Canute

Canute


House / Group: Danish Kings
Born / died: 995-1035
Reign: 1016-1035


aka Cnut (that was a lucky escape).
The son of sea-king Sweyn Forkbeard, and  Gunhild (formerly Swiatoslawa, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland).
Canute accompanied his father on his successful invasion of England. He was proclaimed king by the Danish fleet on his father's death, but returned to Denmark on the restoration of the defeated king Ethelred  by the Witenagemot of English nobles.
He invaded England again, battling forces led at first by Ethelred and then his son Edmund. Canute and Edmund eventually agreed to divide the kingdom, but Edmund died soon after and Canute became king.
He married Ethelred's widow, Emma of Normandy, a politically effective ploy, with whom he had a son, Hardicanute. Canute also had a Danish concubine, Aelgifu, with whom he had another son Harold. Both sons became kings of England.
The waves thing is commonly misunderstood and probably fictitious.
He died  at Shaftesbury in Dorset, and was buried at Winchester.