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Bagsecg - 871 AD - (died January 8, 871) was a Viking leader referred to as a 'King' and was possibly a King of Denmark , after Horik II died and ruled Denmark after his death from the 860s to his death in 871. He is also known as Bægsecg or Bagsec.
By some accounts in 870 or 871 he came from Scandinavia to England , and led The Great Summer Army to England and added his forces to the Great Heathen Army which had already overrun much of England.
He and Halfdan Ragnarsson became the joint leaders of a Viking invasion of the Kingdom of Wessex . However he was killed at the Battle of Ashdown , fighting a West Saxon Army led by the king's younger brother, the future Alfred the Great .
Life - Little is known about Bagsecg but possibly was a King of Denmark after Horik II died Bagsecg was left to rule Denmark, He is only found in English sources and not Scandinavian sources his homeland but he certainly did outlive himself in Denmark, He arrived in England in either 870 or 871 and was the leader of a massive Viking Army known as The Great Summer Army which arrived in the summer, so the likely date when he arrived could be 870, As early as 871 he and Halfdan Ragnarsson dispatched a few Viking parties to attack the Kingdom of Wessex which remained vulnerable to Viking raids; they captured Reading, Berkshire and set up camp within the town. On The 4th January 871, Alfred the Great (he was not yet king) attempted to attack the camp, however Bagsecg won a great victory at The Battle of Reading inflicting terrible losses on Alfred's army.
Death - On the 8th January 871, both forces met on the North Wessex Downs in Berkshire . The Vikings were commanded by Bagsecg and Halfdan and five other Danish Earls . The Viking army itself was outnumbered in comparison to the West Saxons led by Alfred . This battle would determine the fate of Wessex and its king. Alfred's elder brother King Æthelred of Wessex was busy praying in a church, and refused to fight until his other army arrived. This left Alfred in command, and the West Saxon and Viking armies met, the battle itself lasting all day. Bagsecg was killed along with his five Earls. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Bagsecg was slain by a sword while Halfdan fled from the battlefield with the rest of the army back to Reading. The Battle of Ashdown itself was a limited West Saxon Victory.
Legacy - Bagsecg is best known and remembered in Berkshire in England for fighting at Ashdown and for his sudden death and defeat. There are a lack of sources and he was not particularly noted in his homeland of Scandinavia even in the Viking Age, so from this Bagsecg is only known in England as a Viking who invaded and died there. In that era, the majority of people could not write.
According Berkshire folklore Bagsecg was buried at Waylands Smithy and his Earls at The Seven Barrows this is wrong as Waylands Smithy dates back to Neolithic times and The Seven Barrows dates back to the Bronze Age, If this is the case then the Barrows could have been reused for burial over the course of time.
Horik II, also known as Erik Barn (Danish: "Erik the Child"), was King of Denmark from the murder of Horik I in 854 to c. 860s. After a brief civil war which nearly wiped out the branches of the royal family, legend has it that a single royal child was left alive, hence the name Erik the Child. The problem with the story is that at the time there was no hereditary kingship. Kings were literally shouted into office at the assemblies (Danish: landsting) by the chiefs and peasants who supported him. Horik II, whose own lands lay in extreme southern Denmark, including Hedeby, emerged as the strongest of the claimants. Little is known about him except for few references in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum and The Life of Ansgar by Rimbert .
Horik was probably not the son of Horik I, but a close relative, perhaps a nephew or grandson of the powerful Gottfredson clan who held power in much of Denmark. Sons were not usually named after fathers in Viking Denmark.
During his reign, Danish Vikings under Ragnar Lodbrog and others began raiding and then colonizing England, eventually capturing York and much of northeast England.
Although not a Christian, Horik II was tolerant of the Christians among his people and of the missionaries from the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen who found their way north. Horik became acquainted with St Ansgar during Horik I's reign and shared his view that regarding religious matters there was no better or upright man in his kingdom. After a brief closure of the church at Hedeby by Jarl Hovi, Horik II was persuaded by Ansgar to reopen the ruined church and permit a new church at Ribe. Horik even allowed them to ring church bells for the first time, much to the disgust of the non-Christians who believed the bells would frighten off the land sprites (Danish: landvætter) and ruin the harvest.
In 857 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald ordered Horik to give up his lands between the Eider River and the North Sea in retaliation for Viking raids on Paris and the Loire Valley. Rorik of Dorestad was attempting carve out a Frisian kingdom between the Saxons and the Danes with the help of the emperor. Rorik had a claim on the throne as valid as Horik's, and after three failed attempts to take Schleswig, he enlisted the emperor's help. While Rorik was off on a Viking raid, other Vikings sacked his capital at Dorestad. Horik was able to hold onto southern Denmark in spite of Rorik and the emperor's demands. Horik prevented a thinly veiled attempt to add southern Denmark to the Carolingian Empire.
In 864 Pope Nicholas I wrote to Horik encouraging him to become a Christian. When Horik refused, the pope asked Charles II to coerce the conversion of Horik.
About 866 Horik gave permission for a third Danish church to be built in Århus during the time of Bishop Rimbert, Ansgar's successor.
Sometime in the 860s Horik died and his successor Bagsecg was also a pagan and hated the Christian faith by which Bagsecg allowed no churches to be built in Denmark so only the three remained and Christianity was just a small minority, In 870 Bagsecg gathered a Viking army now known as The Great Summer Army and sailed to England </wiki/England> and went pillaging they had been gone all year and In 871 Bagsecg allied with his successor Halfdan Ragnarsson who was also in England pillaging they got caught up into a conflict The Battle of Ashdown and Bagsecg was killed and Halfdan became his successor by which both of these two men were not a member of Gottfredson clan and by which after Horiks death the clan held no more power over Denmark.
Sweyn 940-985 AD - , Born: 960 - 1014 AD Reigned 1013 AD, known as Tiugeskaeg, or Forkbeard due to his long, cleft beard, was the son of Harald Bluetooth and was born around 960. Harald Bluetooth (Danish Harald Blåtand) was King of Denmark between 940 and 985 AD The identity of his mother is not known with certainty, he may have been Harald's illegitimate son by Aesa, (according to the Jomsvikinga Saga) though more probably his mother was Queen Gunild. Sweyn succeeded his father as King of Denmark in 986.
He was married twice, firstly to Gunhilda, the daughter of Mjeczislas, Duke of Poland and secondly to Sigrid the Haughty, the widow of Eric VI, King of Sweden.
The young Sweyn's first military expedition, in which he was allied to the famous Viking, Palnatoke, was against his father, Harald Bluetooth, who was killed in the conflict. He later lead a large Viking fleet to English shores, which failed in its intended attempt to capture London. Eric Sersel, King of Sweden took avantage of Sweyn's absence in England and occupied Denmark. Sweyn recovered Denmark on the death of Eric in in 994.
At the battle of Svolder in 1000. Sweyn in alliance with the Swedes, defeated and killed King Olaf I Trygvessön of Norway and divided his kingdom. Sweyn repudiated his first wife Gunild, daughter of Duke Mieszko of Poland, by whom he had two sons and married King Eric's widow, Sigrid, known as the Haughty. The marriage produced five daughters.
Sigrid had previously received a proposal from Olaf Trygvasson, King of Norway , which she refused as it would have required that she convert to Christianity. She proudly told him "I will not part from the faith which my forefathers have kept before me." Olaf is reported to have angrily struck her in the face, whereupon Sigrid responded "This may some day be thy death." After her marriage to Sweyn, she was instrumental in creating a coalition of his enemies to bring about his downfall.
After his first expedition to England, Sweyn was resorted to extracting payment by blackmail as opposed to ravaging English shores. King Ethelred II the Redeless, the weak and ineffectual King of England, had ordered a general massacre of Danes in England on St. Brices Day, 1002, which included men, women and children, none were spared from the savage slaughter. Sweyn swore on the bragging cup to be avenged on Ethelred and landed in England in 1003, ravaging much of the south of the country. He usurped England's throne in the Autumn of 1013.
Ethelred fled to the Isle of Wight and later joined his wife and children in Normandy, where they had taken refuge with her nephew, Duke Richard. Sweyn was declared King on Christmas Day, 1013. Some of the English provinces refused to pay homage to the Dane, who had no dynastic right and claimed the throne by right of conquest. He was never crowned.
England's first Danish King died suddenly of an apoplexy, on 3rd February, 1014, while threatening the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's. He had reigned for less than a year. Ethelred was re-called by the Witan, causing Sweyn's son, Canute to flee. Sweyn was buried in England, but his body was later removed to Roeskild Cathedral in Denmark. He was succeeded as King of Denmark by his older son, Harold II.
Canute -1016-1035 AD the Great Reigned 1016-1035 AD, (King of Denmark 1018-1035 AD - England 1016-1035 AD) was born around 994, the son of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark and the Slavic princess Gunhilda of Poland. Gunhilda was the daughter of Mieszko I of Poland. He was to become the ruler of an empire which, at its height, included England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden.
Canute was praised in Norse poetry as a formidable Viking warrior. He is described in the Knýtlinga saga as being 'exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion none the less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the more handsome and the keener of their sight'.
He had supported his father against the Saxon King Ethelred the Redeless <saxon_14.htm>. Sweyn established himself on England's throne and Ethelred was forced to flee to Normandy, where he sought refuge with his wife's relatives. On the death of Sveyn Forkbeard the following year, Ethelred returned to England and Canute was forced to withdraw to Denmark. There, he gathered his forces, returning to England in 1015 when he managed to gain control of virtually the whole country, except for the city of London.
On the death of the ineffectual Ethelred II in 1016, the Londoners chose his son Edmund Ironside as king, but the Witan opted for Canute. Following a series of engagements with Edmund, Canute defeated him at Ashington, Essex. A treaty was drawn up, partitioning the country which would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor. Edmund II died a month later in November of 1016.
Canute was proclaimed King of England on 3rd February, 1014. His brother, Harald became King of Denmark. The English succeeded in expelling Canute from the country but he returned in 1015 and ravaged Wessex. On the death of Ethelred's son, Edmund Ironside, in November, 1016, Canute became the acknowledged King of England. He suceeded in Denmark on the death of his brother in 1018.
In what was considered a conciliatory gesture at the time, he repudiated his wife, Elgiva and married Ethelred's widow, Emma of Normandy. He became King of Denmark in 1019 and of Norway 1028, making him ruler of an Empire surrounding the North Sea. Following his conversion to Christianity, Canute became an avid protector of the church. He patronised abbeys, promoted leaders of the English church and was acknowledged by the Pope as the first Viking to become a Christian King. He embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027, displaying great reverence and humility. On his return to England he swore to his Saxon subjects that he would govern with mercy and justice.
Canute divided England into four distinct areas for administrative purposes. Wessex remained the seat of government and was ruled directly by himself. East Anglia was placed under a deputy, Earl Thurkill. The fickle and treacherous Edric Streona was rewarded for his services by being appointed Earl of Mercia. His kinsman, Eric became virtual viceroy of Northumbria.
Edric Streona was not to enjoy his new exalted position for long, considering himself to have not been amply rewarded by Canute, he quarreled with the King. In a rage, Streona claimed that it was entirely due to his timely desertion of Edmund Ironside that Canute had acquired the throne. The wary Canute replied that a man who betrayed one master was likely to do the same to another. As Streona argued with the King, Eric of Northumbria stepped forward and struck him with his battle-axe. His body was slung into the Thames and his head placed on a spike on London Bridge.
In the early part of his reign Canute resorted to harsh measures to maintain his position, he had some of his prominent English rivals outlawed or killed, and engineered the death of Edmund Ironside's brother, he pursued Edmund's children forcing them to flee England for the safety of Hungary. But within a few years, when his position became safer, he adopted a fairer policy, and allowed more Saxons into positions of power.
The famous story that he was so vain he allowed himself to be convinced by flattering courtiers that he could hold back the tide is one of the chief events of the reign for which he appears to be remembered. In fact the old story of Canute and the waves is apocryphal and is first recorded by Henry of Huntingdon in his twelfth century Chronicle of the History of England.
His insistence that the kingdom should continue to be ruled by the laws laid down by Edgar the Peaceful lead to a growth in his popularity and he made his own additions to these, forbidding heathen practices. After initial raids, Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots, recognised the overlordship of Canute. Peace with Scotland was established for the remainder the reign.
King Canute died in 1035 at Shaftsbury in Dorset, aged around 40 and was buried at Winchester Cathedral. On his death, his illegitimate son Harold I , seized the throne of England.
Following the Norman conquest, Winchester Cathedral was erected on the Saxon site of the Old Minster. The Royal remains, including King Canute's bones, along with those of his spouse, Emma of Normandy, were exhumed and placed in mortuary chests around St. Swithin's Shrine in the new building. However in the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, the bones, after being used by Cromwell's soldiers as missiles to shatter stained glass windows, were scattered and mixed in various chests along with those of some of the Saxon kings, including Egbert of Wessex, Saxon bishops and the Norman King William Rufus. The chests remain today, seated upon a decorative screen surrounding the presbytery of the Cathedral.
By some accounts in 870 or 871 he came from Scandinavia to England , and led The Great Summer Army to England and added his forces to the Great Heathen Army which had already overrun much of England.
He and Halfdan Ragnarsson became the joint leaders of a Viking invasion of the Kingdom of Wessex . However he was killed at the Battle of Ashdown , fighting a West Saxon Army led by the king's younger brother, the future Alfred the Great .
Life - Little is known about Bagsecg but possibly was a King of Denmark after Horik II died Bagsecg was left to rule Denmark, He is only found in English sources and not Scandinavian sources his homeland but he certainly did outlive himself in Denmark, He arrived in England in either 870 or 871 and was the leader of a massive Viking Army known as The Great Summer Army which arrived in the summer, so the likely date when he arrived could be 870, As early as 871 he and Halfdan Ragnarsson dispatched a few Viking parties to attack the Kingdom of Wessex which remained vulnerable to Viking raids; they captured Reading, Berkshire and set up camp within the town. On The 4th January 871, Alfred the Great (he was not yet king) attempted to attack the camp, however Bagsecg won a great victory at The Battle of Reading inflicting terrible losses on Alfred's army.
Death - On the 8th January 871, both forces met on the North Wessex Downs in Berkshire . The Vikings were commanded by Bagsecg and Halfdan and five other Danish Earls . The Viking army itself was outnumbered in comparison to the West Saxons led by Alfred . This battle would determine the fate of Wessex and its king. Alfred's elder brother King Æthelred of Wessex was busy praying in a church, and refused to fight until his other army arrived. This left Alfred in command, and the West Saxon and Viking armies met, the battle itself lasting all day. Bagsecg was killed along with his five Earls. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Bagsecg was slain by a sword while Halfdan fled from the battlefield with the rest of the army back to Reading. The Battle of Ashdown itself was a limited West Saxon Victory.
Legacy - Bagsecg is best known and remembered in Berkshire in England for fighting at Ashdown and for his sudden death and defeat. There are a lack of sources and he was not particularly noted in his homeland of Scandinavia even in the Viking Age, so from this Bagsecg is only known in England as a Viking who invaded and died there. In that era, the majority of people could not write.
According Berkshire folklore Bagsecg was buried at Waylands Smithy and his Earls at The Seven Barrows this is wrong as Waylands Smithy dates back to Neolithic times and The Seven Barrows dates back to the Bronze Age, If this is the case then the Barrows could have been reused for burial over the course of time.
Horik II, also known as Erik Barn (Danish: "Erik the Child"), was King of Denmark from the murder of Horik I in 854 to c. 860s. After a brief civil war which nearly wiped out the branches of the royal family, legend has it that a single royal child was left alive, hence the name Erik the Child. The problem with the story is that at the time there was no hereditary kingship. Kings were literally shouted into office at the assemblies (Danish: landsting) by the chiefs and peasants who supported him. Horik II, whose own lands lay in extreme southern Denmark, including Hedeby, emerged as the strongest of the claimants. Little is known about him except for few references in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum and The Life of Ansgar by Rimbert .
Horik was probably not the son of Horik I, but a close relative, perhaps a nephew or grandson of the powerful Gottfredson clan who held power in much of Denmark. Sons were not usually named after fathers in Viking Denmark.
During his reign, Danish Vikings under Ragnar Lodbrog and others began raiding and then colonizing England, eventually capturing York and much of northeast England.
Although not a Christian, Horik II was tolerant of the Christians among his people and of the missionaries from the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen who found their way north. Horik became acquainted with St Ansgar during Horik I's reign and shared his view that regarding religious matters there was no better or upright man in his kingdom. After a brief closure of the church at Hedeby by Jarl Hovi, Horik II was persuaded by Ansgar to reopen the ruined church and permit a new church at Ribe. Horik even allowed them to ring church bells for the first time, much to the disgust of the non-Christians who believed the bells would frighten off the land sprites (Danish: landvætter) and ruin the harvest.
In 857 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald ordered Horik to give up his lands between the Eider River and the North Sea in retaliation for Viking raids on Paris and the Loire Valley. Rorik of Dorestad was attempting carve out a Frisian kingdom between the Saxons and the Danes with the help of the emperor. Rorik had a claim on the throne as valid as Horik's, and after three failed attempts to take Schleswig, he enlisted the emperor's help. While Rorik was off on a Viking raid, other Vikings sacked his capital at Dorestad. Horik was able to hold onto southern Denmark in spite of Rorik and the emperor's demands. Horik prevented a thinly veiled attempt to add southern Denmark to the Carolingian Empire.
In 864 Pope Nicholas I wrote to Horik encouraging him to become a Christian. When Horik refused, the pope asked Charles II to coerce the conversion of Horik.
About 866 Horik gave permission for a third Danish church to be built in Århus during the time of Bishop Rimbert, Ansgar's successor.
Sometime in the 860s Horik died and his successor Bagsecg was also a pagan and hated the Christian faith by which Bagsecg allowed no churches to be built in Denmark so only the three remained and Christianity was just a small minority, In 870 Bagsecg gathered a Viking army now known as The Great Summer Army and sailed to England </wiki/England> and went pillaging they had been gone all year and In 871 Bagsecg allied with his successor Halfdan Ragnarsson who was also in England pillaging they got caught up into a conflict The Battle of Ashdown and Bagsecg was killed and Halfdan became his successor by which both of these two men were not a member of Gottfredson clan and by which after Horiks death the clan held no more power over Denmark.
Sweyn 940-985 AD - , Born: 960 - 1014 AD Reigned 1013 AD, known as Tiugeskaeg, or Forkbeard due to his long, cleft beard, was the son of Harald Bluetooth and was born around 960. Harald Bluetooth (Danish Harald Blåtand) was King of Denmark between 940 and 985 AD The identity of his mother is not known with certainty, he may have been Harald's illegitimate son by Aesa, (according to the Jomsvikinga Saga) though more probably his mother was Queen Gunild. Sweyn succeeded his father as King of Denmark in 986.
He was married twice, firstly to Gunhilda, the daughter of Mjeczislas, Duke of Poland and secondly to Sigrid the Haughty, the widow of Eric VI, King of Sweden.
The young Sweyn's first military expedition, in which he was allied to the famous Viking, Palnatoke, was against his father, Harald Bluetooth, who was killed in the conflict. He later lead a large Viking fleet to English shores, which failed in its intended attempt to capture London. Eric Sersel, King of Sweden took avantage of Sweyn's absence in England and occupied Denmark. Sweyn recovered Denmark on the death of Eric in in 994.
At the battle of Svolder in 1000. Sweyn in alliance with the Swedes, defeated and killed King Olaf I Trygvessön of Norway and divided his kingdom. Sweyn repudiated his first wife Gunild, daughter of Duke Mieszko of Poland, by whom he had two sons and married King Eric's widow, Sigrid, known as the Haughty. The marriage produced five daughters.
Sigrid had previously received a proposal from Olaf Trygvasson, King of Norway , which she refused as it would have required that she convert to Christianity. She proudly told him "I will not part from the faith which my forefathers have kept before me." Olaf is reported to have angrily struck her in the face, whereupon Sigrid responded "This may some day be thy death." After her marriage to Sweyn, she was instrumental in creating a coalition of his enemies to bring about his downfall.
After his first expedition to England, Sweyn was resorted to extracting payment by blackmail as opposed to ravaging English shores. King Ethelred II the Redeless, the weak and ineffectual King of England, had ordered a general massacre of Danes in England on St. Brices Day, 1002, which included men, women and children, none were spared from the savage slaughter. Sweyn swore on the bragging cup to be avenged on Ethelred and landed in England in 1003, ravaging much of the south of the country. He usurped England's throne in the Autumn of 1013.
Ethelred fled to the Isle of Wight and later joined his wife and children in Normandy, where they had taken refuge with her nephew, Duke Richard. Sweyn was declared King on Christmas Day, 1013. Some of the English provinces refused to pay homage to the Dane, who had no dynastic right and claimed the throne by right of conquest. He was never crowned.
England's first Danish King died suddenly of an apoplexy, on 3rd February, 1014, while threatening the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's. He had reigned for less than a year. Ethelred was re-called by the Witan, causing Sweyn's son, Canute to flee. Sweyn was buried in England, but his body was later removed to Roeskild Cathedral in Denmark. He was succeeded as King of Denmark by his older son, Harold II.
Canute -1016-1035 AD the Great Reigned 1016-1035 AD, (King of Denmark 1018-1035 AD - England 1016-1035 AD) was born around 994, the son of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark and the Slavic princess Gunhilda of Poland. Gunhilda was the daughter of Mieszko I of Poland. He was to become the ruler of an empire which, at its height, included England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden.
Canute was praised in Norse poetry as a formidable Viking warrior. He is described in the Knýtlinga saga as being 'exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion none the less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the more handsome and the keener of their sight'.
He had supported his father against the Saxon King Ethelred the Redeless <saxon_14.htm>. Sweyn established himself on England's throne and Ethelred was forced to flee to Normandy, where he sought refuge with his wife's relatives. On the death of Sveyn Forkbeard the following year, Ethelred returned to England and Canute was forced to withdraw to Denmark. There, he gathered his forces, returning to England in 1015 when he managed to gain control of virtually the whole country, except for the city of London.
On the death of the ineffectual Ethelred II in 1016, the Londoners chose his son Edmund Ironside as king, but the Witan opted for Canute. Following a series of engagements with Edmund, Canute defeated him at Ashington, Essex. A treaty was drawn up, partitioning the country which would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor. Edmund II died a month later in November of 1016.
Canute was proclaimed King of England on 3rd February, 1014. His brother, Harald became King of Denmark. The English succeeded in expelling Canute from the country but he returned in 1015 and ravaged Wessex. On the death of Ethelred's son, Edmund Ironside, in November, 1016, Canute became the acknowledged King of England. He suceeded in Denmark on the death of his brother in 1018.
In what was considered a conciliatory gesture at the time, he repudiated his wife, Elgiva and married Ethelred's widow, Emma of Normandy. He became King of Denmark in 1019 and of Norway 1028, making him ruler of an Empire surrounding the North Sea. Following his conversion to Christianity, Canute became an avid protector of the church. He patronised abbeys, promoted leaders of the English church and was acknowledged by the Pope as the first Viking to become a Christian King. He embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027, displaying great reverence and humility. On his return to England he swore to his Saxon subjects that he would govern with mercy and justice.
Canute divided England into four distinct areas for administrative purposes. Wessex remained the seat of government and was ruled directly by himself. East Anglia was placed under a deputy, Earl Thurkill. The fickle and treacherous Edric Streona was rewarded for his services by being appointed Earl of Mercia. His kinsman, Eric became virtual viceroy of Northumbria.
Edric Streona was not to enjoy his new exalted position for long, considering himself to have not been amply rewarded by Canute, he quarreled with the King. In a rage, Streona claimed that it was entirely due to his timely desertion of Edmund Ironside that Canute had acquired the throne. The wary Canute replied that a man who betrayed one master was likely to do the same to another. As Streona argued with the King, Eric of Northumbria stepped forward and struck him with his battle-axe. His body was slung into the Thames and his head placed on a spike on London Bridge.
In the early part of his reign Canute resorted to harsh measures to maintain his position, he had some of his prominent English rivals outlawed or killed, and engineered the death of Edmund Ironside's brother, he pursued Edmund's children forcing them to flee England for the safety of Hungary. But within a few years, when his position became safer, he adopted a fairer policy, and allowed more Saxons into positions of power.
The famous story that he was so vain he allowed himself to be convinced by flattering courtiers that he could hold back the tide is one of the chief events of the reign for which he appears to be remembered. In fact the old story of Canute and the waves is apocryphal and is first recorded by Henry of Huntingdon in his twelfth century Chronicle of the History of England.
His insistence that the kingdom should continue to be ruled by the laws laid down by Edgar the Peaceful lead to a growth in his popularity and he made his own additions to these, forbidding heathen practices. After initial raids, Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots, recognised the overlordship of Canute. Peace with Scotland was established for the remainder the reign.
King Canute died in 1035 at Shaftsbury in Dorset, aged around 40 and was buried at Winchester Cathedral. On his death, his illegitimate son Harold I , seized the throne of England.
Following the Norman conquest, Winchester Cathedral was erected on the Saxon site of the Old Minster. The Royal remains, including King Canute's bones, along with those of his spouse, Emma of Normandy, were exhumed and placed in mortuary chests around St. Swithin's Shrine in the new building. However in the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, the bones, after being used by Cromwell's soldiers as missiles to shatter stained glass windows, were scattered and mixed in various chests along with those of some of the Saxon kings, including Egbert of Wessex, Saxon bishops and the Norman King William Rufus. The chests remain today, seated upon a decorative screen surrounding the presbytery of the Cathedral.
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