Knut: The Viking Emperor (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

1
(tense, dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
This is a story of conquest,
betrayal and courage.
The story of the son
of a Viking sovereign
forged in the shadow of battle.
A man destined for nothing,
yet fated to build an empire.
- He was larger than life
in his lifetime
and as somebody
who had wide ranging achievements
that surprised
even many of his contemporaries.
NARRATOR: The story of a man
who became ruler of Three Kingdoms.
A Viking who became an emperor.
- He's one of the great
medieval success stories.
What he does, we have no word for,
it's completely new.
NARRATOR:
This is the legend of Knut,
Emperor of the North Sea.
(soft dramatic music)
(music fades, ends)
NARRATOR: No longer mere invaders
they are now conquerors.
After a lightning-fast campaign,
Knut and Sweyn have subdued England.
The nobility has sworn allegiance
to them
and King Aethelred has been driven
into exile in Normandy.
From this moment on,
the land is theirs.
But conquering a kingdom
is one thing.
Becoming its rightful rulers
is another.
- Knut and Sweyn did not come
to fundamentally change
everything about English society.
They came to take over its head,
the head of the snake,
as it were, and control that.
- Once Sweyn has affected military
conquest of England,
he then must achieve legitimacy
and authority,
and that cannot be asserted purely
at the end of a sword or a spear.
And so that starts with convening
the so-called witan, that is,
leading magnates of England
who represent the realm,
and having them elect a monarch.
NARRATOR: Knut and Sweyn must now
secure the loyalty
of all the members of the Witan.
One of its most influential members
resides in York.
Archbishop Wulfstan.
A pious and austere man,
and one of the fiercest opponents
of the Vikings.
- (TRANSLATED) We know that Wulfstan
was deeply concerned
by the Viking threat.
He seems genuinely fearful of
the return of unchecked paganism
in early eleventh-century England.
- And you see there a man
who is railing and screaming about
"This is the end of the world.
This is the apocalypse.
This is the end of everything."
- So he sees the Vikings as sent
by God to punish the English
for their sins.
And I think for Wulfstan,
the Vikings become
a symbol of the Antichrist.
NARRATOR: Winning such a man over
may seem impossible.
But Knut is about to present
a powerful argument.
Though many Danes still cling to
pagan traditions
Knut himself was raised
in the Christian faith.
- All of Knut actions suggest
that he was indeed Christian,
and his dynasty was riding
on the coattails of Christianity.
It's his grandfather,
Harald Bluetooth,
who'd also made
the Danes Christian.
Because one of the crucial teachings
that the Church has
is that there are monarchs put
in place by the grace of God,
that God has created
the social order.
So if tapped into correctly,
Christianisation and the Christian
faith can become a powerful force.
NARRATOR: The piety displayed by
Sweyn and Knut
appears to reassure Wulfstan.
Yet no one can truly guess
their real intentions.
For Sweyn, the time has come
to summon the Witan.
Back in Gainsborough, he sends
his messengers across the kingdom.
The assembly will meet
in three weeks in York, not London.
For it is from the North
that he intends to rule England,
abandoning Wessex, the traditional
heart of English royal power.
- After he's conquered England,
there's a Witan being called
in York.
Well,
clearly it's to crown him King,
and it's to give Knut some sort
of office or title in that region.
And that is crucial,
because we can see then
how close Sweyn is to the north,
how much he focused
his energies on it,
and also what a dreadful mistake
he made,
because you can't run a kingdom
from its least organised part.
The powerhouse of England
is in the South.
That's where the bureaucracy is.
That's where the towns are.
That's where the markets
are primarily.
That's where
the moneymaking machine is.
And if you want to be in England
and you want to control it,
you got to do it from the South.
NARRATOR: England is about to open
a new chapter in its history.
Nothing seems capable of halting
the advance of the two Danes.
And yet, fate will decide otherwise.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
Knut rushes back to Gainsborough.
He has been summoned
to the royal palace.
At dawn, his father's lifeless body
is discovered.
The conqueror of the North has died
suddenly at the age of fifty
at the height of his power.
- His reaction, of course,
to his father's death
has to be enormous shock.
Enormous shock.
This is not what they had planned.
They're about to become
legitimate rulers.
They're about to be accepted
by the nobles,
ecclesiastical and secular,
of the whole country,
and suddenly
his father's dropped down dead.
- They would have been a part of him
at least,
that is pleased that his father,
who was one of the main obstacles
other than his brother
to his own ambitions, was gone
because he can't be king
fully until Sweyn's gone.
NARRATOR: Standing before the man
to whom he owed everything,
Knut finds himself utterly alone.
For he knows that now,
everything rests upon him.
- Sweyn's conquered England,
but has not managed to establish
that kind of authority that will
allow him to pass the throne
without opposition to a son,
because he's only been
in England a matter of months,
not even a full year.
So for Knut, that's come too fast.
- Does he want to claim
to be king of England
following his father's death?
Or does he have to go back
to Scandinavia?
That sort of uncertainty, I think,
would have been a tremendous
pressure for Knut at this time.
NARRATOR:
Returning to Denmark is impossible.
His brother Harald has almost
certainly claimed the crown.
Without hesitation, Knut asserts
his right to the throne of England.
He knows he can rely on the loyalty
of his army, and above all,
on the hostages handed over
by the English nobility
the previous year
as pledges of allegiance.
The Witan should be nothing more
than a mere formality.
Yet behind the scenes of power,
a very different reality
is beginning to emerge.
- He is elected king
by the Danish army, but the English,
unsurprisingly,
stop and say, wait a second.
Sweyn was a known entity,
highly experienced campaigner.
We were submitting to him,
not to his son.
That wasn't the deal.
It was Sweyn as King.
- He's just a young boy
to the English nobility.
He's not even the king of the Danes.
And they would be conversations
in dark corners
about the possibilities here.
What do we do?
NARRATOR: In York
Wulfstan has chosen his side.
Before a nobility consumed by doubt,
he delivers a sermon
heavy with warning:
the sermon of the Wolf.
A radical text calling on
the English to rise up
and save their kingdom.
- Sermo Lupi ad Anglos is perhaps
the most famous
of the many apocalyptic sermons
of Wulfstan of York,
and in this he is adumbrating
all of the terrible things
the English have done and all of
the signs of God's wrath upon them,
including the fact
that they have exiled their king,
that they've sent their king
into exile,
their rightful king, Aethelred.
- (TRANSLATED) As guardian of moral
order within the kingdom,
he calls on every man to stand ready
to defend his king.
NARRATOR: In the utmost secrecy
the English nobility sends envoys
across the channel, to Normandy.
There, Aethelred has taken refuge
under the protection of
his brother-in-law,
Duke Richard II.
For the old king,
this sudden turn of events may offer
one final chance
to reclaim his throne.
- And so they open negotiations,
and part of the deal struck
with Aethelred is
that he agrees to rule them
more justly than he had before.
That is the condition of
their return.
(speaking French)
- (TRANSLATED) Aethelred appears
to acknowledge his past failures.
He accepts the negotiated terms
of his return,
promising to rule more wisely,
to show greater respect
to his subjects,
and to forgive those
who had betrayed him
during the previous year.
- So in a sense, they preferred
to bring in Aethelred 2.0,
rather than risking it with
a relatively unknown Knut
from a completely different kingdom.
NARRATOR: Aethelred now plays
what may be his last card.
He calls upon all those
who reject Danish rule.
Among them stands a feared
Viking war leader:
Olaf Haraldsson.
- The story is told
when Aethelred comes back
from Normandy to England,
he has the support
of Olaf Haraldsson.
This Viking warlord
who has his own fleet.
- Olaf Haraldsson has been someone
who's been involved in raiding
and attacking on England
and probably elsewhere in Europe,
has made a name for himself
free booting,
like many of
these Viking adventurers do.
But crucially, he's also converted
to the Christian faith.
And he seems to be someone
who Aethelred and his court
are trying to use and set up
in opposition to Knut.
NARRATOR: For Aethelred, the time
has come to reclaim his kingdom.
At the head of a fleet,
he sets sail for England
and marches toward London.
- (TRANSLATED) London represents
a potential stronghold.
It is a logistical hub,
rich beyond measure.
Controlling it,
even without fully conquering it,
was likely one of Aethelred's
primary objectives
upon his return to England.
NARRATOR:
Aethelred approaches the capital
the only city that has
remained loyal to him.
He knows, however, that
the confrontation will be fierce.
London is held by Danish forces
loyal to Knut.
- (TRANSLATED) There were points
of resistance,
as if Sweyn had deliberately
garrisoned the main fortifications
that had been captured.
It makes sense: a newly conquered
kingdom cannot be left undefended.
They're no way
to control the territory.
Danish troops were plausibly
stationed across the land,
guarding key towns and fortresses.
NARRATOR: The garrison entrenched
itself in the fortress
on the southern bank of the Thames,
blocking access to the city.
At the heart of this defensive
network stands the London Bridge
a fortified obstacle that controls
the river and connects both shores.
Against such a stronghold,
a siege borders on the impossible.
So Olaf volunteers for one of
the most
perilous missions imaginable:
to destroy the London Bridge.
- (TRANSLATED) He is said to have
assembled a small flotilla,
choosing the most skilled
and courageous men.
With a few boats, they positioned
themselves beneath the bridge,
secured it with reeds and ropes,
and tore away its supports.
The collapse forced the surrender
of both Southwark and London.
- Whether that story is quite true
or not, I think is debatable,
but it is such a good story
that it's very much embedded
in the history of Viking Age London.
NARRATOR: Even if the story of
the bridge's destruction
may be legend
Aethelred enters the city
as a victor.
Yet he does not linger.
Giving Knut time to regroup
would be a grave mistake.
Tomorrow he will gather his forces
and march north.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: In Gainsborough
Knut does not yet grasp
the approaching danger.
Why worry?
Has Aethelred not repeatedly proven
powerless against the Vikings?
- (TRANSLATED) Knut's reaction after
his father's death is puzzling.
Remarkably,
Aethelred moves swiftly,
while Knut appears almost inactive,
as if two months passed
without any action.
- Knut? He's only a young man.
He's not his father.
Can he control his own forces?
He can control some of them.
Can he control all of the alliances
his fathers made with Scandinavians?
I doubt it.
I think initially he must have seen
certain Scandinavians
turn against him,
and then the Danelaw
and the other areas of England
that he could count on
started to show no support.
And this must be his age.
This must be his inexperience.
NARRATOR:
Too young, overconfident men.
Knut does not yet see the ground
slipping beneath him.
On April 25th, Easter Day,
a message reaches him
from his scouts.
Aethelred has entered Lindsey
with a massive army.
- Despite having promised
to not repeat past abuses,
the first thing he does
is he charges in to the north.
This leads to a massacre Lindsey.
The last unit that supported Knut.
- (TRANSLATED) We know Knut
had secured the support
of Lincolnshire's inhabitants,
promising provisions
for his defence,
particularly in anticipation
of a campaign.
It is therefore entirely logical
that Aethelred, as Sweyn once did,
raids and plunders areas
that show disloyalty
or pose potential opposition.
NARRATOR: In Gainsborough,
Knut finally gathers his forces.
He urges them to defend their king.
But despite his warrior's
determination,
it is already too late.
This time the English army
holds the upper hand.
- Knut, at this point,
is on his back foot.
He's in a very difficult position.
- And so when the lights all go out,
one after another,
Knut is a good tactician.
And just like Aethelred, when
he's left with only one region left,
he left quickly,
because at that point
he's trying to save
whatever he's got
for the next assault.
NARRATOR: Knut has no choice:
leave England or die.
He gathers his last loyal men
and takes to the sea
at the head of his fleet.
Behind him lies a land ravaged
by the vengeful fury
of the Anglo-Saxons.
- It's an enormous, chaotic,
swinging backwards and forwards
situation.
Aethelred has been driven
from the country.
Sweyn's come to power.
Sweyn's died.
There's panic running around
of all the various forces.
Some stay with Knut. Most don't.
Knut flees, the English open
negotiations with Aethelred
and Aethelred comes back.
It's an immensely chaotic time.
NARRATOR: On his ship,
Knut watches
the English coast recede.
Defeated by a man
he considers weak
he must flee
trapped by his own pride.
- He must have been furious.
There must have been quite
a lot of people,
who said they would support him
and then turned against him.
And so he did exactly what he said
he was going to do in that scenario.
NARRATOR: After several days at sea,
his fleet lands at Sandwich.
The hostages,
given by the English nobility
during his father's conquests,
are cast ashore.
What should be done with these men?
For Knut, mere execution would be
far too gentle a revenge.
He wants to make an example.
- What if there's a time machine?
Would you like to have dinner
with Knut? Absolutely not.
I think he was a ruthless,
scary individual.
And I don't think-I think we would
all, all of us in the modern world,
would run screaming from him.
I think if you survive
in this environment,
if you thrive in this environment,
you're a pretty scary, ruthless
creature in yourself
and Knut is good at it.
NARRATOR:
Without the slightest remorse,
he orders them
to be mercilessly mutilated.
- (TRANSLATED) Knut employed
a range of corporal punishments,
standard under the law of the time:
cutting off hands,
parts of the face, ears, or nose.
These practices appear
in contemporary legal codes,
including those issued by Wulfstan.
- And so I think for him,
this is a parting shot.
This is saying I may be leaving now,
but I'll be back
and don't underestimate me.
Do not cross me.
This is what happens
to people who cross me.
They don't get killed.
They get injured in ways
that will maim them for life
and make them
and everyone else who meets them
remember what I'm capable of.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR:
Harald watches with concern
as his brother's ships
near the coast.
Crowned King of Denmark
upon their father's death,
he cannot know
Knut's true intentions.
- At the back of Harold's mind
and at the back of Knut's mind,
there's this sort of notion that
this Danish kingdom isn't big enough
for the two of us here.
This is a situation where these
two brothers are at some points
going to have to face off,
potentially against one another.
One might imagine that Harald would
feel a little bit nervous
about the presence of his
more experienced brother
back in the Kingdom.
NARRATOR: Though always close,
Knut and Harald's brotherly bond
cannot mask the tension that day.
- (TRANSLATED) Knut initially seems
intent on reclaiming
part of the Danish kingdom.
- From Harold's perspective,
Knut is a threat
because Knut's interests
lie in becoming king.
Harald's interests lie
in keeping the kingship.
And so Knut back in Denmark
is one prince too many
for a kingdom
that has just lost Sweyn.
NARRATOR: In the throne hall
now under his control,
Harald invites Knut to speak.
Yet his younger brother's claims
could ignite
a dangerous war of succession.
If Harald refuses,
Knut must choose:
submit or fight.
- (TRANSLATED) If Knut was
the astute politician I believe,
it made sense for him to adapt.
"Very well, if you are unwilling
to grant me anything,
I will demonstrate loyalty
and friendship instead."
This may have been the surest way
to achieve his aims,
avoiding direct confrontation
and certain defeat.
NARRATOR: Barely twenty years old,
Knut has already lost everything:
his throne, his kingdom,
and perhaps even his future.
Unwilling to live
in his brother's shadow,
he sees one path:
reclaim by force
what he believes is rightfully his.
- This is not a man who is accepting
his role in Denmark
as the second son.
This is instead a man
who is waiting for his opportunity
to re-invade England.
He's waiting, and he's watching
for some key mistake
in the English regime to be made
that gives him a new way in.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR: After thirty years of
a chaotic reign
Aethelred finally recovers
his throne.
Yet he now faces a nobility steeped
in mistrust and betrayal.
A nest of scorpions,
at whose heart he believes
he has found a loyal ally.
Eadric Streona.
- Eadric Streona is the bad man
of the first half of 11th century
in English politics.
- His nickname, Streona, it means
the Grasper, the Inquisitor,
in addition to which he doesn't
seem to have very much
of what we would say moral fibre.
Or he's a brilliant survivor,
which one, we can't to say.
And he flip flops between supporting
whoever looks like they might win.
- And we don't quite know why,
but for whatever reasons,
Aethelred gives Eadric
more and more power and authority,
and it's clear that many of those
at court resent this,
that this is a new guard coming in,
that Aethelred places
absolute trust in.
NARRATOR:
Eadric never leaves the king side,
feeding his paranoia day after day.
At forty-seven,
weakened by illness,
Aethelred faces yet another threat:
the struggle for his own succession.
- So all the sons of the king
are considered to be aethelings.
So you actually have a number of
contenders to the throne.
It's a bit of a political brawl.
But it also means that the son
who's the best leader
and who has a strong faction
behind him among the noblemen,
will come to the top rather
than necessarily the firstborn,
who may not be the best.
NARRATOR:
Two lines now vie for power.
First, from his union
with Elgifu of York, six sons.
(speaking French)
- (TRANSLATED)
At that point, the elder son,
Edmund Ironside,
appears to have the upper hand.
He's a young man in his early
twenties,
perhaps a little younger or older,
already highly respected
and clearly eager to go to war.
NARRATOR:
Opposing him, the second line:
Edward and Alfred
born of Aethelred's second wife,
a noblewoman from across
the channel.
Emma of Normandy.
- Emma of Normandy is the daughter
of the Duke of Normandy,
Richard I,
who is a descendant of Rollo,
so the Viking who established
Normandy as a county
in the ninth century.
- And she seems to be
a very aggressive political figure
that she's influenced there,
as we know by Norman politics,
where women took
a much greater role.
They really didn't do this
in English politics.
- She is extraordinarily powerful,
and not shy about exerting
that power.
So Emma dedicated her life,
really, to making sure
that one of her sons
was on the throne.
NARRATOR: Emma has no intention
of letting the throne
slip from her grasp in favour of
a son from a previous marriage.
At court, the treacherous Eadric
may prove a valuable ally
against Edmund's ambition.
- By Aethelred's later years,
Emma his queen,
quite possibly Aethelred himself,
and certainly others at court,
aligned with Eadric
or creating a faction.
And that faction may well be working
to try to line up eventually
the succession of
Edward and Alfred,
Aethelred's sons with his
second wife Emma,
over his sons with his first wife.
And so what we start seeing is
a fracturing of the dynasty
between rival line.
NARRATOR:
The king summons a great assembly.
Nobles from across the realm gather.
Among them stand
Sigeferth and Morcar
two leading figures
of the Danelaw.
Both known for supporting
Edmund's claim to the throne.
As the feast reaches its height
Eadric Streona approaches
the king.
With a simple gesture,
Aethelred gives the order to strike.
- He has Sigeferth and Morcar
invited by Eadric Streona
to a meeting,
and then they are murdered.
They are just murdered.
The king seizes their lands
and he has Sigeferth widow
placed in Malmesbury Abbey.
What happens there is that
Aethelred has created a scenario
whereby his son,
his trusted friends and allies
are now being attacked
by his own father.
NARRATOR:
For Edmund, it is a crushing blow.
His closest allies are dead.
Worse, Aethelred now openly
favours Edward, Emma's son.
On August 15th, 1015, Edmund acts:
he travels to the monastery
of Malmesbury
abducts Ealdgyth,
widow of Sigerferth,
and marries her on the spot,
claiming her late husband's
inheritance.
- It's a crucial and enormous act,
he's aligning himself
against Aethelred
and what we have here is
shock and horror,
because suddenly the king
and the obvious heir
are at loggerheads
and at war with each other.
NARRATOR:
By attacking the northern nobility,
Aethelred fractures his kingdom
once again,
pushing England
to the brink of civil war.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
The news spreads like wildfire.
A few days earlier,
Knut had issued the call to arms.
Now, from one end of the country
to the other
thousands march
towards the capital.
Knut has waited months
for this moment.
The fracture tearing England apart
offers him the perfect opportunity
for revenge.
- The tree has a trunk and
you see one trunk above the ground,
as it were.
But if you were to grab that
and pull it out of the ground,
you see all these roots,
and each root leads to another unit,
into another unit,
and they spread out in
a myriad of ways.
So Knut doesn't have direct contact
with people, even a few stages down.
When a king calls,
as opposed to a local nobleman,
you get an enormous amount
of uptake of this.
NARRATOR: To launch his reconquest,
Knut relies on a man from Norway.
Erik of Lade
an old ally of his father,
destined to be the cornerstone
of his great army.
- Eric's family has been slowly
consolidating power
over northern Norway,
and pretty much then
all of Norway down to the south.
They are probably
the most powerful dynasty
ruling any part of Scandinavia
at that point.
- (TRANSLATED) Erik, moreover, has
married one of Knut's half-sisters.
He was therefore a family ally,
a recognised war leader,
a man of great power
and considerable charisma,
widely respected,
and very likely someone who played
the role of a mentor to Knut.
NARRATOR: As the army gathers,
an alarm sounds.
A fleet approaches off the coast
filled with men and weapons.
At its head is Thorkell the Tall,
fearsome Viking leader,
Aethelred's ally
for more than three years.
- (TRANSLATED) Of all his followers,
Thorkell was likely the most loyal.
Yet, in 1015,
he seems to vanish from England,
returning discreetly to Denmark
with only a few ships.
- And he stays
a little bit offshore.
This is a man who's not quite sure
if the Danish royal family
are going to try and kill him
or not, but also he doesn't want
to give them the opportunity.
NARRATOR: Knut is intrigued
and agrees to hear out
this formidable adversary.
- (TRANSLATED) Thorkell knows
England extremely well:
its balance of power, its terrain.
Such knowledge could be
of great value.
NARRATOR: Knut studies the man,
thirty years his senior,
once among his father's
greatest enemies.
A single gesture
could have ended him,
but instead Knut offered his hand.
(speaking French)
- (TRANSLATED) Knut accepts
the allegiance very quickly,
without reserve.
Securing the support of such
an experienced, influential,
and knowledgeable leader
is sufficient.
Erik then stands as Knut's
positive guiding force,
Thorkell his darker,
more ambivalent counterpart.
Together,
they form the two paternal figures
around whom Knut builds himself
and his army.
They are the very best allies
he could find,
both among the Norwegians
and the Danes.
His ability to surround himself
with talent is extraordinary.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR: At first light,
Knut gives the order to set sail.
At the head of a fleet of 200 ships,
he heads toward England.
- The encomium of Queen Emma
records the fleet as being
dazzling to behold.
It used the sort of grandiose,
Latin terms
emphasizing sight of this terrible
war fleet of Knut
that is brought to England in 1015.
So for an observer standing
on the English coast,
there must have been a view of this
kind of forest of masts and sails.
And it must be
a terrible sight to behold.
NARRATOR: But as the fleet nears
the English coast, Knut turns south.
Unlike his father two years earlier,
he does not aim for the north.
His target is the heart of power:
Wessex.
- He's now had a taste of England.
He's been around it a bit.
He spent a bit of time there, and
he can see that what he needs more
than any else, he doesn't need
to go to the part that looks like
Scandinavia because
it's most convenient for him.
He needs to go to the part
that's least convenient for him
to understand and interact with,
because that's where you rule
England from,
and that's the wealthy South.
NARRATOR: The ships skirt coast
of Kent, pushing into Dorset.
On board, carried by the dark waters
of the river
Knut recalls the day a year
earlier when he first set foot
on English soil beside his father.
Today he fights for his own name,
for the oath whispered over
Sweyn's lifeless body.
- By the time he comes back
to England,
he's still young, but already has
considerable experience.
He's had those early moments
in England,
working first with his father
successfully,
those difficult moments
where it all went wrong.
He's had a few year's experience.
He's had experience now back
at his brothers court in Denmark
and some of the difficulties
he's encountered there.
So he's certainly coming back
a wilier, more experienced
political operator
and not someone who anybody in
England I think would underestimate.
NARRATOR: Wessex is among the
kingdom's best-defended territories.
But Knut is confident.
His ships give him a decisive edge.
These longships,
often miscalled Drakkars,
are the key to
Viking striking power.
- Britain may see itself today
as a navy first in its military.
But it wasn't then and it had
nothing in comparison
to these longboats
that the Vikings used.
- What made Scandinavian ships
so effective in this period
was the fact that they managed
to be very seaworthy,
could travel significant distances,
could carry large numbers of men,
but still have
a relatively shallow draft.
And so what that allows them to do
is to travel quite far up
navigable rivers to beach
quite easily and to land,
and then attack local people.
(yelling, sounds of battle)
NARRATOR: Knut's army devastates
all in its path.
Dorset.
Wiltshire.
Somerset.
The young Dane
advances relentlessly.
- (TRANSLATED) Between Knut's
hesitations in 1013-1014
and his return in 1015-1016,
there is a dramatic shift.
He knows exactly what must be done
and he executes it coldly,
efficiently and with calculation.
A highly effective approach,
no doubt advised
by the two-men at his side,
probably the finest war leaders
of the North.
NARRATOR:
Knut learned from his past mistakes.
He gives the enemy no respite.
At the head of their troops,
Erik and Thorkell descend
on English lands
like a swarm of locusts.
- (TRANSLATED) Knut rarely goes
into battle himself.
Like Octavian
during Rome's civil war,
he remains behind, reflecting,
pulling strings, giving orders,
relying on powerful men to act.
But his followers clearly trust him
and are willing to go
into battle in his stead.
NARRATOR: The Scandinavian forces
set up camp in Mercia.
One of the kingdom's richest regions
and undoubtedly one of
the most difficult to subdue.
At least until a man appears
on the outskirts of the camp.
Knut is intrigued and
watches the stranger approach.
It is no other than Eadric Streona.
Aethelred's closest advisor.
Instead of defending his king,
he presents himself before
his most formidable enemy.
- Edric Streona choice
to side with Knut
seems to be one of these key moments
in many ways,
in the strategies of 1015.
- Why Eadric decides to betray
Aethelred is really
the million pound question.
He risen on Aethelred's coattails.
But if we look at Eadric's
later career,
what it seems to teach us
is that he's somebody
who is interested in one thing
and one person only.
And that was Eadric Streona.
So what he does is he decides
to jump before he is pushed,
and figures that his best bet for
maintaining his position of power
and influence is to then be
the kingmaker,
to be the one who secures
Knut's claim to the throne,
and then hopefully
reaps dividends from that.
NARRATOR:
Like his father two years earlier,
Knut strikes at
the very heart of the kingdom.
Once again, Aethelred does
nothing to stop the invasion.
Left to fend for themselves,
the nobles have no choice
but to submit to the Dane,
one after another.
- (TRANSLATED) By securing
the allegiance of this aristocracy
through his very presence,
Knut symbolically exposes
the King's absence.
The ruler is not there
to defend his ancestral lands.
He is a failed king
and therefore an illegitimate one.
Politically, it is a masterstroke,
and above all, it works.
NARRATOR: The campaign seems
almost effortless.
Yet Knut does not realise
that this time,
a far more formidable opponent
awaits him.
Fate intervenes once again.
King Aethelred falls gravely ill.
Setting aside old quarrels,
he entrusts command of the war
to his son, Edmund Ironside.
- The big change that happens
with Edmund Ironside taking over
is that we have a competent
and present, English leader.
But he is the Englishman
who will fight back against Knut.
Between those two,
there's an equality in their fights.
If you read this as a narrative,
you're not quite sure which way
it's going to go until
the final battle happens,
as it were.
NARRATOR: To confront Knut,
Edmund must rally
the full strength of the kingdom.
For now,
his army is dangerously thin.
Accompanied by his personal guard,
he rides tirelessly across
the regions
still loyal to the crown,
calling upon the fyrd,
the levy of free men.
- Fyrd is the terms for the army,
and it would have been composed
typically of a small inner entourage
of potentially professional soldiers
or near professional soldiers,
senior aristocrats who saw war
as one of their main pastimes,
but then supplemented
with a local militia.
So with individuals called up from
local counties to serve in the army.
- (TRANSLATED) These men were
expected to arrive
with their own resources and
weapons, which was far from simple.
Such levies often produced
armies that were uneven,
poorly equipped, unevenly trained.
To resist Knut, Edmund repeatedly
mobilises the kingdom's free men,
raising new forces
whenever possible.
NARRATOR: To his troops,
Edmund strives to embody leadership.
But the conflicts that once
opposed him to his father
have left deep scars.
Many distrust the young prince,
judging him to be overly ambitious.
- There was a real question
for those loyal to Aethelred
as to whether or not Edmund
was friend or foe,
and this is one of the things
that hamstrings Edmund's
initial attempts to resist
is that he's not able to secure
that support,
and that the main English army
under Aethelred's authority
is not willing to join Edmund's.
- This is quite serious.
This is a refusal to do
the King's bidding.
Edmund is there on behalf
of his father,
and these armies are refusing
to come to the meeting places
and join up.
This is very, very bad news.
NARRATOR: In London,
Aethelred receives a message.
His son pleads for aid.
Despite the illness consuming him,
the king orders his guard
to assemble and rides west.
A few days later,
Edmund welcomes his father.
He studies him closely.
All of England's hopes now rest
on this old, weary, aging king.
- As a final little sort of bump
in this, Aethelred is warned,
maybe it's real,
maybe it's just paranoia,
that some part of the army or
somebody there is going to kill him.
The king apparently panics
and runs into the safety of London,
and the army just disbands.
What you can see-
You can see the problems here
and the fragility
of the English forces.
And this is the major problem
that Edmund has.
NARRATOR:
But once again, Aethelred withdraws.
Edmund is isolated
and has no choice.
He rides north,
prepared to risk everything.
At Bamburgh, he meets Uhtred,
Earl of Northumbria.
The man supported Sweyn and Knut
the previous year,
yet remains tied to Edmund
through marriage alliances.
- He's experienced as a warrior.
He's got troops, he's got power,
and so Edmund reaches out to Uhtred
and Uhtred actually joins forces
with the English forces
against the Danes.
This might seem somewhat
anachronistic,
because earlier Uhtred seemed
to have some association
with the Danes, but Uhtred,
he's going to be friends with
whoever gets Uhtred the most power.
- This is then combined
with the fact
that he was closely allied with
people like Morcar and Sigefurth,
who've just been purged
from the court.
And therefore, do not look kindly
upon Aethelred and his regime.
And so, for Edmund,
Uhtred is a logical ally.
NARRATOR:
With Uhtred now at his side,
Edmund finally commands forces
capable of challenging Knut.
Yet instead of facing his rival
he turns south toward Mercia
unleashing his strength against
those nobles accused of treachery.
(dramatic music)
(cheering)
NARRATOR: Once again,
the English fight among themselves
while the Danes devastate
the kingdom.
- Everybody thought that they would
attack the Danish army,
but it's much better
from their perspective
to pursue their own interests.
And at this point, I think that
their interests are Eadric Streona.
So, Knut is a problem? Yeah, sure.
But Eadric's support for Knut
is the big problem.
And I don't think at this point
they necessarily have
national interests at heart.
But, you know,
in these circumstances,
who could blame them?
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: Facing the growing
alliance between Edmund and Uhtred,
Knut turns to strategy.
A direct confrontation
would be too great a risk.
Together with his commanders,
he devises a daring plan.
At dawn, they will outmanoeuvre
the enemy
and strike deep into the heart
of Uhtred's own lands.
- Of course, the Uhtred episode,
glorious though it is
for the English,
is unfortunately short lived.
What Knut does again,
always the brilliant tactician,
he himself and Erik, they go
to Uhtred's house
and they threaten him at home
when he's taken most of his forces
away with him to the south.
(soft dramatic music)
(battle cries)
NARRATOR: Danish forces descend
upon Northumbria,
ravaging territories
left dangerously undefended.
In their wake, towns and villages
fall one after another.
- Uhtred is panicked.
He was not ready for this at all,
and he withdraws from the fight
in the south of England,
and he heads home.
NARRATOR: Returning to Bamburgh,
Uhtred discovers his stronghold
already in Danish hands.
In the great hall of his palace,
Knut awaits him
seated upon the throne
that once belonged to his host.
Facing the young Dane,
Uhtred immediately understands
that there is no way out.
Submission is his only hope
of survival.
- (TRANSLATED) The difference
between Knut and Sweyn is clear.
Sweyn relied on hostages
and negotiated loyalty.
Knut however had already experienced
how fragile aristocratic allegiance
could be.
Shortly after submitting,
Uhtred was most likely assassinated.
- Uhtred is gone from the picture.
This mighty English warrior
who could have turned the tide
for Edmund.
He's a piece that's off
the chessboard. Click.
And he's gone.
And it's checkmate to Knut,
just for the moment.
NARRATOR: Wessex, Mercia
and much of northern England
now lie under Knut's control.
Edmund can rely only on his own
strength if he hopes to prevail.
As for Aethelred, sick and weakened,
he remains confined within London.
For Knut, the conquest of England
now seems inevitable.
And yet, once more,
fate is about to intervene.