The task that the young monarch undertook in the early months of 1017 was one of peculiar difficulty. It must be remembered that his only right was that of the sword. Important, too, is the fact that at the time England was his only kingdom. As a landless prince, he had crossed the sea, landless except for possible rights in Norway; had led with him a host of adventurers most of whom were probably heathen; had wrested large areas from the native line of English Kings; and now he was in possession of the entire kingdom.
Something of a like nature occurred in 1066, when William of Normandy conquered England; but there are also notable differences. William was the lord of a vigorous duchy across the narrow Channel, in which he had a storehouse of energy that was always at his disposal. Young Canute had no such advantages. Before he was definitely recognised as king in the Danelaw, he had no territorial possessions from which to recruit and provision his armies. Not till 1019 did he unite the crowns of England and Denmark.
Historians generally have appeared to believe that in governing his English kingdom, Canute pursued a conscious and well-defined course of action, a line of political purposes originating early in his reign. He is credited with the purpose of making England the central kingdom of an Anglo-Scandinavian empire, of governing this kingdom with the aid of Englishmen in preference to that of his own countrymen, of aiming to rule England as a king of the Saxon type. It is true chat before the close of his reign Canute made large use of native chiefs in the administration of the monarchy; but such was not the case in the earlier years. There were no prospects of empire in 1017 and 1018: his brother Harold still ruled in Denmark; the Norsemen were still loyal to the vigorous Olaf. And at no time did the kingdoms that he added later consider themselves as standing in a vassal relation to the English state. In Canute's initial years, we find no striving after good government, no dreams of imperial power. During these years his chief purpose was to secure the permanence and the stability of his new title and throne.
Nor should we expect any clear and definite policy in the rule of a king who was still inexperienced in dealing with the English constitution. At the time of his accession, Canute is thought to have been twenty-one or twenty-two years old.[148] Younger he could scarcely have been, nor is it likely that he was very much older. Ottar the Swart in the Canute's Praise is emphatic on the point that Canute was unusually young for a successful conqueror: "Thou wast of no great age when thou didst put forth in thy ship; never younger king set out from home."[149] As Ottar's other patron, Olaf the Stout, was only twelve when he began his career as a viking, we should hardly expect the poet to call attention to Canute's youth if he had already reached manhood when he accompanied his father to England. The probabilities favour 995 as the year of his birth; if the date be correct he would be about seventeen in 1012, when the invasion was being planned, nineteen at the death of his father in 1014; and twenty-one (or twenty-two, as it was late in the year) when he became king of all England. But whatever his age, he was young in training for government. So far as we know, he could have had but little experience as a ruler before the autumn of 1016, when the battle of Ashington secured his position in England. His training had been for the career of a viking, a training that promised little for the future.
It seems, therefore, a safe assumption that in shaping his policy the King's decision would be influenced to a large degree by the advice of trusted counsellors. In the first year of Canute's reign, there stood about the throne three prominent leaders, three military chiefs, to whom in great measure the King owed his crown. There was the sly and jealous Eadric the Mercian, a man with varied experience in many fields, but for obvious reasons he did not enjoy the royal confidence. Closer to the King stood Eric, for fifteen years earl and viceroy in Norway, now the ruler of Northumbria. Eric was a man of a nobler character than was common among men of the viking type; but he can have known very little of English affairs, and for this reason, perhaps, Canute passed his kinsman by and gave his confidence to the lordly viking, Thurkil the Tall. For a stay of nearly ten years in England as viking invader, as chief of Ethelred's mercenaries, and as Canute's chief assistant in his campaign against the English, had surely given Thurkil a wide acquaintance among the magnates of the land and considerable insight into English affairs.
Whatever the reason for the King's choice, we seem to have evidence sufficient to allow the conclusion that for some years Thurkil held a position in the kingdom second only to that of the King himself. Wherever his name appears in Canute's charters among the earls who witness royal grants, it holds first place. In a royal proclamation that was issued in 1020, he seems to act on the King's behalf in the general administration of justice, whenever royal interference should become necessary:
Should any one prove so rash, clerk or layman, Dane or Angle, as to violate the laws of the Church or the rights of my kingship or any secular statute, and refuse to do penance according to the instruction of my bishops, or to desist from his evil, then I request Thurkil the Earl, yea, even command him, to bend the offender to right, if he is able to do so.[150]
In case the Earl is unable to manage the business alone, Canute promises to assist. There is something in this procedure that reminds one of the later Norman official, the justiciar, who was chief of the administrative forces when the King was in England and governed as the King's lieutenant when the ruler was abroad. That Thurkil's dignity was not a new creation at the time of the proclamation is evident from the preamble, in which Canute sends "greetings to his archbishops and bishops and Thurkil earl and all his earls and all his subjects." The language of the preamble also suggests that Thurkil may have acted as the King's deputy during Canute's absence in Denmark. It is further to be noted that of all the magnates he alone is mentioned by name. In the account of the dedication of the church at Ashington later in the same year, Thurkil is again given prominent mention. In this instance general reference is made to a number of important officials, but Earl Thurkil and Archbishop Wulfstan are the only ones that the Chronicler mentions by name.[151] It is evident that the English, too, were impressed by the eminence of the tall earl.
The first and the most difficult problem that Canute and Thurkil had to solve was how to establish the throne among an unfriendly people; for the conquered Saxons cannot have regarded the Danish usurper with much affection. It is generally believed that Canute took up his residence in the old capital city of Winchester, though we do not know at what time this came to be the recognised residential town. It may be true, as is so often asserted, that Canute continued, even after other lands had been added to his dominions, to make England his home from personal choice; but it may also be true that he believed his presence necessary to hold Wessex in subjection. The revolutionary movements that came to the surface during the first few years of his reign had probably much to do with determining Canute's policies in these directions. It is a fact of great significance that during the first decade of his rule in England he was absent from the island twice only, so far as we know, and then during the winter months, when the chances of a successful uprising were most remote.[152]