[326] The Anglo-Saxon original of Canute's Charter has been lost. Our oldest version is a Latin translation inserted into the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester (see Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i., 276, 277). Most of our information as to Canute's pilgrimage comes from this document.
CHAPTER XI
THE CONQUEST OF NORWAY—1028-1030
Canute was still in the Eternal City on the 6th of April, but it is not likely that he remained in the South much later than that date. With the opening of spring, hostilities might be renewed in Scandinavia at any moment. That Canute expected a renewal of the war is clear from the language of his message to Britain:
I therefore wish it to be made known to you that, returning by the same way that I departed, I am going to Denmark, for the purpose of settling, with the counsel of all the Danes, firm and lasting peace with those nations, which, had it been in their power, would have deprived us of our life and kingdom....
After affairs had been thus composed, he expected to return to England.
His plans, however, must have suffered a change. So far as we know, warlike operations were not resumed that year; and yet, if any overtures for peace were made, they can scarcely have been successful. Some time later in the year Canute set sail for England; but with his great purpose unfulfilled: for he had promised in his "Charter" to return to Britain when he had "made peace with the nations around us, and regulated and tranquillised all our kingdom here in the East." Not till next year did he return to the attack on King Olaf Haroldsson. Hostile movements across the Scottish border seem to have been responsible for the postponement of the projected conquest. It is told in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that as soon as Canute had returned from Rome he departed for Scotland; "and the King of Scots submitted to him and also two other kings, Mælbeathe and Jehmarc."
Malcolm, the son of Kenneth, was at this time ruler of Scotia, a kingdom composed chiefly of the region between the Forth and the river Spey, with various outlying dependencies. We do not know what called forth hostilities between Malcolm and Canute at this time; but it is possible that the inciting force may have been the Norwegian King, as difficulties in Britain might lead Canute to abandon his Norse pretensions. As overlord of the Orkneys and probably also of the neighbouring Scotch coast lands, King Olaf naturally would be drawn into diplomatic relations with the kings of Scone. The Chronicle gives the year of the expedition to Scotland as 1031; but it also places it in the year of Canute's pilgrimage, which we know to have been made in 1027.