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Cnut the Great (Old Norse: Knútr inn ríki; c. 995 – 12 November 1035), more commonly known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England and Norway, 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. The medieval historian Norman Cantor has stated that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history", although Cnut himself was Danish, not British or Anglo-Saxon.
Cnut's name is popularly invoked in the context of the legendary story of King Canute and the waves, but usually misrepresenting Cnut as a deluded monarch believing he had supernatural powers, when the original story in fact relates the opposite and portrays a wise king. |
