A throne set at the water's edge and an order to the incoming tide, staged to shame flattering courtiers (c. 1030)
Told by Henry of Huntingdon a century later: the point was that royal power is nothing beside God's.
Monarchs · Anglo-Saxon & Danish
Cnut the Great
c. 990–1035
House of Denmark — the North Sea Empire
In office: 1016–1035
Son of Sweyn Forkbeard, Cnut won England by conquest in 1016, defeating Edmund Ironside at Assandun and taking the whole kingdom on Edmund's death. He married Æthelred's widow Emma of Normandy, added Denmark in 1018 and Norway in 1028, and ruled a North Sea empire from England. After a violent start he governed as a conventional Christian king: law codes drawn from English tradition, generous patronage of the Church, a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027, and a realm divided into great earldoms.
How to spot them
- ▸The Danish conqueror who became an English king; the North Sea Empire of England, Denmark and Norway
- ▸The tide legend — a throne set on the shore to show flattering courtiers the limits of royal power
- ▸Married Emma of Normandy, widow of Æthelred; sons Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut
- ▸Raised Godwin to the earldom of Wessex; buried at Winchester
In the reign
Victory at Assandun in Essex, followed by a treaty at Olney dividing England with a rival who died within weeks (1016)
Edmund Ironside kept Wessex and died on 30 November 1016, leaving the whole kingdom to the Dane.
Marriage to the Norman-born widow of the previous English king, who had been queen already for fourteen years (1017)
Emma of Normandy; their son Harthacnut later ruled both England and Denmark.
A journey to Rome for an emperor's coronation, and a letter home promising English pilgrims relief from tolls (1027)
He attended the imperial coronation of Conrad II on Easter Day 1027.
Three crowns held at once — an island kingdom, plus Denmark and Norway (1028)
The North Sea Empire; he also claimed overlordship of part of Sweden.
The division of England into a handful of great earldoms, raising a Sussex thegn to rule Wessex (c. 1020)
Godwin, father of Harold II, became earl of Wessex.
Royal bones scattered by Parliamentarian soldiers and later gathered into mortuary chests above a Hampshire cathedral's choir (1642)
Winchester Cathedral; recent study of the chests has identified bones consistent with his and Emma's.
Quick-fire facts
- •Son of Sweyn Forkbeard; he first invaded with his father in 1013 and returned in 1015
- •Crowned in London in January 1017 after Edmund Ironside's death, having had Eadric Streona killed that year
- •He kept a handfast first wife, Ælfgifu of Northampton, mother of Harold Harefoot, alongside his marriage to Emma
- •His law codes, drafted with Archbishop Wulfstan of York, drew heavily on earlier English law
- •He had the relics of St Ælfheah translated from London to Canterbury in 1023 to conciliate the English Church
- •He died at Shaftesbury on 12 November 1035 and was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester
- •His sons Harold Harefoot (1035–1040) and Harthacnut (1040–1042) both ruled England briefly; the line then failed
- •The English called him Cnut; the Anglicised 'Canute' is the form used in older books and on the Royal Household site
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- The Royal Household — Canute 'The Great' (r. 1016–1035)
- M. K. Lawson — Cnut: England's Viking King