Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut the Great, was the son of a Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, meaning he was the prince of Denmark. However, he was the second son of Sweyn, and so did not expect to get the throne until after his brother Harald II died, which could happen after Canutes death, meaning he might never get the throne. After his father died and his brother became king Canute became impatient for a throne and a kingdom of his own, so he decided to conquer a different kingdom so as to become king. The kingdom he had in mind was none other than England. He recruited a large number of Viking warriors, in addition to a large portion of the army that his brother Harald gave him, since it was a good idea to have your brother on a neighboring throne. Canute managed to conquer Northern England, and successfully laid siege to London, where the king was. They worked out a treaty where Canute would rule North England and Edmund would rule South England until he died, then Canute could rule all of England. Rather suspiciously, Edmund died only three weeks later, making Canute the king of all England. Two years after this Canutes brother Harald died, and the throne went to Canute, surprisingly quickly. Because of this Canute had more power in northern Europe then anyone else. He used this to conquer large parts of Norway, and he exerted extreme influence over Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden, though he never became king of those places. In Denmark he was a well loved king, particularly among the Vikings because of his battle skills, which he had showed off when he conquered England. The Norwegians could respect him for the same reasons that the Danes loved him, but never loved him because he was a foreigner who had conquered them, and so revolted many times. The English didn’t like him at first and hated the idea of being ruled by a Viking barbarian, but over time as he slowed down the number of Viking raids (because he didn’t want his people raiding his other people) they grew to like him, and he would often pay for new churches to be built and for the old ones (that his own men had destroyed) to be rebuilt. This was a good recipe for a well liked king, since the people of England put a lot of stock in what the church said, and since he was practically bribing the church, it said he was a good guy, so he became known as Canute the Great instead of Canute the Terrible. Sadly, (for the Danes) this North Sea Empire cracked and split back into the three individual kingdoms after Canute died in 1032, with England going to Harold I, Norway to Magnus the Good, and Denmark to his son Harthacnut.