There seems also to have been a notable Slavic element in Canute's retinue. Attention has been called to the King's Slavic ancestry: the Slavic strain was evidently both broader and deeper than the Danish. One of the King's sisters bore a Slavic name, Santslave[363]; another sister, Gunhild, married a Slavic "king," Wyrtgeorn or Witigern,[364] who may have been the Wrytsleof who witnessed an English land grant in 1026[365]; possibly he was visiting his English kinsfolk at the time. Among the chiefs of the imperial guard was one Godescalc, the son of a Slavic prince, though Danish on the maternal side; he, too, married into the Danish royal family.[366]
The affairs of each separate kingdom were evidently directed from the national capitals and administered largely by native functionaries. At the same time, it seems to have been Canute's policy to locate Danish officials in all his principal dominions, at least in the higher offices. The appointment of Danes to places of importance in England has been noted in an earlier chapter. With the subjection of Norway, a number of Danes received official appointments in that kingdom. A leading cause of the Norwegian revolt in 1034-1035 was the prominence given to aliens in the councils of the regent Sweyn: "Danish men had in those days much authority in Norway, but that was liked ill by the men of the land."[367] On the other hand, no Englishman seems to have received official responsibilities in the North except in the Church; and it may be doubted whether Canute sent many Anglian prelates to his realms in the east: the bishops that we have record of seem to have been Normans, Flemings, or clerks from the Danelaw. When a court bishop was to be found for the household of Earl Hakon, the choice fell upon Sigurd, a Dane and a violent friend of Danish rule.
Of Canute's diplomacy the sources afford us only an occasional glimpse; but the information that we have indicates that he entered into diplomatic relations with almost every ruler of importance in Northern and Western Europe. The King of Scotland became his vassal. The sagas tell of an embassy to Sweden in the years preceding the attack on Norway. During the same period Canute's cousin, the King of Poland, apparently sought his alliance against the Germans. With the Emperor he maintained the closest relations. The Norman dukes were bound to the Danish dynasty by the noble ties of marriage. On his visit to Rome the English King came into personal contact with the King of Burgundy and His Holiness the Pope. Even to distant Aquitaine did the mighty monarch send his ambassadors with messages of good-will in the form of substantial presents. In a panegyric on William the Great, the Duke of Aquitaine, Adémar of Chabannes writes that every year embassies came to the Duke's court with precious gifts from the kings of Spain, France, and Navarre, "and also from Canute, King of the Danes and the Angles"; and the chronicler adds that the messengers brought even more costly presents away.[368] On one occasion "the King of that country [England] sent a manuscript written with letters of gold along with other gifts."[369] As this statement seems to have been written in 1028, and as the author emphasises the fact that this beautiful codex had arrived "recently," it seems probable that this embassy should be associated with Canute's pilgrimage to Rome the year before. It is not strange that Canute should wish to honour a prince like William; and it is only natural that he should wish to placate a people who had suffered so much, as the Aquitanians had, from the raids and inroads of his former associates and his allies, the vikings and the Normans.
With respect to his immediate neighbours, Canute's policy was usually absorption or close friendship. What he felt he could add to his dominions, he added; where this was not possible, he sought peace and alliance. His diplomacy must have concerned itself especially with three states: Normandy, Sweden, and the Empire. As to his relations with Sweden after the encounter at Holy River, history is silent; but war was evidently avoided. Canute probably regarded any effort to extend his territories eastward as an unwise move, so long as the disappointed Norwegian chiefs continued to show signs of unrest and rebellion.
With Normandy he lived in continuous peace for more than a decade, until Robert the Devil took up the cause of the exiled princes. That Canute feared a move in this direction seems evident; and as Queen Emma's influence at Rouen was probably weakened by the death of Richard the Good (1027), it was no doubt in the hope of strengthening his position at the ducal court that Canute sought the title of duchess for his widowed sister. As we have seen, his success was only temporary, and for a time war seemed imminent. But the confused situation in the French kingdom at this time proved Canute's salvation. In the civil war that followed the accession of Henry I. to the French throne in 1031, Robert of Normandy took a leading part on the King's side; and it was largely due to his efforts that Henry finally overcame his enemies.[370] Meanwhile, the sons of Ethelred and Emma had to wait several years before another opportunity appeared with sufficient promise to tempt the exiles back across the Channel. For soon after the French King was safely enthroned, famine came upon Normandy, an affliction that led Robert the Devil to think of a visit to the grave of Christ. The journey was undertaken but on the return the Duke died in Asia Minor (1035). His successor was William who finally conquered England; but William was a child and Canute had no longer any fears from that direction. A few months after Robert's death the King of England also closed his earthly career. Had Robert survived Canute, it is likely that some of the results of Hastings might have come thirty years earlier than they did.
After 1019, when Canute ascended the Danish throne, the attitude and plans of the Emperor became an important factor in Northern diplomacy. The Empire was a dangerous neighbour; the Ottos had apparently been ambitious to extend their authority throughout the entire Jutish peninsula. But during Canute's reign neither power could afford to offend the other; and the Danes were therefore able to keep continued peace along the southern borders of the kingdom. At one time, when the Emperor found himself in serious difficulties, Canute was able to drive a hard bargain and exchange his friendship for a strip of imperial territory.
It is not likely that the German kings looked with much favour on Danish expansion at the mouths of the Vistula and the Oder, but they were not in position to prevent it. In 1022, when Canute made his expedition to Wendland, the Emperor Henry II. was absent in Italy, striving, as usual, to reduce disorder.[371] Two years later he died, and Conrad of Franconia was chosen King of the Germans. His election was the signal for uprisings and plots almost along the whole length of the border, in Poland, in Lorraine, and in Lombardy.[372] Boleslav, King of the Poles, died in the following year (1025), but his successor continued the policy of hostility to the Germans and seems to have sought the alliance of his cousin Canute against the Teutonic foes.[373] Conrad, too, sought Canute's friendship and was able to outbid his Polish rival. It was agreed that there should be perpetual peace between Conrad and Canute, and to cement the good understanding and secure its continuance in years to come, Canute's little daughter Gunhild, who could not yet have been more than five or six years old, was betrothed to Conrad's son Henry, who was, perhaps, three years older.[374] The covenant was kept, and Henry received his bride about ten years later (1036), after the death of Canute. The bridegroom was the mighty Emperor Henry III., though he did not attain to the imperial dignity before the death of Conrad in 1039. Gunhild was crowned Queen of Germany and as a part of the ceremony received the more honoured German name Kunigund; but she never became empress, as she died in 1038.[375]
In return for his friendship, Canute received the mark of Sleswick, a strip of land between the Schley and the Eider, that Henry the Fowler had taken from the Danes a century before. Thus the Eider once more became the boundary of the Danish kingdom. But apart from territorial acquisitions, Canute was doubtless glad to conclude the treaty, as he was just then planning the conquest of Norway. The negotiations with Conrad were probably concluded in the year 1025 or 1026, though more likely in the former year.[376]
Perhaps at the same time the German King invited his ally to participate in his coronation as Emperor; for in 1027 Canute journeyed to Rome to witness the great event. There can be little doubt that on this occasion the pledges were renewed. But even in the absence of formal treaties there was small occasion for Conrad to make trouble for his neighbour to the north. The years following his coronation in Rome saw four serious revolts in Germany; not till 1033 was real order restored in Conrad's kingdom.
There was another power that Canute could not afford to antagonise or even ignore: no mediæval monarch could long flourish if he overlooked the needs of the Church. During the first years of his English kingship, Canute does not seem to have sought to conciliate the clergy; but after a few years he apparently adopted a new policy and strove to ally himself with the priesthood. It was as king of England that he first succeeded in forming such an alliance; in his other kingdoms, the ecclesiastical problem assumed a somewhat different form.