Canute the Great Part 21

[343] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, cc. 174-176.

[344] _Ibid._, cc. 177 ff.

[345] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 183.

[346] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 183.

[347] _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, ii.,163.

[348] _Chronicon_, i., 184-185.

[349] _Chronicon_, i., 199.

[350] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 194.

[351] For details of the battle see Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, cc.

215-229.

[352] _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, ii., 142.

[353] The evidence for this marriage is discussed by Freeman in _Norman Conquest_, i., Note ppp.

[354] William of Jumieges, _Historia Normannorum_, vi., c. 10.

[355] William of Jumieges, _Historia Normannorum_, vi., cc. 10, 11.

[356] This was followed by a famine in the duchy (1033) which probably induced the Duke to make his pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre on the return from which he died (1035).

[357] William of Jumieges, _Historia Normannorum_, vi., c. 12.

CHAPTER XII

THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTH

When the eleventh century began its fourth decade, Canute was, with the single exception of the Emperor, the most imposing ruler in Latin Christendom. Less than twenty years earlier he had been a landless pirate striving to dislodge an ancient and honoured dynasty; now he was the lord of four important realms and the overlord of other kingdoms.

Though technically Canute was counted among the kings, his position among his fellow-monarchs was truly imperial. Apparently he held in his hands the destinies of two great regions; the British Isles and the Scandinavian peninsulas. His fleet all but controlled two important seas, the North and the Baltic. He had built an empire.

It was a weak structure, founded too largely on the military and diplomatic achievements of a single man; but the King was young--in the ordinary course of nature he should have lived to rule at least thirty years longer--and with careful diplomatic effort, of which he was a master, he might be expected to accomplish great things in the way of consolidating his dominions. But instead of thirty years, the fates had counted out less than half a dozen. In this period he was able to do almost nothing to strengthen the bonds of empire. Canute's power did not long remain at its zenith--the decline began almost immediately. In this there is nothing strange; the marvel is in the fact that such an empire was actually built.

Of Canute's many dominions, the kingdoms of Denmark, England, and Norway had fairly distinct boundaries. Lothian might be in question between England and Scotland; the Norwegian kings had claimed certain territories across the Scandinavian watershed, Jemteland, a Norse colony in Swedish possession; but otherwise the limits were tolerably definite.

The fourth division, the Slavic lands on the southern rim of the Baltic, was a more indefinite area. Its limits are unknown; perhaps it should be called a sphere of influence rather than a province. There were, however, certain evident nuclei; the regions about the lower course of the Oder with Jomburg as the chief city were doubtless the more important part; in addition there was Semland in the extreme east of modern Prussia, Witland a trifle farther west where the Vistula empties into the sea; and doubtless some of the intervening territories. There are indications that Danish settlements had also been planted in the region of the modern city of Riga[358]; but as to their probable relation to Canute's empire the sources are silent.

In addition to England, Canute possessed important territories elsewhere in the British archipelago. The King of Scotland was his va.s.sal, at least for a part of his dominions; and we have seen that at least one other Scottish king, probably from the extreme north of the island, had done homage to Canute. It has also been shown that the Norse-Irish kingdom of Dublin should, perhaps, be counted among his va.s.sal states.

As King of Norway, Canute was lord of the Shetlands and the Orkneys, perhaps also the Hebrides, and other Norse colonies on the west sh.o.r.es of Scotland. The Faroes were not wholly subject and the Icelandic republic still maintained its independence; but the straggling settlements in far-off Greenland seem to have acknowledged their dependence on the Norwegian crown.[359]

Any definite imperial policy Canute seems never to have developed. In his own day the various units were nominally ruled by earls or sub-kings, usually chosen from the King's own immediate family; but the real power was often in the hands of some trusted chief whom the King a.s.sociated with the lord who bore the t.i.tle. If time had been granted, some form of feudalism might have developed out of this arrangement; but it had few feudal characteristics in Canute's own day. It was evidently Canute's intention to continue the scheme of one king for the entire group of dominions, for at the imperial a.s.sembly at Nidaros, he placed Harthacanute in the high-seat and gave him the administration of Denmark, which was, after all, the central kingdom. The Encomiast bears further testimony as to Canute's intention when he tells us that all England had taken an oath to accept Harthacanute as king.[360] It seems that Canute, to secure the succession to his legitimate son, had adopted the Capetian expedient of a.s.sociating the heir with himself in the kingship while he was still living.

So long as obedience, especially in matters of military a.s.sistance, was duly rendered, few difficulties were likely to arise between the supreme lord of Winchester and his subordinates in Nidaros, Roeskild, or Jomburg. As the union was personal, each kingdom retained its own laws and its own system of a.s.semblies, though this must have been true to a less extent in the Slavic possessions, as these seem to have been regarded almost as a Danish dependency. When the reign closed, Harthacanute was governing Denmark; Sweyn a.s.sisted by his mother Elgiva had charge of Norway, though at that moment the Norwegian rebels were in actual control. Canute ruled England himself, not because it was regarded as the chief or central kingdom, but more likely because it could not with safety be entrusted to any one else.

So far as the Empire had any capital, that distinction appears to have belonged to the ancient city of Winchester. Here in the heart of Wess.e.x was the seat of English government, the royal and imperial residence. We naturally think of Canute's household as an English court; but it is difficult to determine what racial influences were in actual control.

Nor do we know what was the official language in Canute's royal garth; but the probabilities are that both Old English and Old Norse were in constant use. The housecarles who guarded the royal person and interests were in large part of Scandinavian birth or blood. The Norse poets who sang praise-lays in the royal hall at Winchester sang in their native dialects. Of the King's thegns who witnessed Canute's land grants, as a rule about one half bear Scandinavian names; there can be little doubt that most of these were resident at court, at all events those whose names appear in more than one doc.u.ment.

Other nationalities, too, were represented at Winchester. In the enrolment of housecarles, the King asked for strength, valour, wealth, and aristocratic birth; not, it seems, for Danish or English ancestry.

The bishops that Canute sent from England to Denmark appear to have been Flemings or Lotharingians. William who in a later reign became bishop of Roeskild is said to have come to Denmark as Canute's private secretary or chancellor; but William is neither a Northern nor a Saxon but a Norman name. And thus with Dane and Angle, Norman and Norseman, Swede and Saxon, Celt and German thronging the royal garth the court at Winchester must have borne an appearance that was distinctly non-English. As at other courts, men came and went; and the stories of the splendours at Winchester were given wide currency. The dissatisfied Nors.e.m.e.n who sought refuge in England found at Canute's court

greater magnificence than in any other place, both as to the number in daily attendance and as to the furnishings and equipments of the palaces that he owned and occupied.[361]

Sighvat the Scald, who had seen Rouen and visited Rome, was so deeply impressed with the glories of Canute's capital that in his praise-lay he introduced the refrain:

Canute was under heaven The most glorious King.[362]

There seems also to have been a notable Slavic element in Canute's retinue. Attention has been called to the King's Slavic ancestry: the Slavic strain was evidently both broader and deeper than the Danish. One of the King's sisters bore a Slavic name, Santslave[363]; another sister, Gunhild, married a Slavic "king," Wyrtgeorn or Witigern,[364]

who may have been the Wrytsleof who witnessed an English land grant in 1026[365]; possibly he was visiting his English kinsfolk at the time.

Among the chiefs of the imperial guard was one G.o.descalc, the son of a Slavic prince, though Danish on the maternal side; he, too, married into the Danish royal family.[366]

The affairs of each separate kingdom were evidently directed from the national capitals and administered largely by native functionaries. At the same time, it seems to have been Canute's policy to locate Danish officials in all his princ.i.p.al dominions, at least in the higher offices. The appointment of Danes to places of importance in England has been noted in an earlier chapter. With the subjection of Norway, a number of Danes received official appointments in that kingdom. A leading cause of the Norwegian revolt in 1034-1035 was the prominence given to aliens in the councils of the regent Sweyn: "Danish men had in those days much authority in Norway, but that was liked ill by the men of the land."[367] On the other hand, no Englishman seems to have received official responsibilities in the North except in the Church; and it may be doubted whether Canute sent many Anglian prelates to his realms in the east: the bishops that we have record of seem to have been Normans, Flemings, or clerks from the Danelaw. When a court bishop was to be found for the household of Earl Hakon, the choice fell upon Sigurd, a Dane and a violent friend of Danish rule.

Of Canute's diplomacy the sources afford us only an occasional glimpse; but the information that we have indicates that he entered into diplomatic relations with almost every ruler of importance in Northern and Western Europe. The King of Scotland became his va.s.sal. The sagas tell of an emba.s.sy to Sweden in the years preceding the attack on Norway. During the same period Canute's cousin, the King of Poland, apparently sought his alliance against the Germans. With the Emperor he maintained the closest relations. The Norman dukes were bound to the Danish dynasty by the n.o.ble ties of marriage. On his visit to Rome the English King came into personal contact with the King of Burgundy and His Holiness the Pope. Even to distant Aquitaine did the mighty monarch send his amba.s.sadors with messages of good-will in the form of substantial presents. In a panegyric on William the Great, the Duke of Aquitaine, Ademar of Chabannes writes that every year emba.s.sies came to the Duke's court with precious gifts from the kings of Spain, France, and Navarre, "and also from Canute, King of the Danes and the Angles"; and the chronicler adds that the messengers brought even more costly presents away.[368] On one occasion "the King of that country [England]

sent a ma.n.u.script written with letters of gold along with other gifts."[369] As this statement seems to have been written in 1028, and as the author emphasises the fact that this beautiful codex had arrived "recently," it seems probable that this emba.s.sy should be a.s.sociated with Canute's pilgrimage to Rome the year before. It is not strange that Canute should wish to honour a prince like William; and it is only natural that he should wish to placate a people who had suffered so much, as the Aquitanians had, from the raids and inroads of his former a.s.sociates and his allies, the vikings and the Normans.

With respect to his immediate neighbours, Canute's policy was usually absorption or close friendship. What he felt he could add to his dominions, he added; where this was not possible, he sought peace and alliance. His diplomacy must have concerned itself especially with three states: Normandy, Sweden, and the Empire. As to his relations with Sweden after the encounter at Holy River, history is silent; but war was evidently avoided. Canute probably regarded any effort to extend his territories eastward as an unwise move, so long as the disappointed Norwegian chiefs continued to show signs of unrest and rebellion.

With Normandy he lived in continuous peace for more than a decade, until Robert the Devil took up the cause of the exiled princes. That Canute feared a move in this direction seems evident; and as Queen Emma's influence at Rouen was probably weakened by the death of Richard the Good (1027), it was no doubt in the hope of strengthening his position at the ducal court that Canute sought the t.i.tle of d.u.c.h.ess for his widowed sister. As we have seen, his success was only temporary, and for a time war seemed imminent. But the confused situation in the French kingdom at this time proved Canute's salvation. In the civil war that followed the accession of Henry I. to the French throne in 1031, Robert of Normandy took a leading part on the King's side; and it was largely due to his efforts that Henry finally overcame his enemies.[370]

Meanwhile, the sons of Ethelred and Emma had to wait several years before another opportunity appeared with sufficient promise to tempt the exiles back across the Channel. For soon after the French King was safely enthroned, famine came upon Normandy, an affliction that led Robert the Devil to think of a visit to the grave of Christ. The journey was undertaken but on the return the Duke died in Asia Minor (1035).

His successor was William who finally conquered England; but William was a child and Canute had no longer any fears from that direction. A few months after Robert's death the King of England also closed his earthly career. Had Robert survived Canute, it is likely that some of the results of Hastings might have come thirty years earlier than they did.

After 1019, when Canute ascended the Danish throne, the att.i.tude and plans of the Emperor became an important factor in Northern diplomacy.

The Empire was a dangerous neighbour; the Ottos had apparently been ambitious to extend their authority throughout the entire Jutish peninsula. But during Canute's reign neither power could afford to offend the other; and the Danes were therefore able to keep continued peace along the southern borders of the kingdom. At one time, when the Emperor found himself in serious difficulties, Canute was able to drive a hard bargain and exchange his friendship for a strip of imperial territory.

It is not likely that the German kings looked with much favour on Danish expansion at the mouths of the Vistula and the Oder, but they were not in position to prevent it. In 1022, when Canute made his expedition to Wendland, the Emperor Henry II. was absent in Italy, striving, as usual, to reduce disorder.[371] Two years later he died, and Conrad of Franconia was chosen King of the Germans. His election was the signal for uprisings and plots almost along the whole length of the border, in Poland, in Lorraine, and in Lombardy.[372] Boleslav, King of the Poles, died in the following year (1025), but his successor continued the policy of hostility to the Germans and seems to have sought the alliance of his cousin Canute against the Teutonic foes.[373] Conrad, too, sought Canute's friendship and was able to outbid his Polish rival. It was agreed that there should be perpetual peace between Conrad and Canute, and to cement the good understanding and secure its continuance in years to come, Canute's little daughter Gunhild, who could not yet have been more than five or six years old, was betrothed to Conrad's son Henry, who was, perhaps, three years older.[374] The covenant was kept, and Henry received his bride about ten years later (1036), after the death of Canute. The bridegroom was the mighty Emperor Henry III., though he did not attain to the imperial dignity before the death of Conrad in 1039. Gunhild was crowned Queen of Germany and as a part of the ceremony received the more honoured German name Kunigund; but she never became empress, as she died in 1038.[375]

In return for his friendship, Canute received the mark of Sleswick, a strip of land between the Schley and the Eider, that Henry the Fowler had taken from the Danes a century before. Thus the Eider once more became the boundary of the Danish kingdom. But apart from territorial acquisitions, Canute was doubtless glad to conclude the treaty, as he was just then planning the conquest of Norway. The negotiations with Conrad were probably concluded in the year 1025 or 1026, though more likely in the former year.[376]

Perhaps at the same time the German King invited his ally to partic.i.p.ate in his coronation as Emperor; for in 1027 Canute journeyed to Rome to witness the great event. There can be little doubt that on this occasion the pledges were renewed. But even in the absence of formal treaties there was small occasion for Conrad to make trouble for his neighbour to the north. The years following his coronation in Rome saw four serious revolts in Germany; not till 1033 was real order restored in Conrad's kingdom.

There was another power that Canute could not afford to antagonise or even ignore: no mediaeval monarch could long flourish if he overlooked the needs of the Church. During the first years of his English kingship, Canute does not seem to have sought to conciliate the clergy; but after a few years he apparently adopted a new policy and strove to ally himself with the priesthood. It was as king of England that he first succeeded in forming such an alliance; in his other kingdoms, the ecclesiastical problem a.s.sumed a somewhat different form.

With the head of Christendom, Canute's relations seem to have been cordial throughout his entire reign. It was the papacy that made the first move to establish such relations: in 1019 Archbishop Lifing brought a message back from Rome replete with good advice which seems to have nattered the young Dane. The pilgrimage to Rome doubtless strengthened the bond; especially must the King's later efforts to see that the proper church dues were collected have pleased the Popes of that period. For the papacy had fallen low in that age: the Pope whom Canute visited was only a layman up to the day of his election to the sacred office; his successor Benedict is said to have been a mere boy when he was elevated to the papal dignity, though authorities differ as to his age. There was, therefore, little likelihood of any conflict so long as the Peter's pence were regularly transported to Rome. A new papacy was to come; but Hildebrand had not quite reached manhood when Canute went to his rest.

Canute's ecclesiastical policy in England, at least during the closing years of his reign, seems to have aimed at greater control than had been the case earlier. The friendship and active good-will of the Church could best be secured by carefully choosing the rulers of the Church. As a Christian court, the royal household at Winchester had in its employment a regular staff of priests, nine of whom are mentioned in the doc.u.ments. Canute honoured his priests; he seems to have invited them to seats in the national a.s.sembly; he called them in to witness grants of land. Finally, he honoured several of them still further by appointing them to episcopal office: at least three of Canute's clerks received such appointments before the reign closed.[377] His successor inherited his policy and several more of Canute's chapel clerks were honoured in Edward's time. The policy was not new: even in Carolingian times the royal chapel had been used as a training school for future prelates, and there are traces of a similar practice in England long before Canute's time. But so far as the Dane was concerned, the plan was probably original: we cannot suppose him to have been very well informed as to precedents more than two centuries old.

In Norway the problem was how to christianise and organise the land, and Canute had no great part in either. The Danish Church, however, was growing in strength and developing under conditions that might produce great difficulties: it was the daughter of the German Church; it was governed by an alien prelate.

The primacy of the Northern churches belonged to the see of Bremen, the church from which the earliest missionaries had gone forth into Denmark and Sweden. While this primacy was in a way recognised, in practice, the Northern kings in the early years of the eleventh century paid small regard to the claims of the archbishop. The two Olafs depended mainly on England and the neighbouring parts of the Continent for priests and prelates; and Canute, as King of England, seems to have planned to make the Danish Church, too, dependent on the see of Canterbury. At this time Unwan was Archbishop of Bremen; for sixteen years he ruled his province with a resolute hand and for the most part with strength and wisdom.