[353] The evidence for this marriage is discussed by Freeman in Norman Conquest, i., Note ppp.
[354] William of Jumièges, Historia Normannorum, vi., c. 10.
[355] William of Jumièges, Historia Normannorum, vi., cc. 10, 11.
[356] This was followed by a famine in the duchy (1033) which probably induced the Duke to make his pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre on the return from which he died (1035).
[357] William of Jumièges, Historia Normannorum, vi., c. 12.
CHAPTER XII
THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTH
When the eleventh century began its fourth decade, Canute was, with the single exception of the Emperor, the most imposing ruler in Latin Christendom. Less than twenty years earlier he had been a landless pirate striving to dislodge an ancient and honoured dynasty; now he was the lord of four important realms and the overlord of other kingdoms. Though technically Canute was counted among the kings, his position among his fellow-monarchs was truly imperial. Apparently he held in his hands the destinies of two great regions; the British Isles and the Scandinavian peninsulas. His fleet all but controlled two important seas, the North and the Baltic. He had built an empire.