I CHAPTER VI. THE DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND.1 1017-1042. HAVE thought it right to narrate the course of events by which the Danish power was established in England at nearly as great detail as I purpose to narrate the central events of my history. The Danish 1 Our authorities for this period are nearly the same as those for the reign of Æthelred. The Chronicles and Florence are still our main guides, and, as Florence draws nearer to his own time, he more commonly inserts independent matter which is not to be found in the Chronicles. We have the same sort of supplementary help as before from the secondary English authorities, the later and the local writers. We have the same hard task as before in trying to reconcile the English accounts with the various Scandinavian sagas and chronicles. The Encomium Emma becomes of greater importance, but it must still be used with caution, as the writer, though contemporary, was clearly deeply prejudiced and often very illinformed. We also begin to draw our first help from one most valuable document, the contemporary Life of Eadward the Confessor, published by Mr. Luard. This was written, between the years 1066 and 1076, by one who was intimately acquainted with Godwine and his family, and it helps us to many facts and aspects of facts which are not to be found elsewhere. But the most important point with regard to our authorities for this time is that we must now cease to quote the English Chronicles as one work. The differences between the various copies now begin to assume a real historical importance. The narratives often differ widely from each other, and often display widely different ways of looking at men and things. They show that something very like the distinction of Whig and Tory can be traced as far back as the eleventh century. I pointed out the difference of feeling with regard to Godwine which the different Chronicles display in a paper on the Earl's Life and Death, published in the Archæological Journal for 1854-1855. (The substance of this article is incorporated in this and the following Chapter.) Since that time Mr. Earle, in the Introduction to his "Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel," has Character of the Cnut. CHAP. VI. and Norman Conquests are so closely connected with o another as cause and effect that the history of the is an essential part of the history of the other. I come to a period of nineteen years which must be treate in a different way. The reign of Cnut1 was, as regards England itself, almost a repetition of the reign of Eadga It was a period of perfect peace within our own seas. The external events of his reign consist almost wholly of Cnut's wars in the Scandinavian North, the details of which, even if they were less doubtful than they are, do not call for any minute attention at the hands of an historian either d England or of Normandy. After Cnut's power was once fully established in England, we have next to no events to record. Still there are few periods of our history which require more attentive study. We have to contemplate the wonderful character of the man himself, his almost unparalleled position, the general nature of his government gone fully and exhaustively into the matter from his point of view, and has given what may be called biographies of the various records which are commonly confounded under the name of "the Saxon Chronicle." I shall hereafter follow Mr. Earle's nomenclature, (grounded on that of Jocelin, Secretary to Archbishop Parker,) and shall quote them as follows. The manuscript commonly quoted as “C. C. C. C. clxxiv." I quote as the Wischester Chronicle. For our period this Chronicle contains only a few entries added at Canterbury. "Cott. Tib. B. i." is the Abingdon Chronicle, the only one hostile to Godwine. "Cod. Tib. B. iv." is the Worcester Chronicle. "Bodl. Laud. 636" is the Peterborough Chronicle, strongly Godwinist. (This part however was composed at Worcester, the Chronicle being transcribed and continued at Peterborough.) "Cott. Domit. A. viii." is Canterbury, generally the least valuable of all, but of more importance now than in earlier times. 1 Cnut or Knud, in one syllable, is this King's true name, and the best Latin form is Cnuto, according to the usual way of Latinizing Scandinavian names. See above, p. 187. The form Canutus seems to have arisen from Pope Paschal the Second's inability to say Cnut. The later King Cnut, the supposed martyr, was therefore canonized by him as "Sanctus Canutus." See Æthelnoth's Life of Saint Cnut, capp. iv. vi. xxxiii. (Langebek, iii. 340, 382.) The writer, an English monk settled in Denmark, thinks the lengthening of the name a great honour, and compares it with the change from Abram to Abraham; but he somewhat inconsistently cuts down his own name to Ailnothus. REIGNS OF CNUT AND HIS SONS. 443 nd policy. A few particular events which directly con- CHAP. VI. Lect English and Norman history will also call for special xamination. Of one event, more important than all in ts results, no man could discern the importance at the moment. While Cnut sat on the throne of England, William the Bastard first saw the light at Falaise. 1028. of the of Cnut. The remainder of the period contained in this Chapter, Character including the reigns of the two sons of Cnut, is of a Reigns of different character. The reigns of those two worthless the Sons youths were short and troubled, and the accounts which we have of them from our best authorities are singularly contradictory. But the seven years between the death of Cnut and the election of Eadward are highly important in many ways. Several men who were to play the most important part in the times immediately following, men formed under Cnut, but who, while he lived, were overshadowed by their sovereign, now come forth into full prominence. Foremost among them all is the renowned name of Godwine, Earl of the West-Saxons. These reigns also prepared the way for the Norman Conquest in a most remarkable, though an indirect manner. The great scheme of Cnut, the establishment of an AngloScandinavian Empire, fell to pieces after his death through the divisions and misgovernment of his sons. Harold and Harthacnut disgusted Englishmen with Danish rule, and led them to fall back on one of their own countrymen as their King. But the English King thus chosen proved to be, for all practical purposes, a Frenchman, and his French tendencies directly paved the way for the coming of William. Now it is not likely that any power whatever could have permanently kept all Cnut's crowns upon the same head. But, had his sons been at all worthy of him, a powerful dynasty, probably none the less English in feeling because Danish in blood, might well have been established in England. Under such a dynasty it is still CHAP. VI. possible that England might have been conquered in the open field. But it is quite impossible that the path of the Conqueror should have been made ready for him in the way that it actually was by the weakness of Eadward and the intrigues of the foreign favourites with whom he surrounded himself. Cnut's position at Eadmund's 1014. April, 1016. § 1. The Reign of Cnut. 1017-1035. The death of Eadmund left Cnut without a competitor.1 He had already been twice chosen to the English Crown; death. once by the voice of the Danish host on the death of his February, father Swend, and a second time, more regularly, by the vote of the majority of the English Witan after the death of Ethelred. He was also most probably, as we have seen, entitled by the Treaty of Olney to succeed to the dominions of Eadmund. He was in actual possession of the larger half of the Kingdom. But Cnut, if valiant, was also wary; it might be too much, especially at this stage of his life, to attribute to him any actual shrinking from bloodshed; but he was at least fully impressed with the value of constitutional forms, and he had no wish to resort to violence when more peaceful means could better accomplish his purpose. He was determined to be King of all England; he was equally determined not to parade 1 Nothing can be made of an unintelligible story in Snorre (c. 25. Laing, ii. 21), according to which the sons of Æthelred and Emma, assisted by Olaf of Norway and his foster-father Rane, made an unsuccessful attempt upon England after Eadmund's death. The tale may have arisen from some confusion with the later attempt on behalf of the Æthelings made by Duke Robert of Normandy. Snorre is throughout, as we shall often have occasion to see, most ill-informed on English affairs. He makes (ii. 13) Eadmund and Eadward jointly succeed on the death of Ethelred, and Eadmund, Eadwig, and Eadgar-it is singular that he should have known the names of Æthelred's sons so well-are all (ii. 16) made children of Emma. 2 See above, p. 404. 3 See above, p. 418. CNUT CLAIMS THE CROWN. 445 gemót of London, 1016-1017. Cnut the right of conquest offensively before the eyes of his CHAP. VI. new subjects, but to rest his claim to the Crown on an authority which no man could gainsay. He accordingly Witenaassembled the Witan of all England in London,1 no doubt gem of at the usual Midwinter festival. Before this assembly the Christmas, King of the Mercians and Northumbrians 2 set forth his claim to the Kingdom of Wessex and East-Anglia, as the claims the Crown by designated successor of Eadmund according to the Treaty virtue of the Treaty of Olney. The danger lay from a possible competition, not of Olney. so much on the part of the infant children of Eadmund, as on that of his brothers.3 The witnesses of the Olney Testimony compact were brought forward and questioned by Cnut. nesses to the Treaty. They affirmed that no portion of the Kingdom had ever been assigned to the brothers of Eadmund; those princes had received no portion during his life, and they were entitled to no right or preference at his death. His sons 1 All the Chronicles place the accession of Cnut to the whole Kingdom as the first event of the year 1017. The Winchester Chronicle, in one of its short entries, distinctly says, "Her Cnut wearð gecoren to kinge." Florence might seem at first sight to speak of two assemblies; but, as there is no trace of more than one in the Chronicles, I am disposed to think that the account which he gives under 1016 and the other account which he gives under 1017 are really two narratives of the proceedings of the same Gemót, perhaps rather unskilfully borrowed from two sources. The session of a Midwinter Gemót would probably extend into the year 1017 (Florence begins the year with January 1st), and the formal election and coronation of the new King would very likely be reserved till the Feast of the Epiphany. 2 I borrow the title from Florence's description of Cnut's son Harold, "Rex Merciorum et Northhymbrorum," in recording the analogous event of 1037. 3 The use of the plural might tempt us to believe that more than one of the sons of Ethelred by his first wife were still living. Opposition to Cnut's election would be much more likely to be made on their behalf than on the behalf of the young sons of Emma, now in Normandy. Of Æthelred's first family, I have shown some reasons for thinking that Æthelstan and Ecgbriht (pp. 409, 422) were already dead. Of Eadred and Eadgar we know nothing; Eadwig is the only one who is mentioned in the history by name. Flor. 1016. "Quod Rex Eadmundus fratribus suis nullam portionem regni sui, nec se spirante neque moriente, commendâsset." of the wit |