sailed around Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
to Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, until he came to the mouth of the Frome
River Frome, Dorset
The River Frome is a river in Dorset in the south of England. At 30 miles long it is the major chalkstream in southwest England. It is navigable upstream from Poole Harbour as far as the town of Wareham.-Geography:...
, and harried in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
and Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
and Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
", beginning a campaign of an intensity not seen since the days of Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
. A passage from Emma's Encomium provides a picture of Cnut's fleet:
Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, long ruled by the dynasty of Alfred and Aethelred, submitted to Cnut late in 1015, as it had to his father two years earlier. At this point Eadric Streona
Eadric Streona
Eadric Streona was an ealdorman of the English Mercians. His name a loose translation of the Anglo-Saxon "the Grasper." Streona is historically regarded as the greatest traitor of the Anglo-Saxon period in English history....
, the Ealdorman of Mercia, deserted Aethelred together with 40 ships and their crews and joined forces with Cnut. Another defector was Thorkell the Tall, a Jomsviking chief who had fought against the Viking invasion of Sweyn Forkbeard, with a pledge of allegiance to the English in 1012 – some explanation for this shift of allegiance may be found in a stanza of the Jómsvíkinga saga
Jómsvíkinga saga
The Jómsvíkinga saga relates of the founding of Jomsborg by Palnatoke, and of the famous Viking brotherhood of the Jomsvikings....
which mentions two attacks against Jomsborg's mercenaries while they were in England, with a man known as Henninge among their casualties, a brother of Thorkell's. If the Flateyjarbók
Flateyjarbók
The Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.- Description :...
is correct in its statement this man was Cnut's childhood mentor, it explains his acceptance of his allegiance – with Jomvikings ultimately in the service of Jomsborg
Jomsborg
Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea , that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants are known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location has not yet been established, though it is maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of...
. The 40 ships Eadric came with, often thought to be of the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
were probably Thorkell's.
Advance into the North
Early in 1016, the Vikings crossed the Thames and harried WarwickshireWarwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, while Aethelred's eldest son Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II was king of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016. His cognomen "Ironside" is not recorded until 1057, but may have been contemporary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut...
's attempts at opposition seem to have come to nothing – the chronicler says the English army disbanded because the king and the citizenry of London were not present. Cnut's mid-winter assault devastated its way northwards across eastern Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
. Another summons of the army brought the Englishmen together, and they were met this time by the king although 'it came to nothing as so often before', and Aethelred returned to London with fears of betrayal. Edmund then went north to join Uhtred the Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia. Under the Norse kingdom of York, there were earls of...
and together harried Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
and Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
in western Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, possibly targeting the estates of Eadric Streona. Cnut's occupation of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
meant Uhtred returned home to submit himself to Cnut who seems to have sent a Northumbrian rival, Thurbrand the Hold
Thurbrand the Hold
Thurbrand , nicknamed "the Hold", was a Northumbrian magnate in the early 11th-century. Perhaps based in Holderness and East Yorkshire, Thurbrand was recorded as the killer of Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria...
, to massacre Uhtred and his retinue. Eiríkr Hákonarson
Eiríkr Hákonarson
Eiríkr Hákonarson or Eric of Norway or Eric of Hlathir was earl of Lade, ruler of Norway and earl of Northumbria.-Background:...
, most likely with another force of Scandinavians, came to support Cnut at this point, and the veteran Norwegian jarl was put in charge of Northumbria.
In London, still unsubdued behind its famous walls
London Wall
London Wall was the defensive wall first built by the Romans around Londinium, their strategically important port town on the River Thames in what is now the United Kingdom, and subsequently maintained until the 18th century. It is now the name of a road in the City of London running along part of...
, Edmund was elected king after the death of Aethelred on 23 April 1016.
Siege of London
Cnut returned southward and the Danish army evidently divided, some dealing with Edmund – who had broken out of London before Cnut's encirclement of the city was complete and gone to gather an army in WessexWessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, the traditional heartland of the English monarchy – some besieging London – with the construction of dikes on the northern and southern flanks and a channel dug across the banks of the Thames to the south of the city for the longships to cut off communications up-river.
There was a battle fought at Penselwood
Penselwood
Penselwood is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It is located north east of Wincanton, south east of Bruton, west of Mere, and north west of Gillingham. The south-east of the parish borders Zeals and Stourhead in Wiltshire, and Bourton in Dorset...
, in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
– with a hill in Selwood Forest
Selwood Forest
Selwood Forest is an area of woodland on the borders between Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire in south west England. In Anglo-Saxon times it was far more substantial and covered a much greater area forming a natural barrier between the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex and the Britons of Dumnonia and the Severn...
as the likely location – and a subsequent battle at Sherston
Sherston, Wiltshire
Sherston is a village approximately 5 miles to the west of Malmesbury in the English county of Wiltshire. The population in 2001 was 1418 .- History :...
, in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, which was fought over two days but left neither side victorious.
Edmund was able to temporarily relieve London, driving the enemy away and defeating them after crossing the Thames at Brentford
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...
. Suffering heavy losses he withdrew to Wessex to gather fresh troops, and the Danes again brought London under siege, but after another unsuccessful assault themselves withdrew into Kent under attack by the English, with a battle fought at Otford
Otford
Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent known for its classically British countryside. The village is located on the River Darent, flowing north down its valley from its source on the North Downs...
. At this point Eadric Streona went over to Edmund, and Cnut set sail northwards across the sea to Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, and from the landing of the ships up the River Orwell went to ravage Mercia.
Completion of the Danish conquest
On 18 October 1016, as the Danes retired towards their ships they were engaged by Edmund's army, leading to the Battle of Assandun, the site of which may have been either AshingdonAshingdon
Ashingdon is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located about north of Rochford and is southeast from the county town of Chelmsford...
, in south-east, or Ashdon
Ashdon
Ashdon is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located about northeast of Saffron Walden and is northwest from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Uttlesford and the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden...
, in north-west Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. In the ensuing struggle, Eadric Streona, whose return to the English side had perhaps only been a ruse, withdrew his forces from the fray, bringing about a decisive English defeat. Edmund fled westwards and Cnut went after him into Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, with another battle probably fought near the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
– for Edmund had an alliance with some of the Welsh.
Through intermediaries Cnut and Edmund agreed to come to a negotiated settlement, and on an island near Deerhurst
Deerhurst
Deerhurst is a village near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, England on the east bank of the River Severn. The Royal Mail postcode begins GL19.- Anglo Saxon church & chapel :...
they made peace, dividing the kingdom between them. All of England north of the Thames was to be the domain of the Danish prince, while all to the south was kept by the English king, along with London. Edmund died on 30 November, within weeks of the agreement. The circumstances of his death are unknown. In accord with his treaty with Ironside, Cnut was left as king of all England. His coronation was in London, at Christmas, with recognition by the nobility in January the next year at Oxford.
King of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
for almost twenty years. The protection he lent against Viking raiders – with many of them under his command – restored the prosperity that had been increasingly impaired since the resumption of Viking attacks in the 980s
10th century in England
Events from the 10th century in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 902** Irish Norsemen, expelled from Dublin, establish colonies on The Wirral.* 910–920** Edward the Elder, King of Wessex, and Æthelflæd, ruler of Mercia, conquer most of the Danelaw....
. The resources he commanded in England helped him to establish control of the majority of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
too.
The government of England
In July 1017, Cnut wed Emma of NormandyEmma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
, the widow of Aethelred, and daughter of Richard the Fearless, the first Duke of Normandy
Duke of Normandy
The Duke of Normandy is the title of the reigning monarch of the British Crown Dependancies of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. The title traces its roots to the Duchy of Normandy . Whether the reigning sovereign is a male or female, they are always titled as the "Duke of...
. With Edmund dead, Cnut was quick to eliminate any prospective challenge from the survivors of the legitimate dynasty. The first year of his reign was marked by the executions of a number of English noblemen whom he considered suspect. Aethelred's son Eadwig fled from England but was killed on Cnut's orders. Edmund Ironside's sons Edward and Edmund likewise fled abroad, Edward eventually to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Emma's sons by Aethelred, Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
and Alfred Atheling
Alfred Atheling
Alfred Atheling or Aetheling was the son of Aethelred II and his second wife Emma of Normandy. He was a brother of Edward the Confessor. King Canute became their stepfather when he married Aethelred's widow...
went into exile among their relatives in Normandy. Cnut put forward Harthacnut, his son by Emma, to be his heir; Svein Knutsson and Harold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
, his two sons from his marriage to Ælfgifu of Northampton, his handfast
Handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional European ceremony of betrothal or wedding. It usually involved the tying or binding of the right hands of the bride and groom with a cord or ribbon for the duration of the wedding ceremony.-Etymology:...
wife, were kept on the sidelines.
In 1018, having collected a Danegeld
Danegeld
The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
amounting to the colossal sum of £72,000 levied nationwide, with an additional £10,500 extracted from London, Cnut paid off his army and sent most of them home. He retained 40 ships and their crews as a standing force in England. An annual tax called heregeld (army payment) was collected through the same system Aethelred had instituted in 1012 to reward Scandinavians in his service
Cnut extended the existing trend for multiple shires to be grouped together under a single ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
, dividing the country into four large administrative units whose geographical extent was based on the largest and most durable of the separate kingdoms which had preceded the unification of England. The officials responsible for these provinces were designated earls, a title of Scandinavian origin already in localised use in England which now everywhere replaced that of ealdorman. Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
was initially kept under Cnut's personal control, while Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
went to Erik of Hlathir, East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
to Thorkell the Tall, and Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
remained in the hands of Eadric Streona.
This initial distribution of power was short-lived. The chronically treacherous Eadric was executed within a year of Cnut's accession. Mercia passed to one of the leading families of the region, probably first to Leofwine
Leofwine, Earl of Mercia
Leofwine was an ealdorman of the Hwicce in Mercia. He is mentioned as Wicciarum Prouinciarum dux Ealdorman of Hwicce in 997.Leofwine may have been related by marriage to the family of Ælfgifu of Northampton...
, ealdorman of the Hwicce
Hwicce
The Hwicce were one of the peoples of Anglo-Saxon England. The exact boundaries of their kingdom are uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–80, the early bishops of which bore the title Episcopus Hwicciorum...
under Aethelred, but certainly soon to his son Leofric
Leofric, Earl of Mercia
Leofric was the Earl of Mercia and founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock. Leofric is remembered as the husband of Lady Godiva.-Life and political influence:...
. In 1021 Thorkel the Tall also fell from favour and was outlawed. Following the death of Erik in the 1020s, he was succeeded as Earl of Northumbria by Siward, who's grandmother, Estrid (married to Úlfr Thorgilsson), was Canut's sister. Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
, the northern part of Northumbria, was theoretically part of Erik and Siward's earldom but throughout Cnut's reign it effectively remained under the control of the English dynasty based at Bamburgh
Bamburgh
Bamburgh is a large village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 454.It is notable for two reasons: the imposing Bamburgh Castle, overlooking the beach, seat of the former Kings of Northumbria, and at present owned by the Armstrong family ; and its...
who had dominated the area at least since the early tenth century. They served as junior Earls of Bernicia under the titular authority of the Earl of Northumbria. By the 1030s Cnut's direct administration of Wessex had come to an end, with the establishment of an earldom under Godwin
Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex , was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex...
, an Englishman from a powerful Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
family. In general, after an attempt to govern through his Scandinavian followers in the first few years of his reign, Cnut reverted to reliance on the leading families of the existing English aristocracy.
Affairs to the East
At the Battle of NesjarBattle of Nesjar
Battle of Nesjar was a sea battle off the coast of Norway in 1016. It was a primary event in the reign of King Olav Haraldsson . Sigvatr Þórðarson composed the poem Nesjavísur in memory of the battle....
, in 1016, Olaf Haraldsson
Olaf II of Norway
Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...
won the kingdom of Norway from the Danes. It was at some time after Eirkr left for England, and on the death of Svein while retreating to Sweden, maybe intent on returning to Norway with reinforcements, Erikr's son Hakon went to join his father and support Cnut in England too.
Cnut's brother Harald was possibly at Cnut's coronation, in 1016, with his return to Denmark, as its king, with part of the fleet, at some point thereafter. It is only certain, though, there was an entry of his name, alongside Cnut's, in confraternity with Christ Church, Canterbury
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
, in 1018. This, though, is not conclusive, for the entry may have been made in Harald's absence, by the hand of Cnut himself even, which means, while it is usually thought that Harald died in 1018, it is unsure if he was even alive to do this. Entry of his brother's name in the Canterbury codex
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
may have been Cnut's attempt to make his vengeance for Harald's murder good with the Church. Of course, this was maybe just a gesture for a soul to be under God's protection. There is evidence Cnut was in battle with pirates in 1018, with his destruction of the crews of thirty ships, although it is unknown if this was off the English or Danish shores. He himself mentions troubles in his 1019 letter (to England, from Denmark), written as the King of England and Denmark. These events can be seen, with plausibility, to be in connection with the death of Harald. Cnut says he dealt with dissenters to ensure Denmark was free to assist England:
Statesmanship
Cnut was generally remembered as a wise and successful king of England, although this view may in part be attributable to his good treatment of the Church, keeper of the historic record. The medieval Church was drawn to success, and put itself at the back of any strong and efficient sovereign, if the circumstances were right for it. Accordingly, we hear of him, even today, as a religious man (see below), despite the fact that he was in an arguably sinSin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
ful relationship, with two wives, and the harsh treatment he dealt his fellow Christian opponents.
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, as well as within the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. His campaigns abroad meant the tables of Viking supremacy were stacked in favour of the English, turning the prows of the longships towards Scandinavia. He reinstated the Laws of King Edgar to allow for the constitution of a Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
, and the activity of Scandinavians at large. He also reinstituted the extant laws with a series of proclamations to assuage common grievances brought to his attention. Two significant ones were: On Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
in case of Intestacy
Intestacy
Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of their enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of...
, and, On Heriot
Heriot
Heriot, from Old English heregeat , was originally a death-duty in late Anglo-Saxon England, which required that at death, a nobleman provided to his king a given set of military equipment, often including horses, swords, shields, spears and helmets...
s and Reliefs. He strengthened the currency, initiating a series of coins of equal weight to those being used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia. This meant the markets grew, and the economy of England was able to spread itself, as well as widen the scope of goods to be bought and sold.
King of Denmark
In 1018, Harald II died and Cnut went to Denmark to affirm his succession to the Danish crown as Cnut II. In the 1019 letter (see above) he states his intentions to avert attacks against England. It seems there were Danes in opposition to him, and an attack he carried out on the WendsWends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
may have had something to do with this. In this expedition at least one of Cnut's English men, Godwin
Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex , was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex...
, apparently won the king's trust after a night-time raid he personally led against a Wendish encampment.
His hold on the Danish throne presumably stable, Cnut was back in England in 1020. Ulf Jarl
Ulf Jarl
Ulf was a Danish earl, in Scandinavia known as a jarl. As a Viking chieftain he participated in Cnut the Great's conquest of England as one of his most trusted men. He married Cnut's sister Estrid Svendsdatter and from c. 1024 he was his appointee as regent of Denmark, probably as the guardian of...
, the husband of his sister Estrid Svendsdatter, was his appointee as regent of Denmark, with the entrustment of his young son by Queen Emma
Emma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
, Harthacnut, whom he had made the crown prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
of his kingdom.
Thorkell the Tall's banishment in 1021 may be seen in relation to the attack on the Wends for the death of Olof Skötkonung in 1022, and the succession to the Swedish throne of his son, Anund Jacob
Anund Jacob of Sweden
Anund Jacob, Swedish: Anund Jakob was King of Sweden from 1022 until around 1050. He is believed to have been born on July 25, in either 1008 or 1010 as Jakob. When the Swedish Thing was to elect him the co-ruler of Sweden, the people objected to his non-Scandinavian name...
, bringing Sweden into alliance with Norway. Thus, there was cause for a demonstration of Danish strength in the Baltic. Jomsborg
Jomsborg
Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea , that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants are known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location has not yet been established, though it is maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of...
, the legendary stronghold of the Jomsvikings, thought to be on an island off the coast of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, was probably the target of Cnut's expedition. After this clear display of Cnut's intentions to dominate Scandinavian affairs, it seems Thorkell was wont to reconcile himself with Cnut in 1023.
When Olaf Haraldsson
Olaf II of Norway
Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...
and Anund Jakob
Anund Jacob of Sweden
Anund Jacob, Swedish: Anund Jakob was King of Sweden from 1022 until around 1050. He is believed to have been born on July 25, in either 1008 or 1010 as Jakob. When the Swedish Thing was to elect him the co-ruler of Sweden, the people objected to his non-Scandinavian name...
took advantage of Cnut's commitment to England and began to launch attacks against Denmark, Ulf gave the freemen cause to accept Harthacnut, still a child, as king. This was a ruse on Ulf's part since the role he had as the caretaker of Harthacnut consequently gave him the reign of the kingdom. Upon news of these events Cnut set sail for Denmark, to restore himself and deal with Ulf, who then got back in line. In a battle known as the Battle of the Helgeå
Battle of the Helgeå
Battle of the Helgeå was a naval engagement which took place during 1026, between joint Danish and English forces and a combined Norwegian and Swedish force, at the estuary of a river called Helgeå in Sweden.King Olaf II of Norway and King Anund Jakob of Sweden took advantage of the commitment...
, Cnut and his men fought the Norwegians and Swedes at the mouth of the river Helgea. 1026 is the likely date for the battle, and the apparent victory left Cnut as the dominant leader in Scandinavia. Ulf the usurper's realignment and participation in the battle did not, in the end, earn him Cnut's forgiveness. Some sources state, at a banquet in Roskilde
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
, the brothers-in-law were playing chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
when an argument arose between them, and the next day, Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
of 1026, one of Cnut's housecarl
Housecarl
In medieval Scandinavia, housecarls and sometimes spelled huscarle or houscarl) were either non-servile manservants, or household troops in personal service of someone, equivalent to a bodyguard to Scandinavian lords and kings. This institution also existed in Anglo-Saxon England after its...
s, with his blessing, killed the jarl, in Trinity Church, the predecessor to Roskilde Cathedral
Roskilde Cathedral
Roskilde Cathedral , in the city of Roskilde on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, is a cathedral of the Lutheran Church of Denmark. The first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick, it encouraged the spread of the Brick Gothic style throughout Northern Europe...
.
Journey to Rome
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
. He left his affairs in the north, and went from Denmark to the coronation of the King of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
, at Easter 1027, in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
– a pilgrimage of considerable prestige for rulers of Europe in the Middle-Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, to the heart of Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
.
On the return journey his letter of 1027, like his letter of 1019, was written to inform his subjects in England of his intentions from abroad. It is in this letter he proclaims himself ‘king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes’.
Consistent with his role as a Christian king, Cnut says he went to Rome to repent for his sins, pray for redemption and the security of his subjects, and negotiate with the Pope for a reduction in the costs of the pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
for English archbishops, and for a resolution to the competition of the archdioceses of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, and Hamburg-Bremen, for superiority over the Danish dioceses. He also sought to improve the conditions for pilgrims, as well as merchants, on the road to Rome. In his own words:
"Robert" in Cnut's text is probably a clerical error for Rudolph
Rudolph III of Burgundy
Rudolf III of Burgundy was the last King of an independent Burgundy. He was the son of Conrad, King of Burgundy, and Matilda of France...
, the last ruler of an independent Kingdom of Burgundy
Kingdom of Burgundy
Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...
. Hence, the solemn word of the Pope, the Emperor, and Rudolph, was given with the witness of four archbishops, twenty bishops, and 'innumerable multitudes of dukes and nobles'. This suggests it was before the ceremonies were at an end. It is without doubt Cnut threw himself into his role with zest. His image as the just Christian king, statesman and diplomat, and crusader against unjustness, seems to be one with its roots in reality, as well as one he sought to project.
A good illustration of his status within Europe is the fact Cnut, and the King of Burgundy went alongside the emperor in the imperial procession, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him on the same pedestal. Cnut and the emperor, in accord with various sources, took one another's company like brothers, for they were of a similar age. Conrad gave Cnut lands in the Mark
Marches
A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe....
of Schleswig—the land-bridge between the Scandinavian kingdoms and the continent—as a token of their treaty of friendship. Centuries of conflict in this area between the Danes and the Germans was the cause for the construction of the Danevirke
Danevirke
The Danevirke The Danevirke The Danevirke (modern Danish spelling: Dannevirke; in Old Norse Danavirki ; in German Danewerk ; is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern Germany). This important linear defensive earthwork was constructed across the neck of the Cimbrian...
, from Schleswig, on the Schlei
Schlei
The Schlei is a narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It stretches for approximately 20 miles from the Baltic near Kappeln and Arnis to the city of Schleswig. Along the Schlei are many small bays and swamps...
, an inlet of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, to the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
.
His visit to Rome was a triumph. In the verse of Knútsdrápa
Knutsdrapa
Knútsdrápur are Old Norse skaldic compositions in the form of drápur which were recited for the praise of Canute the Great...
, Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson or Sigvat the Skald was an Icelandic skald. He was a court poet to King Olaf II of Norway, as well as Canute the Great, Magnus the Good and Anund Jacob, by whose reigns his floruit can be dated to the earlier eleventh century.Sigvatr was the best known of the court skalds of...
praises Cnut, his king, as being "dear to the Emperor, close to Peter". In the days of Christendom, a king seen to be in favour with God could expect to be ruler over a happy kingdom. He was surely in a stronger position, not only with the Church, and the people, but with the alliance with his southern rivals he was able to conclude his conflicts with his rivals in the north. His letter not only tells his countrymen of his achievements in Rome, but also of his ambitions within the Scandinavian world at his arrival home:
Cnut was to return to Denmark from Rome, arrange for some kind of pact with the peoples of Scandinavia, and afterwards sail to England.
King of Norway and part of Sweden
In the 1027 letter, Cnut considers himself King of all England and Denmark, and the Norwegians, and of some of the Swedes – victory over Swedes suggests Helgea to be the river in UpplandUppland
Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
and not the one in eastern Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
, while Sweden's king appears to have been made a renegade. He also stated his intention of proceeding to Denmark, for the securing of a peace between the kingdoms of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, which fits John of Worcester
John of Worcester
John of Worcester was an English monk and chronicler. He is usually held to be the author of the Chronicon ex chronicis.-Chronicon ex chronicis:...
's writing that in 1027 Cnut heard some Norwegians were discontented and sent them sums of gold and silver to gain their support in his claim on the throne.
In 1028, after his return from Rome, through Denmark, Cnut set off from England with a fleet of fifty ships, to Norway, and the city of Trondheim. Olaf Haraldsson stood down, unable to put up any fight, as his nobles were against him for a tendency to flay their wives for sorcery. Cnut was crowned king, now of England and Denmark, and Norway (he was not King of Sweden, only some of the Swedes). He entrusted the Earldom of Lade
Lade, Trondheim
Lade is a community in Trondheim, Norway. It is located on a peninsula north-east of the city centre, north of the community of Lademoen. It was the site of the historic Lade farm.-History:...
to the former line of earls, in Håkon Eiriksson, with Earl Eiríkr Hákonarson probably dead at this date. Hakon was possibly the Earl of Northumbria after Erik too.
Hakon, a member of a family with a long tradition of hostility towards the independent Norwegian kings, and a relative of Cnut's, was already in lordship over the Isles, with the earldom of Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
, possibly from 1016–17. The sea-lanes through the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
and Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
, led to Orkney and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and were central to Cnut's ambitions for dominance of Scandinavia, as well as the British Isles. Hakon was meant to be Cnut's lieutenant of this strategic chain. And the final component was his installation as the king's deputy in Norway, after the expulsion of Olaf Haraldsson in 1028. Hakon, though, died in a shipwreck in the Pentland Firth
Pentland Firth
The Pentland Firth , which is actually more of a strait than a firth, separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland.-Etymology:...
, between the Orkneys and the Scottish mainland, either late 1029 or early 1030.
Upon the death of Hakon, Olaf Haraldsson was to return to Norway, with Swedes in his army. He, though, was to meet his death at the hands of his own people, at the Battle of Stiklestad
Battle of Stiklestad
The Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway. In this battle, King Olaf II of Norway was killed. He was later canonized...
, in 1030. Cnut's subsequent attempt to rule Norway without the key support of the Trondejarls
Jarls of Lade
The Jarls of Lade or Old Norse Hlaðir were a dynasty of Norwegian rulers, who ruled Trøndelag and Hålogaland from the 9th century to the 11th century. -Lade Gaard:...
, through Ælfgifu of Northampton, and his eldest son by her, Sweyn Knutsson, was not a success. It is known as Aelfgifu's Time in Norway, with heavy taxation, a rebellion, and the restoration of the former Norwegian dynasty under Saint Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus the Good
Magnus I of Norway
Magnus I , known as the Good or the Noble, was the King of Norway from 1035 to 1047 and the King of Denmark from 1042 to 1047. He was an illegitimate son of king Olaf II of Norway, but fled with his mother in 1028 when his father was dethroned. In 1035 he returned to Norway and was crowned king at...
.
Influence in the western sea-ways
At the Battle of ClontarfBattle of Clontarf
The Battle of Clontarf took place on 23 April 1014 between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, as well as the one rebellious...
on 23 April 1014—even as Cnut was preparing his re-invasion of England—there was an epic array of armies laid out on the fields before the walls of Dublin. Máel Mórda, king of Leinster, and Sigtrygg Silkbeard
Sigtrygg Silkbeard
Sigtrygg II Silkbeard Olafsson was a Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin of the Uí Ímair dynasty...
, ruler of the Norse-Gaelic kingdom of Dublin, had sent out emissaries to all the Viking kingdoms to request assistance in their rebellion against Brian Bóruma, the high king of Ireland. Sigurd the Stout, the Earl of Orkney
Earl of Orkney
The Earl of Orkney was originally a Norse jarl ruling Orkney, Shetland and parts of Caithness and Sutherland. The Earls were periodically subject to the kings of Norway for the Northern Isles, and later also to the kings of Alba for those parts of their territory in mainland Scotland . The Earl's...
, was offered command of all the Norse forces. Likewise, the High King had sought assistance from the Albannaich, who were led by Domhnall Mac Eiminn Mac Cainnich, Mormaer of Ce (Marr & Buchan).
The Leinster-Norse alliance was defeated, with both commanders, Sigurd and Máel Mórda, being killed. However, Brian, his son, his grandson, and the Mormaer Domhnall were slain too. Sigtrygg's alliance was broken, although he was left alive, and the high-kingship of Ireland went back to the Uí Néill
Uí Néill
The Uí Néill are Irish and Scottish dynasties who claim descent from Niall Noigiallach , an historical King of Tara who died about 405....
, again under Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill
Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill
Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill , also called Máel Sechnaill Mór, Máel Sechnaill II, anglicized Malachy II, was King of Mide and High King of Ireland...
.
There was a brief period of freedom in the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
zone for the Vikings of Dublin with a political vacuum felt throughout the entire Western Maritime Zone of the North Atlantic Archipelago, and prominent among those who stood to fill it was Cnut, "whose leadership of the Scandinavian world gave him a unique influence over the western colonies and whose control of their commercial arteries gave an economic edge to political domination". A strong piece of evidence for Dublin's involvement with Cnut is that its king, Sitric Silkbeard, struck coinage of Cnut's quatrefoil type—in issue c. 1017–25 – sporadically replacing the legend with one bearing his own name and styling him as ruler either 'of Dublin' or 'among the Irish'. Another is the entry of one Sihtric dux in three of Cnut's charters.
In one of his verses, Cnut's court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson or Sigvat the Skald was an Icelandic skald. He was a court poet to King Olaf II of Norway, as well as Canute the Great, Magnus the Good and Anund Jacob, by whose reigns his floruit can be dated to the earlier eleventh century.Sigvatr was the best known of the court skalds of...
recounts that famous princes brought their heads to Cnut and bought peace. This verse mentions Olaf Haraldsson
Olaf II of Norway
Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...
in the past tense, with his death at the Battle of Stiklestad
Battle of Stiklestad
The Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway. In this battle, King Olaf II of Norway was killed. He was later canonized...
, in 1030. It was therefore at some point after this, and the consolidation of Norway, Cnut went to Scotland, with an army, and the navy in the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
, in 1031, to receive, without bloodshed, the submission of three Scottish kings: Maelcolm, Maelbeth, and Iehmarc. One of these kings, Iehmarc, may be one Echmarcach mac Ragnaill
Echmarcach mac Ragnaill
Echmarcach mac Ragnaill was the Gall-Gaidhel King of the Isles, Dublin , and much of Galloway. According to Seán Duffy he was either a grandson or great-grandson of Ivar of Waterford, but an alternative exists. Benjamin Hudson has contended Echmarcach was a grandson of Gofraid mac Arailt...
, an Uí Ímair
Uí Ímair
The Uí Ímair , or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest...
chieftain, and the ruler of a sea-kingdom of the Irish Sea, with Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
among his domains. Furtherly, a Lausavísa
Lausavísa
In Old Norse poetry and later Icelandic poetry, a lausavísa is a single stanza composition, or a set of stanzas unconnected by narrative or thematic continuity....
attributable to the skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti was an 11th century Icelandic skald. He was the court poet first of Óláfr skautkonungr of Sweden, then of Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, the Swedish king Anund Jacob and finally of Cnut the Great of Denmark and England...
greets the ruler of the Danes, Irish, English and Island-dwellers – use of Irish here being likely to mean the Gall Ghaedil kingdoms, rather than the Gaelic
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
kingdoms too, while it "brings to mind Sweyn Forkbeard's putative activities in the Irish Sea and Adam of Bremen's story of his stay with a rex Scothorum (? king of the Irish) [&] can also be linked to... Iehmarc, who submitted in 1031 [&] could be relevant to Cnut's relations with the Irish".
Relations with the Church
Cnut's actions as a Viking conqueror had made him uneasy with the Church. He was already a Christian before he was king – being named Lambert at his baptism – although the Christianization of ScandinaviaChristianization of Scandinavia
The Christianization of Scandinavia took place between the 8th and the 12th century. The realms of Scandinavia proper, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively...
was not at all complete in his day
Era
An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma–66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event. When used in...
. His ruthless treatment of the overthrown dynasty, as well as his open relationship with a concubine
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
—Ælfgifu of Northampton, his handfast
Handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional European ceremony of betrothal or wedding. It usually involved the tying or binding of the right hands of the bride and groom with a cord or ribbon for the duration of the wedding ceremony.-Etymology:...
wife, whom he kept as his northern queen when he wed Emma of Normandy
Emma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
, confusingly also Ælfgifu in Old English, who was kept in the south, with an estate in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
— was a bone of contention, to say the least. It was important for him to reconcile himself with his churchmen, and he made considerable efforts to do so. In this effort Cnut repaired all the English churches and monasteries that were victims of the Viking love for plunder, and refilled their coffers. He also built new churches and was an earnest patron of monastic communities. His homeland of Denmark was a Christian nation on the rise, and the desire to enhance the religion still fresh. As an example, the first stone church recorded to have been built in Scandinavia, was in Roskilde
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
c. 1027, and its patron was Cnut's sister Estrid.
It is hard to conclude if Cnut's attitude towards the Church came out of deep religious devotion, or merely as a means to reinforce his regime's hold on the people. There is evidence of a respect for the Viking religion in his praise poetry, which he was happy enough for his skalds to embellish in Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, while other Viking leaders were insistent on the rigid observation of the Christian line, like St Olaf
Olaf II of Norway
Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...
. We see too the desire for a respectable Christian nationhood within Europe. In 1018, some sources suggest he was at Canterbury on the return of its Archbishop Lyfing from Rome, to receive letters of exhortation from the Pope. If this chronology is correct, he probably went from Canturbury to the Witan at Oxford, with Archbishop Wulfstan of York in attendance to record the event.
Cnut's ecumenical gifts were widespread, and often exuberant. Commonly land was given, exemption from taxes, as well as relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s. Christ Church
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
, was probably given rights at the important port of Sandwich, as well as tax exemption, with confirmation in the placement of their charters on the altar. while it got the relics of St Ælfheah, which was at the displeasure of the people of London. Another see in the king's favour was Winchester, second only to the Canturbury see in terms of its wealth. New Minster
New Minster, Winchester
The New Minster, Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in 901 in Winchester in the English county of Hampshire.Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the Elder, finished the project according to Alfred's wishes, with...
's Liber Vitae
Confraternity book
A confraternity book is a medieval memorial book that records the names of people who have entered into a state of brotherhood with a church in some way, often by visiting it in the capacity of a pilgrim.-Confraternity books:...
records Cnut as a benefactor of the monastery, and the Winchester Cross, with 500 marks of silver and 30 marks of gold in, as well as relics of various saints was given to it. Old Minster
Old Minster, Winchester
The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral....
was the recipient of a shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
for the relics of St Birinus
Birinus
Birinus , venerated as a saint, was the first Bishop of Dorchester, and the "Apostle to the West Saxons".-Life and ministry:After Augustine of Canterbury performed initial conversions in England, Birinus, a Frank, came to the kingdoms of Wessex in 634, landing at the port of "Hamwic", now in the...
, and the probable confirmation of its privileges. The monastery at Evesham, with its Abbot Ælfweard purportedly a relative of the king, through Ælfgifu the Lady (probably Ælfgifu of Northampton, rather than Queen Emma, also known as Ælfgifu
Ælfgifu
Ælfgifu is an Old English feminine personal name. It may refer to:* Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, wife of King Edmund I of England* Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig, king of England...
), the ruler of the monastery, got the relics of St Wigstan
Wigstan of Mercia
Wigstan , also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia.Wigstan may have been sub-king, or ealdorman, of the Hwicce, and may have ruled Mercia briefly in 840, before resigning the throne. Wigstan was killed by his successor,...
. Cnut's generosity towards his subjects, a thing his skalds called destroying treasure, was of course popular with the English. Still, it is important to remember, not all Englishmen were in his favour, and the burden of taxation was widely felt. His attitude towards London's see was clearly not benign. The monasteries at Ely and Glastonbury were not it seems on good terms either. Other gifts were also given to his neighbours. Among these were a gift to Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
, of which its bishop wrote; "When we saw the gift that you sent us, we were amazed at your knowledge as well as your faith ... since you, whom we had heard to be a pagan prince, we now know to be not only a Christian, but also a most generous donor to God's churches and servants". He is known to have sent a psalter
Psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
and sacramentary
Sacramentary
The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...
made in Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, famous for its illustrations
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
to Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and a book written in gold, among other gifts, to William the Great of Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
. This golden book was apparently to support Aquitanian claims St Martial
Saint Martial
Saint Martial was the first bishop of Limoges in today's France, according to a lost vita of Saturnin, first bishop of Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours quotes in his History of the Franks.-Life:...
, patron saint of Aquitaine was an apostle
Apostle (Christian)
The term apostle is derived from Classical Greek ἀπόστολος , meaning one who is sent away, from στέλλω + από . The literal meaning in English is therefore an "emissary", from the Latin mitto + ex...
. Of some consequnce, its recipient was an avid artisan
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
, scholar
Scholarly method
Scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public.-Methods:...
, and devout Christian, and the Abbey of Saint-Martial was a great library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and scriptorium
Scriptorium
Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
, second only to the one at Cluny
Cluny
Cluny or Clungy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910...
. It is probable Cnut's gifts were well beyond anything we can now prove.
Cnut’s journey to Rome in 1027 is another sign of his dedication to the Christian religion. It may be he went to attend Emperor Conrad II
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
’s coronation in order to improve relations between the two powers, yet he had made a vow previously to seek the favour of St Peter, the keeper of the keys to the heavenly kingdom. While in Rome, Cnut got an agreement from the Pope to reduce the fees paid by the English archbishops to receive their pallium. He also arranged for the travelers of his realm that they should pay reduced or no tolls, and that they should be safeguarded on their way to and from Rome. Some evidence exists for a second journey in 1030.
Death and succession
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. His burial was in Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
, the English capital of the time, and stronghold of the royal house of Wessex, whom the Danes had overthrown more or less two decades before.
In Denmark he was succeeded by Harthacnut, reigning as Cnut III, although with a war in Scandinavia against Magnus I of Norway
Magnus I of Norway
Magnus I , known as the Good or the Noble, was the King of Norway from 1035 to 1047 and the King of Denmark from 1042 to 1047. He was an illegitimate son of king Olaf II of Norway, but fled with his mother in 1028 when his father was dethroned. In 1035 he returned to Norway and was crowned king at...
, Harthacnut was "forsaken (by the English) because he was too long in Denmark", and his mother Queen Emma
Emma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
, previously resident at Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
with some of her son's housecarl
Housecarl
In medieval Scandinavia, housecarls and sometimes spelled huscarle or houscarl) were either non-servile manservants, or household troops in personal service of someone, equivalent to a bodyguard to Scandinavian lords and kings. This institution also existed in Anglo-Saxon England after its...
s, was made to flee to Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
, in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
; under pressure from supporters of Cnut's other son – after Svein – by Ælfgifu of Northampton. Harold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
– regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
in England 1035–37 – succeeded to claim the throne, in 1037, reigning until his death in 1040. Eventual peace in Scandinavia left Harthacnut free to claim the throne himself, in 1040, and regain his mother her place. He brought the crowns of Denmark and England together again, until his death, in 1042. Denmark fell into a period of disorder with the power struggle between the pretender to the throne Sweyn Estridsson
Sweyn II of Denmark
Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson was the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1074. He was the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter. He was married three times, and fathered 20 children or more, including the five future kings Harald III Hen, Canute IV the Saint, Oluf I Hunger, Eric I Evergood and Niels...
, son of Ulf, and the Norwegian king, until Magnus' death in 1047 and restoration of the Danish sovereignty. And the inheritance of England was briefly to return to its Anglo-Saxon lineage.
The house of Wessex was to reign again in Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, whom Harthacnut had brought out of exile in Normandy and made a treaty with. Like in his treaty with Magnus, it was decreed the throne was to go to Edward if Harthacnut died with no legitimate male heir. In 1042, Harthacnut died, and Edward was king. His reign meant Norman influence at Court was on the rise thereafter, and the ambitions of its dukes finally found fruition in 1066, with William the Conqueror's invasion of England, and crowning, fifty years after Cnut was crowned in 1016.
Had the sons of Cnut not died within a decade of him, and his (only known) daughter Cunigund – set to marry Conrad II's son Henry III eight months after his death – not died in Italy before she became empress, Cnut's reign may well have been the foundation for a complete political union between England and Scandinavia.
Bones at Winchester
The new regime of Normandy was keen to signal its arrival with an ambitious programme of grandiose cathedrals and castles throughout the High Middle AgesHigh Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
. Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
was built on the old Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
site (Old Minster
Old Minster, Winchester
The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral....
) and the previous burials were set in mortuary chests there. Then, during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, in the 17th century, plundering Roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
soldiers scattered the bones on the floor, and the bones of Cnut were spread amongst the various other chests of rulers: notably William Rufus.
Marriages and issue
- 1 – Ælfgifu of Northampton
- Sweyn Knutsson, King of Norway
- Harold HarefootHarold HarefootHarold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
, King of England
- 2 – Emma of NormandyEmma of NormandyEmma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
- Harthacnut, King of Denmark and England
- Gunhilda of DenmarkGunhilda of DenmarkGunhilda of Denmark was the first spouse of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor.-Biography:Gunhilda was a daughter of Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy. Her maternal grandparents were Richard I of Normandy and his second wife Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy.She was a sister of Harthacanute. She was a...
, wed Henry IIIHenry III, Holy Roman EmperorHenry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors...
, Holy Roman EmperorHoly Roman EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
.
Ruler of the waves
Henry of HuntingdonHenry of Huntingdon
Henry of Huntingdon , the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th century English historian, the author of a history of England, Historia anglorum, "the most important Anglo-Norman historian to emerge from the secular clergy". He served as archdeacon of Huntingdon...
, the 12th-century chronicler, tells how Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet "continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
, and never wore it again "to the honour of God the almighty King". This incident is usually misrepresented by popular commentators and politicians as an example of Cnut's arrogance.
This story may be apocryphal. While the contemporary Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
has no mention of it, it would seem that so pious a dedication might have been recorded there, since the same source gives an "eye-witness account of his lavish gifts to the monasteries and poor of St Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
when on the way to Rome, and of the tears and breast-beating which accompanied them". Goscelin
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin was a Benedictine hagiographical writer, born between 1020–1035 and who died shortly after 1107...
, writing later in the 11th century, instead has Cnut place his crown on a crucifix at Winchester one Easter, with no mention of the sea, and "with the explanation that the king of kings was more worthy of it than he". Nevertheless, there may be a "basis of fact, in a planned act of piety" behind this story, and Henry of Huntingdon cites it as an example of the king's "nobleness and greatness of mind." Later historians repeated the story, most of them adjusting it to have Cnut more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him, and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers; and there are earlier Celtic parallels in stories of men who commanded the tides, namely Saint Illtud
Illtud
Illtyd , was a Welsh saint, founder and abbot of Llanilltud Fawr in the Welsh county of Glamorgan...
, Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd
Kingdom of Gwynedd
Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...
, and Tuirbe, of Tuirbe's Strand, in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
The encounter with the waves is said to have taken place at Bosham
Bosham
Bosham is a small coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, about ) west of Chichester on an inlet of Chichester Harbour....
in West Sussex, or Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
in Hampshire.
According to the House of Commons Information Office (The Palace of Westminster Factsheet G11, General Series Revised March 2008), Cnut set up a Royal palace during his reign on Thorney Island (later to become known as Westminster) as the area was sufficiently far away from the busy settlement to the east known as London. It is believed that, on this site, Cnut tried to command the tide of the river to prove to his courtiers that they were fools to think that he could command the waves.
Cnut's skalds
The Old Norse catalogue of skaldSkald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
s known as Skáldatal
Skáldatal
Skáldatal is a short prose work in Old Norse. It is preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or Codex Uppsaliensis, which is one of the four main manuscripts of the Prose Edda , and AM 761 a 4to , which also contains Skaldic poems...
lists eight skalds who were active at Cnut's court. Four of them, namely Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson or Sigvat the Skald was an Icelandic skald. He was a court poet to King Olaf II of Norway, as well as Canute the Great, Magnus the Good and Anund Jacob, by whose reigns his floruit can be dated to the earlier eleventh century.Sigvatr was the best known of the court skalds of...
, Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti was an 11th century Icelandic skald. He was the court poet first of Óláfr skautkonungr of Sweden, then of Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, the Swedish king Anund Jacob and finally of Cnut the Great of Denmark and England...
, Þórarinn loftunga
Þórarinn loftunga
Þórarinn loftunga was an Icelandic skald active during the first half of the 11th century.He composed Tøgdrápa on King Canute. Like Sigvatr Þórðarson's poem in praise of the same king, Knútsdrápa, the Tøgdrápa is composed in the metrical form tøglag — perhaps invented at King Canute's court...
and Hallvarðr háreksblesi
Hallvarðr Háreksblesi
Hallvarðr Háreksblesi was one of the skalds of Canute the Great. Nothing is known about his life or family but eight fragments of his poetry on Canute have been preserved...
, composed verses in honour of Cnut which have survived in some form, while no such thing is apparent from the four other skalds Bersi Torfuson
Bersi Skáldtorfuson
Bersi Skáldtorfuson was an Icelandic skald, active around the year 1000. He was a court poet to Earl Sveinn Hákonarson. During the Battle of Nesjar he was captured by King Óláfr Haraldsson's forces...
, Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld
Arnórr jarlaskáld
Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld was an Icelandic skald, son of Þórðr Kolbeinsson. Arnórr travelled as a merchant and often visited the Orkney Islands where he composed poems for the Earls, receiving his byname. For king Magnus the Good he composed Hrynhenda. He also composed memorial poems for Magnus...
(known from other works), Steinn Skaptason and Óðarkeptr (unknown). The principal works for Cnut are the three Knútsdrápur
Knutsdrapa
Knútsdrápur are Old Norse skaldic compositions in the form of drápur which were recited for the praise of Canute the Great...
by Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson
Sigvatr Þórðarson or Sigvat the Skald was an Icelandic skald. He was a court poet to King Olaf II of Norway, as well as Canute the Great, Magnus the Good and Anund Jacob, by whose reigns his floruit can be dated to the earlier eleventh century.Sigvatr was the best known of the court skalds of...
, Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti
Óttarr svarti was an 11th century Icelandic skald. He was the court poet first of Óláfr skautkonungr of Sweden, then of Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, the Swedish king Anund Jacob and finally of Cnut the Great of Denmark and England...
and Hallvarðr háreksblesi
Hallvarðr Háreksblesi
Hallvarðr Háreksblesi was one of the skalds of Canute the Great. Nothing is known about his life or family but eight fragments of his poetry on Canute have been preserved...
, and the Höfuðlausn
Höfuðlausn
Höfuðlausn or the "Head's Ransom" is a skaldic poem attributed to Egill Skalla-Grímsson in praise of king Eirik Bloodaxe.It is cited in Egils Saga , which claims that he created it in the span of one night. The events in the saga that lead up to the composition and recitation of the poem can be...
and Tøgdrápa by Þórarinn loftunga
Þórarinn loftunga
Þórarinn loftunga was an Icelandic skald active during the first half of the 11th century.He composed Tøgdrápa on King Canute. Like Sigvatr Þórðarson's poem in praise of the same king, Knútsdrápa, the Tøgdrápa is composed in the metrical form tøglag — perhaps invented at King Canute's court...
. Cnut also features in two other contemporary skaldic poems, namely Þórðr Kolbeinsson
Þórðr Kolbeinsson
Þórðr Kolbeinsson was an 11th century Icelandic skald, or poet. He was the court poet of Eiríkr Hákonarson and some 17 stanzas of his poetry on the earl are preserved in the kings' sagas...
's Eiríksdrápa and the anonymous Liðsmannaflokkr.
Cnut's skalds emphasize the parallelism between Cnut's rule of his earthly kingdom and God's rule of Heaven. This is particularly apparent in their refrains. Thus the refrain of Þórarinn's Höfuðlausn translates to "Cnut protects the land as the guardian of Byzantium [God] [does] Heaven" and the refrain of Hallvarðr's Knútsdrápa translates to "Cnut protects the land as the Lord of all [does] the splendid hall of the mountains [Heaven]". Despite the Christian message, the poets also make use of traditional pagan references and this is particularly true of Hallvarðr. As an example, one of his half-stanzas translates to "The Freyr of the noise of weapons [warrior] has also cast under him Norway; the battle-server [warrior] diminishes the hunger of the valcyrie's hawks [ravens]." The skald here refers to Cnut as "Freyr of battle", a kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
using the name of the pagan god Freyr
Freyr
Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
. References of this sort were avoided by poets composing for the contemporary kings of Norway but Cnut seems to have had a more relaxed attitude towards pagan literary allusions.