Chapter V - England Under Canute the Dane

by Charles Dickens

　　Canute reigned eighteen years. He was a merciless King at first.After he had clasped the hands of the Saxon chiefs, in token of thesincerity with which he swore to be just and good to them in returnfor their acknowledging him, he denounced and slew many of them, aswell as many relations of the late King. 'He who brings me thehead of one of my enemies,' he used to say, 'shall be dearer to methan a brother.' And he was so severe in hunting down his enemies,that he must have got together a pretty large family of these dearbrothers. He was strongly inclined to kill Edmund and Edward, twochildren, sons of poor Ironside; but, being afraid to do so inEngland, he sent them over to the King of Sweden, with a requestthat the King would be so good as 'dispose of them.' If the Kingof Sweden had been like many, many other men of that day, he wouldhave had their innocent throats cut; but he was a kind man, andbrought them up tenderly.

　　Normandy ran much in Canute's mind. In Normandy were the twochildren of the late king - Edward and Alfred by name; and theiruncle the Duke might one day claim the crown for them. But theDuke showed so little inclination to do so now, that he proposed toCanute to marry his sister, the widow of The Unready; who, beingbut a showy flower, and caring for nothing so much as becoming aqueen again, left her children and was wedded to him.

　　Successful and triumphant, assisted by the valour of the English inhis foreign wars, and with little strife to trouble him at home,Canute had a prosperous reign, and made many improvements. He wasa poet and a musician. He grew sorry, as he grew older, for theblood he had shed at first; and went to Rome in a Pilgrim's dress,by way of washing it out. He gave a great deal of money toforeigners on his journey; but he took it from the English beforehe started. On the whole, however, he certainly became a farbetter man when he had no opposition to contend with, and was asgreat a King as England had known for some time.

　　The old writers of history relate how that Canute was one daydisgusted with his courtiers for their flattery, and how he causedhis chair to be set on the sea-shore, and feigned to command thetide as it came up not to wet the edge of his robe, for the landwas his; how the tide came up, of course, without regarding him;and how he then turned to his flatterers, and rebuked them, saying,what was the might of any earthly king, to the might of theCreator, who could say unto the sea, 'Thus far shalt thou go, andno farther!' We may learn from this, I think, that a little sensewill go a long way in a king; and that courtiers are not easilycured of flattery, nor kings of a liking for it. If the courtiersof Canute had not known, long before, that the King was fond offlattery, they would have known better than to offer it in suchlarge doses. And if they had not known that he was vain of thisspeech (anything but a wonderful speech it seems to me, if a goodchild had made it), they would not have been at such great pains torepeat it. I fancy I see them all on the sea-shore together; theKing's chair sinking in the sand; the King in a mighty good humourwith his own wisdom; and the courtiers pretending to be quitestunned by it!

　　It is not the sea alone that is bidden to go 'thus far, and nofarther.' The great command goes forth to all the kings upon theearth, and went to Canute in the year one thousand and thirty-five,and stretched him dead upon his bed. Beside it, stood his Normanwife. Perhaps, as the King looked his last upon her, he, who hadso often thought distrustfully of Normandy, long ago, thought oncemore of the two exiled Princes in their uncle's court, and of thelittle favour they could feel for either Danes or Saxons, and of arising cloud in Normandy that slowly moved towards England.