Canute, a Latinised form of CNUT, called the Great, and by Scandinavian writers the Mighty and the Old, king of the English, Danes, and Norwegians, was born about 994, the son of Sweyn, king of Denmark, by Sigrid, widow of Eric, king of Sweden. His father died in England in his career of conquest (1014), and Cnut was at once chosen by his fleet king of England, while his elder brother, Harold, succeeded as king of Denmark. But the
Witan sent for Ethelred to be king, and Cnut was soon obliged to flee and return to Denmark, but not before, with the characteristic cruelty of his early life, he had cut off the hands, ears, and noses of the English hostages of his father, and put them ashore at Sandwich. Next year (1015) he put to sea again with a splendid fleet, and landed on the coast of Dorsetshire. He ravaged the country far and wide, and by Christmas had made himself master of Wessex. Early next year he marched to York, and overawed all Northumbria into submission. Already he was master of almost all England, save the city of London alone, when the death of Ethelred and the election as their king by the Londoners of his vigorous son Edmund, gave a new turn to the struggle, which went on fiercely, and with varying result. Twice Cnut failed in his attempts to capture London. The final struggle took place at Assandun (see ASHINGDON), when, after a desperate battle, the English fled. Edmund and Cnut met at the isle of Olney, in the Severn, and divided the country between them: Cnut taking the northern part; Edmund, Wessex and the south. The death of Edmund in 1016 gave the whole kingdom to the young Danish conqueror. His first act was to put to death some of the more powerful English chiefs, and to send the two little sons of Edmund out of the kingdom. In 1018 he levied a heavy Danegeld of over £80,000, with which he paid off his Danish warriors, keeping only the crews of forty ships, the nucleus of his 'hus-carls.' The kingdom he divided into the four earldoms of Mercia, Northumberland, Wessex, and East Anglia. From this time onwards till his death Cnut's character seems to have become completely changed. At once he laid aside his ruthless, revenging temper to become a wise, temperate, devout, and law-abiding ruler. He strove also to govern England according to English ideas, restored the equal rights that had prevailed in Edgar's time, and gradually replaced the Danish earls with native Englishmen, to whom he opened up the highest offices. Æthelnoth became Archbishop of Canterbury; Godwine, Earl of Wessex. He himself married Emma, the widow of Ethelred. He was liberal to monasteries and churches, and reverent to the memory of the native saints and martyrs. He made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1026-27, and his letter sent from Rome to his subjects reveals alike the noble simplicity of his nature and the high conception he had formed of the duty of a king. The death of Harold in 1018 had given him the crown of Denmark; the death of Olaf in 1030 closed a long struggle, and gave him secure possession of Norway. Cnut gave eighteen years of peace and order to England. His power depended mainly on the greatness of his own personality, for at his death his empire at once fell to pieces. He died at Shaftesbury, 12th November 1035, and was buried in the Minster at Winchester. The famous story, telling how he rebuked the flattery of his courtiers by showing them that the advancing waves on the seashore had no regard for his kingship, is given by Henry of Huntingdon, who adds that never after would the king wear his crown, but hung it on the head of the crucified Lord.