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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Canute Biography CANUTE, or CNUT, (c.995-1035). King of the English, Danes, and Norwegians, and known as the Great. He was the son of Sweyn, King of the Danes, and on the death of his father, in 1014, was proclaimed King of England by the warriors of the Danish fleet who were then ravaging the country. The Witan, however, summoned the old King, Ethelred, from his exile in Normandy, where he had been driven by Sweyn, and Canute was forced to flee to Denmark. He returned in 1015 with a powerful fleet and within a year made himself master of all England, save London, being chosen King by a Rump Witan after the death of Ethelred in 1016. The citizens of London proclaimed Edmund Ironside, son of Ethelred, King, and a fierce contest ensued in which London was twice besieged and five battles were fought, the decisive engagement occurring at Ashington, or Assandun, in Essex in 1016. Though Edmund was defeated, Canute, to avoid further resistance on his part, agreed to share the sovereignty with him, most of the south of England going to Edmund and the north to Canute, with the stipulation that on the death of either without heirs the full power was to revert to the survivor. Edmund Ironside died within a few weeks, in 1016, not without the suspicion of foul play on the part of Canute, who lost no time in securing his position as sole ruler of England. He had been noted for his cruelty, and now, to remove all potential rivals out of his way, he entered upon a rapid but systematic course of murder and persecution. By 1018 he had thoroughly pacified the country and considered himself strong enough to dispense with the support of the fleet, which he sent home to Denmark, keeping only the crews of 40 ships as a sort of bodyguard. In 1019 Canute went to claim the Kingdom of Denmark, as his brother had died, but remained only a few months. After 1020 the character of Canute's rule underwent a remarkable change. Mildness was substituted for severity, and respect for the laws for violence. The ancient customs of the country were confirmed and elaborated, and the administration of justice was securely founded. Englishmen were admitted to the highest offices in the land, and soon after this time the Saxon Earl Godwin laid the beginnings of his great power. Canute showed himself especially kindly to the clergy, whose rights he scrupulously respected and whose favor he gained by numerous benefactions to churches and monasteries. With the mass of the people he was popular on account of his liberality and an air of bluff good nature which he knew well how to assume. In 1027 he made a pilgrimage to Rome, describing the events of his journey in a letter to his people replete with moral exhortations and expressions of religious humility, which may be the result either of great naïveté or of fine histrionic skill. Canute was King of both England and Denmark and in 1028 he became ruler, also, of Norway, although his rule was contested until the death of King Olaf in 1030. Together with his conquests in the Wendic lands of Germany, he was therefore the master of a powerful northern empire, which, however, fell to pieces at his death. This occurred at Shaftesbury, Nov. 12, 1035. As King of England, Canute had displayed high talents for rule. by nature cruel and violent, he knew how to subordinate his passions to the interests of his government and his people; and, though practically a heathen at the time of his accession to the throne, he succeeded in winning the favor of a church which has associated one of the most beautiful of mediæval legends, that of the King and, the rising tide, with his name. Consult: Larson, Canute the Great (New York and London, 1912): Freeman, The Norman Conquest, vol. i (Oxford 1870); Green, The Conquest of England (London, 1883). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 487. |