Knut: The Viking Emperor (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

1
- (atmospheric music)
NARRATOR: On the shores
of Sandwich
a man walks in silence.
His name is Knut,
a Viking prince
born into a line of kings
who have ruled Denmark
for more than half a century.
A few days earlier, he believed
he could rely on a pact
his father had forged with
the English nobility.
An agreement that he thought
would make him King of England.
But the lords
turned their backs on him.
And today, it is their sons
who will pay the price.
- Many of these hostages may have
been young men
not much older than him.
In many ways, that highlights
the ruthlessness
Knut was wishing to demonstrate
in this particular action.
NARRATOR: He is only 20 years old,
but Knut does not tremble.
With a single gesture, he orders
the hostages to be mutilated.
Noses.
Ears.
Hands.
Just enough for England
to understand.
- He's not killing them.
He wants these people to go back
and send the message,
“Don't underestimate me.”
NARRATOR:
In his eyes burns a cold fury.
He swears he will return.
And this time, he will take England.
- (dramatic music)
(courtly music)
NARRATOR:
On the shores of the Roskilde Fjord,
Knut watches
the longships approaching.
On board stands his brother, Harald.
As always, a single glance is
enough to spark a furious race.
- (soundless)
NARRATOR: Not for the thrill of
the game, but out of defiance.
Between the two brothers,
everything already seems written.
- (soundless)
NARRATOR: It is not Knut
but Harald who will wear the crown.
- Knut is the second son,
and I think that's important
in understanding the man
and understanding his ambitions.
He can be Prince Harry
to Prince William.
As long as Harald stays alive,
Knut is not really going to be in
a substantial position of power
in Denmark.
- So there was a lot to play for.
And that probably explains
some of the jockeying
and competitiveness we often see
amongst heirs in this period.
NARRATOR: Ideally located
at the crossroads of the North Sea
and the Baltic Sea,
the Kingdom of Denmark
is one of the most powerful
and feared realms in Scandinavia.
Its coastline, scattered with
islands and carved out by fjords,
shelters natural harbours where
hundreds of merchant ships converge.
Like in Roskilde, the capital.
The merchants' stalls overflow with
the riches from the East and West
amber, furs,
weapons and slaves.
For Knut,
who has never left his homeland,
these treasures are a call
to adventure.
TRANSLATOR: The kings of the Danes
could be split into two categories -
kings of the land
and kings of the sea.
Those who stay in the country
and govern it,
and the younger sons,
often chose the sea,
setting out for adventure in
England, West Francia or elsewhere.
It seems Knut was raised with that
very purpose in mind -
to conquer, to wage war,
to amass wealth abroad,
and then return home to carve out
his own share of power,
by force or by strategy.
NARRATOR: Knut’s thirst for power
comes from an extraordinary lineage.
A grandfather, Harald Bluetooth,
who, for the first time,
united the kingdom
under a single crown.
And a father, Sweyn Forkbeard,
a feared Viking warlord who has
ruled Denmark for over 20 years.
A lineage forged in blood
and betrayal.
- Harald Bluetooth
was a long-ruling
and highly successful king,
and therefore his son Sweyn was
chomping at the bit
because it was, of course,
in the interest of Sweyn
to gain as much power and authority
as possible as quickly as possible.
And it's in Harald's interest
to prevent him doing so,
because only one can be king
at the same time.
- And it ends up in battle.
Again,
we don't know where the battle was,
but we do know that Harald is
injured
and he retreats to his allies
in the Baltic where he dies.
Sweyn has seized power
through the murder of his father.
This is not a strong beginning.
This is a weak and wobbly start.
NARRATOR: It is in a world where
loyalty hangs by a thread,
and power is won by the sword
that Knut comes of age.
A ruthless world that, one morning,
comes knocking at his door.
King Sweyn summoned him to his hall.
Knut does not yet know it, but his
father has made his decision.
Within weeks,
they will march on England.
- The 11th century was
a major target for the Vikings.
- It's wealthy, it's organised,
it's bureaucratic.
The English have produced
a money-making machine.
Trade is going well.
There are large amounts of gold and
silver lying around, and it's close.
NARRATOR:
This time, it is no mere raid.
Sweyn is aiming for the entire
kingdom
and above all the crown of England.
- And so, one way of solving
the problem
of only having one Danish kingdom
you can give to your sons and heirs
is to conquer another kingdom
and to offer prospects to Knut.
So at the back of his mind,
probably, is that he'd like to have
and control England himself,
but if he takes England,
England can then be Knut's.
NARRATOR: Knut is stunned.
To conquer England?
Never before had a Viking
dared to imagine it.
For the first time in his life,
Knut glimpses a spark of hope,
the chance to break free
from his place as the younger son
and finally forge his own destiny.
- In his palace, King Aethelred
hastily gathers his counsellors.
They confirm what many feared -
a massive fleet is assembling
in Denmark.
There is no longer any doubt.
The Vikings are coming back.
- It's very likely that
Aethelred would have known
about Sweyn's invasion project.
I think with the amount of traffic
across the North Sea
during the late Viking Age,
rumours that something was afoot
would be very likely
to reach the English court
at this time.
NARRATOR: The nobles know it.
They cannot now rely on Aethelred.
Rarely in the kingdom’s history has
a king faced such open doubt.
For over 20 years, men from
the Northmen have ravaged his lands.
And for over 20 years,
Aethelred has failed to stop them.
TRANSLATOR: And of course,
paying tribute
has almost become
the default solution.
Whenever a fleet appeared,
Aethelred seemed to offer greater
and greater sums.
He is often portrayed
as the archetypal weak king,
a ruler who preferred to pay off his
enemies rather than fight them.
NARRATOR: Ever-heavier tributes have
drained the kingdom.
His subjects are weary of a king
unable to put an end
to this infernal spiral.
But this time, Aethelred believes
the outcome may be different.
He has secured a powerful new
ally
the Dane, Thorkell the Tall,
one of the most feared Viking
leaders of his age,
and, above all
a sworn enemy of Sweyn Forkbeard.
- Thorkell the Tall is the greatest
worry for the Danish kingship.
He's a member of the elite
of eastern Denmark,
so the southern tip of Sweden.
This is an area that Knut's dynasty
has pushed aggressively into.
And he has seen his power
and his wealth
and his privilege being eroded,
and he's not happy.
NARRATOR:
Four years earlier, in 1009,
Thorkell had fled Denmark
with 45 ships.
For three years, he ravaged England,
leaving death and chaos in his wake.
To stop him, Aethelred once again
chose to pay.
But this time there was a condition.
- At this point in 1013,
Thorkell had signed up with
Aethelred the Unready.
He was taking Aethelred's money,
providing protection.
- He pays them
to be his private bodyguard.
If you've got one of the largest
and scariest Viking armies
and you pay it to work for you,
sitting in England, frightening
off other Vikings,
well, this is a brilliant idea!
- So the strategy here really is
to set a thief to catch a thief,
to use a Viking
to stop future Vikings.
And that's his hope, really, is that
Thorkell and his formidable army
will be able to stop people
like Sweyn.
NARRATOR: Aethelred
and Thorkell struck a pact.
In exchange for a generous tribute,
the Dane would place his men
and his 45 ships
at the King’s disposal.
Sweyn and Knut would now face not
only Aethelred’s army,
but a seasoned Viking force
hardened by years of raiding.
Sweyn learns of the alliance
between Aethelred and Thorkell
and immediately understands
that time is running out.
He knew that his old rival’s loyalty
belonged to no-one but himself.
Behind this alliance of convenience,
Thorkell is pursuing only one cause
- his own.
- Thorkell clearly poses a threat
to Sweyn and Knut,
because he's shown just how weak
the English regime now is,
and he's come within a whisker
of conquering England himself.
So it may well be that he himself is
harbouring ambitions
that at some point he might just
move from being the leading general
to being the ruler of England.
And so for Sweyn, it's a matter of
trying to take England
before Thorkell does the same.
NARRATOR: At the start of spring,
Sweyn issues a great call to arms
across Scandinavia.
Each noble is ordered to provide
men, weapons, provisions,
and to join the gathering fleet.
- This is the first time
that a king of Scandinavia
has called for such a campaign,
and he's drawing in people
from all across Scandinavia.
It's an invasion, it's not raiding.
And that's the key difference.
NARRATOR: On foot and on horseback,
thousands of Danes, Norwegians
and Swedes converge on Roskilde.
Soon they are joined by hundreds
of fortune-seekers.
Within a few weeks,
several thousand men
and more than a hundred ships
gather under the King's banner.
- So we are looking at
a scale of attack
which is certainly very different to
those England had traditionally seen
in the earlier Viking ages.
So this is a very, very large army
that can rival any of
the English armies.
NARRATOR: Knut watches the
constant movement on the docks
and the forest of masts
stretching across the horizon.
He could feel it.
Everything in his life had led to
this moment.
- From a very young age,
Knut would have been trained up
to be a warrior.
So, crucial to his upbringing
would have been
learning those skills of war, honing
them through things like hunting,
but also alongside that, learning
the tricks of the trade at court,
where also politics was an important
consideration,
where making deals
where hard-nosed realpolitik
was also something to be learned
at a very young age.
NARRATOR:
Setting aside their rivalry,
Harald greets his brother
one last time.
Their father had entrusted him
with the regency of Denmark,
confirming his status
as the rightful heir.
Knut has no choice.
If he ever wished to rule,
he would have to carve out
his own kingdom.
At dawn, the armada weighs anchor
and turns west.
Onboard, father and son share
the same dream -
to conquer one of the richest
kingdoms in the West.
The task is immense,
and Sweyn expects Knut to stand
by his side.
- The role that Sweyn wants for Knut
is as a junior partner.
It's very handy to have a member
of your family
who's able to provide some
leadership within the Danish army.
NARRATOR: But Sweyn also knows that
his son still has much to prove.
His first lesson will be to earn
the loyalty of his men.
TRANSLATOR: At the heart of
any Viking expedition
lies the ability to reward
followers.
And obviously, if a leader is
able to distribute wealth, gold
and precious metals, it
tends to secure his men's loyalty.
The second essential factor is
prestige,
delivering victory and leading
successful military operations.
NARRATOR: Within days, the fleet
will reach the English coast.
There, the young prince
is about to shed his former self
and embrace his destiny
as a warrior, a Viking,
a war leader.
Once again, Aethelred prepares to
face the fury of the Northmen.
All his hopes now rest on Thorkell.
He orders him to deploy his fleet
at Greenwich, along the Thames,
hoping to lure Knut
and Sweyn into a trap.
But one question torments him.
Could he truly be trusted?
Aethelred knew his own fleet would
be powerless to stop the Danes.
Yet just five years earlier, that
same fleet had seemed invincible.
- Aethelred had,
amongst his attempts
to face down the Viking threat,
sought to reinforce
England's naval capabilities.
And he raises a very, very large
navy
with the prospect of preventing
future invasion.
NARRATOR: Shipyards across the
kingdom had been mobilised.
Within months, an armada of
300 brand-new ships
gathers along the southern
coast of England.
Never before had an English king
achieved such a feat.
TRANSLATOR: Everything
seems to be going well,
since 300 ships are more than the
Danes seem capable of assembling
at that time.
But there's a major problem -
the leadership within
the Anglo-Saxon forces.
NARRATOR: Aethelred entrusts
command of the fleet
to two close nobles of his inner
circle -
Wulfnoth and Beorhtric.
But one evening,
a quarrel broke out.
The two men accuse
each other of treason.
In a fit of rage,
Wulfnoth seizes twenty ships
and rebels.
ROACH: And so he takes a portion of
the English fleet off with him.
The rest goes to try to chase them,
and then a storm dashes them
entirely.
TRANSLATOR:
Many of the ships sink.
The survivors who manage to reach
the beach are slaughtered,
and the ships are set on fire
to Wulfnoth's initiative.
NARRATOR: A single dispute was
enough to set the fleet ablaze
along with the last hopes of
the English people.
TRANSLATOR: The irony is that
in 1009, shortly afterwards,
Thorkell the Tall arrived
at Sandwich with barely 50 ships,
a relatively small force,
and he meets no resistance at all.
- And so what was, in essence,
a very good strategic plan
is completely undermined due
to divisions within the English camp
rather than any battle being
offered with the Vikings.
NARRATOR: After ten days at sea,
the fleet finally reaches
the English coast.
The island has more than
12,000 kilometres of coastline,
countless possible landing points
for the Vikings.
TRANSLATOR: The geography of
the English coastline
contributed enormously to
the success of Viking raids,
because Vikings could move
very rapidly around the coastline.
BOLTON: And so consequently
it's virtually impossible to defend.
So it is unfortunately perfect
for Scandinavian attack.
NARRATOR: An unfamiliar landscape,
and yet strangely familiar.
He remembers the evenings of
his childhood,
lulled by tales of raids
and battles.
And one name keeps coming back
Sandwich, an English town,
invaded many times.
TRANSLATOR: Among the entry points
into England,
the port of Sandwich is extremely
important,
as it allows ships to be
sheltered quite easily.
It also offers easy access to
the mouth of the Thames.
It is difficult to secure
for defenders
and easy to access for attackers.
An ideal place to launch
an invasion.
NARRATOR: Knut leaps from the ship
and for the first time sets foot on
the soil of the Kingdom of England.
- (roars)
NARRATOR: What does he feel?
Excitement?
Rage?
- (clamour)
NARRATOR:
He probably has no time to wonder.
On the beach, English soldiers
are trying to stand in their way.
For the young Dane,
it is a baptism of fire
and perhaps his first chance
to prove himself.
- All of these great
Scandinavian leaders are warriors;
and lead troops into battle,
and clearly are battle-hardened
and known for this fact. That is
a big part of their reputation.
At the same time,
they are almost certainly
not normally
in the front line of the fray.
So as a Scandinavian leader,
you need the respect of your men,
you need to be known as
a formidable warrior,
but you also need to not be silly
and ridiculous
and take unnecessary risks.
TRANSLATOR:
And Knut is an excellent example.
We rarely see him fighting,
except when he knows he will win,
which is quite wise of him.
NARRATOR: The English troops are
quickly defeated.
The Vikings set up camp
for the night.
Around the fire, Sweyn and Knut
ponder their next move.
England is divided into several
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
Mercia to the west
Northumbria to the north
East Anglia to the east
And Wessex,
the centre of power, to the south.
That is where Thorkell
deployed his fleet to defend London.
Sweyn knows that attacking head-on
would be suicidal.
BOLTON: Thorkell is very
frightening for Sweyn,
presumably because he is slightly
scared that he might either not win
or damage an enormous part of
the Danish royal forces.
TRANSLATOR: If we add to
this the fortifications
of the city of London,
then yes, it clearly becomes
very difficult for Sweyn.
He could go straight for it,
but that would involve a real risk.
Avoiding Thorkell is therefore
the logical choice.
NARRATOR: At first light, Sweyn
and Knut weigh anchor.
They sail north, and at the mouth
of the Thames they turn away,
leaving London behind.
They head toward the Danelaw,
a vast territory stretching
from East Anglia to Northumbria,
where Viking influence runs deep.
- Danelaw is a term
which is used to refer to
the areas in England
which were settled by Scandinavian
settlers from the early Viking Age.
It does mean to say that there was
a significant Scandinavian,
particularly Danish, influence.
- These people are both
simultaneously
Scandinavian and English.
They don't see themselves,
I think, as allied to either party.
Sometimes they work with the Danes,
sometimes with the English,
but they see themselves as a unit
in themselves.
I think that's what attracts
Sweyn Forkbeard.
He recognises the Danelaw
as somewhere that looks like home,
and he knows how to rule that area.
He knows how to control this.
BOLTON:
Sweyn and Knut are taking a gamble.
If there is one place in England
ready to welcome them, it's there.
Here, resentment toward King
Aethelred runs strong,
a resentment born of a past neither
Sweyn nor Knut has forgotten.
NARRATOR: As England buckles
under Danish attacks
and the ever-growing
weight of tribute,
the nobility grows restless.
- (soundless)
NARRATOR:
Determined to regain control,
Aethelred makes a drastic decision.
In November of the year 1002,
he sends messengers
across the kingdom.
On St Brice’s Day,
the 13th of November,
armed men slip silently through
the sleeping streets of towns
and villages across the Danelaw.
- (door creaks)
- The Brice's Day massacre becomes
one of those very storied events
of Aethelred's reign,
and it's the first real sign
that panic is starting to grip
Aethelred’s court.
The logical, perhaps more sensible,
measured responses have failed.
And so he starts looking to
more extreme measures.
And what he fastens upon is
the idea that the Danes
who are resident in his kingdom, the
Scandinavians resident his kingdom,
are plotting against him.
And so he decides to kill them all.
NARRATOR:
In York, the Danes are hunted down
and enter into a church
where they seek refuge.
But outside, torches arc through
the air toward the sacred building.
- The St Brice's Day Massacre is
quite a stain on the reputation
of King Aethelred,
because whatever the scale of the
St Bryce's Day massacre,
it had an impact across the world
connected with the Danes.
It must have been in the back of
the minds of some of the Vikings
who were present in England
in Sweyn's army.
NARRATOR: Aethelred believed
he was securing his kingdom.
Instead,
he unleashed a terrible storm.
Now, who can say whether the people
of the Danelaw
will remain loyal to him?
Sweyn and Knut’s ships sail up
the estuary of the River Humber.
They then enter the calm waters
of the River Trent.
On deck, Knut remains watchful.
He scans the riverbanks,
alert to the slightest movement.
He has not forgotten
the tales of the elders.
Venturing deep into the English
countryside is never without danger.
TRANSLATOR: Since the 9th century,
the Anglo-Saxons have established
a network of fortifications
known as the burhs, which were
a kind of fortified strongholds.
Some were old restored
Roman fortresses;
others were exceptional
natural sites, headlands or cliffs
that were walled off to create
a fortified point
that was difficult to seize.
Their purpose was to protect
merchants, shelter populations,
and, above all, to create a
defensive mesh across the territory.
When you look at the map of these
burhs, it gives the impression
of a tight mesh, designed to
prevent any Viking army
from slipping through the net.
NARRATOR: The fleet
reaches Gainsborough,
a small, fortified town
south of York.
Sweyn orders the landing.
For Knut, who is experiencing
his first military campaign,
everything seems too easy.
Since leaving the North Sea,
nothing has stood in their way.
No traps, no ambushes.
- This is an area of England which
is often been distant
from royal control and power,
naturally suspicious of English
monarchs at the best of time.
That means that when Knut
and Sweyn land at Gainsborough,
they’re rapidly able to gain
the support of the local population,
and they almost certainly know
that in advance.
It's no accident that, instead of
attacking the South of England,
the heartlands of the English
kingdom,
they go to precisely where there is
the chink in Aethelred's armour.
NARRATOR: A group of horsemen
approaches the camp.
At their head rides the powerful
Uhtred of Northumbria.
He comes to request
an audience with Sweyn.
Knut watches him in silence.
Here stands the enemy
he expected to fight.
But Uhtred has not come for battle.
Instead, he offers his
submission,
that of Lindsey
and the Five Boroughs.
To Knut, raised in the Viking
code of honour,
this surrender without battle
or glory
speaks volumes about his adversary.
- What we have to realise
at this time
is that the idea of English unity
is only a relatively
recent construction
of the tenth century.
And for Uhtred it was probably
his interests
to submit to a Danish lord
rather than a distant English king
in the south of the island.
TRANSLATOR: It seems he was caught
off guard,
that he is defending his own
interests in an unstable situation.
Separated from the main Anglo-Saxon
army, he knows no help is coming.
For him, it becomes a matter of
realpolitik.
If he does not submit,
he knows he will die.
Thus he becomes Sweyn’s ally,
at least in the short term.
NARRATOR: As a pledge of good faith,
Uhtred does not come alone.
He brings with him the sons
of the Great Northern families
sent to serve as hostages
young men barely older than Knut
himself.
And yet everything separates them.
On one side, the young conqueror.
On the other, an unarmed youth,
handed over as collateral
for an oath.
- If you come to an agreement
with anybody in politics
in this period, you take a hostage,
to make sure the man is going to do
what he's going to do.
- And those hostages are then
a token of their seriousness.
They have to be very high-ranking
individuals,
and they are your collateral.
ROACH: And this is saying,
"We're not going to leave them
tied up to a radiator
with handcuffs on.
We will treat them with honour,
with dignity.
But if anything should happen,
then it's the end of your son here."
You know,
this is a very practical guarantee,
but it's also playing on this idea
of honour as well.
NARRATOR: Without spilling
a drop of blood,
Sweyn and Knut seize control of
Northern England.
But for Sweyn,
this is only the beginning.
What he wants is the crown.
The Northern nobility gathers
and proclaims Sweyn King of England,
rejecting Aethelred.
But the rest of the realm still has
to be persuaded to accept
such a dramatic change of
allegiance.
And what better way to seal
that bond than marriage?
A union between Knut and a young
noble woman
from a powerful Anglo-Danish lineage
could ease tension
and seal alliance.
Her name is Elgifu, from
Northampton.
- Elgifu of Northampton
is the woman that Sweyn Forkbeard
looks at the political landscape
of the North and says,
"That one! She's the one
that's going to marry my son
because she's the one who can
help us control this region.
She's the heiress to this old
political machinery."
WOMAN: She is the daughter of
Althelm, who had been an ealdorman,
so the leading man
in the southern part of Northumbria.
But he had been murdered
in Aethelred's court in 1006
in a purge.
But that family nonetheless
remains important
and very alienated from Aethelred.
- And so, in a sense, she can be
a lightning rod
for channelling that dissent towards
support for Sweyn and Knut.
And so for Knut,
coming in with Sweyn,
perhaps also at the back of
his mind,
the prospect maybe of becoming
an eventual king of England
or an under king of England
under his father.
She is the perfect match to make
in that moment.
NARRATOR: Knut knows exactly
what Sweyn expects of him.
Without hesitation, he leads this
perfect stranger to the altar.
And under his father's watchful eye,
he takes Elgifu as his wife.
The young prince understands
that his destiny is now lying here.
The path is set.
Knut will not look back.
At the end of summer,
Sweyn orders his army to prepare
supplies, reinforcements, horses.
To his seasoned warriors are added
the levies raised in the Danelaw.
Before departing, he entrusts
his son with the reins
of the conquered territory.
Knut might have preferred to march
to war.
But instead,
another trial awaits him.
In his father's absence,
he must guard the fleet,
watch over the hostages
and raise the funds needed
to sustain the war.
- Sons are expected to be
trained up in kingship
and to learn the tricks of the trade
as soon as possible.
And one of the best ways to do
this for someone like Sweyn,
to ensure his sons that experience,
is to allow them an element of rule
while he's still alive.
So we're seeing him potentially
setting up Knut as his under king,
his representative in England.
- And the sense of responsibility
that this new conquest,
this new land, this new world,
as it were,
that they've struck into,
is now his to control.
It must be overwhelming.
But simultaneously, simultaneously,
steps up to the plate.
TRANSLATOR: Is it a mark of trust
being placed in him?
Partly, perhaps.
But what always strikes me
is that Knut still does not fight.
He's not on the front lines
learning how to lead an army.
He really gives the impression of
being kept safe in reserve
by his father.
In a way, he is already being
shaped into an administrator
who's learning governance,
which is, in fact, rather wise.
NARRATOR: For the young Viking,
the moment of truth has come.
Knut watches his father
disappear in the distance.
Now alone, he must prove himself
worthy of the task.
More than anything, he must ensure
his father will be proud of him.
Sweyn’s long column of troops
stretches southward,
towards the heart of the kingdom.
But instead of heading for London
where Aethelred awaits,
Sweyn leads his men west,
towards Oxford.
- Sweyn's decision to attack Oxford
rather than London
almost certainly is suggestive
of serious strategic calculation.
While Aethelred's regime has shown
itself to be toothless in many ways,
not very successful
on the battlefield,
it remains capable of deploying
armies of a large scale
and it still has the forces
of Thorkell the Tall at Greenwich.
- If Sweyn had rushed his campaign
and gone for that,
then potentially this might have
been game over for Sweyn too early.
And it made sense to essentially
take the pieces on the playing board
first of all,
before going to London.
NARRATOR: In early autumn,
the invading army
crosses Watling Street.
This ancient Roman road runs
across England from east to west
and marks a symbolic frontier
between the Danelaw
and the Southern lands
still loyal to Aethelred.
Sweyn’s orders are clear. Beyond
this line, there will be no mercy.
- (roars)
NARRATOR: From farm to farm,
village to village
- (woman screams)
NARRATOR: his army unleashes
its full destructive force.
TRANSLATOR:
There's no Geneva Convention,
so the objective is to put pressure
on the enemy, to scare them.
Men loot, kill and burn
as they please.
It’s a phrase frequently used
to describe Viking armies.
Psychological warfare is nothing new
- it exists in every conflict,
in every era.
And for civilian populations,
it has always meant the same thing
throughout history.
Raiding the countryside, seizing
resources, living off the land,
and killing a few people
in a particularly dramatic way
are all part of the usual practices.
NARRATOR: After a few days,
Sweyn and his men reach Oxford.
The troops take position
before the fortified town.
The city gates slowly open.
A man steps forward
and speaks a few words.
“The city surrenders
without a fight."
TRANSLATOR: The inhabitants of
Oxford had already suffered greatly
over the previous decade.
Resisting now would mean
a second full-scale plundering
or another round of mass
destruction.
Clearly, not everyone is eager
to turn their city
into another Stalingrad.
Surrendering is the logical choice
if it spares lives
and avoids crushing tribute.
NARRATOR: Sweyn and his men
enter the city
after a victory won
without a single sword stroke.
The strategy of fear worked.
The local nobility submits.
But for Sweyn, it is not enough.
- Sweyn Forkbeard is trying
to terrorise the South of England.
He has to subdue that part.
And he's got to do this with big
public displays.
The lords of each region must
kneel before him in public.
He needs Wessex to be
seen to be beaten
and to be to be under the heel
of the Danish oppressor.
NARRATOR: In the days that followed,
the Southern cities fell
one after another.
Exeter.
Winchester.
All surrendered without resistance.
In London, Aethelred remains
barricaded in his palace
more cut off from his people
than ever.
He watches helplessly
as his kingdom collapses.
- Aethelred's passivity
has really damned
the reputation of Aethelred.
The 12th-C William of Malmesbury
referred to him as being lazy,
essentially, not getting out of bed.
But I think we also have to remember
that he had to rely on
regional governors to raise forces
and his commanders, his aldermen,
are unwilling to act on his behalf
while he's in London.
So it's something of a difficult
situation
for Aethelred at this time.
NARRATOR: As autumn begins,
the noose tightens around Aethelred.
From the ramparts, he observes
Sweyn's troops across the river.
He knows his survival may depend on
what happens here and now.
Losing the city, the last stronghold
of resistance against the Danes
would mean losing the crown.
Beyond the walls, Sweyn knows
the confrontation will be harsh.
For more than a century,
London has remained unconquered.
TRANSLATOR: London benefits from its
Roman walls that survived
throughout the Middle Ages and were
extensively restored for defence.
It is the nerve centre of
Aethelred's defence.
This is where he resides,
likely with his household troops.
Thorkell is there as well,
probably with his fleet.
And then there's London -
large, wealthy, powerful.
The inhabitants do not seem inclined
to surrender to the first newcomer.
NARRATOR: Sweyn knows a frontal
assault would be doomed to fail.
So, to bypass the English defences,
he orders his men
to ford the Thames.
- It's possible that they tried
to cross the river
to the west of London at low tide,
but you have to know the river
in order to do this.
NARRATOR: The manoeuvre turns into
a disaster.
Hundreds of men are swept away
by the current
and the river's tumultuous waters.
- The likelihood that
many men drowned
while trying to do this would have
been likely to cause Sweyn
to think about changing
the direction of his campaign.
NARRATOR:
Sweyn is forced to face the truth.
To persist would cost
countless warriors
and endanger the entire campaign.
BOLTON: The siege of London
ultimately is going to fail.
London is just too tough a nut
to crack in Sweyn's time.
So Sweyn pulls out
and he heads to the West.
NARRATOR: If he cannot force London
to yield,
Sweyn may try to isolate it
from the rest of the kingdom.
To do that, he must seize
the last key stronghold of Wessex -
Bath.
This city, where Aethelred's father
was crowned,
enjoys near-imperial prestige
and is home to one of the kingdom's
most influential noble families.
- This, if you're going to crack
an easier nut
and you're going to make
an enormous political splash,
do it with these people.
They're related to the kingship,
they’re long related to
the kingship,
and that is a huge money-making
area for Anglo-Saxon England.
If you can break the West, maybe
you don't have to break London.
Maybe London will fall on its own.
NARRATOR: By the end of 1013,
the nobles of Bath, weary of
Aethelred's chaotic rule,
rally to the Dane.
Soon,
the rest of the kingdom follows.
- Aethelred will have seen it
sitting in London
as the lights going out one after
another across the entire country,
as they just stopped talking to him.
And when you've got nothing
left except the city of London,
then I think you leave.
NARRATOR: Abandoned by all,
Aethelred, the last king of
a five century-old dynasty,
flees toward Normandy.
- And there he can remain,
king in exile,
awaiting his moment to reappear.
So he is kind of a bit like
the Free French government in London
in World War Two, if you will.
He's potentially there
in Normandy as the, to his mind,
genuine English king
and the real government,
waiting for an opportunity
to step back into those shoes.
NARRATOR: Aboard the ship
carrying him into exile,
Aethelred watches the English
coastline fade into the mist.
His defeat tastes of betrayal.
His people did not raise
their weapons to defend him.
The nobles abandoned him
for a king from the North.
But Aethelred is not broken.
He swears he will return,
whatever the cost.
- (ominous music)
NARRATOR: In Lincoln,
Knut awaits his father.
The man he finds is no longer
only King of Denmark.
He is now King of England.
Before him stands a transformed son,
seasoned and hardened by the demands
of power.
BOLTON: It's a new world.
It's the conquest of somewhere
for him to rule.
Harald would now have Denmark,
he will have England,
and he is the second son,
and he's got the conquest.
But what a conquest.
There is far more money there
in England
than there will ever be in Denmark.
And that wealth will be used
by his dynasty to push its ambitions
far into Scandinavia,
to rule we have to use
the modern word "empire".
If he ever dreamed of being
an emperor,
he did so on the day
they conquered Southern England.
NARRATOR: Together, Sweyn and Knut
have achieved the unthinkable -
seizing the richest kingdom
in the Western world.
For the young prince,
the future now seems set.
But history is far from finished
with him.
England will soon slip
from their grasp,
and Knut will be forced to face
a new enemy,
far more formidable than any before.