Canute The Danish Viking King of England: The 'Coronation' of 1016

by Stuart Reddish

Canute King of England 1016

Canute's father was Swegen Forkbeard and had briefly reigned as king of England from Christmas 1013 until his death in February, 1014. Canute was then held by the Vikings to be their commander, a warlord, and King of England. However, it took two more years for Canute to rally his allies against an English claim to the throne. Finally, at the end of the summer of 1016 Edmund Ironside, probably suffering and fatally wounded, was caught in retreat half way across the country, near the Forest of Dean. This is where there was likely to have been a final struggle made in an attempt by the English to protect their king. Canute's army was to get the upper hand and was ultimately able to force Edmund into peace talks, on the terms which the Danes set, or none.

Canute and Edmund met on an island in the Severn, which left King Edmund only to accept defeat and sign a treaty with Canute in which all of England, except for Wessex, would be controlled by Canute. It was agreed that when one of the kings should die, the other king would be the one and only king of England; his sons being the heir to the throne. It was a move of astute political sense, as well as mercy, on the part of the Viking leader. Edmund's death, probably by the afflictions of war, or possibly murder by the hand of the traitor Eadric Streona's men, happened on November the 30th in 1016. 

When Canute finally took the English throne in 1016 it was an event, which through frequent contact with the Danes, had long been anticipated. An event which the partly Scandianavianised population of Northumbria and the Danelaw would not have resented and one which the new king himself doubtless saw as the culmination of the victories of his countrymen from the time of Ivar the the Boneless a century an a half before. Canute then ruled the whole kingdom. Canute was recognised by the nobility as the sole elective king during a Yuletide Gemot lasting into 1017, yet his coronation was at Christmas 1016 or even earlier. 

In Cnut England's Viking King 1016-35 Lawson gives the following account of events:

According to John of Worcester, shortly after Ethelred died in April 1016 certain English churchmen and nobles elected Canute king, came to him at Southampton, swore fidelity and repudiated all Ethelred's progeny; in return, he vowed to be a good lord in matters of both church and lay. As late Anglo-Saxon rulers were often required to give undertakings of this sort at their coronations, Canute was possibly crowned and anointed at this time. His involvement in such a ceremony after the death of Edmund Ironside is even more likely. John says that he held a meeting in London, and asked the witnesses of his agreement with Edmund whether the latter's brother and sons were entitled to succeed him. They replied that Edmund left no claim to his brothers and wanted Canute to support and protect his sons until they were old enough to rule, and they also swore that they wished to elect Canute king, humbly obey him, and pay tribute to his army. 

 
The meeting was obviously intended to establish Canute as sole king and may have led directly to the coronation in London by Archbishop Lyfing as reported by a twelfth century dean of St. Paul's in December 1016.

It is reputed that at the coronation Canute saw to the decapitation of the untrustworthy Eadric Streona, and the head was put on a pole for all to see. This execution was by the hand of his Earl of Northumbria, Erikr. If it was in reaction to the dishonour of murder against the former king, or simply disloyalty, that lead Canute to this man's execution, it is unsure. He was now King of England though, and the throne could be kept only under a ruler who was seen by the people as just, even ruthlessly, as well as liberal to their cause. Treachery was the main threat which put Canute's life in peril. Him as the Viking whom was to be one of England's most successful kings, with a wide unity across Scandinavia and the North Atlantic.

In July 1017, to associate his line with the overthrown English dynasty, as well as to protect himself against his aggressors in Normandy, where Ethelred's sons Edward the Confessor and Alfred Atheling were in exile, Emma of Normandy, daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, was married to Canute. She was Ethelred's widow, and held the keys to a secure English court in more ways than one. Cnut duly proclaimed their son Harthacanute as his heir, while his first sons with Aelgifu of Northampton were left on the sidelines. He sent Harthacnut to Denmark while he was still a boy, and the heir to the throne was brought up, like he was himself, as a soldier of the Vikings.

Canute's first act in the country, in 1017, was to officially divide it into the four great earldoms of Wessex, his personal fief, Mercia, to be given to Leofric after its previous Earl's death, Northumbria, for Eric, and East Anglia, for Thorkel. This was to be the basis for the system of feudal baronnies which were to underlie English sovereignty for centuries, while the very last Danegeld ever paid, a sum of £82,500, went to Canute, in 1018, a significant proportion of which was levied from the citizenry of London alone. He felt secure enough to send the invasion fleet back to Denmark with £72,000 that same year.

Canute's brother Harald was maybe in England for his coronation, if not for the conquest, while it may be he went back to Denmark, as king, at some point thereafter. It is though, only sure that his name was to enter a confraternity with Christ Church, Canterbury, in 1018. This though, is not conclusive, as the entry may have been made for him, by the hand of Cnut himself even, which means it is unsure if he was dead or alive at the time. Nevertheless, it is usually thought that Harald's life was at its end, in 1018.