Canute the Great Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HaLLESTAD STONE.]

To add to the difficulties of England, Ethelred was stricken with an illness that ended his life a few months later. The hope of England now lay in the rebellious Edmund, who was still in the North country. He and Eadric were both gathering forces in Mercia; but when they joined disagreements seem to have arisen; for soon the Earl again played the traitor, deserted the Etheling, and with "forty ships" repaired to Canute and joined his host.

In the language of the day, the term "ship" did not necessarily refer to an actual sea-going craft; it was often used as a rude form of reckoning military forces, somewhat less than one hundred men, perhaps. It has been thought that Eadric's deserters were the remnant of Ethelred's Danish mercenary force[109]; but it is unlikely that so many vikings still remained in the English service. The chances are that they were Mercians, possibly Danish Mercians. Wess.e.x now gave up the fight, accepted Canute as king, and provided horses for the invading army.

It must have been about Christmas time when Eadric marched his men down into the South to join the Danes. A few days later the restless Prince, with Eadric in his train, started northward, crossed the Thames at Cricklade in Wiltshire, and proceeded toward the Warwick country. Edmund had apparently come south to meet him, but the militia were an unwilling band. They suddenly became sticklers for legal form and regularity, and refused to go on without the presence of the King and the aid of London.

As neither was forthcoming, the English dispersed. Once more the summons went abroad, and once more the men insisted that the King must be in personal command: let him come with what forces he could muster.

Ethelred came, but the hand of death was upon him. Evidently the old King had neither courage nor strength. Whispers of treason came to him: "that they who should be a help to him intended to betray him"[110]; and he suddenly deserted the army and returned to the fastness of London.

The second attempt at resistance having failed, Edmund left the South to its fate, and rode into Northumbria to seek Earl Uhtred. No better evidence can be found of the chaos that existed in England at the time.

The Saxon South accepts the invader, while a prince of the house of Alfred is looking for aid in the half-Scandinavian regions beyond the Humber that had once so readily submitted to Sweyn Forkbeard. What agreements and promises were made are not known; but soon we have the strange spectacle of Edmund and his new ally harrying English lands, the Mercian counties of Stafford, Salop, and Chester. Doubtless the plan was to punish Eadric, but it was a plan that did not lead to a united England.

The punishment of the deserters was probably incidental; evidently the allies were on the march southward to check Canute. Here was an opportunity for the young Dane to show some generalship, and the opportunity was improved. Turning eastward into Bucks, he marched his army in a northeasterly direction toward the Fenlands, and thence northward through Lincoln and Nottingham toward York. When Earl Uhtred learned of this attack on his territories, he hastened back to Northumbria. But he was not in position to fight, and, therefore,

driven by necessity, he submitted, and all Northumbria with him, and gave hostages. Nevertheless, on the advice of Eadric, he was slain, and with him Thurkil, the son of Nafna. And after that the king made Eric earl of Northumbria with all the rights that Uhtred had.[111]

The Chronicler seems to believe that Uhtred was slain soon after his submission, and it could not have been very much later. Simeon of Durham tells us that the Earl was slain by an enemy named Thurbrand[112]; but it seems clear that Canute approved the act and perhaps desired it. It is extremely probable that Uhtred was removed to make room for Eric.

When young Hakon arrived as a fugitive, Eric doubtless realised that his Norwegian earldom was slipping away. All through the fall and winter Olaf had been travelling along the sh.o.r.es and up through the dales; wherever it was practicable he had summoned the peasantry to public a.s.semblies and presented his case. His appeal was to national Norse pride and to the people's sense of loyalty to Harold Fairhair's dynasty.

Almost everywhere the appeal was successful.

But the men who loved the old order were not willing to yield without a struggle. While Canute was making his winter campaign from the Channel to York, both parties were active in Norway, Sweyn and Einar in the Throndelaw, Olaf in the South. All through Lent the fleets were gathering. Finally on Palm Sunday, March 25, 1016, the dragons encountered each other at the Nesses, near the mouth of the Christiania Firth. Neither force was great, though that of Sweyn and Einar was considerably larger than the pretender's host. It has been estimated that Olaf had fewer than 2000 men, his opponents nearly twice as many.

At the Nesses for the first time the cross figured prominently in Norwegian warfare: golden, red, or blue crosses adorned the shining shields of the kingsmen. After ma.s.s had been sung and the men had breakfasted, Olaf sailed out and made the attack. The outcome was long uncertain, but finally victory was with the King.[113]

From the Nesses Einar and Sweyn fled to Sweden. Here they were offered a.s.sistance and were planning an expedition against King Olaf for the following year, when Earl Sweyn suddenly died. As there was no one in Norway around whom the dissatisfied elements could rally, all attempts to dislodge the new King were given up for the time. Some of the defeated chiefs may have sought refuge with Canute; at any rate the news of the Nesses could not have been long in reaching the York country. As Eric had come to England at Canute's request, the Prince doubtless felt that he owed his brother-in-law some compensation. Furthermore, with the Norse earl in control at York, Canute could feel more secure as to Northumbrian loyalty. There thus existed in the spring of 1016 a double reason for removing Uhtred.

Another Northumbrian magnate, Thurkil the son of Nafna, is mentioned as sharing the strong earl's fate. Who Thurkil was is not known; but it is clear that he must have been a n.o.ble of considerable prominence, as he would otherwise hardly be known to a chronicler in Southern England. His name gives evidence of Northern blood; but thus far his ident.i.ty has been a mystery, and the following attempt at identification can claim plausibility only. King Olaf Trygvesson had a younger half-brother who was known to the scalds as Thurkil Nefja or "Nosy." In the expedition to Wendland in 1000, he commanded the _Short Serpent_. At Swald he fought on King Olaf's own ship, and was the last to leap overboard when Eric and his men boarded and seized it. Of him sang Hallfred Troublous-scald:

Strong-souled Thurkil Saw the Crane and the Dragons Two float empty (Gladly had he grappled),

Ere the arm-ring wearer, Mighty in warfare, Leaped into the sea, seeking Life by swimming.[114]

The inference is that he actually escaped, and it seems possible that we find him again in England after sixteen years. As all the rulers of the North had conspired against Olaf, he would be compelled to seek refuge in other lands, preferably in one of the Scandinavian colonies in the West. But for Thurkil now to serve loyally and peaceably under the man who drove his brother to death and seized his kingdom might be difficult; and he may therefore have been sacrificed to Eric's security.

The statement that his father's name was Nafna presents a difficulty; but the Chronicler may not have been thoroughly informed on the subject of Norse nicknames and may have mistaken the by-name for the name of his father.

After the submission of Northumbria, Canute returned to the South. This time he carefully avoided the Danelaw; evidently he wished that his friends in Danish Mercia should suffer no provocation to rise against him; the route, therefore, lay through the West. The campaign was swiftly carried through, for by Easter (April 1), Canute was again with his ships. Wess.e.x and Northumbria were now both pacified. In the Midlands there can have been but little active hostility. London alone showed the old determination to resist; here were Ethelred and Edmund with a number of the English magnates. Canute immediately began preparations for a last descent upon the stubborn city; but before his dragons had actually left harbour, England had lost her king.

April 23, 1016, Ethelred died. To say anything in real praise of the unfortunate King is impossible. The patriotic monk who chronicled the sad events of this doleful period can only say that "he kept his realm with great trouble and suffering the while that he lived."[115] Any striking abilities Ethelred cannot have possessed. He was easily influenced for evil--perhaps he was faithless. But to lay all the blame for the downfall of England tipon the incapable king would be missing the point. The Old English monarchy was, after all, a frail kingdom. The success of Edgar in reducing the Scandinavian colonies to unquestioned obedience was probably due in large part to his sterling qualities as king; but in still greater measure, perhaps, to the fact that, during his reign, the viking spirit was at its lowest ebb: consequently the stream of reinforcements having ceased to flow across the North Sea, the Anglo-Danes were forced to yield. But now the situation was totally different. In the early years of the eleventh century only statesmanship of the highest order could have saved the dynasty; but England had neither statesmen nor statesmanship in Ethelred's day.

FOOTNOTES:

[84] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1014.

[85] For a brief account of the Norse colonies in Ireland and the events that culminated in the battle of Clontarf, see _Norges Historie_, I., ii., 292-310. (Bugge.)

[86] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1014.

[87] William of Jumieges, _Historia Normannorum_, v., cc. 11-12.

[88] _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 13. (Translation by William Morris.)

[89] _Encomium Emmae_, ii., c. 2.

[90] The conjecture of Norse historians that he left Norway because of disagreements with his brother Sweyn has little in its favour. Eric believed in peace, but scarcely to the point of expatriation.

[91] _Encomium Emmae_, ii., cc. 2-3. The banishment of Gunhild is also mentioned in Thietmar's _Chronicle_ (vii., c. 28).

[92] _Jomsvikingasaga_, cc. 50-52.

[93] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Regum_, i., 207.

[94] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, i., 383.

[95] _Encomium Emmae_, ii., c. 3.

[96] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, c. 24.

[97] _Ibid._, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, c. 108.

[98] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1015; Florence of Worcester, _Chronicon_, i., 170-171. The Five Boroughs had by this time become the Seven Boroughs.

[99] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Regum_, i., 213.

[100] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Regum_, i., 213.

[101] The Encomiast counts two hundred ships (_Encomium Emmae_, ii., c.

4). The _Jomsvikingasaga_ reports 960 (c. 52). Adam of Bremen puts the number at 1000 (_Gesta_, ii., c. 50). The Encomiast is doubtless nearest the truth.

[102] The _Knytlingasaga_ seems to indicate that Eric came late (c 13).

[103] _Encomium Emmae_, ii., c. 4.

[104] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, cc. 28-29.

[105] Snorre, _Saga of Saint Olaf_, cc. 30-31.

[106] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1015.

[107] Snorre, _Olaf Trygvesson's Saga_, c. 102.

[108] The Hallestad Stone, raised in memory of Toki, Canute's gran-uncle, who fell in the battle of Fyris River:

Askell raised this monument in memory of Toki, Gorm's son his beloved lord.

He did not flee At Upsala. Henchmen have raised To their brother's memory On the firm-built hill This rock with runes. To Gorm's son Toki They walked nearest.

Wimmer, _De danske Runemindesmaerker_, I., ii. 86, ff.