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Revision as of 09:00, 23 February 2002 by David Parker (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Canute (or Cnut) (994/995-1035), Danish Knud den Store, "Canute the Great", king of England, Denmark and Norway, was the son of king Sweyn I (Sweyn Forkbeard) of Denmark and his queen Gunhild (formerly Swiatoslawa, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland).
Accompanying his father's successful invasion of England in August 1013, Canute was proclaimed king by the Danish fleet on Sweyn's death the following February, but returned to Demnark (April 1014) on the restoration of the defeated king Ethelred the Unready by the Wienagemot of English nobles.
Invading England once more (August 1015), Canute fought a series of inconclusive conflicts with the English led by Ethelred and (from April 1016) his son, Edmund Ironside until his crushing victory (October 1016) at Assandun (Ashingdon, Essex). Meeting on an island in the river Severn, Canute and Edmund agreed to divide the kingdom, but Edmund's death (November 1016) left Canute as sole ruler, leading to his acclamation as king by the Witenagemot in January 1017.
As king of England, Canute combined English and Danish institutions and personnel. His mutilation in April 1014 of the hostages taken by his father in pledge of English loyalty is remembered above all as being uncharacteristic of his rule.
By dividing the country (1017) after the Danish fashion into the four great earldoms of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria, he instituted the system of territorial lordships which would underlie English government for centuries. In 1018 he felt secure enough to send the invasion fleet back to Demnark with a payment of £72,000.
In order to associate his line with the overthrown English dynasty and to insure himself against attack from Normandy (place of exile of Ethelred's sons Edward and Alfred, Canute married (July 1017) Ethelred's widow Emma of Normandy, later designating their son Harthacanute as heir in preference to Harold, his illegitimate son by Algifu of Northampton (earlier Ethelred's first wife).
In 1018 (or 1019) Canute succeeded his elder brother Harold II as king of Denmark, and in 1028 he conquered Norway with a fleet of fifty ships from England: his attempt to govern Norway through Algifu and Harold ended, however, in rebellion and the restoration of the former Norwegian dynasty under Magnus I.
On his death in November 1035, Canute was succeeded in Denmark by Harthacanute, reigning as Canute II: Harold took power in England, however, ruling until his death (1040), whereupon the two crowns were again briefly reunited under Harthacanute.