Norman Conquest Encyclopedia

Cnut, Knut or Canute, spellings vary, was the first Dane to be crowned king of England. He came to the throne in November 1016 after the death of Edmund Ironside, whom he had defeated at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex, and was crowned in Old St Paul's on 6 January 1017. He became king of Denmark a year later and of Norway in 1028. His dynasty did not survive in England. His eldest son Sweyn became king of Norway but died the year after his father in 1036, while his second son, Harold I, known as Harefoot, and his third son Harthacanute or Hardicanute were dead by 1042. The succession passed to Edward the Confessor who had been brought up in Normandy and thus favoured the Norman rather than the Viking influence. Under Cnut England enjoyed peace and prosperity. The Dane made peace with the forces in the north and west; Malcolm II of Scotland, Macbeth, and Margad Ragnallson and already subject to him was Thorfinn the Mighty of Orkney. The Anglo-Saxon interest in England was secured to Cnut by his appointment of Godwin as earl of Wessex and Godwin's marriages to Cnut's half-cousin Thyra and his more distant relative Gytha. Cnut died young, at about forty years of age, probably of disease, in 1035.

See also: Anglo-Saxon; Danes; Edward the Confessor; Godwin of Wessex; Norman; Viking

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