CHAPTER XV

The Fall of Saint Olaf (Initial in the Flat-isle Book.)

Whatever the procedure employed, there can be no doubt that King Olaf was canonised in the summer of 1031 (August 3d is the date given) by popular act; nor can it be doubted that Elgiva resisted the act—she must have seen that the canonisation meant her own and her son's undoing. For she must surely have realised that political considerations were an important element in the devotion of the Norsemen to their new patron.

There was later a tradition among the monks of Nidaros that Canute at one time planned to establish a monastery in the northern capital.[452]If such an attempt was made, it evidently failed; but it would not be strange if the King should try to establish an institution where loyalty to the empire might be nursed and which might assist in uprooting nationalistic tendencies. If the attempt was made, it was probably soon after the canonisation, when it became important to divert attention from the new cult.

For the worship of Saint Olaf spread withastonishing rapidity not only through Norway but through the entire North and even farther. The Church had saints in great number; but here was one from the very midst of the Scandinavian people. Moreover, Saint Olaf was a saint whom the men of the day could appreciate: he was of their own type, with the strength of Thor and the wisdom of Woden; they had seen him and felt the edge of his ax. So all along the shores that Olaf the Stout had plundered in his earlier heathen days churches arose dedicated to the virile saint of the North.[453]

There were other difficulties, too, that the regents had to contend with. Hunger stalked over the land. The Norwegian people had always been accustomed to hold their kings responsible for the state of the harvest; they were to secure the favour of the gods; a failure of crops meant that this duty had been shirked. The feeling lingered for some time after the disappearance of heathendom. Sweyn was only a youth and was not held responsible; the blame fell upon the hated Queen-mother and the hard years of her rule were known as the "Alfiva-time." The general discontent is expressed in a contemporary fragment attributed to Sighvat:

Alfiva's time our sons willLong remember; then ate weFood more fit for oxen,Shavings the fare of he-goats.It was not thus when the nobleOlaf governed the Norsemen;Then could we all boast ofCorn-filled barns and houses.[454]

And Thorarin Praise-tongue in the Shrine-song addressed to Sweyn the son of Canute urges the young regent to seek the favour of the new saint, "the mighty pillar of the book-language":

Pray thou to Olaf that he grant thee(He is a man of God) all his land rights;For he can win from God himselfPeace to men and good harvests.[455]

In 1033, a revolt broke out in Norway in the interest of one Trygve, a pretended son of Olaf Trygvesson and an English mother. The attempt failed; the Norse chiefs had other plans. In Russia was Magnus, the illegitimate son of the holy King, now about nine or ten years old; him had the chiefs determined upon as their future leader. Early the next year an embassy was sent to Russia led by the two magnates Einar and Kalf. Here oaths were sworn and plans were laid, and in the following spring (1035) Magnus Olafsson appeared in Norway as the foster son of Kalf who had led his father's banesmen at Stiklestead.

From the moment when Magnus set foot on his native soil Norway was lost to the empire. Sweynwas farther south in his kingdom when news came of revolt in the Throndelaw. He promptly summoned the yeomanry, but feeling that their devotion to him was a matter of grave doubt, he gave up his plans of resistance and fled to his brother Harthacanute in Denmark, where he died less than a year later.[456]His mother Elgiva evidently withdrew to England, where the death of Canute the following November doubtless gave her another opportunity to play the politician.

So far as we know, Canute made no effort to dislodge Magnus. It may be true that he was ill; or perhaps the power of the Church restrained him: Magnus was the son of a saint; would not the martyred King enlist the powers of heaven on the side of his son? But it was probably want of time and not lack of interest and purpose that prevented reconquest. There is an indication that Canute was preparing for important movements: at Whitsuntide, 1035, while the imperial court was at Bamberg, he was renewing his friendship with the Emperor and arranging for the marriage of his daughter Gunhild to the future Henry III.[457]Perhaps we should see in this a purpose to secure the southern frontier in anticipation of renewed hostilities in the North.

But whatever may have been Canute's plans, they were never carried out—the hand of death came in between. On Wednesday, November 12,1035, the great Dane saw the last of earth at Shaftesbury, an old town on the Dorset border, a day's journey from the capital. The remains were brought to Winchester and interred in the Old Minster,[458]an ancient abbey dedicated to the chief of the Apostles, which Canute had remembered so liberally earlier in the year.

We have already noted the tradition reported by both Norse and English writers that his death was preceded by a long and serious illness; one of the sagas states that the fatal disease was jaundice.[459]There would be nothing incredible in this, but the evidence is not of the best. The fact that death came to him not in the residential city but in the neighbouring town of Shaftesbury seems to indicate that he was at the time making one of his regular progresses through the country, as seems to have been his custom.[460]In that case the illness could hardly have been a protracted one.

It is likely, however, that Canute was not physically robust; he died in the prime of manhood, having scarcely passed the fortieth year; and he seems not to have transmitted much virility to his children. Three sons and a daughter were born to him, but within seven years of his own death they had all joined him in the grave. Sweyn, who seems to have been the oldest, died a few monthsafter his father, perhaps in the early part of 1036. Gunhild followed in 1038; Harold in 1040; and Harthacanute in 1042. With Harthacanute passed away the last male representative of the Knytling family; after a few years the crown of Denmark passed to the descendants of Canute's sister Estrid, to the son of the murdered Ulf.

None of Canute's children seems to have attained a real maturity: Harold and Harthacanute probably reached their twenty-fourth year; Sweyn died at the age of perhaps twenty-two; Gunhild could not have been more than eighteen when she laid down the earthly crown. There is no reason for thinking that any of them was degenerate with the exception of Harold Harefoot, and in his case we have hostile testimony only; at the same time, they were all surely lacking in bodily strength and vigour.

Nor is there any reason for thinking that these weaknesses were maternal inheritances, for the women that Canute consorted with were evidently strong and vigorous and both of them survived him. We know little of the concubine Elgiva except that she was proud and imperious, on fire with ambition for herself and her sons. Emma was a woman of a similar type. Canute apparently found it inconvenient to have the two in the same kingdom, and when the mistress returned to England after the Norse revolt, we seem to see her hand in the consequent intrigues. Queen Emma survived her husband more than sixteenyears; "on March 14 [1052], died the Old Lady, the mother of King Edward and Harthacanute, named Imme, and her body lies in the Old Minster with King Canute."[461]At the time of her death she must have been in the neighbourhood of seventy years of age.

Of Canute's personality we know nothing. The portraits on his coins, if such rude drawings can be called portraits, give us no idea of his personal appearance. Nor is the picture in theLiber Vitælikely to be more than an idealistic representation. Idealistic, too, no doubt, is the description of Canute in theKnytlingasaga, composed two centuries or more after his time:

Canute the King was large of build and very strong, a most handsome man in every respect except that his nose was thin and slightly aquiline with a high ridge. He was fair in complexion, had an abundance of fair hair, and eyes that surpassed those of most men both as to beauty and keenness of vision.[462]

The writer adds that he was liberal in dealing with men, brave in fight, favoured of fortune, but not wise. Except for the details as to the nose, which give the reader the feeling that the writer may, after all, have had some authentic source of information at his disposal, this picture would describe almost any one of the heroic figures of the time.

On his own contemporaries Canute made a profound impression which succeeding generations have shared. In Britain he was called the Great; in Scandinavia the Rich, the Mighty or the Powerful. The extent of his possessions, the splendour of his court, the size of his navy, his intimate relations with Pope and Emperor—all these things gave him a position and a prestige that was unheard of in the Northlands. And it was indeed a marvellous achievement for a pirate chief from a nation just emerging from heathendom to gather into his power the realms and territories that made up the Knytling empire.

To analyse a character such as that of Canute is a difficult task, as character analysis always must be. There was so much that was derived from a heathen time and ancestry, and also so much that had been acquired by contact with Christian culture and influences, that the result could be only a strange composite out of which traits and characteristics, often contradictory and hostile, would come to the surface as occasion would suggest. Canute was a Christian, probably baptised in his youth by some German ecclesiastic, as the Christian name Lambert, which in harmony with custom was added to the one that he already possessed, seems distinctly German. But the new name was evidently not much employed, except, perhaps, on occasions when the King wished to emphasise his Christian character. He seems to have entered into some sort of fraternal relationswith the monks of Bremen: in the book of our brotherhood, says Adam the monk, he is named Lambert, King of the Danes.[463]

The historians of Old English times, both Saxon and Norman, were ecclesiastics and saw the reign of Canute from their peculiar view-point. To them the mighty Dane was the great Christian King, the founder of monasteries, the giver of costly gifts and valuable endowments to the houses of God. To the undisputed traits of Christian liberality, they added those of piety and humility, and told stories of the visit to the monks of Ely and of Canute's vain attempt to stem the tides and compel their obedience. The former is probably a true story; there is no reason why the King, who seems to have taken great interest in the abbeys of the Fenlands, should not have visited the cloisters of Ely, and he may have been attracted by the chants of the monks, which is more doubtful. But the tale of how Canute had to demonstrate his powerlessness before his admiring courtiers is a myth too patent to need discussion.[464]There was nothing of the Oriental spirit in the Northern courts.

That Canute was religious cannot be denied. Nor should we doubt that he was truly and honestly so, as religion passed among the rulersof the age. The time demanded defence and support of the priesthood, and this Canute granted, at least toward the close of his life. Perhaps in real piety, too, he was the equal of his contemporaries whom the Church has declared holy: Saint Stephen of Hungary, Saint Henry of Germany, and Saint Olaf of Norway. Still, it becomes evident as we follow his career that at no period of his life, unless it be in the closing years of which we know so little, did Canute permit consideration for the Church or the Christian faith to control his actions or determine his policies. The moving passion of Canute's life was not a fiery zeal for the exaltation of the Church, but a yearning for personal power and imperial honours.

In the Northern sources written by laymen, especially in the verses of the wandering scalds, we get a somewhat different picture of Canute from that which has been painted in the English cloisters. Little emphasis is here placed on Canute's fidelity to the new faith; here we have the conqueror, the diplomat, the politician whose goal is success, be the means what they may. The wholesale bribery that he employed to the ruin of Saint Olaf, the making and breaking of promises to the Norwegian chiefs, and the treatment of his sister's family suggest a sense of honour that was not delicate, a passion for truth that was not keen. In his preference for devious ways, in the deliberate use that he made of the lower passions of men, he shows a characteristic that isnot Northern. All was not honest frankness in the Scandinavian lands; but the pirates and their successors, as a rule, did not prefer bribery and falsehood to open battle and honest fight.

Slavic ancestry, Christian culture, Anglo-Saxon ideas, and the responsibilities of a great monarchy did much to develop and modify a character which was fundamentally as much Slavic as Scandinavian. Still, deep in his strong soul lay unconquered the fierce passions that ruled the viking age—pitiless cruelty, craving for revenge, consuming hatred, and lust for power. As a rule he seems to have been humane and merciful; he believed in orderly government, in security for his subjects; but when an obstacle appeared in the path of his ambitions, he had little scruple as to the means to be employed in removing it. The mutilation of the hostages at Sandwich, the slaughter and outlawry of earls and ethelings in the early years of his rule in England, the assassination of Ulf in Roeskild church suggest a spirit that could be terrible when roused. Something can be said for Canute in all these instances: Ulf was probably a traitor; the hostages represented broken pledges; the ethelings were a menace to his rule. But why was the traitor permitted to live until he had helped the King in his sorest straits; and what was to be gained by the mutilation of innocent Englishmen; and was there no other way to make infants harmless than to decree their secret death in a foreign land?

Canute possessed in full measure the Scandinavian power of adaptation, the quality that made the Northmen such a force in Normandy and Naples. He grasped the ideals of mediæval Christianity, he appreciated the value of the new order of things, and undertook to introduce it among the Northern peoples. But he did not permit the new circumstances and ideals to control him; only so long as they served his purpose or did not hinder him in the pursuit of that purpose did he bow to them. When other means promised to be more effective, he chose accordingly.

The empire that he founded did not survive him; it had begun to crumble in his own day; the English crown was soon lost to the Danish dynasty. It would appear, therefore, as if the conqueror accomplished nothing that was permanent. But the achievements of genius cannot be measured in such terms only: the great movement that culminated in the subjection of Britain was of vast importance for the North; it opened up new fields for Western influences; it brought the North into touch with Christian culture; it rebuilt Scandinavian civilisation. These are the more enduring results of the reign and the preceding expeditions to the West. At the same time, Canute's reign minimised the influence that was working northward from the German outposts. The connection with England was soon interrupted; but while it endured the leavening process made rapid spread and the Northerncountries were enabled to absorb into their culture much that has remained a native possession.

To England Canute brought the blessings of good government. For nearly twenty years England had peace. Troubles there were on the Scotch and Welsh borders; but these were of slight importance compared with the earlier ravages of the vikings. It is true, indeed, that the Danish conquest paved the way for the later invasion by the Normans; but this was a result that Canute had not intended. It was not a part of his plan to have the sons of his consort educated in Normandy; at the same time, he was not in position to take such steps in their case as he may have wished, for they were the sons of his own Queen.

In his early years Canute was a viking; when he died the viking age had practically come to its close. Various influences contributed to this result: the new creed with its new conceptions of human duty; new interests and wider fields of ambition in the home lands; and the imperial position of Canute. We do not know that Canute at any time issued any decree against the practice of piracy; but he gained the same end by indirect means. The viking chiefs evidently entered his service in large numbers either in the English guard or in the government of the eastern domains. Furthermore, as the dominant ruler of the northern shores, as the ally of the Emperor and the friend of the Norman duke, he was able to closefairly effectually the Baltic, the North, and the Irish Seas together with the English Channel to viking fleets; and the raven was thus forced to fly for its prey to the distant shores beyond Brittany. Piracy continued in a desultory way throughout the eleventh century; but it showed little vigour after Canute's accession to the Danish kingship.

FOOTNOTES:[442]The author has discussed this subject further in theAmerican Historical Review, xv., 741-742.[443]Larson,The King's Household in England, 141.[444]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, No. 749.[445]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 748, 750, 751, 1322. The Croyland charter is clearly a forgery, but Canute may have made the grant none the less as the forged charters frequently represent an attempt to replace a genuine document that has been lost or destroyed.[446]Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, i., 443.[447]Annales Monastici, ii., 16.[448]Matthew Paris,Chronica Majora, i., 509.[449]Munch,Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 814.[450]Taranger,Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske, 176.[451]Snorre,Saga of Saint Olaf, c. 244. For the preliminary steps see cc. 239-243.[452]Matthew Paris,Chronica Majora, v., 42.[453]Daae,Norges Helgener, 48-60.[454]Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 144.[455]Ibid., 161.[456]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, cc. 4, 5.[457]Manitius,Deutsche Geschichte, 411-412.[458]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,1035;Encomium Emmæ, iii., c. I.[459]Knytlingasaga, c. 18.[460]Historia Rameseiensis, 135.[461]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1052.[462]C. 20.[463]Gesta, schol. 38.[464]The story must have arisen soon after the Danish period; it is first told by Henry of Huntingdon who wrote two generations later.Historia Anglorum, 89.

[442]The author has discussed this subject further in theAmerican Historical Review, xv., 741-742.

[443]Larson,The King's Household in England, 141.

[444]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, No. 749.

[445]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 748, 750, 751, 1322. The Croyland charter is clearly a forgery, but Canute may have made the grant none the less as the forged charters frequently represent an attempt to replace a genuine document that has been lost or destroyed.

[446]Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, i., 443.

[447]Annales Monastici, ii., 16.

[448]Matthew Paris,Chronica Majora, i., 509.

[449]Munch,Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 814.

[450]Taranger,Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske, 176.

[451]Snorre,Saga of Saint Olaf, c. 244. For the preliminary steps see cc. 239-243.

[452]Matthew Paris,Chronica Majora, v., 42.

[453]Daae,Norges Helgener, 48-60.

[454]Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii., 144.

[455]Ibid., 161.

[456]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, cc. 4, 5.

[457]Manitius,Deutsche Geschichte, 411-412.

[458]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,1035;Encomium Emmæ, iii., c. I.

[459]Knytlingasaga, c. 18.

[460]Historia Rameseiensis, 135.

[461]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1052.

[462]C. 20.

[463]Gesta, schol. 38.

[464]The story must have arisen soon after the Danish period; it is first told by Henry of Huntingdon who wrote two generations later.Historia Anglorum, 89.

King Canute was dead, but the great king-thought that he lived for, the policy of his dynasty, their ambition to unite the Northern peoples in the old and new homes under one sceptre persisted after his death. Historians have generally believed that Canute had realised the impossibility of keeping long united the three crowns that he wore in his declining years, and had made preparation for a division of the empire among his three sons. In the year of his death one son is found in England, one in Denmark, and one in Norway; hence it is believed that like Charlemagne before him he had executed some sort of a partition, so as to secure something for each of the three. Such a conclusion, however, lacks the support of documentary authority and is based on a mistaken view of the situation in the empire in 1035.

We should remember in the first place that when Harthacanute and Sweyn received the royal title(in 1028 and 1030), Canute cannot have been more than thirty-five years old, and at that age rulers are not in the habit of transferring their dominions to mere boys. In the second place, these two sons were sent to the North, not to exercise an independent sovereignty, but to represent the royal authority that resided at Winchester. Finally, there is no evidence that Canute at any time intended to leave England or any other kingdom to his son Harold. The probabilities are that he hoped to make the empire a permanent creation; perhaps he expected it to become in time wholly Scandinavian, as it already was to a large extent, except in the comparatively small area of Wessex.

Canute's policy is revealed in the act at Nidaros, discussed in an earlier chapter, when in the presence of lords from all his realms, he led Harthacanute to the high seat and thus proclaimed him a king of his own rank. That Denmark was intended for the young King is undisputed. England was to be added later. The Encomiast tells as that when Harthacanute had grown up (evidently toward the close of Canute's reign) all England was bound by oath to the sovereignty of Harthacanute.[465]The early promise that Canute made to Queen Emma was apparently to be kept. Most likely, the loyalty that Godwin and other West Saxon magnates showed to the King's legitimate heir is to be explained, not by assuminga pro-Danish sentiment, but by this oath, surely taken in England, perhaps earlier at Nidaros.

The situation in Norway, however, made it difficult to carry out Canute's wishes. On the high seat in the Throndelaw sat Magnus the son of Saint Olaf. To be the son of a saint was a great asset in the middle ages; in addition Magnus had certain native qualities of the kingly type and soon developed into a great warrior. Knowing that war was inevitable, Magnus began hostilities and carried the warfare into Danish waters.[466]It was this difficulty that prevented Harthacanute from appearing promptly in England in the winter of 1035-1036, when Harold Harefoot was planning to seize the throne.

After the flight of her son Sweyn in the summer of 1035, Elgiva is almost lost to history. Apparently she retired to England, where she played the part of Queen-mother during the reign of her son Harold: in a will of Bishop Alfric we find the testator giving two marks of gold to King Harold and one mark to my lady.[467]As we do not find that the King had either wife or children the presumption is that the lady was his mother, the woman from Northampton.

We may then conjecture that the struggle for the English crown in the winter following Canute's death was at bottom a fight between the two women who bore Canute's children, each with ason to place in the high seat, each with a party devoted to her cause, each with a section of the country ready to follow her lead. Elgiva had her strength in the Danelaw; there were her kinsmen, and there her family had once been prominent. Queen Emma was strongest in the south; on her side were Earl Godwin and the housecarles.[468]

The sources that relate the events of these months are anything but satisfactory and their statements are sometimes vague or ambiguous. But it is clear that soon after the throne became vacant (thirteen days, if the Chronicler is accurate)[469]a meeting of the "wise men" was held at Oxford, the border city where Danes and Saxons had so frequently met in common assembly. At this meeting, as theChroniclehas it, the northern magnates led by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and supported by the Danes in London, "chose Harold to hold all England, him and his brother Harthacanute who was in Denmark." To this arrangement Godwin opposed all his influence and eloquence; but though he was supported by the lords of Wessex, "he was able to accomplish nothing." It was finally agreed that Queen Emma and the royal guard should continue to hold Wessex for Harthacanute.[470]The north was evidently turned over to Harold.

The decision reached at Oxford has been variously interpreted. At first glance it looks as if the kingdom was again divided along the line of the Thames valley. The statement of the Chronicler that Harold "was full King over all England" seems not to have been strictly contemporary but written after the King had seized the whole. What was done at Oxford was probably to establish an under-kingship of the sort that Canute had provided for Norway and Denmark. The overlordship of Harthacanute may have been recognised, but the administration was divided. This did not necessarily mean to the Scandinavian mind that the realm was divided; in the history of the North various forms of joint kingship are quite common.

For one year this arrangement was permitted to stand; but in 1037, Harold was taken to king over all England—the nation forsook Harthacanute because he tarried too long in Denmark.[471]Emma was driven from the land, perhaps to satisfy the jealousy of her rival Elgiva. The cause for the revolution of 1037 is unknown; but we may conjecture that intrigue was at work on both sides. Possibly the appearance of Emma's son Alfred in England the year before may have roused a sense of fear in the English mind and may have hastened the movement.

Sorrows now began to fall heavily upon England. In 1039, the Welsh made inroads and slew severalof the Mercian lords. A "great wind" scattered destruction over the land. A remarkable mortality appeared among the bishops, four dying in 1038 and one more in 1039. The following year died Harold, whose unkingly and un-Christian behaviour was no doubt regarded as the cause of these calamities. He died at Oxford and was buried at Westminster. The same year Harthacanute joined his mother at Bruges, whither she had fled when exiled from England.[472]

It was neither listless choice nor lack of kinglike interest that had detained Harthacanute in Denmark; it was the danger that threatened from Norway. Hostilities seem to have begun in the spring of 1036 and to have continued for about two years. The war was finally closed with an agreement at the Brenn-isles near the mouth of the Gaut River in south-western Sweden. According to this the two young kings became sworn brothers, and it was stipulated that if the one should die leaving no heirs, the other should succeed him.[473]It was not so much of a treaty on the part of the kings as of the chief men of the kingdoms, as both peoples were evidently tiring of the warfare.

Perhaps that which most of all determined the Danes to seek peace was the news that Harold had seized the government of all England the previous year. This must have happened latein the year, as the Chronicler tells us that Queen Emma was driven out of England "without pity toward the stormy winter." In Norway there was no party that still favoured the Knytlings; the situation in England looked more favourable. Evidently Harthacanute's counsellors had concluded that his inherited rights in Britain should be claimed and defended.

Harthacanute came to Bruges with a small force only; but it was probably the plan to use Flanders as a base from which to descend upon England. Nothing seems to have been done in 1039, however, except, perhaps, to prepare for a campaign in the coming spring. But for this there was no need: before the winter was past, Harold lay dead at Oxford. History knows little about the fleet-footed Prince; but from what has been recorded we get the impression of a violent, ambitious youth, one to whom power was sweet and revenge sweeter. So far as we know, government in his day was poor both in state and church. Oxford, it seems, was his residential city.

After Harold's death messengers came from England to Bruges to summon Harthacanute. The succession was evidently not settled without some negotiations, for Harthacanute must have waited two months or more before he left Flanders. No doubt the chiefs who had placed his half-brother on the throne were unwilling to submit without guarantees; their behaviour had not been such as to render their future secure. Just before midsummerHarthacanute finally arrived in England with sixty ships; he was crowned probably on June 18th.[474]For two years he ruled the country but "he did nothing kinglike."[475]Partly as a punishment, perhaps, he made England pay for the expedition that he had just fitted out, and consequently forfeited what favour he had at the very beginning.

Harthacanute is described as a sickly youth, and a Norman historian assures us that on account of his ill-health he kept God before his mind and reflected much on the brevity of human life.[476]He seems to have been of a kindly disposition, as appears from his dealings with his half-brother Edward. His sudden death at a henchman's wedding is not to be attributed to excesses but to the ailment from which he suffered. But the drunken laugh of the bystanders[477]indicates that the world did not fully appreciate that with Harthacanute perished the dynasty of Gorm.

Three men now stood forth as possible candidates for the throne of Alfred: Magnus the Good, now King of Denmark and Norway, Harthacanute's heir by oath and adoption; Sweyn, the son of Canute's sister Estrid, his nearest male relative and the ranking member of the Danish house, a prince who was probably an Englishman by birth,and whose aunt was the wife of Earl Godwin; and Edward, later known as the Confessor, who strangely enough represented what national feeling there might be in England, though of such feeling he himself was probably guiltless. It may be remarked in passing that all these candidates were sons of men whom Canute had deeply wronged, men whom he had deprived of life or hounded to death.

There is no good evidence that Edward was ever formally elected King of England. Harthacanute died at Lambeth, only a few miles from London. "And before the King was buried all the folk chose Edward to be King in London," says one manuscript of theChronicle. If this be true, there could have been no regular meeting of the magnates. The circumstances seem to have been somewhat in the nature of a revolution headed no doubt by the anti-Danish faction in London.

That Edward was enabled to retain the crown was due largely, we are told, to the efforts of Canute's two old friends, Earl Godwin and Bishop Lifing.[478]The situation was anything but simple. The election of Magnus would restore Canute's empire, but it might also mean English and Danish revolts. To elect Sweyn would mean war with Magnus, Sweyn claiming Denmark and Magnus England. At the time the Danish claimant was making most trouble, for Sweyn seems to have arrived in England soon after Edward was proclaimed.All that he secured, however, was the promise that he should be regarded as Edward's successor.[479]It was doubtless well known among the English lords that the new King was inclined to, and probably pledged to a celibate life. We do not know whether Englishmen were at this time informed of the ethelings in Hungary. To most men it must have seemed likely that Alfred's line would expire with Edward; under the circumstances Sweyn was the likeliest heir.

With the accession of Edward, the Empire of the North was definitely dissolved. Fundamentally it was based on the union of England and Denmark, a union that was now repudiated. Still, the hope of restoring it lingered for nearly half a century. Three times the kings of the North made plans to reconquer England, but in each instance circumstances made successful operations impossible. After the death of Magnus in 1047, the three old dynasties once more controlled their respective kingdoms, though in the case of both Denmark and Norway the direct lines had perished. The Danish high seat alone remained to the Knytlings, now represented by Sweyn, the son of Estrid and the violent Ulf for whose tragic death the nation had now atoned.

FOOTNOTES:[465]Encomium Emmæ, ii., c. 19.[466]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, c. 6.[467]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, No. 759.[468]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1035.[469]TheChronicle(Ann. 1039 [1040]) states that Harold died March 17, 1040, and that he ruled four years and sixteen weeks. This would date his accession as November 25, 1035.[470]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1036 [1035].[471]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1037.[472]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1039 [1040].[473]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, c. 6.[474]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 421.[475]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1040.[476]Duchesne,Scriptores, 179 (William of Poitiers).[477]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1042.[478]Florence of Worcester,Chronicon, i., 196-197.[479]Adamus,Gesta, ii., c. 74.

[465]Encomium Emmæ, ii., c. 19.

[466]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, c. 6.

[467]Kemble,Codex Diplomaticus, No. 759.

[468]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1035.

[469]TheChronicle(Ann. 1039 [1040]) states that Harold died March 17, 1040, and that he ruled four years and sixteen weeks. This would date his accession as November 25, 1035.

[470]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1036 [1035].

[471]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1037.

[472]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1039 [1040].

[473]Snorre,Saga of Magnus the Good, c. 6.

[474]Steenstrup,Normannerne, iii., 421.

[475]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1040.

[476]Duchesne,Scriptores, 179 (William of Poitiers).

[477]Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1042.

[478]Florence of Worcester,Chronicon, i., 196-197.

[479]Adamus,Gesta, ii., c. 74.

I.—CANUTE'S PROCLAMATION OF 1020[480]

1. Canute the King sends friendly greetings to his archbishops and suffragan bishops and to Thurkil the Earl and all his earls and to all his subjects in England, nobles and freemen, clerks and laymen.

2. And I make known to you that I will be a kind lord and loyal to the rights of the Church and to right secular law.

3. I have taken to heart the word and the writing that Archbishop Lifing brought from Rome from the Pope, that I should everywhere extol the praise of God, put away injustice, and promote full security and peace by the strength that God should give me.

4. Now I did not spare my treasures while unpeace was threatening to come upon you; with the help of God I have warded this off by the use of my treasures.

5. Then I was informed that there threatened us a danger that was greater than was well pleasing to us; and then I myself with the men who went with me departed for Denmark, whence came to you the greatest danger; and that I have with God's help forestalled, so that henceforth no unpeace shall cometo you from that country, so long as you stand by me as the law commands, and my life lasts.

6. Now I give thanks to God Almighty for His aid and His mercy in that I have averted the great evil that threatened us; so that from thence we need fear no evil, but may hope for full aid and deliverance if need be.

7. Now I will that we all humbly thank Almighty God for the mercy that He has done to our help.

8. Now I command my archbishops and all my suffragan bishops that they take due care as to the rights of the Church, each one in the district that is committed to him; and also my ealdormen I command, that they help the bishops to the rights of the Church and to the rights of my kingship and to the behoof of all the people.

9. Should any one prove so rash, clerk or layman, Dane or Angle, as to violate the laws of the Church or the rights of my kingship, or any secular statute, and refuse to do penance according to the instruction of my bishops, or to desist from his evil, then I request Thurkil the Earl, yea, even command him, to bend the offender to right, if he is able to do so.

10. If he is not able, then will I that he with the strength of us both destroy him in the land or drive him out of the land, be he of high rank or low.

11. And I also command my reeves, by my friendship and by all that they own and by their own lives, that they everywhere govern my people justly and give right judgments by the witness of the shire bishop and do such mercy therein as the shire bishop thinks right and the community can allow.

12. And if any one harbour a thief or hinder thepursuit, he shall be liable to punishment equal to that of the thief, unless he shall clear himself before me with full purgation.

13. And I will that all the people, clerks and laymen, hold fast the laws of Edgar which all men have chosen and sworn to at Oxford;

14. for all the bishopssay that the Church demands a deep atonement for the breaking of oaths and pledges.

15. And they further teach us that we should with all our might and strength fervently seek, love, and worship the eternal merciful God and shun all unrighteousness, that is, slaying of kinsmen and murder, perjury, familiarity with witches and sorceresses, and adultery and incest.

16. And further, we command in the name of Almighty God and of all His saints, that no man be so bold as to marry a nun or a consecrated woman;

17. and if any one has done so, let him be an outlaw before God and excommunicated from all Christendom, and let him forfeit all his possessions to the King, unless he quickly desist from sin and do deep penance before God.

18. And further still we admonish all men to keep the Sunday festival with all their might and observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and let no man be so bold as to buy or sell or to seek any court on that holy day.

19. And let all men, poor and rich, seek their church and ask forgiveness for their sins and earnestly keep every ordained fast and gladly honour the saints, as the mass priest shall bid us,

20. that we may all be able and permitted, throughthe mercy of the everlasting God and the intercession of His saints, to share the joys of the heavenly kingdom and dwell with Him who liveth and reigneth for ever without end. Amen.

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