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Cnut
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{{Short description|11th-century King of Denmark, Norway, and England}} {{For|the name|Knut}} {{Redirect|Canute}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=June 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox royalty | image = Canute and Ælfgifu cropped (Canute).jpg | caption = Contemporary drawing of King Cnut<br/>from the [[New Minster Liber Vitae|New Minster ''Liber Vitae'']], 1031 | succession = [[King of England]] | reign = 1016–1035 | coronation = 1017 in London | successor = [[Harold I]]<ref name="weir" /> | predecessor = [[Edmund II]]<ref name="weir" /> | succession1 = [[King of Denmark]] | reign1 = 1018–1035 | successor1 = [[Harthacnut]]<ref name="weir">{{cite book |title=Britain's Royal Families |last=Weir |first=Alison |isbn=9780099539735 |publisher=Vintage |date=1989 |page=30}}</ref> | predecessor1 = [[Harald II of Denmark|Harald II]] | succession2 = [[King of Norway]] | reign2 = 1028–1035 | successor2 = [[Magnus the Good]] | predecessor2 = [[Saint Olaf]] | regent2 = [[Svein Knutsson]] | reg-type2 = Co-king | house = [[Knýtlinga]] | birth_date = {{Circa|990}}<ref name="weir" />{{sfn|Somerville|McDonald|2014|p=435}} | birth_place = [[History of Denmark#Middle Ages|Kingdom of Denmark]] | death_date = 12 November 1035 (aged around 45)<ref name="weir" /> | death_place = [[Shaftesbury]], [[Dorset]], [[Kingdom of England|England]] | place of burial = {{ubl|[[Old Minster, Winchester]], England|Bones now in [[Winchester Cathedral]], [[Winchester]], England}} | spouses = {{unbulleted list |[[Ælfgifu of Northampton]] |[[Emma of Normandy]]}} | issue = {{unbulleted list |[[Svein Knutsson]] |[[Harold Harefoot]] |[[Harthacnut]] |[[Gunhilda of Denmark|Gunhilda, Queen of the Germans]] }} | father = [[Sweyn Forkbeard]] | mother = [[Świętosława]] or [[Gunhild of Wenden]] }} '''Cnut''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|nj|uː|t}} {{Respell|kə|NYOOT}};<ref>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cnut "Cnut"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108025626/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cnut |date=8 November 2018}}. ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{langx|non|Knútr}};{{efn|Modern languages: {{langx|da|Knud den Store}} or {{lang|da|Knud II}}; {{langx|no|Knut den mektige}}, {{langx|sv|Knut den Store}}.}} {{Circa|990}} – 12 November 1035), also known as '''Canute''' and with the epithet '''the Great''',<ref>{{cite web |title=King Cnut The Great |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Cnut-The-Great/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=9 October 2023}}</ref><ref>[[Laurence M. Larson]] ''Canute the Great'' [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] 1912</ref><ref>[https://www.royal.uk/canute-great-r-1016-1035 Article] Royal Family website (2023)</ref> was [[King of England]] from 1016, [[King of Denmark]] from 1018, and [[King of Norway]] from 1028 until his death in 1035.<ref name="weir" /> The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the [[North Sea Empire]] by historians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westergaard |first=Waldemar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwARLE3UAesC&dq=%22north+sea+empire%22&pg=PA13 |title=The Danish West Indies Under Company Rule (1671–1754): With a Supplementary Chapter, 1755–1917 |date=1917 |publisher=Macmillan |language=en |access-date=22 April 2024 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119014810/https://books.google.com/books?id=cwARLE3UAesC&dq=%22north+sea+empire%22&pg=PA13 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Belloc |first=Hilaire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5vSAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22north+sea+empire%22&pg=PA368 |title=A History of England |date=1925 |publisher=Methuen |access-date=22 April 2024 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119014812/https://books.google.com/books?id=-5vSAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22north+sea+empire%22&pg=PA368 |url-status=live}}</ref> As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of [[Viking Age#Northwestern Europe|centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe]]. His later accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut sought to keep this power base by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom. After a decade of conflict with opponents in [[Scandinavia]], Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in [[Trondheim]] in 1028. In 1031, [[Malcolm II]] of [[Scotland]] also submitted to him, though [[North Sea Empire|Anglo-Norse]] influence over Scotland was weak and ultimately did not last by the time of Cnut's death.{{Sfn|Trow|2005|pp=197–198}}<ref name="ASC, 1031">ASC, Ms. D, s.a. 1031.</ref> Dominion of England lent the [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Danes]] an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of [[Great Britain]] and [[Ireland]], where Cnut, like his father before him, had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the [[Norse–Gaels]].{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=196}} Cnut's possession of England's [[diocese]]s and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the [[Holy Roman Empire]]'s [[Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen]] – was a source of great prestige and leverage among the magnates of [[Christendom]] (gaining notable concessions such as one on the price of the [[pallium]] of his bishops, though they still had to travel to obtain the pallium, as well as on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to [[Rome]]). After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way back from Rome where he attended the [[coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor]], Cnut deemed himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes" in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=97}} Medieval historian [[Norman Cantor]] called him "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".<ref>Cantor, ''The Civilisation of the Middle Ages'', 1995: 166.</ref> He is popularly invoked in the context of the legend of [[King Canute and the tide]].
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