Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish prince who became a very effective King of England in 1016. Cnut inherited a kingdom in a sorry state. The north and east coast had been harried by Viking raiders, and his predecessor King Æthelred II had struggled to maintain order amongst the Anglo-Saxon nobility too. Cnut proved to be skilful ruler. Not only did he bring stability and order to the kingdom, he exported the Anglo-Saxon style of centralised government to Denmark. Under Cnut, England became the cosmopolitan centre of a multi-national North Atlantic Empire, and a major player in European politics. With Erin Goeres Associate Professor of Old Norse Language and Literature at University College London Pragya Vohra Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York and Elizabeth Tyler Professor of Medieval Literature and Co-Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York Producer Luke Mulhall
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In 1016, a danish prince called Canute became king of England.
He inherited a kingdom in a sorry state.
The north and east coast had been harried by viking raiders, and his predecessor, King Ethelred II, had struggled to maintain order among the Anglo Saxon and nobility.
Cnut proved to be a skillful ruler.
Not only did he bring stability and order to the kingdom, he exported the anglo saxon style of centralized government to Denmark.
Under CnUT, England became the cosmopolitan centre of a multinational north atlantic empire and a major player in european politics.
With me to discuss King Canute are Erin Gores, associate professor of Old norse language and literature at University College London, Pragya Vorae, lecturer in medieval history at the University of York, and Elizabeth Tanner, professor of medieval literature and co director of the center for Medieval Studies at the University of York.
Elizabeth Tyler Kirit was born in Denmark in around 994.
Can you give us some idea of the map of Europe at that time?
Western Europe is dominated by the german empire at this point, which stretches really north, south, east and west, connecting everybody.
So in the north, it borders on Denmark, in the west, on what becomes France, and it stretches as far south as Rome and south of Rome.
In the east, it's interacting with the slavic peoples, and then there's west Francia, which is what becomes France.
And then we have England off to the side, which we'll talk about in a bit.
And at just this point, too, scandinavian peoples are slowly moving towards having more consolidated kingdoms.
And the raids that are happening from Scandinavia are being led by figures who are.