Whip the Great. viking king
Whip the Great
Among the many interesting and sometimes mysterious characters of the very difficult Viking Age (VIII-XI centuries), one can definitely distinguish two personalities with undeniable superiority - this is Rollon* (Robert I, 860-932), the founder of Normandy, and Knut the Great (990-1035) - the king of England, Denmark and Norway, sometimes called the "Emperor of the North". Both of them were maritime leaders, and each of them represents the high point of that great northern migration movement, except that Rollon can be attributed to the early period of the Viking migration, and Cnut to the later and final phase of it.
Let's start from afar...
By the end of the 8th century, strange dragon fleets of pagan northerners or Vikings, as they called themselves, appeared in the waters of Europe. And from that time on, for more than two hundred years, the shores of Europe were in constant fear of the blond and red-haired beasts who held the entire sea coast of Europe in constant fear. It was during this period that the Vikings settled on the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the British Isles, Greenland, Russia, and even reached the American continent - the Newfoundland Peninsula.
Viking ship (Drakkar)
The predominant field of activity for Viking campaigns has always been the British Isles, located from their habitat just three days across the North Sea, and due to climatic conditions, which could become a second home for the Scandinavians.
Reconstruction of a Viking dwelling in Greenland
But the constant attacks on England were only one of many pages of Viking raids - while some Scandinavians established their barbarian states in Ireland and England, others paved routes south to the Mediterranean Sea, and there they were already engaged in raiding the southern coast of France and plundered Italian cities.
viking shoes
The Viking hordes sacked Paris and made military expeditions along the entire coast of the German and French rivers, they moved along the Neva River through Lake Ladoga to the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen and through the Dnieper went to the Black Sea and further - to Byzantium, to the very walls of Constantinople ...
Settlement of the Vikings in the North Atlantic
And one of the best representatives of the Viking Age is Knut the Great, the king of England, Denmark and Norway, who began his "career" as a sea robber, but eventually turned into a statesman - a unifier of Northern Europe.
Youth affairs
One of my main problems when writing an article was where to start this story? In the usual way, with which any biography often starts - from childhood, upbringing and education received, it is almost impossible, because Knut, and then he was not yet "Great", lived in an era when there was almost no writing in Northern Europe, when there was a place and Hero's year of birth unknown...
We know little about Knut's life before 1013, when his biography is gradually beginning to clear up - by this time he was less than 20 years old, and when he accompanied his father - Sven Forkbeard* in his successful invasion of England in the month of August 1013. After this invasion, the English king Ethelred II the Indecisive* fled with his family to the mainland - to neighboring Normandy, and Sven Forkbeard proclaimed himself the new king of England. However, everything that concerns the biography of Knut, we know from the Scandinavian sagas that have come down to us, and not from more reliable sources.
Emma flees from the advancing Sven Forkbeard in 1013, along with her two sons from Ethelred the Indecisive - Edward and Alfred. She sought protection from her brother, the Duke of Normandy. From handwritten miniatures of Cambridge - "The Life of King Edward the Confessor" for 1250-1260.
But in February of the following year, after the sudden death of Sven Forkbeard - Cnut's father, the Danish army proclaimed Cnut as their king, but the assembly of the English nobility (Witenahemot) refused to recognize him as king and instead voted to invite the defeated king Æthelred the Indecisive from Norman exile to the English throne.
The exiled Ethelred did not delay with the invitation - with the help of Witenagemot, he quickly gathered an army and forced Cnut to immediately leave England and sail with the remnants of his army back to Jutland. Sailing past the coast of Kent, Cnut mutilated all the hostages given to his father as a pledge from the local English nobility, hinting that all violators of the oath would certainly be punished.
English affairs. Invasion
After the death of his father, Sven Forkbeard, Knut's younger brother Harold II (Harald) became the king of Denmark, and Knut, returning from England, offered him to jointly rule the kingdom, which his brother did not like at all. Harold nevertheless promised him his help and support in a future invasion of England, but on the condition that Knut completely renounce his rights to the Danish throne.
And so in the summer of 1015, assembled by Knut fleet, consisting of more than two hundred ships and having on board ten thousand mercenaries recruited from all over Scandinavia (and even from Poland), set out on a journey to conquer England.
Encomium Emmae Reginae* ("Praise to Queen Emma"), the account that has come down to us, describes Knut's invasion fleet - a brilliant weapon warriors on board, brightly colored shields hanging along the sides, figures of warriors sparkling with silver and gold, figures of lions, fiery dragons and bulls with gilded horns.
“Praise to Queen Emma” is a panegyric composed by an anonymous author in Latin during the reign of King Hardaknut (1040–1042) commissioned by the widow of Cnut the Great, Emma of Normandy
And the chronicler wonders - who could look at such an army without trepidation and not be afraid of the leader, by whose order it came. Knut's warriors have also been carefully selected:
“In addition, in the entire detachment there were neither serfs, nor freedmen, nor of humble origin, nor weakened by old age. All of them were nobles, all strong, full of masculinity, suitable for all kinds of battles and so fast on foot that they despised the speed of the cavalry.
Whether this was an exaggeration of the chronicler or not, it is quite clear that Knut led a valiant and well-armed army.
So the Danish invasion force landed in Wessex, which was easily captured. Northumbria was next in line. Knut summoned Uhtred, the alderman (earl) of Northumbria, to a peaceful meeting and, for violating the oath given to his father Sven Forkbeard two years earlier, executed him and the forty people accompanying him.
Further, Cnut with his fleet returned south, entered the Thames and laid siege to London. King Æthelred II of England died suddenly during the siege, and his son Edmund Ironside was proclaimed the new king. But when Edmund left London to replenish his army, he was intercepted by Cnut on Ashingdon Hill (Essex), where King Edmund Ironside's camp was located. After that, a decisive battle followed - and Edmund was forced to ask for peace.
Cnut fighting Edmund Ironside at the Battle of Assandun, depicted with Edmund Ironside (left) and King Cnut (right). From a manuscript from the 1300s. Author: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, Cambridge
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells of the outcome of the battle as follows:All the nobility of England perished there.".
Edmund Ironside and Cnut make peace on the Isle of Olney, believed to have been an island in the River Severn in Gloucestershire, and agree that Cnut will rule north of the Thames and Edmund the south
Having met on one of the islands of the Severn River, Cnut and Edmund agreed to divide Edmund's possessions, but the death of Edmund (according to the widespread version, he was killed) in November of that year made Cnut the sole ruler of England, and in January 1017 the English Witenagemot (a collection of English nobility ) recognized him as the rightful king of England.
Medieval illustration of the death of Edmund Ironside. According to one of the widespread versions, he was killed by an arrow in the toilet.
In order to somehow tie yourself to the English dynasty and protect your kingdom from an attack from neighboring Normandy, where the other sons of the deceased Ethelred II the Indecisive (Edward the Confessor) were* and Alfred Ætheling*), Knut decided to marry the widow of Ethelred II - Emma of Normandy, daughter of the Norman duke Richard the Fearless.
Note. The Church did not recognize this marriage.
English affairs. reforms
After the execution of the disloyal Anglo-Saxon nobles, Cnut's first action in the England he conquered was the administrative division of it into four large counties - Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria, which was to become the basis of the system of territorial possessions and underlie English sovereignty for several centuries.
Having taken the English throne, Cnut promised his subjects protection from Viking raids and restored all English laws adopted under the old kings, partially reforming them and creating new ones, the most important of which were the laws “On Heroes and Help” and “Inheritance in the absence of a will” , compiled in Old English and divided into two parts - on ecclesiastical and secular issues. And in his message to the people, Knut emphasizes the equality of all his subjects before God, the king and the law, regardless of their ethnicity.
Code of Laws of King Knut. London, British Library
Being a good administrator, Cnut consolidated the English and Danish departments into one whole and initiated the issuance of new coins that would have the same weight as those used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia, which greatly improved the trade of England, whose economy was stagnant after many years of military upheavals. Coins of English coinage dating back to the era of Knut have been found in many parts of Europe, including Rus', indicating a brisk trade exchange between England and continental Europe.
Silver penny minted by King Whip
Thus, Knut is usually considered a sensible and efficient ruler - pursuing a policy of national reconciliation, he brought England more than twenty years of peace and prosperity, where the Danes and Anglo-Saxons were on an equal footing. The bilateral merging of the Danish conquerors and the local Anglo-Saxons has been going on for more than a century, thus, the conquest of England by Knut was the logical conclusion of the entire Scandinavian expansion to the island, starting from the end of the XNUMXth century - from the very beginning of the Viking Age.
Having overthrown the legitimate royal dynasty of Wessex (the house of Cerdic), Cnut actually continued its work of uniting all of England, relying on the already existing traditions of lawmaking, introducing new laws and pursuing a balanced internal policy to integrate new annexed territories, the center of which was England.
Danish affairs
In 1018, the king of Denmark, Knut's brother Harold II, died, and the Danish kingdom passed to Knut.
Trying to confirm his succession as king of Denmark, he sailed home to Jutland, declaring his firm intention to prevent Danish Viking raids on England, where he had to spend two years pacifying the Danes, dissatisfied with the new king, forbidding them to plunder England.
Considering his power in Denmark strong, in the spring of 1020 he returned to England, appointing his son-in-law Ulf Jarl as governor of Denmark.
Norwegian affairs
Taking advantage of the absence of Knut in Denmark, King Olaf II Haraldson (Saint) of Norway, with the support of the Swedish king Anund Olafsson (Uglezhog), attacked the Danes in the Baltic Sea in 1026, completely devastated the territory of the island of Zeeland and removed the regent appointed by Knut (Ulf Jarl), who tried to plant to the Danish throne of the son of Knut - the minor Hardeknut.
Knut, the rightful king, had no choice but to urgently gather a fleet in England and personally sail to save his possessions. Knut's military campaign was successful - the allied forces of the Norwegians and Swedes were ousted from Denmark, and the newly appointed ruler was executed by the conquerors.
Wanting to put an end to the external threat emanating from Norway in the person of its king Olaf II Haraldson, in 1028 Cnut in England (according to other sources, in Denmark) gathers a fleet of fifty ships, lands in Trondheim and conquers Norway. The fact is that, in addition to the victories of the military, Knut secretly “fed” the Norwegian jarls with handouts, who, at a critical moment for the Norwegian king Olaf, sided with Knut, leaning towards offers of gold and promises for the future.
After such a defeat from Knut, Olaf II Haraldson, taking with him his four-year-old son Magnus (later King of Denmark and Norway), was forced to flee to neighboring Sweden and then to Rus', to the wife of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise - Ingigerda.
At a meeting of the nobility in Trondheim Knut, he was officially recognized as king, and his new title was "King of all England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden".
All possessions of Knut are highlighted in red
Putting on the Norwegian crown, Knut tried to rule by force, cunning and intrigue - he ruthlessly destroyed his enemies, bribed possible allies, flirted with free landowners and eliminated competitors, and in his attempts to legally establish himself in Norway, he even turned a blind eye to the paganism that still existed there .
On a note. Yielding to the call of his Norwegian supporters in 1030, the exiled Olaf returned back to Norway, where he tried to regain the throne with the help of the Swedes supporting him, but was killed in the battle of Stiklastadir, fighting with the army of the Norwegian tribal nobility and free landowners.
After the death of Olaf, his son Magnus was adopted by Yaroslav the Wise and brought up in his family, but lived in Novgorod. Already after the death of Knut, the Norwegian Jarls, with the assistance of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise, crowned Olof's son Magnus to the Norwegian throne, and after the death of Knut's son, Hardeknut, he inherited the Danish throne according to the law.
Spiritual Affairs
After such impressive campaigns in the countries of Northern Europe and appeasing his opponents, the "Emperor of the North", dressed in a modest robe and taking a staff in his hands, as pilgrims always do, decided to personally go to continental Europe to meet with the Pope and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire , for Knut's northern power had already become prominent enough to start contacting such political heavyweights.
Antique engraving of King Cnut listening to the monks of Ely (cathedral city in Cambridgeshire). Knut used to visit the monastery at the Presentation Day to celebrate the day of the Entry of Jesus into the temple.
Whether Knut's adherence to the Church was the result of his deep religious fanaticism or merely a means of consolidating his political power is impossible to say now. And even though Knut after the conquest was still recognized as a Christian ruler, his army, with which he took possession of England, was mostly pagan, so he had to sit on two chairs and turn a blind eye to pagan religion.
During his pilgrimage to Rome, Knut visited the West Frankish kingdom, Germany and Italy, where he proved himself a true Christian, observed all the rituals and generously donated to charity. It should be noted here that there are still discussions between historians - whether he actually went to the Eternal City to repent of his sins, or had a more mundane goal - to attend the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II.
While in Rome, Knut obtained the consent of Pope John XIX to exempt the English Church from a significant part of church taxes, and with Christian monarchs he resolved the issue of a preferential duty that English pilgrims should pay for ensuring their protection on the way to Rome.
Here is what Knut writes in 1027 in his letter already from Denmark on his way back to England:
“... spoke with the emperor himself, Mr. Pope and the princes there about the needs of all the people of my whole kingdom, both English and Danes, that they should be granted a fairer law and a more reliable peace on the way to Rome, and that they were not hampered by so many barriers to Rome and the road, and she is worried about unfair fees; and the Emperor agreed, and also King Robert, who governs the majority of these very toll gates. And all the magnates confirmed by edict that my people, both merchants and others who travel to offer their prayers, can go to Rome and return, without encountering barriers and toll collectors, in firm peace and safe under a just law.
Posthumous cases
Cnut died in 1035 in Shaftesbury (Dorset), but was buried in Winchester (Hampshire) in the Old Cathedral, founded by the barbarian "king" of Wessex, Kenwall.
The northern state, created by Knut with such persistence, immediately began to fall apart after his death. The English nobility refused to recognize his son Hartakanut, who sat on the throne as Knut III, as their king, because he spent too much time in Denmark, and the exiled son of King Olaf II, Magnus I, returned to Norway and regained his lands and throne Kind, nicknamed "Good", because, on the advice of the court skald, he refused to avenge the death of his father.
Summarizing the time that came after the death of Knut, then in England, complete confusion and vacillation began, associated with the struggle for power, which lasted until the year 1066, i.e. before the landing on the island of William the Conqueror (William Rufus), who brought complete order to the former English possessions of Knut.
During the English Revolution of the XNUMXth century, the Roundhead soldiers (supporters of Parliament) who robbed the cathedral scattered the bones of Knut on the floor of the tomb and they lay among other bones, in particular, the bones of William the Conqueror. After the restoration of the monarchy, the bones were collected and replaced in their burial chests, although somewhat out of order...
Knut and Emma's coffin at Winchester Cathedral. Knut's name comes last on the second line. During the English Civil War, the revolutionaries emptied all the coffins containing the royal bones. After the English monarchy was restored, the monks carefully dismantled the royal bones. However, there is no certainty that this sarcophagus contains the bones of Knut and Emma.
The merits and deeds of Knut were sung by skalds in Old Norse poetry - he was portrayed as a heroic Viking warrior. So, for example, in the "Knitling Saga" he was portrayed:
“tall and strong, he was recognized by men, all but his nose, which was thin, high set and rather hooked. Nevertheless, he had a fair complexion and beautiful thick hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, and more beautiful and sharper.
His large "Northern Empire" lasted a very significant time - from 1016 to 1035, and was a force that all monarchs of that era had to reckon with, and Knut was listed as the second most powerful European sovereign, after the Holy Roman Emperor. The creation of the state by Knut was long and difficult, but after only a few years after his death with such difficulty, the state he had created with such difficulty was destroyed and was no longer restored in its former form ...
A little legendary
The whip is perhaps best remembered by later generations for the legend of how he gave orders to the waves of the sea. According to the legend that has come down to us, he was tired of the endless flattery of his courtiers and, when one of these flatterers declared that the king could even command the sea, Knut sat on a throne near the coast (Beauchamps, West Sussex). But after the waves wet his feet, he recognized the impotence of earthly rulers and took off his crown, declaring that only the Lord has real power. Apparently, story this one is inspired by the Christian idea of humility and humility, as well as submission to earthly power - spiritual power. And even centuries after his death, this legend of King Knut, who tried to command the waves of the sea, still remains in English folklore.
The whip orders the sea not to wet his feet. Victorian drawing. Author: Rafael Tak
Information
*Rollon (Robert I, nicknamed "The Pedestrian", circa 860-932). Viking, originally from the Orkney Islands, who made devastating raids on the West Frankish kingdom. Subsequently, he became the Duke of Normandy and became famous as a wise legislator and an active ruler. According to legend, not a single horse could bear him - he was tall and heavy. Hence the nickname - "Pedestrian".
*Sven Forkbeard (ca. 960–1014). King of Denmark, Norway and England. He got his nickname because of his long and split beard. He was the son of Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark. Better known as the father of Knut the Great.
*Ethelred the Indecisive (968–1016). King of England (978–1016) of the Wessex dynasty of the House of Cerdic, who came to the throne as a child. After being defeated by the Danes, he left England with his family and moved to France.
*Encomium Emmae Reginae ("Praise to Queen Emma"). Along with the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", one of the few narratives that have come down to our time, describing the events of that time. In "Praise ..." tells about the conquest of England by Sven Forkbeard and his son Knut the Great, as well as the struggle for power after the death of Knut himself. There is an opinion that the chronicle contains a deliberate distortion of events, designed to justify the position of Queen Emma of Normandy (widow of Knut and mother of Edward the Confessor - one of the last kings of Anglo-Saxon England). Written by a priest from Flanders.
* Edward the Confessor (1003–1066). The eldest son of the English king Ethelred II the Indecisive and Emma of Normandy, the penultimate king of Anglo-Saxon England and the last of the Wessex dynasty on the English throne, King of England (ruled from 1042 to 1066). A century later, he was canonized by the Catholic Church.
*Alfred Ætheling (c. 1012–1036). One of the sons of the English king Ethelred II the Indecisive and Emma of Normandy. After marrying Emma, Knut became his stepfather. In 1035, after the death of Cnut, he landed in England and tried to break into London, but was betrayed, captured by the earl of Wessex and blinded, after which he died.
References:
1. Glebov A. G. "England in the Early Middle Ages"
2. Gorelov M. M. "The Danish and Norman conquests of England in the XI century"
3. Lebedev G. S. "The Viking Age in Northern Europe"
4. Churchill W. "The Birth of Britain"
5. Bolton T. "The Empire of Knut the Great: Conquest and Consolidation of Power"
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