Canute the Great, 995 (circa)-1035, and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age

by Laurence Marcellus Larson

In 1023 another great name disappears from the documents: Earl Eric is mentioned no more. Later stories that he, too, suffered exile are not to be believed. Eric seems to have died in possession of all his Northumbrian dignities and of the King's favour at a comparatively advanced age; for the warrior who showed such signal bravery at Hjörunga Bay nearly forty years before could not have been young. In all probability he had passed the sixtieth milestone of life, which was almost unusual among the viking chiefs of the period. We are told that in his last year he contemplated a visit to Rome which was probably never made. Most reliable is the story that he died from the effects of primitive surgery. Just as he was about to set out on the Roman journey, it was found necessary for him to have his uvula treated. The surgeon cut too deep and a hemorrhage resulted from which the Earl died.[203] That the story is old is clear, for some of the accounts have the additional information that the leech acted on the suggestion of one who can be none other than Canute. This part of the story is probably mythical.

The spirit of chivalry was not strong in the viking; but, so far as it existed, it found its best representative in Eric, the son of Hakon the Bad. He was great as a warrior, great as a leader in the onslaught. He possessed in full measure the courage that made the viking such a marvellous fighter; the joy of the conflict he seems to have shared with the rest. But when the fight was over and the foeman was vanquished, nobler qualities ruled the man; he could then be merciful and large of soul. As a statesman, on the other hand, he seems to have been less successful; in Norway he permitted the aristocracy to exercise local authority to a greater extent than the welfare of Norse society could allow. As to his rule in Northumbria we know nothing.

The next year we have the closing record of still another Scandinavian earl in England: Eglaf signs a grant for the last time in 1024.[204] Doubtless some trouble had arisen between him and the King, for two years later he appears to be acting the part of a rebel. Still later, he is said to have joined the Varangian guard of Scandinavian warriors at Byzantium, where he closed his restless career in the service of the Greek Emperor.[205]

There still remained Norse and Danish earls in England, such as Ranig and Hakon; but the men who were most intimately associated in the English mind with conquest and cruel subjection were apparently out of the land before the third decade of the century had finished half its course. It is probable that Hakon succeeded his father in the Northumbrian earldom, as Leofwine of Mercia seems to be in possession of Hakon's earldom in Worcestershire in 1023,[206] the year when Hakon's father presumably died.

After the banishment of Thurkil, we should expect to find Eric, while he still lived, as the ranking earl in the kingdom and the chief adviser to the King. But Eric's earldom was in the extreme north; his subjects were largely Norwegian immigrants and their descendants, as yet, perhaps, but imperfectly Anglicised; he was himself an alien and his circle of ideas scarcely touched the field of Saxon politics. He could, therefore, be of small assistance in governing the kingdom as a whole. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether Canute really felt the need of a grand vizier at this time. An excellent assistant, however, he seems to have found in the Saxon Godwin. It has been thought that Godwin's exalted position of first subject in the realm belongs to a date as early as 1020[207] But this is mere conjecture. It is evident that his influence with Canute grew with the passage of time; still, it is likely that historians have projected his greatness too far back into his career.

A position analogous to that of the tall earl he could not have held before the closing years of the reign. If Canute left any one in charge of the kingdom during his absences after 1020, it could not have been Godwin. When the fleet sailed against the Slavs on the south Baltic shores in 1022, Godwin appears to have accompanied the host. Tradition tells us that he fought valiantly in the Swedish campaign of 1026. A Norse runic monument records his presence in some expedition to Norway, presumably that of 1028.[208] Canute did not employ English forces to a large extent in any of his foreign wars, possibly because he was distrustful of them: only fifty English ships made part of that vast armada that overawed the Norwegians in 1028. Canute's probable reluctance about arming the Saxons after the battle of Carham and the consequent loss of Lothian has already been referred to. The presence of Godwin as a chief in Canute's host may, therefore, be taken as a mark of peculiar confidence on the King's part.

Godwin was never without his rival. In the Midlands Leofwine and after him his son Leofric were developing a power that was some day to prove a dangerous barrier to the ambitions of the southern Earl and his many sons. The family of Leofwine had certain advantages in the race for power that made for stability and assured possession of power once gained: it was older as a member of the aristocracy; it seems to have had Anglo-Danish connections, presumably Danish ancestry; it was apparently controlled by a spirit of prudence that urged the acceptance of de-facto rule. But in the matter of aggressive abilities and statesmanlike ideas the Mercians were far inferior to their Saxon rivals; the son and grandsons of Leofwine never attained the height of influence and power that was reached by Godwin and his son Harold.

While these changes were going on in England, an important advance had been made in the direction of empire. In his message from Rome to the English people (1027) Canute claims the kingship of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden. The copies of the document that have come down to us are, however, not contemporary, and it is not likely that the sweeping claim of the salutation was found in the original. For at no time was Canute lord of any Swedish territory as the term was understood and the frontier drawn in the eleventh century. It has been pointed out that in this case we probably have a scribal error of Swedes for Slavs.[209] As King of Denmark, Canute inherited pretensions to considerable stretches of the south Baltic shore lands, and consequently could claim to rule a part of the Slavic lands. Early in his reign he made an expedition to these regions, of which we have faint echoes in both English and Scandinavian sources.