Earl Eirik had ruled peacefully over Norway for twelve years when a message came to him out of England from King Canute, who was his brother-in-law, that he should go to him in England and help him to subdue the kingdom. Eirik would not sleep upon the message of the King, but that very day he got his ships together and sailed out of Norway, leaving his son, another Hakon, who was but seventeen years of age, to rule in his stead. He met Canute in England, and was with him when he took the castle of London, and he himself had a battle in the same place, a little farther up the Thames. He remained in England for a year, fighting on Canute’s behalf at one place and another; and on the division of the kingdom by Canute he was made ruler of Northumbria.

But no sooner had Canute bestowed these possessions on his followers than he seems to have regretted it and desired to get them back into his own keeping. There is no doubt that there was growing up in his mind a design of ruling over a united England from Northumbria to the English Channel. In later days he attempted to add Scotland also to his dominions.

Determined, then, to extend his personal rule over the whole country, he began by causing Edric, Lord of Mercia, to be put to death. Edric was a man of evil life, and both Danes and English were glad to be rid of him. According to one account, he had brought, about the death of the brave Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son, who had all this time been the great antagonist of Canute, and who had engaged him in a series of battles after the death of Sweyn, and in the end divided the kingdom with him. It seems not impossible that Canute himself had connived at the murder of Edmund, for Edric was then Canute’s friend; however this may have been, it now served Canute’s purpose to accuse Edric of compassing Edmund’s death and to punish him for it. Next, Eirik was driven out of England at the end of the winter, and Canute added Northumbria to his own dominions.[38] There now only remained Thorkill the Tall to dispose of, who had long reigned over the East Angles, and had proved himself a great warrior. On the first opportunity Canute outlawed him and drove him out of the land; but no better fortune awaited him in Denmark. Fearing that so mighty a warrior, in order to revenge himself on King Canute, would excite rebellions and war in their country, some of the Danish chiefs met Thorkill at the shore and put him to death before he could step on land (1021).[39] Thus Canute became sole King of England and Denmark.

His next step was to banish Ethelred’s son Edwy out of England, and to marry his step-mother, Ethelred’s widow, who, strange as it may appear to us, consented to wed with the enemy of her husband and family. The marriage was a politic one for Canute, for it brought to his allegiance many of the English who had hitherto looked upon him as a foreign conqueror and foe; and when in course of time Emma bore him a son and daughter they began to look upon the son as the rightful heir to the English crown. His father named him Hardacanute. Canute had also a son by a former wife, whose name was Harald, who immediately succeeded his father.

The sons of Ethelred the Unready who had fled to Rouen to their uncle, Richard, Duke of Normandy, did not at once give up hopes of regaining the kingdom. Northern story says that Olaf of Norway was again cruising in those waters when the sons of Ethelred arrived.[40] He was not at all unwilling to enter into a compact to help them, if in return he were rewarded for it; and they came to an agreement that, if they succeeded, Olaf should have Northumbria as his portion. This was before St Olaf had gained his kingdom of Norway from young Earl Hakon. They sent Olaf’s foster-father, a man called Hrane, into England to sound the people and to collect money and arms for the expedition. Hrane was all winter in England, and several of the thanes joined him and promised their aid; for they would have been glad again to have a native king. But others had become so accustomed to the Danish rulers that they were not inclined to revolt and bring about fresh war and bloodshed in the country. So in the spring, when Olaf the Thick and the sons of Ethelred set out and landed in England, though at first they won a victory and took a castle, King Canute came down with such a powerful host that they saw they could not stand before it, and they turned back and sought safety in Rouen again.

King Olaf did not return with them, for he bethought him that it was time to seek his own dominions. He sailed first to the North of England to see the country of the Northumbrians that had been promised to him. There he left his long-ships in a harbour, and took with him only two heavy seafaring vessels with 260 picked men in them, armed and stout. They set sail then, but in the North Sea they encountered a tremendous storm, and if they had not had “the king’s luck” with them all would have been lost. But they made the shore in the very middle of Norway, at a place called Saela. The King said it was a good omen that they landed at this place, for Saell means “Lucky,” and he thought luck would be with them. As they were landing the King slipped on a wet piece of clay, and nearly fell, but he supported himself with the other foot. “Alas! if the King falls!” exclaimed Olaf. “Nay,” cried Hrane, “the King falls not, but sets his foot fast in the soil.” The King laughed at that, and said: “If God will, it may be so.”[41]

It was not long before they captured Earl Hakon, Eirik’s son, who was ruling the country, by drawing a cable across the Sound between their two ships as he was sailing by; for he thought they were two merchant vessels, and had no suspicion that they were Olaf’s boats. As he passed they drew up the cable tight beneath his vessel, so that it was lifted half out of the water and could not pass, and the earl was taken prisoner and brought before Olaf. This Earl Hakon, son of Earl Eirik, was still only a youth as he stood before King Olaf. Olaf said he would give him his life if he swore to give up the kingdom to him and leave the country and never take up arms against him; and this he promised to do, and swore an oath upon it. He turned his ships toward England, and entered King Canute’s service; and Canute received him well, and placed him at his Court, and there he dwelt a long time.

Chapter XXV
Canute lays Claim to Norway

For the first nine or ten years of his reign, Canute remained in England, only occasionally going over to Denmark to see that all was going on well there. He spent this time in bringing back the English nation to obedience to their own laws, the old laws of Edgar, for the first time insisting that, as parts of the same nation, Dane and Englishman were alike before the law and that no difference should be made between them. He repaired throughout England the churches and monasteries that had been injured or destroyed by the wars of his father and himself, and at all places where he had fought he erected churches in which prayers should be offered for those who had been slain. A very splendid monastery was built by him at the town since called Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk, at the place where lay the remains of Edmund, slain by the Danes in 870, who was called King Edmund the Martyr; parts of this monastery, at one time the richest in England, remain to this day. It was little dreamed by Canute that at this monastery the nobles of England would in aftertimes meet to consider how they might wring their country’s liberties from an English king. It was at Bury St Edmunds that Magna Charta was drawn up and signed by the barons in 1214.[42] Besides these benefactions, his queen, Emma, suggested to him that he should bestow rich alms on Winchester, the old capital of the English, where was one of the finest cathedrals. Here he gave so largely that the quantity of precious stones and valuable metals dazzled the eyes of strangers. Emma seems to have thought that if her husband gave his money in alms he would be the less likely to go on foreign expeditions; but all the time Canute was planning immense undertakings to extend his power in the North of Europe. He grew tired of the peace that was so grateful to his subjects; but on this occasion, instead of bringing fresh incursions of foreigners into England, he designed to add Sweden and Norway by English arms to his possessions in England and Denmark. He thought the time a good one for his design, for the fame of his splendour and good government had spread far and wide, and even from Norway a great number of powerful men had gathered to him, leaving their country on various pretended errands. To every one Canute gave magnificent presents, and the pomp and splendour of his Court and the multitude of his adherents impressed all who came. Peace was so well established in his realm that no man dared break it; even toward each other the people kept faith and good friendship. King Olaf, or, as it is better to call him, St Olaf, though he did not get that name till after his death, was not altogether loved in Norway, though the country had submitted to him with joy at the first. The people found his rule harsh, and many of them would have been willing enough to put the young Earl Hakon back in his place, or even Canute himself. This came to Canute’s ears, and he instantly equipped ambassadors in the most splendid way, and sent them in the spring of 1025 with his letters and seal to Norway. Olaf was ill at ease when he heard it, for he knew that it was with no friendly purpose to him that the envoys were sent. For a long time he refused to see them, and when they came before him and presented their letters he was even more ill-pleased. Canute’s message was that he considered all Norway as his property, and that if Olaf desired still to retain his crown he must submit to him, become his vassal, and receive back his kingdom as a fief from him, paying him “scat” or dues.

At this Olaf answered furiously to the messengers: “I have heard,” he said, “in old stories that Gorm the Old, first king of Denmark, ruled but over a few people, and in Denmark alone, but the kings who succeeded him thought that too little. Now it is come so far that King Canute, who rules over England and Denmark, and the most part of Scotland as well, claims also my paternal heritage, and then perhaps will promise some moderation after that. Does he wish to rule over all the countries of the North? Will he eat up all the kail in England? He may do so if he likes, and make a desert of the country, before I kneel to him, or pay him any kind of service. And now ye may tell him these my words: I will defend Norway with sword and battle-axe as long as life is given me, and I will pay scat and tribute to no man for my kingdom.”