ImportFS

HIS-1013: Knut den mektige og hans verden: Samfunn, politikk og kirka i Nord-Europa 950-1050

Utfyllende informasjon
CNUT THE GREAT AND HIS WORLD: society, politics and the Church in northern Europe 950-1050)

The brief conquest of England by the Danish king Svein in 1013, and by his son Cnut in 1016, brought an end to a long period of sustained attacks from Scandinavia. As king of England Cnut was a strong and apparently capable ruler; in 1019 he became king of Denmark, and was king of Norway from 1028. His ”empire” was a personal one, and when he died in 1035 it collapsed under his sons. Yet although such an important figure in north European history, Cnut himself is largely unknown. Behind the evidence for his policies towards his separate kingdoms, the Church and his neighbours, it is difficult to identify any long-term political ambitions other than the survival of his own power. We know little or nothing about his character: he was clearly both intelligent and ruthless, and made judicious use of political murder. But it is impossible to tell, for instance, whether his many favours to the Church were prompted by deep belief as well as by a policy of buying the continued support of this most valuable ally.
Going beyond the character of this man: his life is an excellent starting-point for a broad study of northern Europe in the decades around 1000. In political terms, his rule came at a crucial time in the longer-term development of the national kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway, and may have made a significant contribution to the construction of these states and their national identities. The already-strong English state strengthened under Cnut, as the state machinery continued to develop and he extended the ability of the king to tax the country’s growing wealth. Increasing diversification of the economy, accompanying urbanization, was a feature of his reign and must have benefited from the stability of his rule. There are indications that he tried to export these English trends to Denmark by founding towns. Questions of contemporary national feelings and loyalties apply particularly to the situation in Norway, and in a different way to that in England where after a long history of war and settlement much of the aristocracy had mixed Scandinavian and English affinities. Whilst his three kingdoms remained separate entities, the identity of the important men and women through whom he ruled shows that Cnut saw loyalty to himself as more important than ethnic origins or cultural identity.
A dynamic aspect of the continued growth of national monarchies was the political interplay between the chief actors. Cnut’s father and grandfather had also been – or called themselves – kings of Norway, which they had dominated from Denmark. But England was by far the richest of the three kingdoms, and Cnut’s control of England and its resources was the key to his authority elsewhere - as for instance when he used English money to undermine Olav Haraldsson’s rule in Norway in 1028. This made an interesting counterpoint to the policy of his English predecessor, Æthelred, who had apparently encouraged (and financed) the ambitions of Olav Trygvasson and Olav Haraldsson in 994 and 1015 as diversions to weaken the Danish attacks on England. A further factor was the influence of Cnut’s neighbours: he and his predecessors as kings of Denmark were generally careful to keep good relations with the powerful German emperors, just as in England he was careful to maintain the alliance with the powerful dukes of Normandy in northern France. This last relationship would in time disrupt Cnut’s political world: within a few years of his death England would have been forcibly incorporated into the French political and cultural environment.
Cnut’s two wives had significant political roles. The English Ælfgiva, his first and minor wife, represented an important alliance with the English nobility and ruled Norway for their young son Svein from 1030 to 1034. His chief wife and queen, Emma, was particularly important. She was the sister of the powerful Duke of Normandy; her mother had been Danish; and above all as the widow of King Æthelred she had already been queen of England for many years. She was politically active during Cnut’s lifetime, and after his death was active in furthering the ambitions of her sons by both Cnut and Æthelred.
We do not know if Cnut ever intended his empire to survive his death, although there is reason to believe he did so. Yet he never imposed any political unity, a reflection of the great differences between the countries he ruled - differences that seem to have been growing during his period. His attempt to restore control over Norway only served to weaken Danish power there, whilst English national feeling remained strong and continued to absorb Danish social and cultural influences. Perhaps most importantly, the commercialization and urbanization that were so marked in England remained more characteristic of continental Europe than of Cnut’s Scandinavian possessions.

Pensum
Pensum
M.K. Lawson, Cnut: the Danes in England in the early eleventh century (Longman, 1993), 246s.

A.R. Rumble (red.), The Reign of Cnut: King of England, Denmark and Norway (Leicester University Press, 1994) - unntatt av s.231-82. 263s.

De følgende titler er å få kjøpt i kopisamling på Akademisk Kvarter:
S. Bagge, ”Mellom kildekritikk og historisk antropologi: Olav den Hellige, aristokratiet og rikssamlingen”, Historisk Tidsskrift 81 (2002), 173-212
S. Keynes, ”England 900-1016”, i T. Reuter (red.), Cambridge Medieval History III (Cambridge UP, 1999), s.456-84
N. Lund, ”Danish military organisation”, i J. Cooper (red.), The Battle of Maldon (London:Hambledon Press,1993), s. 109-26
F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford UP, 1971), s.364-432
D. Hill, Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England (Blackwell, 1981), s.45, 91, 94, 128, 130
P. Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith: queenship and women's power in eleventh-century England (Oxford:Blackwell, 1997), s.209-54
D. Whitelock (red.), English Historical Documents, I, c.500-1042 (Eyre Methuen, 1979), s.310-19; 332-41; 447-54; 464-71; 476-8; 593-603; 928-34

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