THE LAST YEARS
1031-1035
After the passing of the Norman war-cloud and the failure of the Norse
reaction in 1030, Canute almost disappears from the stage of English
history. The _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ which gives us so much information
on his earlier career in England has but little to tell of his
activities as king; for the closing years of the reign the summaries are
particularly meagre. Evidently the entries for this reign were written
from memory some years after the death of the great King; and the scribe
recalled but little. It is also likely that the closing years in Britain
were peaceful and quiet, such as do not give the annalist much to
record. Of the larger European movements, of the Norse secession, of
movements on the Danish border, and of the renewed compact with the
Emperor, the cloister was probably not well informed.
[Illustration: THE JURBY CROSS, ISLE OF MAN--THE GOSFORTH CROSS, CUMBERLAND]
As the Chronicler thinks back upon the passing of a King who was still
in his best and strongest years, there comes to him the memory of
certain strange natural phenomena which suddenly take on meaning. In
1033, two years before the King's death, "appeared the wild fire," such
as none could remember the like of. There could be no doubt as to the
interpretation: it was an omen giving warnings of great changes to come,
the end of alien rule, even as a fiery heaven announced its imminence in
the days of the boy Ethelred.
Later writers report that during the last years of his life Canute was
afflicted with a long and severe illness, and it has been inferred that
this may account for the uneventful character of this period. There may
be an element of truth in this, but he was not too ill to take an active
interest in political affairs. His legislation evidently belongs to one
of these years. In one of the manuscripts of Canute's code he is spoken
of as King of Angles, Danes and Norwegians, a title that he could not
claim before 1028. As he did not return from his expedition to Norway
before the following year, the earliest possible date for the enactment
of Canute's laws is Christmas, 1029.[442] For they were drawn up at a
meeting of the national assembly "at the holy midwinter tide in
Winchester."
There are reasons for believing, however, that the laws are of a still
later date. Little need there was, it would seem, for extensive
ecclesiastical legislation in those years when paganism was in full
retreat and Christianity had become fashionable even among the vikings.
Some condition must have arisen that made it necessary for the King to
take a positive stand on the side of the English Church. Such a
condition may have grown out of the canonisation of Saint Olaf in 1031.
He was the first native saint of the North and the young Scandinavian
Church hailed him with a joy that was ominous for those who had pursued
him to the grave. It may have been in the hope of checking the spread of
the new cult in England that the witenagemot, the same that ratified
Canute's legislation, canonised the imperious Archbishop who had
governed the English Church two generations earlier. The method of
canonisation was probably new; but the nobles and prelates of England
were surely as competent to act in such a matter as the youthful church
at Nidaros.
Canute showed an interest in the welfare of the Church to the last
months of his life. It was apparently in this period that he initiated
the policy of advancing his own chapel priests to episcopal
appointments: in 1032 Elfwine became Bishop of Winchester; the following
year Duduc, another chapel priest, was promoted in the same manner.[443]
The church of York was remembered with a large gift of lands to
Archbishop Alfric.[444] Gifts to some of the larger monasteries are also
recorded for these same years: to Sherburne, Winchester, Abingdon, and
Croyland.[445] These usually took the form of land, though ornaments and
articles intended for use in the church service were also given.
Abingdon received lands and bells and a case of gold and silver for the
relics of "the most glorious martyr Vincent of Spain" whose resting
place was in this church.[446] It is worth noting that Abbot Siward who
ruled at Abingdon during the last few years of the reign bore a Danish
name.
Canute's last recorded gift was to the Old Minster at Winchester in
1035, the year of his death. This comprised a landed estate, a bier for
the relics of Saint Brice, a large image, two bells, and a silver
candlestick with six branches.[447] It may be that he had premonitions
of coming death, for in this abbey he chose to be buried.
We do not know what efforts Canute may have made to improve the material
conditions in his Anglo-Saxon kingdom, but it appears that such
undertakings were not wholly wanting. The King showed great favour to
the religious establishments in the Fenlands and was evidently impressed
with the difficulty of travel from abbey to abbey. An attempt was made
to remedy this:
and that same road through the marshes between Ramsey and the
borough that is called King's Delf he caused to be improved that
the danger of passing through the great swamps might be
avoided.[448]
Matthew Paris, our authority for this statement, wrote nearly two
centuries after Canute's day, but it is likely that he is reporting a
correct tradition; if the work had been done at the instance of one of
the later kings, it is not probable that it would have been associated
with the name of the Danish ruler.
The Norwegian sources have little to say of Canute after the battle of
Stiklestead; but they follow the troubles of the Norse regency in some
detail. It was thought best, when Sweyn was sent to Norway, to give him
the royal title; but as he was a mere youth, the actual power was in the
hands of his mother, Elgiva, who was probably associated with Earl
Harold of Jomburg, Harthacanute's minister and guardian in Denmark, who
seems to have acted as Canute's personal representative in his eastern
kingdoms.[449] Mention has already been made of the opposition that soon
arose to the Danish régime. It was not long before the dissatisfied
elements formed an alliance with the partisans of the old dynasty who
were assiduously disseminating the belief that the fallen Olaf was a
saint.
All through the winter that followed the King's martyrdom stories were
current of miracles performed by the holy relics: wounds had been healed
and blindness removed by accidental contact with the royal blood. At the
same time much ill-feeling developed against Bishop Sigurd who had shown
such a partisan spirit on the eve of the tragedy at Stiklestead. Sigurd
was a Dane who had served as chaplain at the English court[450] and had
therefore a double reason for preferring Canute. Under the regency he
had continued as chief of the Norwegian Church, but soon the murmur
became so loud that the zealous prelate had to withdraw to England.
Einar Thongshaker now came forward to lead the opposition to the
regents. He was the first of the chiefs to express his belief in Olaf's
sanctity and many were ready to follow his lead. Bishop Grimkell, who
since Olaf's flight in 1029 had remained in comparative quiet in the
Uplands, was asked to come and investigate the current rumours of
miraculous phenomena. The Bishop responded very promptly. On the way he
visited Einar, by whom he was gladly welcomed. Later the prelate
appeared at Nidaros and began extended investigations into the matter of
the reported wonders. Einar was next summoned to conduct the
negotiations with the regency. The plans of the national faction seem
to have been carefully laid; it was probably not accidental that the
city suddenly was thronged by incoming Norsemen.
Having secured permission from King Sweyn to act in the matter, Einar
and Grimkell, followed by the multitude, proceeded to the spot where
Olaf's remains were said to have been buried. According to the legend
that Snorre in part follows, the coffin was found to have risen toward
the surface and looked new as if recently planed. No change was observed
in the remains except that the hair and nails showed considerable
growth; the cheeks were red as those of one who had just fallen asleep.
But the Queen-mother was not easily convinced:
"Very slowly do bodies decay in sand; it would have been otherwise
if he had lain in mould." Then the Bishop took a pair of shears and
clipped off a part of the King's hair and beard,--he wore a long
moustache, as custom was in those days. Then said the Bishop to the
King and Alfiva: "Now is the King's hair and beard as long as when
he died; but it has grown as much as you see I have cut off." Then
replied Alfiva: "I believe hair to be sacred if it is not consumed
in fire; often have we seen whole and uninjured the hair of men who
have lain in the earth longer than this man." So the Bishop placed
fire in a censer, blessed it, and added the incense. Then he laid
Olaf's hair in the fire. But when the incense was consumed, the
Bishop took the hair from the fire, and it was wholly unburnt.
The Bishop showed it to the King and the other chiefs. Then Alfiva
requested them to place the hair in unblessed fire; but Einar
Tremblethong spoke up, bade her keep silence, and used many hard
words. Then by the Bishop's decision, the King's consent, and the
judgment of the entire assembly, it was decreed that King Olaf was
in truth a holy man.[451]
[Illustration: THE FALL OF SAINT OLAF (Initial in the Flat-isle Book.)]
Whatever the procedure employed, there can be no doubt that King Olaf
was canonised in the summer of 1031 (August 3d is the date given) by
popular act; nor can it be doubted that Elgiva resisted the act--she
must have seen that the canonisation meant her own and her son's
undoing. For she must surely have realised that political considerations
were an important element in the devotion of the Norsemen to their new
patron.
There was later a tradition among the monks of Nidaros that Canute at
one time planned to establish a monastery in the northern capital.[452]
If such an attempt was made, it evidently failed; but it would not be
strange if the King should try to establish an institution where loyalty
to the empire might be nursed and which might assist in uprooting
nationalistic tendencies. If the attempt was made, it was probably soon
after the canonisation, when it became important to divert attention
from the new cult.
For the worship of Saint Olaf spread with astonishing rapidity not only
through Norway but through the entire North and even farther. The Church
had saints in great number; but here was one from the very midst of the
Scandinavian people. Moreover, Saint Olaf was a saint whom the men of
the day could appreciate: he was of their own type, with the strength of
Thor and the wisdom of Woden; they had seen him and felt the edge of his
ax. So all along the shores that Olaf the Stout had plundered in his
earlier heathen days churches arose dedicated to the virile saint of the
North.[453]
There were other difficulties, too, that the regents had to contend
with. Hunger stalked over the land. The Norwegian people had always been
accustomed to hold their kings responsible for the state of the harvest;
they were to secure the favour of the gods; a failure of crops meant
that this duty had been shirked. The feeling lingered for some time
after the disappearance of heathendom. Sweyn was only a youth and was
not held responsible; the blame fell upon the hated Queen-mother and the
hard years of her rule were known as the "Alfiva-time." The general
discontent is expressed in a contemporary fragment attributed to
Sighvat:
Alfiva's time our sons will
Long remember; then ate we
Food more fit for oxen,
Shavings the fare of he-goats.
It was not thus when the noble
Olaf governed the Norsemen;
Then could we all boast of
Corn-filled barns and houses.[454]
And Thorarin Praise-tongue in the Shrine-song addressed to Sweyn the son
of Canute urges the young regent to seek the favour of the new saint,
"the mighty pillar of the book-language":
Pray thou to Olaf that he grant thee
(He is a man of God) all his land rights;
For he can win from God himself
Peace to men and good harvests.[455]
In 1033, a revolt broke out in Norway in the interest of one Trygve, a
pretended son of Olaf Trygvesson and an English mother. The attempt
failed; the Norse chiefs had other plans. In Russia was Magnus, the
illegitimate son of the holy King, now about nine or ten years old; him
had the chiefs determined upon as their future leader. Early the next
year an embassy was sent to Russia led by the two magnates Einar and
Kalf. Here oaths were sworn and plans were laid, and in the following
spring (1035) Magnus Olafsson appeared in Norway as the foster son of
Kalf who had led his father's banesmen at Stiklestead.
From the moment when Magnus set foot on his native soil Norway was lost
to the empire. Sweyn was farther south in his kingdom when news came of
revolt in the Throndelaw. He promptly summoned the yeomanry, but feeling
that their devotion to him was a matter of grave doubt, he gave up his
plans of resistance and fled to his brother Harthacanute in Denmark,
where he died less than a year later.[456] His mother Elgiva evidently
withdrew to England, where the death of Canute the following November
doubtless gave her another opportunity to play the politician.
So far as we know, Canute made no effort to dislodge Magnus. It may be
true that he was ill; or perhaps the power of the Church restrained him:
Magnus was the son of a saint; would not the martyred King enlist the
powers of heaven on the side of his son? But it was probably want of
time and not lack of interest and purpose that prevented reconquest.
There is an indication that Canute was preparing for important
movements: at Whitsuntide, 1035, while the imperial court was at
Bamberg, he was renewing his friendship with the Emperor and arranging
for the marriage of his daughter Gunhild to the future Henry III.[457]
Perhaps we should see in this a purpose to secure the southern frontier
in anticipation of renewed hostilities in the North.
But whatever may have been Canute's plans, they were never carried
out--the hand of death came in between. On Wednesday, November 12,
1035, the great Dane saw the last of earth at Shaftesbury, an old town
on the Dorset border, a day's journey from the capital. The remains were
brought to Winchester and interred in the Old Minster,[458] an ancient
abbey dedicated to the chief of the Apostles, which Canute had
remembered so liberally earlier in the year.
We have already noted the tradition reported by both Norse and English
writers that his death was preceded by a long and serious illness; one
of the sagas states that the fatal disease was jaundice.[459] There
would be nothing incredible in this, but the evidence is not of the
best. The fact that death came to him not in the residential city but in
the neighbouring town of Shaftesbury seems to indicate that he was at
the time making one of his regular progresses through the country, as
seems to have been his custom.[460] In that case the illness could
hardly have been a protracted one.
It is likely, however, that Canute was not physically robust; he died in
the prime of manhood, having scarcely passed the fortieth year; and he
seems not to have transmitted much virility to his children. Three sons
and a daughter were born to him, but within seven years of his own death
they had all joined him in the grave. Sweyn, who seems to have been the
oldest, died a few months after his father, perhaps in the early part
of 1036. Gunhild followed in 1038; Harold in 1040; and Harthacanute in
1042. With Harthacanute passed away the last male representative of the
Knytling family; after a few years the crown of Denmark passed to the
descendants of Canute's sister Estrid, to the son of the murdered Ulf.
None of Canute's children seems to have attained a real maturity: Harold
and Harthacanute probably reached their twenty-fourth year; Sweyn died
at the age of perhaps twenty-two; Gunhild could not have been more than
eighteen when she laid down the earthly crown. There is no reason for
thinking that any of them was degenerate with the exception of Harold
Harefoot, and in his case we have hostile testimony only; at the same
time, they were all surely lacking in bodily strength and vigour.
Nor is there any reason for thinking that these weaknesses were maternal
inheritances, for the women that Canute consorted with were evidently
strong and vigorous and both of them survived him. We know little of the
concubine Elgiva except that she was proud and imperious, on fire with
ambition for herself and her sons. Emma was a woman of a similar type.
Canute apparently found it inconvenient to have the two in the same
kingdom, and when the mistress returned to England after the Norse
revolt, we seem to see her hand in the consequent intrigues. Queen Emma
survived her husband more than sixteen years; "on March 14 [1052], died
the Old Lady, the mother of King Edward and Harthacanute, named Imme,
and her body lies in the Old Minster with King Canute."[461] At the time
of her death she must have been in the neighbourhood of seventy years of
age.
Of Canute's personality we know nothing. The portraits on his coins, if
such rude drawings can be called portraits, give us no idea of his
personal appearance. Nor is the picture in the _Liber Vitæ_ likely to be
more than an idealistic representation. Idealistic, too, no doubt, is
the description of Canute in the _Knytlingasaga_, composed two centuries
or more after his time:
Canute the King was large of build and very strong, a most handsome
man in every respect except that his nose was thin and slightly
aquiline with a high ridge. He was fair in complexion, had an
abundance of fair hair, and eyes that surpassed those of most men
both as to beauty and keenness of vision.[462]
The writer adds that he was liberal in dealing with men, brave in fight,
favoured of fortune, but not wise. Except for the details as to the
nose, which give the reader the feeling that the writer may, after all,
have had some authentic source of information at his disposal, this
picture would describe almost any one of the heroic figures of the time.
On his own contemporaries Canute made a profound impression which
succeeding generations have shared. In Britain he was called the Great;
in Scandinavia the Rich, the Mighty or the Powerful. The extent of his
possessions, the splendour of his court, the size of his navy, his
intimate relations with Pope and Emperor--all these things gave him a
position and a prestige that was unheard of in the Northlands. And it
was indeed a marvellous achievement for a pirate chief from a nation
just emerging from heathendom to gather into his power the realms and
territories that made up the Knytling empire.
To analyse a character such as that of Canute is a difficult task, as
character analysis always must be. There was so much that was derived
from a heathen time and ancestry, and also so much that had been
acquired by contact with Christian culture and influences, that the
result could be only a strange composite out of which traits and
characteristics, often contradictory and hostile, would come to the
surface as occasion would suggest. Canute was a Christian, probably
baptised in his youth by some German ecclesiastic, as the Christian name
Lambert, which in harmony with custom was added to the one that he
already possessed, seems distinctly German. But the new name was
evidently not much employed, except, perhaps, on occasions when the King
wished to emphasise his Christian character. He seems to have entered
into some sort of fraternal relations with the monks of Bremen: in the
book of our brotherhood, says Adam the monk, he is named Lambert, King
of the Danes.[463]
The historians of Old English times, both Saxon and Norman, were
ecclesiastics and saw the reign of Canute from their peculiar
view-point. To them the mighty Dane was the great Christian King, the
founder of monasteries, the giver of costly gifts and valuable
endowments to the houses of God. To the undisputed traits of Christian
liberality, they added those of piety and humility, and told stories of
the visit to the monks of Ely and of Canute's vain attempt to stem the
tides and compel their obedience. The former is probably a true story;
there is no reason why the King, who seems to have taken great interest
in the abbeys of the Fenlands, should not have visited the cloisters of
Ely, and he may have been attracted by the chants of the monks, which is
more doubtful. But the tale of how Canute had to demonstrate his
powerlessness before his admiring courtiers is a myth too patent to need
discussion.[464] There was nothing of the Oriental spirit in the
Northern courts.
That Canute was religious cannot be denied. Nor should we doubt that he
was truly and honestly so, as religion passed among the rulers of the
age. The time demanded defence and support of the priesthood, and this
Canute granted, at least toward the close of his life. Perhaps in real
piety, too, he was the equal of his contemporaries whom the Church has
declared holy: Saint Stephen of Hungary, Saint Henry of Germany, and
Saint Olaf of Norway. Still, it becomes evident as we follow his career
that at no period of his life, unless it be in the closing years of
which we know so little, did Canute permit consideration for the Church
or the Christian faith to control his actions or determine his policies.
The moving passion of Canute's life was not a fiery zeal for the
exaltation of the Church, but a yearning for personal power and imperial
honours.
In the Northern sources written by laymen, especially in the verses of
the wandering scalds, we get a somewhat different picture of Canute from
that which has been painted in the English cloisters. Little emphasis is
here placed on Canute's fidelity to the new faith; here we have the
conqueror, the diplomat, the politician whose goal is success, be the
means what they may. The wholesale bribery that he employed to the ruin
of Saint Olaf, the making and breaking of promises to the Norwegian
chiefs, and the treatment of his sister's family suggest a sense of
honour that was not delicate, a passion for truth that was not keen. In
his preference for devious ways, in the deliberate use that he made of
the lower passions of men, he shows a characteristic that is not
Northern. All was not honest frankness in the Scandinavian lands; but
the pirates and their successors, as a rule, did not prefer bribery and
falsehood to open battle and honest fight.
Slavic ancestry, Christian culture, Anglo-Saxon ideas, and the
responsibilities of a great monarchy did much to develop and modify a
character which was fundamentally as much Slavic as Scandinavian. Still,
deep in his strong soul lay unconquered the fierce passions that ruled
the viking age--pitiless cruelty, craving for revenge, consuming hatred,
and lust for power. As a rule he seems to have been humane and merciful;
he believed in orderly government, in security for his subjects; but
when an obstacle appeared in the path of his ambitions, he had little
scruple as to the means to be employed in removing it. The mutilation of
the hostages at Sandwich, the slaughter and outlawry of earls and
ethelings in the early years of his rule in England, the assassination
of Ulf in Roeskild church suggest a spirit that could be terrible when
roused. Something can be said for Canute in all these instances: Ulf was
probably a traitor; the hostages represented broken pledges; the
ethelings were a menace to his rule. But why was the traitor permitted
to live until he had helped the King in his sorest straits; and what was
to be gained by the mutilation of innocent Englishmen; and was there no
other way to make infants harmless than to decree their secret death in
a foreign land?
Canute possessed in full measure the Scandinavian power of adaptation,
the quality that made the Northmen such a force in Normandy and Naples.
He grasped the ideals of mediæval Christianity, he appreciated the value
of the new order of things, and undertook to introduce it among the
Northern peoples. But he did not permit the new circumstances and ideals
to control him; only so long as they served his purpose or did not
hinder him in the pursuit of that purpose did he bow to them. When other
means promised to be more effective, he chose accordingly.
The empire that he founded did not survive him; it had begun to crumble
in his own day; the English crown was soon lost to the Danish dynasty.
It would appear, therefore, as if the conqueror accomplished nothing
that was permanent. But the achievements of genius cannot be measured in
such terms only: the great movement that culminated in the subjection of
Britain was of vast importance for the North; it opened up new fields
for Western influences; it brought the North into touch with Christian
culture; it rebuilt Scandinavian civilisation. These are the more
enduring results of the reign and the preceding expeditions to the West.
At the same time, Canute's reign minimised the influence that was
working northward from the German outposts. The connection with England
was soon interrupted; but while it endured the leavening process made
rapid spread and the Northern countries were enabled to absorb into
their culture much that has remained a native possession.
To England Canute brought the blessings of good government. For nearly
twenty years England had peace. Troubles there were on the Scotch and
Welsh borders; but these were of slight importance compared with the
earlier ravages of the vikings. It is true, indeed, that the Danish
conquest paved the way for the later invasion by the Normans; but this
was a result that Canute had not intended. It was not a part of his plan
to have the sons of his consort educated in Normandy; at the same time,
he was not in position to take such steps in their case as he may have
wished, for they were the sons of his own Queen.
In his early years Canute was a viking; when he died the viking age had
practically come to its close. Various influences contributed to this
result: the new creed with its new conceptions of human duty; new
interests and wider fields of ambition in the home lands; and the
imperial position of Canute. We do not know that Canute at any time
issued any decree against the practice of piracy; but he gained the same
end by indirect means. The viking chiefs evidently entered his service
in large numbers either in the English guard or in the government of the
eastern domains. Furthermore, as the dominant ruler of the northern
shores, as the ally of the Emperor and the friend of the Norman duke, he
was able to close fairly effectually the Baltic, the North, and the
Irish Seas together with the English Channel to viking fleets; and the
raven was thus forced to fly for its prey to the distant shores beyond
Brittany. Piracy continued in a desultory way throughout the eleventh
century; but it showed little vigour after Canute's accession to the
Danish kingship.
FOOTNOTES:
[442] The author has discussed this subject further in the _American
Historical Review_, xv., 741-742.
[443] Larson, _The King's Household in England_, 141.
[444] Kemble, _Codex Diplomaticus_, No. 749.
[445] Kemble, _Codex Diplomaticus_, Nos. 748, 750, 751, 1322. The
Croyland charter is clearly a forgery, but Canute may have made the
grant none the less as the forged charters frequently represent an
attempt to replace a genuine document that has been lost or destroyed.
[446] _Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon_, i., 443.
[447] _Annales Monastici_, ii., 16.
[448] Matthew Paris, _Chronica Majora_, i., 509.
[449] Munch, _Det norske Folks Historie_, I., ii., 814.
[450] Taranger, _Den angelsaksiske Kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske_,
176.
[451] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 244. For the preliminary steps
see cc. 239-243.
[452] Matthew Paris, _Chronica Majora_, v., 42.
[453] Daae, _Norges Helgener_, 48-60.
[454] _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, ii., 144.
[455] _Ibid._, 161.
[456] Snorre, _Saga of Magnus the Good_, cc. 4, 5.
[457] Manitius, _Deutsche Geschichte_, 411-412.
[458] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_,1035; _Encomium Emmæ_, iii., c. I.
[459] _Knytlingasaga_, c. 18.
[460] _Historia Rameseiensis_, 135.
[461] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1052.
[462] C. 20.
[463] _Gesta_, schol. 38.
[464] The story must have arisen soon after the Danish period; it is
first told by Henry of Huntingdon who wrote two generations later.
_Historia Anglorum_, 89.