CHAPTER XIV
THE LAST YEARS—1031-1035
After the passing of the Norman war-cloud and the failure of the Norse reaction in 1030, Canute almost disappears from the stage of English history. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which gives us so much information on his earlier career in England has but little to tell of his activities as king; for the closing years of the reign the summaries are particularly meagre. Evidently the entries for this reign were written from memory some years after the death of the great King; and the scribe recalled but little. It is also likely that the closing years in Britain were peaceful and quiet, such as do not give the annalist much to record. Of the larger European movements, of the Norse secession, of movements on the Danish border, and of the renewed compact with the Emperor, the cloister was probably not well informed.
As the Chronicler thinks back upon the passing of a King who was still in his best and strongest years, there comes to him the memory of certain strange natural phenomena which suddenly take on meaning. In 1033, two years before the King's death, "appeared the wild fire," such as none could remember the like of. There could be no doubt as to the interpretation: it was an omen giving warnings of great changes to come, the end of alien rule, even as a fiery heaven announced its imminence in the days of the boy Ethelred.
Later writers report that during the last years of his life Canute was afflicted with a long and severe illness, and it has been inferred that this may account for the uneventful character of this period. There may be an element of truth in this, but he was not too ill to take an active interest in political affairs. His legislation evidently belongs to one of these years. In one of the manuscripts of Canute's code he is spoken of as King of Angles, Danes and Norwegians, a title that he could not claim before 1028. As he did not return from his expedition to Norway before the following year, the earliest possible date for the enactment of Canute's laws is Christmas, 1029.[442] For they were drawn up at a meeting of the national assembly "at the holy midwinter tide in Winchester."
There are reasons for believing, however, that the laws are of a still later date. Little need there was, it would seem, for extensive ecclesiastical legislation in those years when paganism was in full retreat and Christianity had become fashionable even among the vikings. Some condition must have arisen that made it necessary for the King to take a positive stand on the side of the English Church. Such a condition may have grown out of the canonisation of Saint Olaf in 1031. He was the first native saint of the North and the young Scandinavian Church hailed him with a joy that was ominous for those who had pursued him to the grave. It may have been in the hope of checking the spread of the new cult in England that the witenagemot, the same that ratified Canute's legislation, canonised the imperious Archbishop who had governed the English Church two generations earlier. The method of canonisation was probably new; but the nobles and prelates of England were surely as competent to act in such a matter as the youthful church at Nidaros.