CANUTE (crrvT), known as "the Great" (c. 995-1035), king of Norway, Denmark, and England, son of Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark, was born c. 995. In 1013 he sailed, with his father, for England and shared in the conquest of Wessex. After Sweyn's death, in Feb. 1014, and the return of King Ethelred, who had fled to Normandy, Canute was driven out of the country, only to return again in 1015 with a strong Danish fleet. He landed at Sandwich, plundered Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset, and, ad vancing through Wessex, proceeded to subdue northern England as far as York. The fact that he met with so little resistance points to the probability of a general Danish supremacy already existing in England, north of the Thames. Wessex, however, put up a good fight against Canute's army, which was soon reinforced by Eadric and the East Anglians. At Ethelred's death, in April 1016, Ca nute persuaded the Witan at Southampton to elect him king ; but London was obstinate in its support of Edmund Ironside, Ethel red's son. After the failure of several attempts to take London by siege, and a reverse at Sheppey, Canute at last defeated Ed mund at Assandune in Essex. After this a conference was held at Olney, an island in the Severn, at which it was settled that Canute should rule over Mercia and the north, while Edmund retained East Anglia and Wessex, with London. A few months later, in Nov. 1016, Edmund died, and Canute was elected king of all England. Edmund's two young sons fell into his hands and were sent to the court of Sweden.
Canute experienced, naturally, the advantages as well as the dis advantages of his position as a foreign conqueror. For one thing he could always resort to the expedient of importing large bodies of Scandinavian troops in case of difficulties in England, and in the second place he was free from the tribal jealousies of the va rious English kingdoms, being a foreigner and equally king of all England. To counteract the disadvantages, too, he was careful to pursue an anti-Danish policy; after banishing his first wife, Aelfgifu, and her two sons Harold and Sweyn, he married Ethel red's widow, Emma; and he sent back all his Danish ships and soldiers with the exception of the crews of 4o ships, who were to form his bodyguard of "huscarles." Canute's firm alliance with the native clergy, his numerous benefactions, his consecration of the church at Assandune and restoration of that of St. Edmund at Bury were all part of the same policy. In 1026 he went on pil grimage to Rome and was present at the coronation of Conrad III. as emperor (1027).
Canute's reign was a period of unusual order and security; he seems to have had more idea of central government than had any of the earlier Saxon kings, and the body of secretaries who trav elled with him on his journeys represent the first trace of a perma nent administrative staff, though their functions are uncertain; and though his division of the kingdom into four earldoms was feudal in tendency, Canute seems to have looked on his earls sim ply as royal officials, witness the summary dismissal of earl Thor kil, in 1021, and the appointment of the Saxon, Godwin, as earl of Wessex in his place. Canute is responsible for a code of laws, but these are no more than a recapitulation of the earlier Saxon laws of Ethelred and Eadgar and contain no innovations. In 1018 Ca nute's brother, Harold, king of Denmark, died without issue, and in 1019, Canute, who succeeded him, paid a visit to his Scandi navian dominions. His work of reform and reconciliation was in terrupted in 1026 by the attempt of Olaf Haraldson, king of Nor way, in conjunction with Anund Jakob, king of Sweden, to conquer Denmark. Canute defeated the Swedish fleet at Stangebjerg, and so seriously injured the combined squadrons at the mouth of the Helgeaa in East Scania, that in 1028 he was able to subdue the greater part of Norway "without hurling a dart or swinging a sword." But the conquest was not permanent, the Norwegians ultimately rising successfully against the tyranny of Alfifa, who misruled the country in the name of her infant son Sweyn. Canute also succeeded in establishing the dominion of Denmark over the southern shores of the Baltic, in Witland and Samland, then forming part of the coast of Prussia. Of the details of Canute's government in Denmark proper we know but little. His most re markable institution was the Tinglid, a military brotherhood, orig inally 3,00o in number, composed of members of the richest and noblest families, who not only formed the royal bodyguard, but did garrison duty and defended the marches or borders. The story that he rebuked the flattery of his courtiers by showing that the advancing waves paid no heed to his command, is told by Henry of Huntington, about 1130. He was the first Danish king who coined money, with the assistance of Anglo-Saxon mint masters. At some uncertain date Canute took an army into Scot land, after the Scots had defeated the Northumbrians at Carham in 1018, and ultimately Malcolm, the king of the Scots, is said to have acknowledged his overlordship.
Canute died at Shaftesbury on Nov. 12, 1035, in his 4oth year, and was buried at Winchester.
See Danmarks Riges Historie. Old Tiden og den aeldre Middelalder, PP. ; E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest (1870 75) ; Steenstrup, Normannerne (1876-82) .