Anglo-Saxon England - Knut, Cnut, Canute

Childhood

Christening of Harald Bluetooth

Exactly where in Denmark and when Cnut[i] was born is not known. His father was Swein Forkbeard, a son of Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark. In 987 Swein made himself king of Denmark following the death of his father. In his teens Swein had married a sister of the Polish king and she changed her name to Gunnhilde. She is possibly Cnut’s mother and the year of 995 is a compromise date for Cnut’s birth.

In company with Olaf Tryggvason[ii], Swein attacked London in 994 and the army overwintered in Southampton, returning to the attack in 995. They collected £16,000[iii] in Danegeld.

‘Olaf and Swein came to London on the Nativity of St. Mary, with ninety-four ships, fighting constantly the city, and they meant, moreover, to set it on fire. But they there suffered more harm and evil than they ever believed any town-dwellers could have done them.’[iv]

Olaf and Swein moved on to bring fire and death to the coastal lands of Essex, Kent, Mercia and Hampshire, returning to pillage again in 1003 and 1004. They attacked Norwich in retaliation for a massacre of Danes the previous year.

20th Century impression of Erik praying to Odin

It is possible that Swein went into exile during the period when Erik of Sweden invaded Denmark[v]. He returned to Denmark only on Erik’s death in 995 and married Erik’s widow Sigrid Storrada[vi].

Sigrid Storrada and Olaf Trygvasson

 

In 1017 the skaldic poet Ottar the Black wrote of King Cnut[vii] in his Knutsdrapa;

‘Destroyer of the chariot of the sea, you were of no great age when you pushed off your ships. Never, younger than you, did prince set out to take his part in war. Chief, you made ready your arrowed ships and were daring beyond measure. In your rage Knutr, you mustered the red shields at sea.’[viii]

This would imply that Cnut was very young when he first learnt the art of war. It is postulated that Cnut was fostered by Thurkil the Tall[ix]; the Viking in command of the troops at Jomsburg, on the Vistula. He and Cnut had a long and tempestuous relationship and the practice of sending children off to be raised in other noble households was just beginning. 

Swein Forkbeard

In 1013 Cnut accompanied Swein Forkbeard to England, at the head of a huge invasion fleet. The Northumbrians and the men of the Danelaw speedily submitted to Swein. To retain the loyalties of the men of the north, Swein married Cnut to Aelfgyfu of Northampton, the daughter of Aelfhelm, the Aeldorman of southern Northumbria

Within weeks Swein was in control of Wessex and Mercia, as well as Northumbria. King Aethelred[x].sent his wife Emma[xi], and their sons to safety in Normandy[xii]. Later in the year Aethelred followed them. Swein was now de facto ruler of England, but five weeks after Aethelred’s flight Swein died on 3^rd February 1014. The Encomium Emmae[xiii] states that Swein left England to his son Cnut.

Queen Emma and her sons

 

Following Swein’s death, Aetheldred returned to England and the relatively inexperienced Cnut withdrew with his father’s home[xiv], where his brother Harald[xv] had succeeded to the throne of Denmark. Cnut took Aelfgyfu and his young son Svein Knuttson[xvi] back with him to Denmark. Aelgyfu became pregnant again during this period and in 1015 or 1016 had a second son Harold Harefoot[xvii].

Returning to England

Cnut returned to England in the summer of 1015. He landed in a country where the balance of power had been brutally changed. At a great council gathered in Oxford, Eadric Strona of Mercia had organised the murder of two of the leading thanes of the Danelaw. 

‘Ealdorman[xviii] Eadric betrayed Sigeferth and Morcaer, the most senior thanes in the Seven Boroughs. He deceived them into coming to his chamber, and they were basely killed.’[xix]

Aethelred

 

The victims’ estates were seized by King Aethelred The widow of one of the victims was forcibly carried off by Eathelred’s son Edmund[xx], in defiance of his father. He took Ealdgyth to the northern Danelaw where he appropriated the dead men’s estates.

Cnut’s fleet landed briefly at Sandwich and finally landed at Poole.

At the same time, King Cnut came to Sandwich, went quickly around Kent into Wessex, until he came to the mouth of the Frome, and ravaged then in Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset.’[xxi]

While the crews of Cnut’s ships ravaged Mercia, Eadric Strona was raising troops. But he soon took service with Cnut and within four months Cnut was in control of Wessex with the Eoldermen of Mercia under his command.

At the end of the year Cnut and Eadric Strona crossed the Thames and raided up into Warwickshire.

‘Cnut came with his force, and Ealdorman Eadric with him, across the Thames into Mercia at Cricklade. They went into Warwickshire during the season of Christmas, and ravaged, burnt and killed all they came across.’[xxii]

The Eaoldormen of England combined against the threat posed by Cnut, with a force collected by Edmund in the northern Danelaw. They attacked Mercia and in retaliation Cnut attacked the now unprotected Danelaw lands. His troops harried the countryside up into Northumbria, where Earl Uhtred hurriedly submitted[xxiii].

With the north under his command Cnut was now ready to attack the more heavily defended southern shires of England. He travelled south, avoiding Edmund and his army and reached his base in Wessex, where he ordered his fleet to transfer to the Thames. At this clear signal that an attack on London was imminent Edmund dropped his dispute with his father Aethelred; joining him to defend London.

King of England

On 23^rd April 1016 King Aethelred died and those gathered to defend London elected Edmund as his successor. A few days later an assembly of Ealdormen and soldiers from across England met at Southampton and elected Cnut as king.

Edmund’s first priority as king was to bring Wessex back under his control and this he duly did. But this laid London open to Cnut, whose attempts to besiege the city were initially thwarted by the bridge across the river. Ever resourceful Cnut set his men to digging a channel.

‘They dug a great ditch on the south side and dragged their ships on the west side to the bridge, then diked the borough repeatedly so that no one could go in or out. They attacked the borough repeatedly, but they withstood them hardily.’[xxiv]

Cnut left his men to continue the siege and turned his attention back to Wessex where he fought two inconclusive battles with Edmund. He then returned to London. He was followed by Edmund who attacked the besiegers near Tottenham.

The Danes were driven back and were defeated in a pitched battle, the victory came at enormous cost to the English, who lost large numbers of men. Edmund was compelled to retreat back into his Wessex stronghold and the Danes returned to their siege.

Cnut decided to throw everything into an attack on London;

‘The force [the Danes] then went to London, and besieged the town; they attacked them powerfully by water and by land, but almighty God saved them.’[xxv]

Cnut’s forces withdrew to the mouth of the Orwell and then on to the Medway. Provisioned by attacks in East Anglia and Mercia; Cnut’s men landed in Kent, where Edmund was ready for them. He won another battle at Otford, driving the invaders into Sheppey. Eadric of Mercia now reversed his loyalties.

In the autumn of 1016 the Danes crossed the Thames estuary and raided into Essex and Mercia.

‘When the king found out that the force was up there, he gathered for a fifth time all the English nation, came up behind them, overtook them in Essex at the hill men call Ashingdon, and there they came together hardily.’[xxvi]

Edmund Ironside and Cnut at the battle of Ashendon

 

Early in the battle Eadric of Mercia took flight and his men were followed by contingents from other shires. The battle ended with a victory for Cnut; many of the Saxon earls perished but Edmund escaped. Rather than continue the fighting Cnut decided to come to terms with Edmund and they met near Deerhurst on the Severn,

The kingdom was divided between Cnut and Edmund, who received Wessex. He also agreed to pay for Cnut’s army. All the lands beyond the Thames were to be ruled by Cnut.

‘It was agreed that the kings should take the oath of brotherhood and should maintain peace as long as both were on earth; and if that one of them died sonless, the survivor should inherit his realm and all subjects.’[xxvii]

‘King Edmund received Wessex and Cnut Mercia. The force went to their ships with the plunder they had taken; London treated with them and bought peace from them. The force brought their ships to London, and they took winter quarters there.’[xxviii]

This flawed agreement[xxix] was superseded by the death of Edmund on 30^th November 1016; the west Saxons then accepted Cnut as their king.

Bibliography

The Vikings – Magnus Magnusson – Tempus Publishing Ltd 2000

Queen Emma and the Vikings – Harriet O’Brien – Bloomsbury Publishing 2005

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles – Anne Savage (translator), Colour Library Books 1995

Anglo-Saxon England – Frank Stenton, Oxford University Press 1997

Cnut – MJ Trow, Sutton Publishing Ltd 2005

www.wikipedia.en

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[i] Or Knut or Canute

[ii] King of Norway from 995.

[iii] £16,000 in 1247 (the earliest date used for calculations) would be worth £16,200,000.00 using the retail price index or £209,000,000.00 in 2010 using average earnings – www.measuringworth.com. The worth of the 995 monies would have been significantly more.

[iv] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles - Savage

[v] There is no precise date for the invasion

[vi] Also known as Sigrid the Haughty; she too is a contender as Cnut’s mother

[vii] At the behest of Queen Emma

[viii] Cnut - Trow

[ix] As stated in the 13^th century Flateyarbok

[x] Known as the Unready

[xi] The couple had married in 1002 after an abortive attempt to attack Niormandy when it harboured a Viking army.

[xii] Emma was the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy.

[xiii] Cnut’s second wife Emma ordered the writing of the Encomium in 1041 or 2

[xiv] He had been chosen as successor to his father by the warriors of the fleet

[xv] Emma’s Encomium states that Cnut was the eldest son, although there does seem some dispute about that

[xvi] Future king of Norway, his date of birth is also not known and he may have been born as late as the following year

[xvii] Later King of England

[xviii] High ranking royal official and magistrate of a shire; by this time the term was usually shortened to earl

[xix] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles - Savage

[xx] Known as Edmund Ironside

[xxi] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles - Savage

[xxii] Ibid

[xxiii] Uhtred was murdered not long after and his earldom was given by Cnut to Erik of Norway.

[xxiv] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles - Savage

[xxv] Ibid

[xxvi] Ibid

[xxvii] Cnut - Trow

[xxviii] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles - Savage

[xxix] There were a number of Ealdormen who had lands straddling the divide and the question would have arisen of divided loyalties

The Apprenticeship of Peter the Great VI

Vienna

Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I

When Peter arrived back in the Netherlands it was to find that, not only had the members of the embassy been impressing the Dutch with their exceptionally heavy drinking, but had also been laying in supplies of materiel, weapons, specialised instruments and naval stores and most important of all 640 Dutchmen, including 200 Dutch naval officers.

On 15^th May the embassy left for Vienna, en route they were entertained as guests of the Elector of Saxony, who was also the new king of Poland[i]. After staying two nights in Dresden the Great Embassy travelled on to Vienna, where Peter met with Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor. In Vienna Peter behaved with more than usual decorum, leading the Spanish Ambassador to write to his master;

‘Here he appears quite unlike the description of other courts and far more civilised, intelligent, with excellent manners and modest.’[ii]

The Great Embassy’s visit to Vienna to try and persuade the Emperor to resume the war with the Ottoman Empire was a failure. Leopold was considering a Turkish offer of peace, which was disadvantageous to the Russians. In any event, like other fellow rulers, Leopold viewed Louis XIV as the greater obstacle to peace in Europe.

Peter was not happy, having attacked the Tartars and moved mountains to create a Black Sea fleet; he was unwilling to give up before capturing Kerch and obtaining Turkish acceptance to Russian rights to sail on the Black Sea. On demanding that the peace treaty include giving Kerch to Russia, Peter was informed that he should ensure that it was captured before the peace talks began.

A Second Streltsy Uprising

Execution of Streltsy

Peter did not wish to tarry in Vienna and was planning to travel on to Venice, to learn the secrets of building galleys. Everything was in train when on 15^th July Peter learned of the Streltsy Uprising in Moscow. Four regiments of the Streltsy had rebelled after being ordered from Azov to the Polish border. Instead they had marched on Moscow; Peter immediately decided to cut short his tour and return home, to stamp his authority on proceedings.

The Streltsy had suffered heavy losses before the walls of Azov and were denied the chance to progress in triumph in Moscow with the Czar. Instead they had been left behind to rebuild fortifications and garrison the town. This defied all precedents; the place of the Streltsy in peacetime was in Moscow, where they guarded the Kremlin and ran profitable businesses on the side. This was a deliberate move by Peter and his ministers, wanting to keep as many of them away from the capital as possible

The Streltsy in Azov were to be transferred to the Polish border, while the Streltsy in Moscow were to replace them. The Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky Guards were to take over the normal peacetime duties of the Streltsy in Moscow. The Azov Streltsy marched, but were furious that they had to go direct to the Polish frontier, without a visit to Moscow to see their families.

Some deserters arrived in the capital asking for back pay and permission to stay in Moscow. The petitions were rejected and they were returned to their regiments, to spread news of their ill-treatment. They also brought news of the Czar’s absence in foreign heathen parts and rumours; the Czar had become a German, the Czar had given up the Orthodox faith and the Czar was dead.

The Streltsy strenuously disapproved of the way Peter behaved, which was very unlike his remote predecessors. It was felt to be the Streltsy’s bounden duty to overthrow this false Czar and re-establish the old proper ways. Into this rumour ridden excitement a new decree arrived ordering the Streltsy into garrisons between Moscow and the border with Poland. The deserters who had turned up in Moscow were to be exiled.

‘Today for the first time a vague rumour of the revolt of the Streltsy struck terror.’[iii]

Return to Russia

Alexis Shein

Peter took Lefort and Golovin with him, leaving Voznitsyn to act as the Russian representative at the upcoming talks with the Turks. Peter’s party left Vienna on 19^th July. At Cracow Peter, who had been travelling non-stop, was met by a missive forwarded by Voznitsyn; troops under the command of Alexis Shein[iv] had defeated the rebelling Streltsy. 130 had been executed and 1,860 were prisoners. It had taken Gordon’s men an hour to defeat the Streltsy.

Peter contemplated retracing his footsteps and returning to his original itinerary; instead he decided to complete his journey home. He took a more leisurely pace and at Rawa[v] finally met King Augustus. The two men hit it off and spent four days together, drinking, eating, reviewing the Saxon infantry cavalry.

‘I cannot begin to describe to you the tenderness between the two sovereigns.’[vi]

Augustus the Strong

Peter himself valued this new friendship, telling his boyars

‘I prize him more than the whole of you together and that not because of his royal pre-eminence over you, but merely because I like him.’[vii]

Augustus was able to persuade his new friend into a project that was to have severe repercussions for the Russians; an attack on Sweden, to wrest her Baltic provinces from her at a time of relative weakness[viii].

Peter arrived back in Moscow on 5^th September 1698.

Return of the Czar

Peter spent the night at Preobrazhenskoe with Anna Mons. The following day the great and good of Moscow flocked to pay their respects to the returned Czar.

‘To prove by the promptitude of their obsequiousness, the constancy of their loyalty……..lifted up from their groveling posture and embraced with a kiss, such as is due only among private friends.’[ix]

Peter took advantage of this flocking to start his modernisation programme by hacking off the beards of his startled officials, commencing with Shein. Only three of the crowd were exempted; the Patriarch, Prince Michael Cherkassy due to his extreme old age, and Tikon Streshnev[x].

Tikon Streshnev

Men without beards[xi]  were considered shameful and beyond the pale of Christendom. By decree all Russians except peasants and clergy had to shave; but eventually those who insisted on retaining their beards were able to do so, on payment of a small tax. Some of those who were de-bearded kept their hacked-off beards laid by;

‘When he came home he would lay it [his beard] up to have it put in his coffin and buried along with him, that he might be able to give an account of it to St. Nicholas, when he came to the other world, and that all his brothers had taken the same care.’[xii]

Another of Peter’s actions after his return was to forbid the boyars to wear traditional dress; instead they were to wear western fashions. At one feast Peter took shears to the long sleeves of his boyar’s coats

‘See, these things are in your way. You are safe nowhere with them. At one moment you upset a glass, then you forgetfully dip them in the sauce……get gaiters made of them!’[xiii]

He informed his boyars when returning the sheared-off sleeves. European styles of entertainment were ordained and Peter scrutinised the guest lists of balls that he himself has to attend. Despite his dislike of Louis XIV and his ambitions, Peter ordered that the nobility speak French and now women were to be forced out of the terem[xiv] and into the modern world, in corsets and European fashions.

Peter also revised the Russian calendar, bringing it into line with the west and reformed the monetary system. He also instituted a cheaper way of rewarding service to the government. Hitherto successful soldiers and officials had been awarded land and or money. Now Peter gave out medals; he set up the Order of St Andrew, a new Russian knighthood; the first recipient of the honour being Golovin.

Aftermath of a Rebellion

In the work of setting Russia on its collision course with modernisation, Peter had not forgotten the rebellious Streltsy. Scarred by the 1682 rebellion, Peter was now ready to bring the Streltsy of 1698 to heel.  

Torture had persuaded one of the Streltsy to admit that they intended to announce Peter’s death in Europe, make Sophia Regent again for Czarevitch Alexis and recall Galitzyne. The 1,860 Streltsy prisoners had been distributed into cells in fortresses and monasteries around Moscow, to await Peter’s pleasure.

Peter was a mix of European veneer and medieval autocrat. He was convinced that the Streltsy uprising was supported by persons in high places. Some of the accusations made against Peter had been too sophisticated for common soldiers. Peter ordered the prisoners to be taken to Preobrazhenskoe.

Peter was prepared to torture the Streltsy to discover whether there was yet another plot against himself. A series of torture chambers were constructed and for several weeks, six days a week, the prisoners were tortured. All of Peter’s Russian friends were as personally involved in the tortures as well as Peter.

Yet the prisoners endured the most amazing tortures without giving up any information. One prisoner revealed the existence of a Torture Society, where members were tortured and promotion with the society depended on enduring yet ever more horrific tortures. Peter, present at the revelation kissed the prisoner;

‘It’s no secret to me that you know about the plot against me. You have been punished enough. Now confess of your own accord out of the love you owe me as your sovereign. And I swear, by the God who has made me Tsar, not only to completely pardon you, but in addition, as a special mark of my clemency, to make you a colonel.’[xv]

The prisoner divulged all he knew and Peter kept his word.

Eventually as word of the horrors spread into Moscow and beyond the Patriarch went to Peter to beg for mercy. Peter, convinced that the Streltsy treachery spread deep into Moscow society, continued his excesses. But little was learned, beyond what Shein had already discovered in his questioning in June.

Sophia in Novodevichy Convent

 

One of the Streltsy declared that letters, allegedly from Sophia, had been read aloud to the soldiers. The letters urged the Streltsy to march on Moscow and summon Sophia to take the throne. Peter visited Sophia and questioned her; alternately threatening her and weeping with her that they had become antagonists. Eventually he decided that Sophia needed to be more closely confined and she was forced to become a nun.

For the Streltsy there were seemingly endless executions; some unlucky few were branded and exiled, some had their noses or ears chopped off. The families of the executed were thrown out of Moscow. The six remaining regiments of Streltsy at Azov had become restless, but receiving the news of the fate of their comrades in arms decided against subordination.

The remaining Streltsy regiments were disbanded the following spring; their houses and lands in Moscow confiscated and forbidden to take up arms again[xvi].

Divorcing Eudoxia

Eudoxia, who had sympathised with the Streltsy, was forced into a nunnery. Eudoxia was a sad and lonely woman, whom Peter had never liked. A simple and uneducated, but deeply religious, woman chosen by his mother, Eudoxia disapproved of Peter’s foreign friends. She believed that foreigners were a source of heresy and contamination.

Eudoxia’s jealousy of Anna Mons only weakened her own position; she embarrassed Peter and bored him, fatal for her continued position as his wife. From Europe Peter had failed to reply to Eudoxia’s letters, but had written to his friends suggesting that they urge her to become a nun, which would set him free.

Pokrovsky Convent

 

On his return, angered that his orders had not been carried out, Peter summonsed Eudoxia and demanded that she take the veil. In an argument that continued for four hours Eudoxia refused, claiming that if she did as Peter wanted, she would never see her son again[xvii]. Peter stormed out of the meeting; not long after Alexis was forcibly removed from his mother’s care and within a short period Eudoxia herself was bundled out of the Kremlin and into a carriage and driven off to the Pokrovsky Monastery in Suzdal. Ten months later Eudoxia’s head was shaved and she was made a nun.

Bibliography

Natasha’s Dance – Orlando Figes, Penguin Books Ltd 2002

Russia and the Russians – Geoffrey Hosking, The Penguin Press 2001

Peter the Great – Robert K Massie, Abacus 1992

www.wikipedia.en

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[i] Currently visiting his new kingdom

[ii] Peter the Great - Massie

[iii] Ibid

[iv] Commander of the Russian Army

[v] In Galicia

[vi] Peter the Great - Massie

[vii] Ibid

[viii] The new king of Sweden was just 15 years old

[ix] Peter the Great - Massie

[x] Peter’s former guardian

[xi] Seen as a sign of holiness

[xii] Peter the Great - Massie

[xiii] Ibid

[xiv] The traditional women’s quarters of medieval Russia, where women were separated from men

[xv] Peter the Great - Massie

[xvi] This decree was reversed during the Great Northern War and several regiments were re-established

[xvii] A prediction that sadly came true