|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Canute
|
|
(c.995–1035) A Dane who became king of England in 1016, winning the crown after a series of battles against Edmund Ironside, the son of *Ethelred the Unready. He was an extremely powerful figure in northern Europe, being also king of Denmark (from 1018) and of Norway (from 1028), and his firm reign was one of peace and prosperity.
|
|
|
|
The legend of his attempting to turn back the waves of the sea first appeared in a chronicle of 1129, by Henry of Huntingdon. Remembered now as an example of idiotic pride, it was told then at the expense of the courtiers who assured Canute that everything in the world obeyed him; the moral of the tale was the drenching they received when he wickedly invited them to sit with him on the beach while he commanded the waves.
Two of his sons briefly succeeded him on the throne, after which the English royal house returned in 1042 with *Edward the Confessor.
|
|
|
|