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Cnut (c990-1035)

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Biography

Cnut the Great was born circa 990 in Denmark to Sweyn Forkbeard (963-1014) and Sigrid the Haughty (c964-) and died 12 November 1035 Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, England of unspecified causes. He married Ælfgifu of Northampton (c990-1036) 1010 JL in England. He married Emma of Normandy (c985-1052) 1017 JL in England.

Early Life

Canute II Sveynsson, King of England, Denmark and Norway ( /kəˈnjuːt/;[1] Old English: Cnut cyning; Old Norse: Knútr inn ríki Template:IPA-non;[lower-alpha 1] died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035.[2] The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire.

As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His later accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut sought to keep this power-base by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom. 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 there that called him king, but there is no narrative record of his occupation).[3] In 1031, Malcolm II of Scotland also submitted to him, though Anglo-Norse influence over Scotland was weak and ultimately did not last by the time of Cnut's death.[4][5]

Dominion of England 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 Norse–Gaels.[6] Cnut's possession of England's dioceses 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 prestige and leverage within the Catholic Church and among the magnates of Christendom (gaining notable concessions such as one on the price of the pallium of his bishops, though they still had to travel to obtain the pallium, as well as on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome). After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way back from Rome where he attended the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor, Cnut deemed himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes" in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects.[7] The Anglo-Saxon kings used the title "king of the English". Cnut was ealles Engla landes cyning—"king of all England". Medieval historian Norman Cantor called him "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".[8]


Birth and Kingship

Cnut was a son of the Danish prince Sweyn Forkbeard,[2] who was the son and heir to King Harald Bluetooth and thus came from a line of Scandinavian rulers central to the unification of Denmark.[9] Neither the place nor the date of his birth are known. Harthacnut I was the semi-legendary founder of the Danish royal house at the beginning of the 10th century, and his son, Gorm the Old, became the first in the official line (the 'Old' in his name indicates this). Harald Bluetooth, Gorm's son and Cnut's grandfather, was the Danish king at the time of the Christianization of Denmark; he became one of the first Scandinavian kings to accept Christianity.

The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg and the Encomium Emmae report Cnut's mother as having been Świętosława, a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland. Norse sources of the High Middle Ages, most prominently Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they call Gunhild, a daughter of Burislav, the king of Vindland.[10] 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.[11] To complicate the matter, Heimskringla and other sagas also have Sweyn marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, named Sigrid the Haughty, whom Sweyn only marries after Gunhild, the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, has died.[12] Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Sweyn's wives (or wife) have been advanced (see Sigrid the Haughty and Gunhild). But since Adam is the only source to equate the identity of Cnut's and Olof Skötkonung's mother, this is often seen as an error on Adam's part, 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 younger of the two brothers according to Encomium Emmae.

Some hint of Cnut's childhood can be found in the Flateyjarbók, a 13th-century Icelandic source that says he was taught his soldiery by the chieftain Thorkell the Tall,[13] brother to Sigurd, Jarl of Jomsborg, and the legendary Jomsvikings, at their 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 this. 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.[14] It also mentions a battle identifiable with Sweyn 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 Cnut indeed accompanied this expedition, his birthdate may be near 990, or even 980. If not, and if the skald's poetic verse references another assault, such as Sweyn's conquest of England in 1013–14, it may even suggest a birth date nearer 1000.[15] There is a passage of the Encomiast (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 appears in the 13th-century Icelandic Knýtlinga saga:

Knut was exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high-set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, being both more handsome and keener-sighted.
—Knytlinga Saga[16][17][18]

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, in his invasion of England in summer 1013. Cnut was likely part of his father's 1003 and 1004 campaigns in England, although the evidence is not firm.[19] The 1013 invasion was the climax to a succession of Viking raids spread over a number of decades. Following their landing in the Humber,[20] the kingdom fell to the Vikings quickly, and near the end of the year King Æthelred fled to Normandy, leaving Sweyn Forkbeard in possession of England. In the winter, Sweyn was in the process of consolidating his kingship, with Cnut left in charge of the fleet and the base of the army at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

On the death of Sweyn Forkbeard after a few months as king, on Candlemas (Sunday 3 February 1014),[21] Harald succeeded him as King of Denmark, while the Vikings and the people of the Danelaw immediately elected Cnut as king in England.[22] However, the English nobility took a different view, and the Witenagemot recalled Æthelred 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 in Kent.[23] Cnut went to Harald and supposedly made the suggestion they might have a joint kingship, although this found no favour with his brother.[22] 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.[22] In any case, Cnut succeeded in assembling a large fleet with which to launch another invasion.[23]

Bones at Winchester

Cnut died at Shaftesbury in Dorset and was buried in the Old Minster, Winchester.[2] With the events of 1066 the new regime of Normandy was keen to signal its arrival with an ambitious programme of grandiose cathedrals and castles throughout the High Middle Ages. Winchester Cathedral was built on the old Anglo-Saxon site and the previous burials, including Cnut's, were set in mortuary chests there.[2] During the English Civil War in the 17th century, plundering Roundhead soldiers scattered the bones of Cnut on the floor and they were spread amongst the various other chests, notably those of William Rufus. After the restoration of the monarchy, the bones were collected and replaced in their chests, although somewhat out of order.[24]

Marriages and children


Children


Offspring of Cnut the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton (c990-1036)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Swein Knutsson (c1016-1035) 1016 Denmark 1035 Denmark
Harold Harefoot (c1017-1040) 1017 Denmark 10 March 1040 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England


Offspring of Cnut the Great and Emma of Normandy (c985-1052)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Harthacnut (c1018-1042) 1018 England 8 June 1042 Lambeth, South London, England
Gunhilda of Denmark (c1020-1038) 1020 18 July 1038 Italy Heinrich III of the Holy Roman Empire (1017-1056)



Siblings


Offspring of Sweyn Forkbeard (963-1014) and Sigrid the Haughty (c964-)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Harald Svendsen (c990-1018) 990 Denmark 1018
Cnut (c990-1035) 990 Denmark 12 November 1035 Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, England Ælfgifu of Northampton (c990-1036)
Emma of Normandy (c985-1052)
Estrid Svendsdatter of Denmark (c997-c1065) 997 Denmark 1065 Robert I, Duke of Normandy (c1000-1035)
Gytha
Gunnhild
Santslaue
Thyra

Residences

References

  1. ^ "Cnut". Collins English Dictionary.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named weir
  3. ^ Graslund, B.,'Knut den store och sveariket: Slaget vid Helgea i ny belysning', Scandia, vol. 52 (1986), pp. 211–38.
  4. ^ Trow, Cnut, pp. 197–98.
  5. ^ ASC, Ms. D, s.a. 1031.
  6. ^ Forte, Oram & Pedersen 2005, p. 196.
  7. ^ Lawson 2004, p. 97.
  8. ^ Cantor, The Civilisation of the Middle Ages, 1995: 166.
  9. ^ Trow, Cnut, pp. 30–31.
  10. ^ Snorri, Heimskringla, The History of Olav Trygvason, ch. 34, p. 141
  11. ^ Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, Book II, ch. 37; see also Book II, ch. 33, Scholion 25
  12. ^ Snorri, Heimskringla, The History of Olav Trygvason, ch. 91, p. 184
  13. ^ Trow, Cnut, p. 44.
  14. ^ Douglas, English Historical Documents, pp. 335–36
  15. ^ Lawson 2004, p. 160.
  16. ^ Edwards, Paul and Pálsson, Hermann (trans.), Knytlinga saga: the history of the kings of Denmark, Odense University Press (1986), p. 43.
  17. ^ Trow, Cnut, p. 92.
  18. ^ John, H., The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, Penguin (1995), p. 122.
  19. ^ Howard, Ian (2003). Swein Forkbeard's Invasions and the Danish Conquest of England, 991– 1017. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 67. ISBN 0-85115-928-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=jzXp1yYjq94C. 
  20. ^ Ellis, Celt & Saxon, p. 182.
  21. ^ William of Malms., Gesta Regnum Anglorum, pp. 308–10
  22. ^ a b c Sawyer, History of the Vikings, p. 171
  23. ^ a b Lawson 2004, p. 27.
  24. ^ "Photo of a sign posted in Winchester Cathedral marking Cnut's mortuary chest, posted at the astoft.co.uk web site, retrieved 2009-07-25". http://www.astoft.co.uk/Dscn0764-405.jpg. 
  25. ^ Stafford 2004.

See Also

External links

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Search Wikisource Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Canute.
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Edmund II
as King of the English 		King of England
1016–1035 		Succeeded by
Harold I
Preceded by
Harald II 		King of Denmark
1018–1035 		Succeeded by
Harthacnut
Preceded by
Olaf the Saint 		King of Norway
1028–1035
with Hákon Eiríksson (1028–1029)
Sveinn Alfífuson (1030–1035) 		Succeeded by
Magnus the Good



Footnotes (including sources)

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