CHAPTER V--ENGLAND UNDER CANUTE THE DANE
Canute reigned eighteen years. He was a merciless King at first. Afterhe had clasped the hands of the Saxon chiefs, in token of the sinceritywith which he swore to be just and good to them in return for theiracknowledging him, he denounced and slew many of them, as well as manyrelations of the late King. 'He who brings me the head of one of myenemies,' he used to say, 'shall be dearer to me than a brother.' And hewas so severe in hunting down his enemies, that he must have got togethera pretty large family of these dear brothers. He was strongly inclinedto kill EDMUND and EDWARD, two children, sons of poor Ironside; but,being afraid to do so in England, he sent them over to the King ofSweden, with a request that the King would be so good as 'dispose ofthem.' If the King of Sweden had been like many, many other men of thatday, he would have had their innocent throats cut; but he was a kind man,and brought them up tenderly.
Normandy ran much in Canute's mind. In Normandy were the two children ofthe late king--EDWARD and ALFRED by name; and their uncle the Duke mightone day claim the crown for them. But the Duke showed so littleinclination to do so now, that he proposed to Canute to marry his sister,the widow of The Unready; who, being but a showy flower, and caring fornothing so much as becoming a queen again, left her children and waswedded to him.
Successful and triumphant, assisted by the valour of the English in hisforeign wars, and with little strife to trouble him at home, Canute had aprosperous reign, and made many improvements. He was a poet and amusician. He grew sorry, as he grew older, for the blood he had shed atfirst; and went to Rome in a Pilgrim's dress, by way of washing it out.He gave a great deal of money to foreigners on his journey; but he tookit from the English before he started. On the whole, however, hecertainly became a far better man when he had no opposition to contendwith, and was as great a King as England had known for some time.
The old writers of history relate how that Canute was one day disgustedwith his courtiers for their flattery, and how he caused his chair to beset on the sea-shore, and feigned to command the tide as it came up notto wet the edge of his robe, for the land was his; how the tide came up,of course, without regarding him; and how he then turned to hisflatterers, and rebuked them, saying, what was the might of any earthlyking, to the might of the Creator, who could say unto the sea, 'Thus farshalt thou go, and no farther!' We may learn from this, I think, that alittle sense will go a long way in a king; and that courtiers are noteasily cured of flattery, nor kings of a liking for it. If the courtiersof Canute had not known, long before, that the King was fond of flattery,they would have known better than to offer it in such large doses. Andif they had not known that he was vain of this speech (anything but awonderful speech it seems to me, if a good child had made it), they wouldnot have been at such great pains to repeat it. I fancy I see them allon the sea-shore together; the King's chair sinking in the sand; the Kingin a mighty good humour with his own wisdom; and the courtiers pretendingto be quite stunned by it!
It is not the sea alone that is bidden to go 'thus far, and no farther.'The great command goes forth to all the kings upon the earth, and went toCanute in the year one thousand and thirty-five, and stretched him deadupon his bed. Beside it, stood his Norman wife. Perhaps, as the Kinglooked his last upon her, he, who had so often thought distrustfully ofNormandy, long ago, thought once more of the two exiled Princes in theiruncle's court, and of the little favour they could feel for either Danesor Saxons, and of a rising cloud in Normandy that slowly moved towardsEngland.