King Canute and medieval English kingship

King Canute is one of the most important and greatest figures in history and was commonly known as King Canute I of England, Norway's King Canute, and King Canute II of Denmark. This significance of this king is attributed to his fame for conquering large parts of England and establishing a formidable but short-lived empire after conquering Norway and Denmark. Moreover, King Canute is renowned as one of the greatest leaders of medieval Europe because he was a statesman with huge successes in the military, politics, and religion. Despite of these notable successes, King Canute's legacy was widely lost to history after his death and the death of his successors within 10 years.

During his childhood, Canute accompanied Denmark's King Swein Forkbeard, his father when he attacked England in 1013 (Snell par, 3). After his father died in February 1014 despite being accepted as the King of England the previous year, Canute's brother, Harald, became his father's successor as King of Denmark. At the same time, the English invited Ethelred back to the country to resume his kingship role. Notably, Ethelred had fled the country during King Swein's invasion of England in February 1013.

When Ethelred returned to England, Canute went to Denmark where he gathered his forces and returned to England in 1015 to fight against Ethelred's forces. The fight enabled Canute to capture nearly every part in England except London. While Canute was named new king of England by the English council following Ethelred's death, Edmund Ironside, son of Ethelred was named the king of London. This decision contributed to numerous battles between Canute and Edmund, which culminated in a significant victory for Canute in October 1016 at Ashingdon. Nonetheless, Canute became king of the entire nation in November 1016 after the death of Edmund.

As the new king of the entire England, Canute divided the country into four districts that were governed by military leaders. In attempts to keep Ethelred's son from falling into Norman nobles' control and legalize his claims, Canute married Emma of Normandy, Ethelred's widow. During his initial stages of exercising leadership over England, Canute used harsh measures such as prohibiting or killing some famous English rivals, planning the death of Ironside's brother, and forcing Edmund's children to flee to Hungary for safety. These harsh measures developed into a relatively even-handed policy throughout the years as he allowed more Englishmen in powerful positions in leadership.

Canute's conquest of Denmark occurred after the death of his brother, which stimulated his decision to claim the country's throne. He also managed to conquer and capture the Norwegian throne or crown through under-hand tactics i.e. By bribing Norwegian land owners to provoke unrest. The Norwegian conquest took place after Canute drove out King Olaf II Haraldsson despite losing the Battle of the Holy River and consequently striking a deal.