The Reign of Sweyn Forkbeard
Denmark became consolidated into a kingdom at a slightly earlier period
than Norway, and there was constant strife between the two young
nations. The first king of all Denmark was named Gorm the Old (b. 830),
but it is rather with the reigns of his grandson, Sweyn Forkbeard, and
his great grandson, Canute the Great, that we have to do, for it was in
their time that England was conquered by Denmark, and became for the
space of twenty-nine years, from Sweyn to Hardacanute (1013–1042), a
portion of the Danish dominions. This is an important incident in the
history of both countries, and we must now see what the sagas have to
tell us about these events.
During the reign of Hakon the Good and the early years of Olaf
Trygveson in Norway, the King of Denmark was Harald Blue-tooth, son
of Gorm the Old, who reigned from 935 to 985, during the reigns
of Athelstan the Great and Edmund in England, and of the weak and
insignificant kings, Edwy, Edgar, and Ethelred the Unready, who
succeeded them.
It was during the reign of Ethelred that for the first time there was
raised a regular tax in England, called the Danegeld, or Dane-gold,
paid by the English to the terrible Danes in order to purchase peace
from them. But the effect of the tax was just the opposite to that
which the English desired; instead of keeping the Danes out of the
country, it brought them over in greater numbers, in the hope of
getting more money out of the English. Both the south and east coast
were at their mercy, and wherever they appeared the English troops fled
at their approach; unled and unmarshalled, they could make no stand
against their foes. In the year 994 Olaf Trygveson (reigned 995–1000)
and Sweyn Forkbeard united their armies and made a descent upon London
with ninety-four ships, as we read in the English Chronicle. They
were driven away from London with great loss and damage, but they
went burning and slaying all round the coast. They went into winter
quarters at Southampton, where sixteen thousand pounds in money was
paid to them to induce them to desist from their ravaging. But in the
same year, at an invitation from the English king, Olaf paid a visit
of state to Ethelred, and pledged himself that he would no more take
arms against the English, which promise he loyally fulfilled. His
thoughts were, indeed, turning toward his own kingdom of Norway. But
Sweyn made no such promise. Sweyn Forkbeard, called in his own country
Svein Tjuguskeg, who reigned over Denmark from 985 to 1014, was son
to Harald, Gorm’s son. The year before his father’s death he had come
to him and asked him to divide the kingdom with himself; but Harald
would not hear of this. Then Sweyn flew to arms, and though he was
overpowered by numbers and obliged to fly, Harald Blue-tooth received a
wound which ended in his death; and Sweyn was chosen King of Denmark.
He was the father of Canute, or Knut, the Great.
On his succession he had given a splendid banquet, to which he invited
all the chiefs of his dominions, and the bravest of his army and
allies, and of the vikings who had assisted him; on the first day of
the feast, before he seated himself on the throne of his father Harald,
he had poured out a bowl to his father’s memory, and made a solemn vow
that before three winters were past he would go over to England and
either kill King Ethelred the Unready or chase him out of the country.
But a good time passed before Sweyn was able fully to carry out his
threat. In the meantime he was occupied with wars in Norway, where King
Olaf Trygveson had come to the throne. The first thing he did was to
marry Sigrid the Haughty, whom Olaf had once intended to marry, but
with whom he had quarrelled because she would not be baptized, and who
had never forgiven Olaf for striking her in the face with his glove.
Now she saw a chance of revenge, and she continually urged King Sweyn
to give battle to Olaf. In the end he consented to do this, and he
sent messengers to his kinsman the King of Sweden, and to Earl Eirik
of Norway, and together they made the formidable coalition which met
Olaf Trygveson at the great sea-fight of Svold in A.D. 1000, where Olaf
disappeared, as we have already related.
We must inquire what causes so much incensed Sweyn against England
that he determined above all other things to go to that country and
avenge himself there. The thirty-seven years of Ethelred’s reign had
been miserable for English and Danes alike. An old historian says
that his life was “cruel in the beginning, wretched in the middle,
and disgraceful in the end.” Just at a time when a strong leader was
most needed this idle and frivolous King gave himself up to indolence
and every kind of wickedness. Instead of organizing his armies he
shut himself up in London, careless of what became of his kingdom and
people so long as he himself was safe. He was cruel to his wife, Emma,
daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy, a lady of high rank, and cowardly
before his enemies. Indeed, his only idea of freeing the country from
war was by paying large sums of money to the Danes to keep them quiet.
At one time he paid them twenty-four thousand pounds to go away, at
others sixteen and thirty thousand; but the only result of his gifts
was to bring them back in greater numbers. The English people were in
a pitiable condition, forced to raise these large sums to pay their
enemies, who at the same time were pillaging and robbing them all over
the country.
Then the King, who was too cowardly to fight, bethought him of another
means to get rid of his enemies. On St Brice’s Day, 1002, he sent forth
a secret order that all the Danes in the kingdom should be massacred
in that single night. In many cases the Danes had become friends of
the English people among whom they lived, or had married English
wives and were living peaceably among the inhabitants; but on that
terrible night each Englishman was forced by his miserable King to
rise up and massacre in cold blood the Danish people who lived with
him, even wives being compelled to betray their husbands and friends
to put to death their friends. Among those who fell on that fearful
night was a beautiful sister of Sweyn’s, who had married an English
nobleman and embraced Christianity; she was living in England, and
her presence there was looked upon as a pledge that Sweyn would not
attack the kingdom. She was beheaded by command of one of the King’s
worthless favourites, whom he afterwards raised to a high position and
made governor of the Mercians. First he murdered her husband before
her face, and her young son was pierced through with four spears, and
finally she herself was beheaded by the furious Edric. She bore herself
with fortitude and dignity, and people said that in death she was as
beautiful as in life, for even her cheeks did not lose their colour.
Sweyn knew England well, for he had several times raided there in his
youth, and he was probably kept fully informed of all that was going on
by the Danish chief of the East Angles of Norfolk and Suffolk, who is
well known both in Scandinavian and in English history. His name was
Thorkill the Tall, and he was a great viking, and called himself king,
even when he had no lands to rule over. He was one of the noblest born
of the Danish men, and King Olaf the Saint of Norway was not ashamed to
enter into partnership with him. In 1009 he sailed over to England with
a vast army, and landed at Sandwich, taking Canterbury and overrunning
all the south-east of England. Ethelred was so terrified by this fresh
incursion that he called the whole nation out against the invaders;
but in spite of this they marched about wherever they pleased, taking
Canterbury and settling down upon East Anglia, from which point
Thorkill the Tall ravaged the country. “Oft,” says the old chronicler,
“they fought against London city, but there they ever met with ill
fare;” but it was the only place of which this could be said.
When Thorkill had firmly seated himself in England he invited Sweyn to
come over, telling him that the King was feeble, the people weak, and
the commanders jealous of each other; and Sweyn, who was only awaiting
his opportunity, got together his fleet, and landed at Sandwich in
1013. Before the year was out all England north of the Thames was in
his power, and paid him tribute and delivered hostages. Turning south,
he compelled Oxford and Winchester to submit, and committing his fleet
and hostages to the charge of his son, Canute, he turned against
London, the only city still holding out against him. Shut up within
their walls, the Londoners awaited the onslaught of the Danes; inside
were King Ethelred and Thorkill, who had deserted Sweyn and gone over
to the King’s side. The Danes came on with headlong fury, not even
waiting to cross the bridge, but flinging themselves into the river in
their haste to get over; but at the firmly closed gates of the city
they received a sudden check. The citizens made wonderful exertions,
and forced back the Danes from their walls; many of them were carried
away by the stream and drowned; and Sweyn was forced to retreat with
the shattered remnants of his army to Bath, where the western lords, or
thanes, submitted to him.
But the brave resistance of London and the faithfulness of the city
made no impression on the wretched Ethelred, whose only thought was
how he might escape from his kingdom, even though his going left the
citizens without the semblance of a leader and open to the worst
assaults of their enemies. But the King knew not which way to turn; he
had alienated his friends and was despised by his foes. He fled first
to the Isle of Wight, reaching the Solent by secret journeys, and
thence he bethought him that he would pass over to Normandy, where his
wife Emma’s brother, Richard the Good, was Duke. He remembered very
well, however, that he had treated his wife cruelly, and he doubted
whether Richard would be willing to receive him. But taking refuge
now behind her whom he had formerly abused, he first sent Emma, with
their children Edward and Alfred, to Normandy, hoping that if they
were kindly received he himself might follow at Christmas. It was then
the month of August, and they set forth on a calm sea, with the Bishop
of Durham and Abbot of Peterborough to escort them, while Ethelred
anxiously awaited the message they would send. It was not long before
he learned the welcome news that Richard had received his sister with
great affection, and that he invited the King also to condescend to
become his guest. Delighted with this message, Ethelred lost no time in
following his family to Normandy.
In the meantime Sweyn made himself master of the whole centre and north
of England, and was acknowledged as “full king.” Even London, fearing
worse evils, submitted; and Thorkill forced the inhabitants to support
his army at Greenwich, while Sweyn required other parts of the country
to raise provisions for his host.[33]
But an end was soon made of Sweyn’s ambitions, for shortly after
Christmas, early in the year 1014, he suddenly died--people said
through the vengeance of St Edmund the Martyr. The Danish army elected
Canute, son of Sweyn, who was then in England, king in place of his
father.