Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/13

 his laws, cap. 81: ‘And I will that every man be entitled to his hunting in wood and in field on his own possessions; and let every one forego my hunting. Beware where I will have it untrespassed on under penalty of full wite.’ The payment of heriots enforced by caps. 71, 72, and said to have been introduced by Cnut, has been shown to have been exacted before his time, and the ‘presentment of Englishry,’ attributed to him by the so-called ‘Laws of Eadward the Confessor,’ belongs to the Norman period (Const. Hist. i. 196, 200, 206). The crews of the forty Danish ships retained by Cnut became the origin of the permanent band of royal guards, named ‘hus-carls,’ which was kept up until the Conquest. This force is said by Saxo (196) to have consisted of as many as 6,000 men, but this is probably an exaggeration. Cnut drew up regulations for its discipline, which are described by Saxo and are given in detail by Sweyn Aggeson (Leges Castrensium, iii. 139; ). The hus-carls have been frequently compared with the comitatus; their distinctly stipendiary character, however, seems to make the comparison invalid (caps. 6, 7). While some of the regulations have a suspiciously modern tone (e.g. cap. 14), there is no reason to doubt that they substantially represent the king's work. The force received many foreign recruits, and among them the famous Wendish prince Godescalc, who stayed with Cnut until the king's death. Godescalc is said to have married Siritha, the daughter of Sweyn, the son of Estrith, Cnut's sister (, 208, 230). She is called Cnut's daughter by Helmold (Chron. Slav. c. 19, comp. also Chron. Slav. c. 13, 14, ap., Rerum Germ. Scriptores), and simply the daughter of the king of the Danes by Adam of Bremen (iii. 18). Although Siritha must have been a young wife for Godescalc if she was Cnut's great niece, Saxo is probably right. She certainly was not the daughter either of Emma or of Ælfgifu of Northampton. The assertion (Norman Conquest, i. 649) that she is called ‘Demmyn’ arises from a misreading of the ‘Chronicon Slavorum’ in Landenbrog's ‘Scriptores’ quoted above. Cnut's reign gave England eighteen years of peace; it was a period of law and order, during which national life was born again after it had been crushed by the disasters and jealousies of the reign of Æthelred and by the terrible slaughter of Assandun. The distinctly English character of Cnut's reign is closely connected with the rise of Godwine. After his good service in the Wendish war, the king gave him to wife Gytha, the sister of Ulf, his brother-in-law. During the whole reign he held the highest place in the king's favour, he was the foremost man in his court, and his appointment to the West-Saxon earldom made him second only to the king (Vita Ead. 392–3).

Cnut's character is represented in dark colours in the ‘Northern Kings' Lives.’ In one important case, his alleged unfair dealings with his Norwegian supporter, Calf Arnason, the editors of the ‘Corpus Poeticum Boreale’ have shown that the compiler of the lives has wronged him. That he was the enemy of St. Olaf is sufficient reason for the unfavourable light in which he is represented by northern writers. From the more trustworthy songs of his contemporaries comes a picture of the king as a mighty ruler, wise, politic, and crafty, a lover of minstrelsy and a patron of poets. They exhibit a man endowed with a remarkable power of judging the characters of others, and of using them to forward his own interests. His craftiness is abundantly proved by his intrigues in Norway, and the natural cruelty and violence of his temper surely need no special proofs. Only indeed as the natural bent of his disposition is apprehended can the extraordinary restraint that he put on himself be duly appreciated. As a bountiful patron of the church his praises are loudly proclaimed by our chroniclers, and even if they had been silent his laws and the general character of his reign as an English king would tell the same story. Of the two most famous stories told of him, the rebuke that he is said to have given to the flattery of his courtiers is preserved by Henry of Huntingdon (758), who adds that thenceforward he would never wear his crown, but hung it on the head of the crucified Lord. The other tale, which represents him going in his barge to keep the feast of the Purification with the monks of Ely, and bidding his men listen to chanting which as he came near was heard rising from the church, is from the Ely historian (, iii. 441), who gives the words of the song Cnut is said to have made at the time:— Merie sungen ðe muneches binnen Ely, Ða Cnut ching reu ðer by; Roweð cnichtes noer ða land, And here we þes muneches sæng. The story is in strict accord with his love of minstrelsy as well as with his ecclesiastical feelings. An incident recorded by the same monastic historian, who tells how Cnut largely rewarded a stout peasant who walked over the ice to find out whether it would bear the king's sledge, is in keeping with the gifts he gave to the bards who sang his praises (Corpus Poet. Bor. ii. 158). Another story