Best known as the king who sat on his throne on the foreshore as the tide came in and commanded the waves to retreat; it didn’t work and he and his courtiers ended up with wet feet. The king however wasn’t mad, or power crazy; he did it to prove wrong those flatterers, who insisted that he was so powerful that he could command even the sea to obey him.
In 1013 the young Canute accompanied his father King Sweyn (Svein) Forkbeard of Denmark when he invaded England. His father placed him in charge of the Danish army in Gainsborough and when his father died early in 1014 the army proclaimed Canute king. The English magnates however, voted for Ethelred the unready, who after being defeated by Sweyn had fled into exile in Normandy. Ethelred raise an army and returned; Canute and his army returned to Denmark.
While Canute was in England, his older brother Harold had become king of Denmark and wasn’t having any of it when Canute suggested they share power. Instead Harold promised to back Canute in a conquest of England, if he renounced his rights to the Danish Throne.
Canute returned to England with an army of 10,000 men in the summer of 1015 and landed in Essex. After subduing the population, he marched on Northumbria, where Earl Uchtred submitted to his rule. Despite his submission, Canute had Uchtred assassinated, supposedly for breaking an oath given to his father Sweyn Forkbeard, two years earlier.
In the spring of 1016 Canute sailed up the Thames and besieged London. Ethelred died during the siege and his son Edmund Ironsides became king.
Edmund broke free of London, raised an army and after several battles with the Danes, was beaten by them at the battle of Assendune (Ashingdon in Essex). Canute and Edmund agreed to divide the kingdom, Edmund ruling Wessex and Canute the rest of the country, but Edmund died suddenly – probably from the wounds he received in the battle – and Canute became sole king.
At first he dealt harshly with his English rivals, he had Edmund’s brother murdered and hounded Edmund’s children until they fled the country. But within a few years as he became secure in his reign, he became more even handed towards the English, he Married Ethelred’s widow Emma of Normanby and the kingdom enjoyed peace and prosperity
With his base in England secure Canute was free to pursue his claims on the Danish and Norwegian thrones and with his conquest of Norway in 1028 his new title became, “King of all England and of Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden”.
Canute died on the 12th of November 1035 and was buried in the Old Minster in Winchester.
