In his early years Canute was a viking; when he died the viking age had practically come to its close. Various influences contributed to this result: the new creed with its new conceptions of human duty; new interests and wider fields of ambition in the home lands; and the imperial position of Canute. We do not know that Canute at any time issued any decree against the practice of piracy; but he gained the same end by indirect means. The viking chiefs evidently entered his service in large numbers either in the English guard or in the government of the eastern domains. Furthermore, as the dominant ruler of the northern shores, as the ally of the Emperor and the friend of the Norman duke, he was able to close fairly effectually the Baltic, the North, and the Irish Seas together with the English Channel to viking fleets; and the raven was thus forced to fly for its prey to the distant shores beyond Brittany. Piracy continued in a desultory way throughout the eleventh century; but it showed little vigour after Canute's accession to the Danish kingship.
FOOTNOTES:
[442] The author has discussed this subject further in the American Historical Review, xv., 741-742.
[443] Larson, The King's Household in England, 141.
[444] Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, No. 749.
[445] Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 748, 750, 751, 1322. The Croyland charter is clearly a forgery, but Canute may have made the grant none the less as the forged charters frequently represent an attempt to replace a genuine document that has been lost or destroyed.
[446] Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, i., 443.
[447] Annales Monastici, ii., 16.
[448] Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, i., 509.
[449] Munch, Det norske Folks Historie, I., ii., 814.