Editing Cnut (section)

== King of England ==
{{Further|Government in Anglo-Saxon England}}
[[File:Cnut Cyning.png|thumb|Cnut in the late thirteenth century Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings.]]

Cnut ruled [[Kingdom of England|England]] for nearly two decades. The protection he lent against Viking raiders – many of them under his command – restored the prosperity that had been increasingly impaired since the resumption of Viking attacks in the [[10th century in England|980s]]. In turn, the English helped him to establish control over the majority of [[Scandinavia]], too.{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=198}} Under his rule, England did not experience serious external attacks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Molyneaux |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1HCBwAAQBAJ |title=The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-102775-8 |page=35 |language=en |access-date=14 October 2021 |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414015619/https://books.google.com/books?id=E1HCBwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Consolidation and Danegeld ===
As Danish King of England, Cnut was quick to eliminate any prospective challenge from the survivors of the mighty Wessex dynasty. The first year of his reign was marked by the executions of a number of English noblemen whom he considered suspect. [[Æthelred the Unready|Æthelred]]'s son [[Eadwig Ætheling]] fled from England but was killed on Cnut's orders.<ref name="Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, p. 154">''Anglo-Saxon Chronicles'', p. 154</ref> [[Edmund Ironside|Edmund Ironside's]] sons likewise fled abroad. Æthelred's sons by [[Emma of Normandy]] went under the protection of their relatives in the [[Duchy of Normandy]].

In July 1017, Cnut wed Queen Emma, the widow of Æthelred and daughter of [[Richard I, Duke of Normandy]]. In 1018, having collected a [[Danegeld]] amounting to the colossal sum of £72,000 levied nationwide, with an additional £10,500 extracted from London, Cnut paid off his army and sent most of them home. He retained 40 ships and their crews as a standing force in England. An annual tax called [[Taxation in medieval England|heregeld]] (army payment) was collected through the same system Æthelred had instituted in 1012 to reward Scandinavians in his service.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|pp=51–52, 163}}

Cnut built on the existing English trend for multiple [[shire]]s to be grouped together under a single [[ealdorman]], thus dividing the country into four large administrative units whose geographical extent was based on the largest and most durable of the separate kingdoms that had preceded the unification of England. The officials responsible for these provinces were designated [[earl]]s, a title of Scandinavian origin already in localised use in England, which now everywhere replaced that of ealdorman. Wessex was initially kept under Cnut's personal control, while Northumbria went to [[Erik of Hlathir]], [[East Anglia]] to [[Thorkell the Tall]], and Mercia remained in the hands of [[Eadric Streona]].{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=83}}

This initial distribution of power was short-lived. The chronically treacherous Eadric was executed within a year of Cnut's accession.<ref name="Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, p. 154"/> Mercia passed to one of the leading families of the region, probably first to [[Leofwine, Earl of Mercia|Leofwine]], ealdorman of the [[Hwicce]] under Æthelred, but certainly soon to his son [[Leofric, Earl of Mercia|Leofric]].{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=162}} In 1021, Thorkel also fell from favour and was outlawed.

Following his death in the 1020s, [[Erik of Hlathir]] was succeeded as Earl of Northumbria by [[Siward, Earl of Northumbria|Siward]], whose grandmother,{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} Estrid (married to [[Ulf Jarl|Úlfr Thorgilsson]]), was Cnut's sister. [[Bernicia]], the northern part of Northumbria, was theoretically part of Erik and Siward's earldom, but throughout Cnut's reign it effectively remained under the control of the English dynasty based at [[Bamburgh]], which had dominated the area at least since the early 10th century. They served as junior Earls of Bernicia under the titular authority of the Earl of Northumbria. By the 1030s Cnut's direct administration of Wessex had come to an end, with the establishment of an earldom under [[Godwin, Earl of Wessex|Godwin]], an Englishman from a powerful [[Sussex]] family. In general, after initial reliance on his Scandinavian followers in the first years of his reign, Cnut allowed those Anglo-Saxon families of the existing English nobility who had earned his trust to assume rulership of his Earldoms.

=== Affairs to the East ===
[[File:Early-Medieval Coin, Penny of Cnut the Great. (FindID 934189) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Penny#History|Silver penny]] of Cnut the Great with a [[quatrefoil]] on the [[obverse]] dating to the period {{Circa}}1017–23]]

At the [[Battle of Nesjar]], in 1016, [[Olaf II of Norway|Olaf Haraldsson]] won the kingdom of [[Norway]] from the Danes. It was at some time after Erik left for England, and on the death of Svein while retreating to Sweden, maybe intent on returning to Norway with reinforcements, that Erik's son Hakon went to join his father and support Cnut in England, too.

Cnut's brother Harald may have been at Cnut's coronation, in 1016, returning to Denmark as its king, with part of the fleet, at some point thereafter. It is only certain, though, that there was an entry of his name, alongside Cnut's, in confraternity with [[Christ Church, Canterbury]], in 1018.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=89}} This is not conclusive, though, for the entry may have been made in Harald's absence, perhaps by the hand of Cnut himself, which means that, while it is usually thought that Harald died in 1018, it is unsure whether he was still alive at this point.{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=89}} Entry of his brother's name in the Canterbury [[codex]] may have been Cnut's attempt to make his vengeance for Harald's murder good with the Church. This may have been just a gesture for a soul to be under the protection of God. There is evidence Cnut was in battle with "pirates" in 1018, with his destruction of the crews of thirty ships,<ref>Thietmar, ''Chronicon'', vii. 7, pp. 502–03</ref> although it is unknown if this was off the English or Danish shores. He himself mentions troubles in his 1019 letter (to England, from Denmark), written as the King of England and Denmark. These events can be seen, with plausibility, to be in connection with the death of Harald. Cnut says he dealt with dissenters to ensure Denmark was free to assist England:{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=90}}
{{blockquote|King Cnut greets in friendship his archbishop and his diocesan bishops and Earl Thurkil and all his earls ... ecclesiastic and lay, in England ... I inform you that I will be a gracious lord and a faithfull observer of God's rights and just secular law. (He exhorts his ealdormen to assist the bishops in the maintenance of) God's rights ... and the benefit of the people.

If anyone, ecclesiastic or layman, Dane or Englishman, is so presumptuous as to defy God's law and my royal authority or the secular laws, and he will not make amends and desist according to the direction of my bishops, I then pray, and also command, Earl Thurkil, if he can, to cause the evil-doer to do right. And if he cannot, then it is my will that with the power of us both he shall destroy him in the land or drive him out of the land, whether he be of high or low rank. And it is my will that all the nation, ecclesiastical and lay, shall steadfastly observe Edgar's laws, which all men have chosen and sworn at Oxford.
Since I did not spare my money, as long as hostility was threatening you, I with God's help have put an end to it. Then I was informed that greater danger was approaching us than we liked at all; and then I went myself with the men who accompanied me to Denmark, from where the greatest injury had come to us, and with God's help I have made it so that never henceforth shall hostility reach you from there as long as you support me rightly and my life lasts. Now I thank Almighty God for his help and his mercy, that I have settled the great dangers which were approaching us that we need fear no danger to us from there; but we may reckon on full help and deliverance if we need it.|''Cnut's letter of 1019''|source={{harvnb|Trow|2005|pp=168–169}} }}

=== Statesmanship ===
[[File:Cnut 1016 1035 b.jpg|thumb|Silver penny of Cnut the Great dating to the period {{Circa}}1024–30<ref>{{Cite web |last=Museum |first=The British |last2=Street |first2=Great Russell |last3=T: +4420 73238618 |first3=London WC1B 3DG |title=Record ID: LEIC-3E8CC4 – EARLY MEDIEVAL coin |url=https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/414218 |access-date=16 July 2024 |website=The Portable Antiquities Scheme |language=en}}</ref>]]

Cnut was generally remembered as a wise and successful king of England, although this view may in part be attributable to his good treatment of the Church, keeper of the historic record. Accordingly, he is considered, even today, as a religious man despite the fact that he was in an arguably [[sin]]ful relationship, with two wives, and the harsh treatment he dealt his fellow Christian opponents.

Under his reign, Cnut brought together the English and Danish kingdoms, and the Scandinavic and Saxon peoples saw a period of dominance across [[Scandinavia]], as well as within the [[British Isles]].{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=198}} His campaigns abroad meant the tables of Viking supremacy were stacked in favour of the English, turning the prows of the longships towards Scandinavia. He reinstated the Laws of [[Edgar the Peaceful|King Edgar]] to allow for the constitution of a [[Danelaw]],{{sfn|Graham-Campbell|Hall|Jesch|Parsons|2016|p=3}} and for the activity of Scandinavians at large.

Cnut reinstituted the extant laws with a series of proclamations to assuage common grievances brought to his attention, including: ''On [[Inheritance]] in case of [[Intestacy]]'', and ''On [[Heriot]]s and Reliefs''.{{sfn|Coke|Hargrave|1853|p=20}} He also strengthened the currency, initiating a series of coins of equal weight to those being used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}} He issued the [[Law codes of Cnut]] known now as I Cnut and II Cnut, though these seem primarily to have been produced by [[Wulfstan of York]].{{sfn|Richards|2010|pp=137–156}}

In his royal court, there were both Englishmen and Scandinavians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bolton |first=Timothy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CV-1H24C_MwC |title=The Empire of Cnut the Great: Conquest and the Consolidation of Power in Northern Europe in the Early Eleventh Century |date=2009 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-16670-7 |pages=41–42 |language=en |access-date=19 March 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414015607/https://books.google.com/books?id=CV-1H24C_MwC |url-status=live}}</ref>