Northmen: The Viking Saga AD 793-1241 (42 page)

After his coronation, Cnut began to negotiate an alliance with Richard of Normandy, which resulted in his marriage to Queen Emma in 1018. Cnut’s main motive for the marriage was to prevent Æthelred’s sons seeking Norman support against him, but he may also have seen her experience as queen of England as an advantage. During his campaigns in England, Cnut had already acquired an English consort in the shape of Ælfgifu of Northampton, with whom he already had two sons, Svein Alfivason and Harold Harefoot. Although he put Ælfgifu aside so that he could marry Emma, Cnut continued to show her favour and she continued to be influential throughout his reign. Later in 1018, Cnut’s brother Harald died and the following year he sailed to Denmark to claim the throne. Cnut always recognised that England was the most valuable of his kingdoms and he soon returned, leaving Denmark to be ruled by a regent.

Cnut’s foreign policy

Cnut pursued a far more active foreign policy than any ruler of England had done previously. In 1026 and 1028, Cnut returned to Scandinavia to restore Danish control of Norway, which had been lost to Olaf Haraldsson (St Olaf) after Svein Forkbeard’s death. By 1030, the Swedish king and the earls of Orkney recognised Cnut as overlord making him, at least nominally, the ruler of almost the whole Scandinavian world. Little is known about Cnut’s relations with Wales and Ireland: it is possible that he allied with the Dublin Vikings to pillage Wales in 1030. Lothian was lost to the Scots following the Northumbrian defeat at the Battle of Carham in 1016. A peace of sorts was patched up through the diplomacy of Queen Emma and Duke Richard, but it did not last. Cnut invaded Scotland in 1031, and though he did not recover Lothian he accepted the submission of three Scottish rulers named in the
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle
as King Malcolm II, Maelbeth (probably Macbeth, then the
mormaer
of Moray), and the unidentified Iehmarc, who was probably a Gaelic-Norse ruler from the Hebrides.

Cnut was arguably the greatest of all the Viking kings but, though he won power as a Viking, he ruled as a Christian European king. In England he assiduously performed those duties most expected of a Christian king, making laws and supporting the church through donations and privileges. In 1027, Cnut made a pilgrimage to Rome to attend the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. As well as demonstrating his piety, this helped establish Cnut as a figure of European stature. Cnut cultivated friendly relations with Conrad, whose empire bordered Denmark in the south. The two rulers eventually arranged a diplomatic marriage: Cnut’s daughter Gunnhild married Conrad’s son, the future Emperor Henry III. As part of the agreement, Conrad recognised the River Eider as Denmark’s southern border.

Impressive though it was, Cnut’s empire lacked any institutional unity and it did not survive his death in 1035. Cnut’s intention was that Svein Alfivason, his elder son by Ælfigifu, would rule Norway. Around 1030, Cnut made Svein king of Norway with his mother as regent, but Ælfgifu quickly made herself unpopular by her efforts to centralise power. Around the time of Cnut’s death, the Norwegians rebelled and invited Magnus the Good (r. 1035 – 47), Olaf Haraldsson’s son, to become king. Svein fled with his mother to Denmark, where he died early in 1036. Cnut intended that Harthacnut, his son by Emma, would inherit both England and Denmark, but his accession was opposed in England and instead Harold Harefoot, Cnut’s second son by Ælfgifu, became king. Queen Emma was forced into exile in Flanders. Only after Harold died, at Oxford, in March 1040, was Harthacnut able to succeed to the English throne. Harthacnut was unmarried, childless and in poor health. While drinking heavily at a wedding feast in London, Harthacnut suffered a stroke and died on 8 June 1042. With him, Cnut’s dynasty came to an end. By an agreement reached in 1036, the Norwegian king Magnus the Good was accepted as king in Denmark, but the English chose the exiled Edward the Confessor (r. 1042 – 66), so restoring the Wessex dynasty.

Edward’s reign was peaceful but his marriage was childless and, as he grew older and his health began to fail, the problem of the succession became acute. This set the stage for the final acts of England’s Viking Age. By the time Edward died on 4 or 5 January 1066 at his new palace at Westminster – London had now become England’s most important political centre as well as its main commercial centre – three leading claimants to the throne had emerged: Harold Godwinson, the powerful Anglo-Danish earl of Wessex; William duke of Normandy; and Harald Hardrada (r. 1046 – 66), the king of Norway. There was also Edgar the Atheling, Edward the Exile’s son: as a member of the Wessex dynasty he had the strongest hereditary claim but he was only fourteen and lacked any influential supporters at court. Harold had no royal blood but he had for many years dominated the English court and he had a proven record as a soldier, having led several successful campaigns against the Welsh.

William’s candidature was based on his claim that King Edward had promised him the throne after his death. This is not impossible. Edward had formed a friendship with William when he was in exile in Normandy and he was known for his pro-Norman sympathies. However, the English did not share their king’s tastes. Edward had invited a number of Norman nobles to settle in England, but their high-handed arrogance had soon made them unpopular. Harald Hardrada had inherited his claim from his predecessor Magnus the Good (who had inherited his claim through his agreement with Harthacnut). In a career that had taken him across most of the Viking world, Harald had more than earned his reputation for being the greatest warrior of his day, but, like William, he had no supporters in England.

Harold Godwinson had the advantage over his rivals of being present while Edward lay on his deathbed. With no factions at court pushing for William, Edgar or Harald, Edward had little choice when he nominated Harold as his successor a few hours before he died. Harold may have been the king the English wanted but they were under no illusions that this settled the matter. A comet that appeared on 24 April was not seen as a good omen. Both Harald and William began to gather forces to invade England and make good their claims on the throne. Both men had earned formidable military reputations: Harald was described as ‘the thunderbolt of the north’ by Adam of Bremen, because of his prowess in war, while William was already being called ‘the Conqueror’ for his many victories. Harold mobilised his forces in late spring and waited, not knowing who would strike first. Unexpectedly, the first invasion came from Harold’s younger brother Tostig, who had been exiled to Flanders in 1065 for misgoverning his earldom of Northumbria. With an army and sixty ships provided by Count Baldwin of Flanders, Tostig raided along the south coast from the Isle of Wight to Kent before sailing north to Northumbria, where he was defeated by local forces. Fleeing to Scotland, Tostig transferred his allegiance to Harald Hardrada.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge

The winds through the summer of 1066 blew persistently from the north. These held William’s fleet in port but carried Harald’s fleet of 300 ships south from Nidaros (now Trondheim) to Shetland and Orkney and along the British coast to Tynemouth, where it was joined by Tostig’s Flemish fleet. Tostig’s presence added some much-needed credibility to Harald’s claim to the throne. From Tynemouth, Harald continued south into the Humber, finally landing on 16 September at Ricall on the River Ouse, 9 miles south of York. Leaving his teenage son Olaf and jarl Paul of Orkney to guard the ships, Harald set off for York on 20 September but was confronted at the village of Fulford Gate by an English army under earls Edwin and Morcar. Harald defeated them, inflicting heavy casualties on the English. Why the earls chose to fight when they could have awaited reinforcements behind the walls of York remains a mystery. York surrendered immediately and agreed to give hostages, and provide supplies and men to support Harald’s bid for the throne. While he awaited the promised support, Harald withdrew to Stamford Bridge, on the River Derwent about 7 miles east of York.

Harold, who had been warned of Harald’s approach as soon as his fleet had appeared off the English coast, was already marching north with his army. On 24 September Harold reached Tadcaster just 10 miles south-west of York. The next day, he marched his army straight through York and on to Stamford Bridge where he caught Harald’s army completely by surprise. The weather was warm for the time of year and the Norwegians, including King Harald, had left their armour with the ships at Riccall, 13 miles away. The English slaughtered the Norwegians on the west side of the river but a single brave Norwegian axeman made a stand on the bridge, killing everyone who approached and buying time for the rest of the army on the east bank to form a shield wall. The English crossed only after a warrior climbed under the bridge and speared the axeman from below. The battle raged for hours but their lack of armour put the Norwegians at a fatal disadvantage and their shield wall gradually began to give way. King Harald was killed by an arrow in the throat and Tostig also became a casualty. Late in the day reinforcements arrived from the Norwegian ships and briefly halted the English advance. They had run all the way to Stamford Bridge in full armour and were so exhausted that their stand was short-lived. The Norwegians fled back towards Ricall with the English in hot pursuit: many of the Norwegians drowned trying to cross the river. The English paid a high price for their victory but Harald’s army was all but annihilated. When, after the battle, King Harold allowed Olaf and jarl Paul to leave with the survivors, they needed only twenty of the 300 ships that had transported their late comrades. The scale of Harald’s defeat was such that it took Norway a generation to recover.

A few days later the winds finally changed to the south and on 28 September, William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey. Harold hurried south to defeat and death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October. With Harold dead English resistance quickly crumbled and on Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. The Norman conquest had much more far-reaching consequences than the Danish conquest fifty years earlier. William and many of his followers may have been of Viking descent, but by 1066, Normandy was linguistically and culturally a French principality. The conquest decisively drew England out of its north European orbit and turned it into a political and cultural satellite of France. It would be the end of the fourteenth century before England again had a king whose first language was English. The native English aristocracy who survived the battles of 1066 were within a few years either executed or exiled, and almost every English landowner was dispossessed. The English peasantry were forced into serfdom. The conquerors expropriated the wealth of the English on such a vast scale that even today, 950 years later, people in England with surnames of Norman-French origin are, on average, 20 per cent richer than the national average.

The end of England’s Viking Age

The Battle of Stamford Bridge is widely seen as marking the end of England’s Viking Age, but the Vikings were not quite finished with England. William was quite the most brutal man ever to rule England and the atrocities he meted out to the defeated English were such that, even in an age inured to violence, they shocked Europe. Two years after William’s accession fierce but unco-ordinated English rebellions erupted across the country and these brought the Danes back to England. After his death at Stamford Bridge, Harald Hardrada’s claim to the English throne had passed to the Danish king Svein Estrithsson (r. 1046 – 74/6), and it was to him that the English rebels turned for support, offering to accept him as king. In 1069, Svein sent his son Cnut to England with a fleet of 240 ships. Cnut landed at Dover in September and then sailed north, meeting with little success until he reached the Humber in October where he joined up with a large English rebel force. The Danes and the English marched on York and wiped out the Norman garrison there. William acted quickly and recaptured York in December. A campaign of savage retaliation, known as the ‘Harrying of North’, followed. William’s forces spread out across the countryside, burning and killing people and livestock, reducing the survivors to beggary. The
Domesday Book
, compiled in 1086, lists hundreds of villages across the north as still being waste and uninhabited, and worth only a fraction of their value twenty years earlier. William’s brutality served the double purpose of punishing the rebels and depriving the Danes of supplies. William literally made a desert of the north and called it peace.

In the spring of 1070, King Svein joined his son on the Humber and in June sailed to the Wash to join the English rebels under Hereward the Wake in sacking Peterborough. However, Svein was reluctant to face the Normans in open battle. When a force of just 160 Normans arrived at Ely, the Danes took to their ships. With English resistance collapsing, Svein reached an agreement with William and went home with his plunder. Five years later, Cnut returned to England with 200 ships at the invitation of two rebellious Norman earls. By the time he arrived, the rebellion was over and, apart from sacking York, he achieved nothing. In 1080, Cnut became king of Denmark (r. 1080 – 86) and revived his claim to the English throne. In 1085 he allied with Count Baldwin of Flanders, one of William’s French rivals, and raised a large invasion fleet. William prepared for the invasion by bringing over troops from Normandy, taxing the English, and by laying waste England’s coastal districts so that the Danes would find nothing with which to supply their army. ‘And people had much oppression that year,’ lamented the
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle
: being protected by William was probably considerably worse than being raided by Vikings. The English suffered for nothing: the threat of a German invasion of Denmark prevented Cnut’s fleet from sailing and at the end of the summer it dispersed. Cnut planned to try again but he was murdered in Odense in July 1086 and his successor Olaf had other priorities. With Cnut’s death, England’s Viking Age truly came to an end. True, England continued to suffer Viking raids from Orkney and Norway until the middle of the twelfth century and as late as the 1150s the Norwegian king Eystein II took advantage of a civil war to plunder England’s east coast. However, these were mere pinpricks and the country never again faced the threat of a serious Viking invasion.