Who was king canute and why is he famous

The three kingdoms under his rule are collectively referred to as the North Sea Empire. He was born into a long line of Scandinavian rulers. His father was the Danish King and for a brief time King of England Sweyn Forkbeard , his mother was a Polish princess, and his grandfather was Harald Bluetooth, who was King of Denmark before his father.

Cnut was apparently a very tall, well-built and handsome man.

North sea empire flag

He was described as a brave and fierce Viking warrior, politically brilliant and possessed strong leadership skills. Cnut is generally regarded as a successful ruler who brought peace to the people over whom he ruled. England was so peaceful during his reign that he frequently was able to leave the British shores to deal with affairs elsewhere, although England was his base.

He was less than 20 years old when he accompanied his father on his successful invasion of England in While King Sweyn was conquering England, Cnut was left in charge of the remainder of the Danish forces at Gainsborough. Cnut returned to Denmark where he assembled an invasion force to reconquer England which would take place a year later.

How did cnut the great die

Cnut invaded England in the summer of and quickly made significant progress and brought about the speedy submission of Northumbria. Whilst the general public and a small number of councillors proclaimed Edmund as their ruler, a larger number of nobles declared for Cnut. Cnut and Edmund were at war, each winning and losing battles, and at times they were even, until Edmund was decisively defeated by Cnut at the Battle of Assandun, Essex, in October After this, the two rivals swore friendship, a peace treaty was agreed and a division of the kingdom was effected, which allowed Edmund to rule in the south and Cnut to rule in the north.

Soon afterwards, in November Edmund Ironside died, and Cnut assumed his succession rights which had been agreed by the treaty, and King Cnut became sole ruler of England.