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Cnut the Great〔Bolton, ''The Empire of Cnut the Great: Conquest and the Consolidation of Power in Northern Europe in the Early Eleventh Century'' (Leiden, 2009)〕 (Old Norse: ''Knútr inn ríki'';〔Modern languages: (デンマーク語:Knud den Store or Knud II), (ノルウェー語:Knut den mektige), (スウェーデン語:Knut den Store).〕 c. 985 or 995 – 12 November 1035), more commonly known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. After his death, the deaths of his heirs within a decade, and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history. Historian Norman Cantor has made the statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history", although Cnut himself was not Anglo-Saxon.〔Cantor, ''The Civilisation of the Middle Ages'', 1995:166.〕 Cnut's name is popularly invoked in the context of the legendary story of ''King Canute and the waves'', but usually misrepresenting Cnut (Canute) as a deluded monarch believing he had supernatural powers, when the original story in fact relates the opposite and portrays a wise king. Cnut's father was Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark (which gave Cnut the patronym ''Sweynsson'', Old Norse ''Sveinsson''). The identity of his mother is uncertain, although medieval tradition makes her a daughter of Mieszko I.〔 As a Prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut maintained his power by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than by sheer brutality. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna was held by Cnut.〔Graslund, B.,'Knut den store och sveariket: Slaget vid Helgea i ny belysning', ''Scandia'', vol. 52 (1986), pp. 211–238.〕 He had coins struck there that called him king, but there is no narrative record of his occupation. The kingship of England lent the Danes an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, where Cnut, like his father before him, had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the Norse-Gaels.〔Forte, et al., ''Viking Empires'', p. 196.〕 Cnut's possession of England's dioceses and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen—was a source of great leverage within the Catholic Church, gaining notable concessions from Pope Benedict VIII and his successor John XIX, such as one on the price of the pallium of his bishops. Cnut also gained concessions on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome from other magnates of medieval Christendom, at the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor. After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way to Rome for this coronation, Cnut, in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects, stated himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes".〔Lawson, ''Cnut'', p. 97.〕 The Anglo-Saxon kings used the title "king of the English". Canute was ''ealles Engla landes cyning''—"king of all England." ==Birth and kingship== Cnut was a son of the Danish Prince Sweyn Forkbeard, who was the son and heir to King Harald Bluetooth from a line of Scandinavian rulers central to the unification of Denmark.〔Trow, ''Cnut'', pp. 30–31.〕 Neither the place nor the date of his birth are known. Harthacnut was the semi-legendary founder of the Danish royal house at the beginning of the 10th century, and his son, Gorm the Old, was the first in the official line (the 'Old' in his name being to this effect). Harald Bluetooth, Gorm's son and Cnut's grandfather, was the Danish king at the time of the Christianisation of Denmark, the first Scandinavian king to accept Christianity. Cnut's grandfather died when he was two years old and his father, Sweyn Forkbeard, became king. The ''Chronicon'' of Thietmar of Merseburg and the ''Encomium Emmae'' report Cnut's mother as having been a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland. Norse sources of the High Middle Ages, most prominently ''Heimskringla'' by Snorri Sturluson, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they call Gunhild and a daughter of ''Burislav'', the king of ''Vindland''.〔Snorri, ''Heimskringla'', ''The History of Olav Trygvason'', ch. 34, p. 141〕 Since in the Norse sagas the ''king of Vindland'' is always ''Burislav'', this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko (not his son Bolesław). Adam of Bremen in ''Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum'' is unique in equating Cnut's mother (for whom he also produces no name) with the former queen of Sweden, wife of Eric the Victorious and by this marriage mother of Olof Skötkonung.〔Adam of Bremen, ''History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen'', Book II, ch. 37; see also Book II, ch. 33, Scholion 25〕 To complicate the matter, ''Heimskringla'' and other Sagas also have Sweyn marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, by name of ''Sigrid the Haughty'', whom Sweyn only marries after ''Gunhild'', the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, has died.〔Snorri, ''Heimskringla'', ''The History of Olav Trygvason'', ch. 91, p. 184〕 Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Sweyn's wives (or wife) have been brought forward (see Sigrid the Haughty and Gunhild). But since Adam is the only source to equate the identity of Cnut's and Olof Skötkonung's mother, this is often seen as an error of Adam, and it is often assumed that Sweyn had two wives, the first being Cnut's mother, and the second being the former Queen of Sweden. Cnut's brother Harald was the first born and crown prince. Some hint of Cnut's childhood can be found in the ''Flateyjarbók'', a 13th-century source, stating at one point that Cnut was taught his soldiery by the chieftain Thorkell the Tall,〔Trow, ''Cnut'', p. 44.〕 brother to Sigurd, Jarl of mythical Jomsborg, and the legendary Joms, at their Viking stronghold on the island of Wollin, off the coast of Pomerania. His date of birth, like his mother's name, is unknown. Contemporary works such as the ''Chronicon'' and the ''Encomium Emmae'', do not mention it. Even so, in a ''Knútsdrápa'' by the skald Óttarr svarti, there is a statement that Cnut was "of no great age" when he first went to war.〔Douglas, ''English Historical Documents'', pp. 335–336〕 It also mentions a battle identifiable with Sweyn Forkbeard's invasion of England and attack on the city of Norwich, in 1003/04, after the St. Brice's Day massacre of Danes by the English, in 1002. If it is the case that Cnut was part of this, his birthdate may be near 990, or even 980. If not, and the skald's poetic verse envisages another assault, such as Forkbeard's conquest of England in 1013/14, it may even suggest a birth date nearer 1000.〔Lawson, ''Cnut'', p. 160.〕 There is a passage of the Encomiast's (as the author of the ''Encomium Emmae'' is known) with a reference to the force Cnut led in his English conquest of 1015/16. Here (see below) it says all the Vikings were of "mature age" under Cnut "the king". A description of Cnut can be found within the 13th century ''Knýtlinga saga'': Hardly anything is known for sure of Cnut's life until the year he was part of a Scandinavian force under his father, King Sweyn, in his invasion of England in summer 1013. It was the climax to a succession of Viking raids spread over a number of decades. With their landing in the Humber〔Ellis, ''Celt & Saxon'',p. 182.〕 the kingdom fell to the Vikings quickly, and near the end of the year King Aethelred fled to Normandy, leaving Sweyn Forkbeard in possession of England. In the winter, Forkbeard was in the process of consolidating his kingship, with Cnut left in charge of the fleet and the base of the army at Gainsborough. On the death of Sweyn Forkbeard after a few months as king, on Candlemas Sunday 3 February 1014,〔William of Malms., ''Gesta Regnum Anglorum'', pp. 308–310〕 Harald succeeded him as King of Denmark, while Cnut was immediately elected king by the Vikings and the people of the Danelaw.〔Sawyer, ''History of the Vikings'', pp. 171〕 However, the English nobility took a different view, and the Witenagemot recalled Aethelred from Normandy. The restored king swiftly led an army against Cnut, who fled with his army to Denmark, along the way mutilating the hostages they had taken and abandoning them on the beach at Sandwich.〔Lawson, ''Cnut'', p. 27〕 Cnut went to Harald and supposedly made the suggestion they might have a joint kingship, although this found no favour with his brother.〔 Harald is thought to have offered Cnut command of his forces for another invasion of England, on the condition he did not continue to press his claim.〔 In any case, Cnut was able to assemble a large fleet with which to launch another invasion.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cnut the Great」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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