On this day in 1016, Cnut the Great became King of England, and for a short time went on to create the ‘North Sea Empire’, uniting the thrones of Denmark, England, Norway and Scotland under the Raven banner.
On this day in 1016, Cnut the Great became King of England, and for a short time went on to create the ‘North Sea Empire’, uniting the thrones of Denmark, England, Norway and Scotland under the Raven banner.
29 comments
>Cnut was the ruler of substantial territories across northern Europe in the 11th century. He was the emperor of five kingdoms … Denmark, England, Wales, Scotland and Norway’, according to the work known as In Praise of Queen Emma, written for his second wife, Emma of Normandy. In a letter sent to England in 1027, Cnut was described as ‘king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and some of the Swedes’.
>Cnut was the son of Swein Forkbeard, king of Denmark (reigned 986–1014), and a Polish noblewoman. Epics composed for him suggest that he started fighting at a young age. He was probably still a teenager when his father died in 1014, after which his father’s army recognised Cnut as its new leader.
>In October 1016, Cnut decisively defeated forces led by the English king, Edmund Ironside (reigned 1066), at the Battle of Assandun. When Edmund died on 30 November 1016, Cnut became king of all England.
>Cnut probably succeeded to the throne of Denmark after the death of his brother, Harold, around 1019. He subsequently became king of Norway in 1028.
>There are also reports of Cnut fighting in Scotland. According to one manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 1031 Cnut went to Scotland and received the submission of three kings. One of these, Maelbaeth, may be a reference to the historical Macbeth.
>Cnut was a major figure in European politics. He attended the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II, in Rome in 1027, and he negotiated with the Pope to reduce the tolls on English merchants and pilgrims in Rome. He arranged for his daughter to marry Conrad II’s son and for his sister to marry the duke of Normandy. Cnut himself had initially married Ælfgifu of Northampton, an English noblewoman. In 1017, he then married Emma of Normandy, the widow of King Æthelred the Unready (reigned 978–1016). Cnut’s law-code was issued around 1020, and he also made active efforts to cultivate the English Church. In 1019, he issued a legal confirmation of the lands held by Christ Church, Canterbury, as recorded in the Cnut Gospels. With his wife, Queen Emma, he was a major donor to the New Minster, Winchester, as revealed in the New Minster Book of Life.
>Today, Cnut is remembered primarily for the fable about the king and the sea. This asserts that King Cnut sat on the seashore and tried to command the tide not to touch his feet, yet the sea ignored him.
Knud den Store
Checking the tempreture of the Channel, if it’s good to swim
Silly cnut
Loved playing at this in CK3 and forming the North sea empire.
Fuckin’ Cnut.
That’s a cool empire though
Raven Banner is way more metal than the Nordic Alliance.
I first misread that as “Cunt the Great” and was very confused, but it also made some sense.
Interesting thing about English history is that there’s only 3 people who are referred to with the title “Great”. The first is of course King Alfred the Great who’s ideas paved the way forward for English unity and the existence of England itself, bringing with him peace and the end to Viking raiders, albeit not forever. Then there is Cnut the Great, by conquering England he had actually eushered in an era of peace for much of the populace, religious monasteries were given gifts and he was viewed as generous to his subjects. Finally there is Churchill who is often colloquially called “The Great Winston Churchill” who you obviously know. In my opinion, it’s interesting to note that these 3 people’s involvement with England are remarkably different; founder, invaders and defender; yet amassed similar reputations in their time.
– So you see, if you stick your foot in the water, it becomes wet.
– Fascinating, your majesty!
*You can talk of your histories, and your legends to boot,*
*But there’s nowt to compare with the tale of Canute,*
*As he sat near to t’sea, with the tide coming in,*
*‘Cos he thought he could tell t’waves to hutch up for him.*
[Canute, by the Oldham Tinkers](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PPwxyU1GCgo)
Vinland saga is a good show
I’m jus reading about Norman conquest of england, this guy pops up a few times but Edward the Confessor is the man as it seems.
But he did good, conquered whole britain, but sucked for vikings he had bad choice of descendants, thus britaion returned to saxon rule after him.
Our history is just top notch! Romans, Celts, vikings and normans. So much has happened on these isles.
My dyslexia kicking in reading Cunt the Great, I had to go over it 4 times to make sure it’s not.
I had a cat named Cnut
“You see this shit, this is where my grand father came from and fucked your grandfather over” Quote of Cnut.
All hail Cunt the great
Uthred would be laughing at this title
“He must’ve thought that it was quite a joke
And I got a lot of laughs from a lots of folk
Seems I had to fight my whole life but,
Some gal would giggle and I’d turn red
And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head
I tell you, life ain’t easy for a boy named Cnut…”
Is cunt just Cnut with the letters re-arranged?
He looks mildly annoyed that the sea made his foot wet
And he would have gotten away with it too if not for those meddeling normans.
And then he became a cute polar bear.
Cnut
See this Brian, it’s water and it’s fucking wet – the Great Cunt, probably.
Feel like shit just want the North Sea Empire back 😢
“you see if we would have shoes to walk on water we could invade everyone around the north see”