King Cnut And The Viking Conquest Of England 1016

The first ever full biography of England's Viking king and how he conquered England.

A Students Grammar of the English Language draws on the most recent research, including new findings not only in grammar but also in the neighbouring fields of semantics, pragmatics and text linguistics. Discourse features are dealt with throughout, as well as being the theme of a major chapter entitled form 'sentence to text' The authors are careful to point out those features of grammar which distinguish spoken from written, formal from informal, and British form American English.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Viking Conquest by Cnut in 1016 both had huge impacts on the history of England, and yet "1066" has eclipsed "1016" in popular culture. This book challenges that side-lining of Cnut's conquest by presenting compelling evidence that the Viking Conquest of 1016 was the single most influential cause of 1066. This neglected Viking Conquest of 1016 led to the exiling to Normandy and Hungary of the rightful Anglo-Saxon heirs to the English throne, entangled English politics with those of Normandy and Scandinavia, purged and destabilized the Anglo-Saxon ruling class, caused an English king to look abroad for allies in his conflict with over-mighty subjects, and, finally, in 1066 ensured that Harold Godwinson was in the north of England when the Normans landed on the south coast. As if that was not enough, it was the continuation of the Scandinavian connection after 1066 which largely ensured that a Norman victory became a traumatic Norman Conquest.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Viking Conquest by Cnut in 1016 both had huge impacts on the history of England and yet '1066' has eclipsed '1016' in popular culture. This book challenges that side-lining of Cnut's conquest by presenting compelling evidence that the Viking Conquest of 1016 was the single most influential cause of 1066. This neglected Viking Conquest of 1016 led to the exiling to Normandy and Hungary of the rightful Anglo-Saxon heirs to the English throne, entangled English politics with those of Normandy and Scandinavia, purged and destabilized the Anglo-Saxon ruling class, caused an English king to look abroad for allies in his conflict with over-mighty subjects and, finally, in 1066 ensured that Harold Godwinson was in the north of England when the Normans landed on the south coast. As if that was not enough, it was the continuation of the Scandinavian connection after 1066 which largely ensured that a Norman victory became a traumatic Norman Conquest.

"The reign of King Cnut is here reassessed in the light of modern advances in the application of numismatic, literary, documentary and onomastic evidence to historical studies. Demonstrating that 'national' histories must be placed in their European context, this collection of studies adopts both an interdisciplinary and an international approach to examine the figure of Cnut as ruler not only of England (1016-35) but also of Denmark and Norway." "How did Cnut's experience and obligations as king of one country influence his actions as ruler of others? Were his policies consistent or purely pragmatic? What were the economic and social effects of his rule? The studies in this collection serve to illuminate the various influences that operated on Cnut as king and also to explain some of his own actions in a fresh way. It includes both studies of particular types of evidence (charters, coins, runic inscriptions, skaldic verse, relics, names) and of the political policies and events of his rule as overlord of different dominions. It aims not only to inform but also to stimulate further study."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Mention the conquest of England, and the answer is 1066 and William the Conqueror, but fifty years earlier, England was conquered by Cnut the Dane. It came as no surprise. His father, the Danish King Sven Forkbeard, had done the same thing in 1013, but when he died shortly afterwards the country reverted to King Aethelred Unred. But the story goes back much further than that. The populations around the shores of the North Sea are surprisingly homogeneous genetically, and have been so since the Neolithic era. Exchanges of goods, culture, and wives across the North Sea have been going on for millennia, and the oldest Anglo-Saxon poems, like Beowulf, tell of Danish kings in a glorious past. Relations were not always peaceful, and at the end of the eighth century they developed into a religious war. When Christian missionaries destroyed heathen idols and temples, the pagan Vikings responded by pillaging churches and monasteries and trampling on holy relics. It took several hundred years before the last pagans were converted, and in the meantime they had settled on the shores of England and France, in Danelaw and Normandy. Cnut believed that he had a claim on the English throne through his forefathers in the Danelaw and through Edward the Elder, but his North Sea Empire inaugurated the most prosperous and peaceful decades of medieval English history. It crumbled quickly upon his dead, and gave way to a superior Continental culture, but it still has some appeal today, with its simplicity and naivety.

The cataclysmic conquests of the eleventh century are here set together for the first time.

King Cnut ruled England from 1017 to 1035 and left behind him a legacy of peace, law and order. However at the beginning he was a cruel and vicious warrior, who invaded England with his father Swegen Forkbeard, perhaps at a tender age. In 1014 Cnut returned to England from Denmark and conquered much of England in his bid for the Crown. The road to obtaining the crown was not easy and in the end Cnut triumphed by beating the alternative candidate at the battle of Ashingdon.