Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/208

 to have ravaged the Isle of Man (, Norman Conquest, i. 319). At some time after his father's death he was engaged in war with the Jomsburgers, who were probably in alliance with the Swedes and the Wends, and was twice taken prisoner by his enemies and ransomed with large sums. There is a legend that he was taken captive a third time; that all the wealth of the country having been exhausted, the women gave their jewels and other ornaments for his ransom, and that in return he made a law that daughters as well as sons should share in the rights of inheritance (, p. 187). About 1000, apparently as a condition of peace, and perhaps of his liberation, he married the daughter of Miecislav, duke of Poland, sister of Boleslav, afterwards king of Poland, the widow of Eric of Sweden, and, it is said, the mother of his son Olaf Skotkonnung, or ‘the Swede.’ This marriage led to his restoration to Denmark after having, it is said, been fourteen years in exile; he made a close alliance with Olaf, which is said to have provided for the establishment of Christianity in Denmark and Sweden (, ii. c. 37;, vii. c. 28; Saga of Olaf Trygg. c. 38). His old ally, Olaf of Norway, was displeased at this alliance, and made war on the Danes; though it is also said that Sweyn began the quarrel, being stirred up by his wife Sigrid the Haughty, who is represented by the Icelandic writer as the widow of Eric the Victorious, though not the daughter of Miecislav (ib. c. 107). Sweyn was helped by Olaf the Swede, by Earls Eric and Sweyn, the sons of Hakon, the former ruler of Norway, and Sigwald, the leader of the Jomsburg pirates; and Olaf of Norway was defeated and drowned in the battle of Swold, 9 Sept. 1000. The victors divided Norway; Sweyn kept the southern part called the Wick, and assigned large dominion to the two sons of Hakon, giving Eric his daughter Gytha to wife.

When Sweyn heard of the massacre of the Danes on St. Brice's Day, 13 Nov. 1002, in which his sister Gunhild, her husband, and her son are said to have perished, he was greatly moved, and he and the Danish jarls swore to be revenged on Æthelred ( ii. c. 177;, v. c. 6). Accordingly in 1003 he again invaded England, stormed Exeter, spoiled the city, and took great booty. He then ravaged Wiltshire, and, a local force which gathered to meet him having dispersed without a battle, sacked and burned Wilton and Salisbury (Old Sarum), and then returned to his ships. In 1004 he sailed to Norwich, which he plundered and burned. Ulfcytel [q. v.], the earl of East-Anglia, made peace with him and promised him tribute. In spite of this, however, he caused his men to leave their ships, and marched to Thetford, which he plundered and burned. When Ulfcytel heard of Sweyn's treachery, he ordered the men of the neighbourhood to break up the Danish ships, while he marched against the invaders. The country people did not carry out his orders, but he met the Danes on their way back to their fleet, and fought so manfully with them that they declared that they had ‘never met with worse hand-play in England.’ Finally, though with great difficulty, the Danes managed to return to their ships. Sweyn sailed back to Denmark in 1005. A few years later he is said to have made a perpetual alliance with Richard II of Normandy, the Norman duke promising that the Danes should be free to sell their spoils in Normandy, and that any that were sick or wounded should receive shelter there (ib. c. 7; Norman Conquest, i. 372). Sweyn does not appear to have had a personal share in the invasions of England in 1006–7 and 1009–12, during which the Danes crushed all spirit and hope in the people, and ravaged the land as they would. In 1012 the invaders suffered a serious loss in the defection of Thurkill or Thorkel [q. v.], who entered the service of the English king with his forty-five ships. Sweyn summoned Earl Eric, Hakon's son, to join him (Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ii. 98, 104), sailed with him and his own young son Canute [q. v.], and reached Sandwich in July 1013. Changing his course, he sailed into the Humber, and up the Trent to Gainsborough, where he encamped, and received the submission of all the country north of Watling Street, taking hostages for the obedience of each shire. Having made the people supply his army with horses and provisions, he marched southwards, leaving his fleet and the hostages in charge of Canute. He wasted the land, ordering that churches should be despoiled, towns burned, men slain, and women violated. At his coming Oxford and Winchester submitted to him and gave him hostages. He attacked London, where Æthelred and Thorkel were. Many of his men were drowned in the Thames in an attempt to cross the river, and he met with so stout a resistance that he drew off, and marched to Wallingford, and, having crossed the Thames there, advanced to Bath, where he stayed to refresh his army. While he was there the ealdormen of Devon and all the western thegns made peace with him and gave him hostages. This seems to have completed his conquest, and all the nation accepted him as ‘full