Knut: The Viking Emperor (2026) s01e04 Episode Script

1
(tense, dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
This is a story of conquest,
betrayal and courage.
The story of a 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 is 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.
(tense, dramatic music)
(music fades, ends)
(tense medieval music)
(cheering)
NARRATOR: Following a bitter war
against Edmund Ironside
and after Edmund's
mysterious death
Knut was crowned King of England.
To consolidate his rule,
he entrusted key regions of his
kingdom to his Scandinavian allies.
He then married Emma,
the widow of Aethelred,
thereby setting aside her two sons'
claim to the throne
and avoiding a war
with the Duchy of Normandy,
where they had sought refuge.
Above all, Knut succeeded
where Aethelred had failed.
(singing)
- And certainly,
Viking raiding stops,
that we can be absolutely
certain of. It just stops.
And that's the real power
that they've got
to appeal to the English,
is that they can give
the English peace.
NARRATOR: Knut's reign is now
unchallenged in England.
All have bowed to his rule.
All except one.
(low, tense music)
Olaf Haraldsson sets sail
for the Atlantic.
The Viking chieftain knows these
dark waters better than anyone.
He has sailed them dozens of times,
leading raids and plundering
expeditions from England to France
and as far as the shores of Spain.
- (translated from French)
Olaf Haraldsson is another
rather fascinating character
who features in the narrative.
He is a potential heir
to the Norwegian royal family.
Perhaps a descendant of
Harald Fairhair,
who was the first
to unify the Norwegians.
At the time, he was clearly one
of those famous adventurers
seeking to amass
wealth and prestige abroad
before perhaps returning home.
NARRATOR: But in the year 1014
whilst the war between
the English and the Danes rages,
a new player on the stage
is about to turn
everything upside down
and seal his fate.
- For a period up until 1014
or 1015,
Norway was essentially
a vassal state of the Danish empire
under Sven Forkbeard.
But the death of Sven Forbeard
saw an opportunity
for Olaf Haraldsson,
who had been active in England
and elsewhere in Europe,
to have an opportunity to gain power
within Norway
and overthrow
that Danish overlordship.
NARRATOR: Region after region
village by village
Olaf rallied the local chieftains
to his banner.
He promised unity, law,
and the one true God.
His long years spent in the West had
taught him that the Christian faith
is a strong instrument of power.
A weapon he would turn against
the dynasty of Erik of Lade,
those vassals of Knut who still held
Norway under their control.
- (speaking French)
Erik de Lade is no longer there.
His brother, however,
is still the jarl who rules Norway.
But Olaf Haraldsson very quickly
manages to gather allies,
overthrow Danish rule in Norway
and become King of the Norwegians.
NARRATOR: By taking Norway,
Olaf not only reduced
Danish influence
he showed that
Knut was not invincible.
Today,
he rules over the northern lands.
Tomorrow,
Denmark will tremble at his feet.
(low, tense sting)
(soft string music)
Knut is stunned.
His elder brother Harald is dead.
Crowned King of Denmark
upon their father's death,
he passed away
without leaving an heir.
- (speaking French) Ultimately,
all the men in his family are
almost all now dead.
He is, in the end,
a quite isolated man.
And now, he must ensure the
continuity of his rule over Denmark,
which is his father's kingdom,
that of his ancestors,
he must preserve at all costs
from a symbolic standpoint.
And that doesn't make things easier.
NARRATOR: Immediately, Knut sends
an envoy across the North Sea
to Roskilde in Denmark.
He bears a message of
the utmost importance.
As the last heir to his dynasty,
Knut lays claim to the crown.
But are the kingdom's nobles
prepared to recognise as king
a man who left his homeland
nearly three years ago?
- There have been separate rulers
in different parts of Denmark
and many of their heirs still exist.
So there's plenty of people
in Denmark who are probably
chomping at the bit,
waiting for an opportunity
to see chinks in the armour.
So in order to become king
in Denmark,
Knut certainly has
to show up in person
NARRATOR: To make matters worse,
a Slavic people from
the shores of the Baltic Sea,
the Wends,
are said to be taking advantage
of the political instability
to ravage southern Denmark.
If Knut does not act quickly,
there may soon be nothing left
of his father's legacy.
So, without delay,
Knut raises a fleet.
(soft dramatic music)
- The situation is becoming
quite concerning;
we are ultimately left with Knut
who is potentially on the verge
of losing his dominion
over Scandinavia.
- We often forget Knut is Danish,
he's not English.
An enormous amount about
the invasion of England
is to secure Denmark.
And that's very commonly overlooked
is that his ambitions
are all over Scandinavia.
They're not so much in England.
So England is a means to an end.
NARRATOR: For the first time
in nearly three years,
Knut crosses the North Sea.
At his side stands
a young English lord
Godwin,
the future earl of Wessex.
- Godwin is this meteoric figure.
As meteoric as Knut himself.
He's a son of somebody
in the minor nobility.
And then suddenly,
after Knut's conquest,
he makes his way up
the ranks of the earls.
NARRATOR: Once on shore, Godwin
orders his troops to set up camp.
Ironically,
it is now the Anglo-Saxons
who are setting foot on Danish soil.
ARNAUD: Ultimately, at this stage,
he is no longer conquering England
with an army of Scandinavians;
he is in Scandinavia with an army
of Englishmen, now led by Godwin.
Now, Knut is an English king
attempting to restore order
in a part of his empire
that is slipping from his grasp,
just where he should
have been most secure:
his ancestral lands,
particularly Denmark.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: In the sleeping camp
Godwin gathers his men
and leads them to the Wends' camp.
The Slavs, caught in their sleep,
barely have time to react.
And little by little
the night falls silent once more.
- (speaking French)
Godwin sets off secretly at night
without informing the king,
accompanied by the English,
to attack his enemies;
he wins a brilliant victory,
forces his enemies to surrender,
kills many of them,
takes a few prisoners,
and when the king rises
the next day,
he realises that Godwin
has vanished from the battlefield.
He suspects there has
been a betrayal.
NARRATOR: At dawn, Knut is furious.
His English troops are missing.
For him, there is no doubt about it:
these traitors have deserted.
Determined to lead his men
into battle alone,
he advances towards the enemy camp.
But instead of an army
ready for battle,
he discovers
a pile of corpses and blood.
Godwin has already been there.
- And it was, in fact,
from this period,
the second half of the 1020s,
that Godwin truly became
the number one.
In a way that is now systematic
and undisputed,
I can say that this is inevitably
a testament
to the operation's authenticity
but as for Godwin having been there,
I have no trouble believing it.
That he played an important role,
why not;
that he was very powerful afterwards
and highly respected is undeniable.
(cheering)
(soft string music)
NARRATOR:
Knut enters the city in triumph.
The kingdom's nobles bow and
acknowledge him as King of Denmark.
But Knut is no fool.
He knows that once he returns
to England,
these very same men
could turn against him
and steal the crown from him.
- The problem for Knut is, is that
he's going to have to always,
after the death
of his brother Harold,
he's gonna have to keep going
backwards and forwards
and backwards and forwards
to England and Denmark.
And England and Denmark.
What he's really hunting for
in each of his countries
that he comes to rule over,
he's hunting for that one person
or agency
that can rule there for him.
(cheering)
(soft medieval music)
NARRATOR:
To rule Denmark from England,
Knut put his son Harthaknut
on the throne.
But how could this child,
born of his union with Emma of
Normandy, possibly exercise power?
So Knut entrusted the regency
to one of the most influential men
in the kingdom: Count Ulf.
- Ulf is a powerful figure
in his own right.
His family seem to have been
powerful figures in their own right.
One gets the feeling Knut does not
so much choose him
as is presented with him
as a candidate
who's going to rule Denmark
whether Knut wants him to or not.
And Knut was right to distrust him.
NARRATOR: A strategic choice,
but not without risk.
For Ulf is powerful
and formidably ambitious.
(low, tense music)
So to maintain control,
Knut must ensure his loyalty,
whatever the cost.
- Knut married his sister to Ulf
and this seems to be part of this
kind of continuation of a policy
of creating a web of connections
for Knut's kingship
across the North Sea.
LEVI: And it is striking that Knut
marries him into the royal line
and gives him connection
to his dynasty.
- The marriage with Ulf
is an attempt
to sort of domesticate Ulf
through that marriage
and to make sure
that he won't move against Knut.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: Knut sets off for England,
leaving the shores of Denmark
behind him.
But already, his ambitions are no
longer limited to his two kingdoms.
- Once Knut succeeds to Denmark,
it is the logical next step is
then recreating that dominance
that his father
traditionally enjoyed
over at least parts of Norway.
And the main opponent to that
is Olaf Haraldsson.
NARRATOR: Knut wants to unite
Scandinavia under a single crown.
First Norway.
Then Sweden.
But what he doesn't know is that,
lurking in the shadows,
his enemies might well strike
before he does.
(soft dramatic music)
(soft medieval music)
(city ambience)
NARRATOR: Eight years have passed
since Knut established himself
as ruler of Denmark.
Now, his empire stretches
from England
to the shores of Scandinavia,
united by the North Sea.
Once seen as
a mere Viking chieftain,
he is now recognised as one
of Europe's greatest rulers.
A clear sign of this is
that he is invited to the coronation
of Conrad II,
the most prestigious
event of the century,
where the King of Germany
would become
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- It is a unique opportunity
for him.
This is a major act of state.
He is someone wanting
to position himself,
often in somewhat imperial manners
himself, on the political stage.
And the biggest political player
in Europe is Conrad II,
the ruler of Germany,
about to be crowned and consecrated
emperor by the Pope.
This is the kind of society event
of his entire reign
and it's not going to be repeated.
So he either has to be there
in that moment or not.
NARRATOR: But whilst Knut
devotes himself entirely
to the preparations
he does not imagine
that this journey could cost him
one of his kingdoms.
(tense, dramatic music)
Olaf Haraldsson is sure
that sooner or later,
the Dane will come
to challenge him on his own soil.
So he summons his neighbour,
Anund Jacob, King of Sweden.
The two rulers hate each other.
But on that day,
Olaf wants to seal a pact:
to join forces to challenge Knut
and break his hold on the North Sea.
- For people, and particularly
rulers in the rest of Scandinavia,
Knut's growing power in Denmark
is a cause for concern
because it raises the spectre
of Danish domination.
And so as Knut takes over Denmark
and consolidates authority there,
there is then a very real prospect
of, well, where will he move next,
and the logical places
are Sweden and above all Norway.
NARRATOR: For Olaf,
the best defence is to attack.
Together, they could conquer Denmark
and crush Knut's ambitions
in Scandinavia.
But time is running out,
as Conrad's coronation approaches,
and with it,
a unique opportunity to strike.
- Norway and Sweden and
the Danish rebels,
they're assuming Knut is going
to be completely focused
on his trip to Rome
and he's going to be sidetracked
into that.
And they will have something
like a year,
to key themselves in
before Knut can come back from Rome
and then strike back.
NARRATOR:
Convinced they have free rein,
Anund and Olaf unleash their forces
on Danish territory.
(tense, dramatic music)
(battle cries)
Never before had Knut's empire
been so close to collapse.
(music fades, ends)
Faced with this combined attack,
Ulf hesitates.
Should he try to repel the invasion
and remain loyal to Knut
or, on the contrary,
take advantage of the chaos
to seize the crown?
Immediately, he gathers
his key supporters around him.
- So we have some sort
of faction forming around Ulf
as it were
who is Knut's sort of
immediate right hand in Denmark
who are attempting
to throw off Knut's power.
Simultaneously
and in concert with this,
we have the Norwegians
under Olaf Haraldsson
who launch a full on invasion.
And at the same time,
the Swedes launch an invasion
as well from Sweden.
And so all these forces either
rise up in Denmark
or hit Denmark
and occupy it at the same time.
And this is a disaster for Knut.
This is again one of
these key moments in Knut's life.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: Knut is furious.
The attack by the Norwegians
and Swedes could not have come
at a worse time.
Waiting until Conrad's coronation
to act would be risky
for the territories that have
fallen into enemy hands
would be difficult to recapture.
So, after a decade of peace,
Knut the Viking goes to war again.
- This is where Knut shows
his tactical brilliance.
What he does instead,
he hastily pulls together
as large a fleet as he can
from England and he sets sail,
picking up whatever Danish forces
he can along the way.
And he sails
around the top of Jutland.
NARRATOR: Knut sets sail eastwards,
towards Sweden.
His fleet reaches the mouth
of the sacred river Helgea.
This is where Olaf and Anund
have retreated
in the face of his surprise attack.
- English sources say
that it was a great battle,
but that the Swedes and Norwegians
held the field.
(battle cries)
Skaldic praise poetry, however,
paints this as a massive victory
for Knut,
and it's hard to know
what to make of this distinction.
So whatever happened there,
it was also contentious enough,
a bit like the earlier conflicts
with Edmund Ironside.
Clearly it wasn't the type of battle
in which victory alone
led to achieving all the political
aims you were hoping to achieve.
(tense, dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Knut retreats,
but does not concede defeat.
He knows that his fleet remains
one of the most powerful in Europe.
So he sets sail
for the Oresund Strait,
the only route to the North Sea.
There, he deploys his ships
and blocks the strait,
creating a virtually
impassable barrier.
Olaf and Anund are trapped
in the Baltic Sea.
- Knut's managed to blockade
the Norwegian Swedish alliance
and then travel to Rome
for the coronation ceremony
of the new Holy Roman Emperor.
This was a way of Knut 's exercising
a degree of caution
in his military strategies.
It's ensuring that force is going
to be weakened
because of its inabilities
to move further
into Danish territory
or indeed get away.
So it bought him time.
And you could think of that,
if this indeed had happened,
this is Knut
at his supreme confidence.
NARRATOR: The procession passes
through Flanders, France
and then Italy.
(tense medieval music)
Wherever he travels,
Knut carefully cultivates his image.
He performs numerous acts of piety,
and distributes lavish gifts
to the monasteries.
- (speaking French)
He explains it well,
and this is the reason he gives
for setting out:
he went to Rome,
essentially on a pilgrimage,
to visit all the churches
shown to him,
and to make numerous donations
along the way.
In doing so, he projects
the image of the perfect prince,
almost a model king in an age
when a Viking's son
wouldn't necessarily have been
the obvious choice for such a role.
(Christian chants)
NARRATOR:
What remains of his Viking past?
He whose people, for decades,
burned, plundered and ravaged
so many Christian sanctuaries
across England
and throughout Europe.
- The trip to Rome must have been
of huge importance to Knut
as a figure who had been responsible
for shedding so much blood
in Christian society at this time.
- And he begins by talking about
how he's in times of difficulty,
he's not always been a just ruler.
So part of that pilgrimage to Rome
is about precisely that,
making amends for the sins committed
in the process
of becoming the ruler of England
and Denmark.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
After several weeks of travel,
Knut finally enters the heart
of the ancient city of Rome.
Although it has lost some
of its former splendour,
its forums, temples and Colosseum
still make it a city without equal.
- Seeing Rome must have been
a unique experience for Knut,
because he would not have seen
any kind of city
on that scale before,
a city that had once housed
perhaps as many as a million people.
A city teeming with relics
and churches.
So I think for in all sorts of ways,
spiritually, politically,
in all sorts of ways,
it would have been
a truly unique experience
and would certainly
have made a mark.
He wouldn't have seen
anything like it before in his life.
NARRATOR: At the top of a hill
stands the holiest of holy places:
St Peter's Basilica.
(bell tolls)
(soft dramatic music)
It is here, before the greatest
rulers of Europe,
that Conrad is about to receive
the crown
from the hands of Pope John XIX.
At his side,
a place of honour awaits Knut
a striking sign of the standing
he has earned amongst the powerful.
Before his eyes, the coronation
unfolds as a spectacle
of wealth and majesty,
where the glittering imperial crown
embodies supreme authority.
- One of the things
in Conrad's coronation
that must have
impressed itself upon Knut
is the sense of ritual
and pageantry.
And so Knut would have been privy
to a very unique
and spectacular display of monarchy
and specifically imperial monarchy.
So there's a lot there that Knut
might have wished to learn from.
And certainly his understanding
of empire would have had to
have flowed out of his experiences
of the one real existing empire
in the west, the empire of Conrad.
(soft dramatic music)
(applause)
NARRATOR:
For Knut, it is a revelation.
England suddenly appears to him
as the foundation stone
of a far greater edifice.
- Going to Rome is probably
the one event
that changed Knut's world outlook
more than anything else.
This is when we start to see just
the edges of imperial ambition.
We start to see again
the Scaldic verse starts to shift
in ways that sort of nudges towards
some sort of idea
that he's a king of kings, that he's
above other kings in some way.
NARRATOR: From that moment on,
Knut had but one obsession:
to build an empire.
The Empire of the North.
(low, tense music)
NARRATOR: For months, the fleets of
Olaf and Anund have been trapped
in the Baltic, unable to break
the blockade imposed by Knut.
Defeat now seems inevitable,
and the end of the fair weather
is the final blow
to the troops' morale.
- They came for a summer voyage.
They came with clothing and things,
for a summer voyage,
which they came prepared.
They came to do
a lightning strike in,
steal things, and go away
and be paid off,
or to sit there and eat the food
in Denmark and sit in Danish halls.
That's what
they came prepared to do.
And suddenly these two forces
find themselves locked
into that body of water
with no way out.
And winter's coming.
NARRATOR: As the cold sets in
and supplies run low,
the stranglehold
of the blockade tightens.
The Norwegians have no choice;
if they want to survive,
they must abandon their ships.
- Some of the sagas tell us you
could still see the rotting boats,
on certain parts of the coastline,
from hundreds of boats left
there by the Norwegian Army,
because eventually
the Norwegian Army decide
they've got to walk home
through the woods.
NARRATOR: And so begins a long
and terrible march
(wolves howls)
with death as it's only horizon.
Within a few weeks, the cold,
hunger and wolves put an end
to Olaf's dreams and his great army.
(low, tense music)
(wolves growl)
- Run!
- You have to get long
into Swedish history
before you find anybody else
who attempted any form of journey
that was so stupid at winter time.
And when you get
into those sort of numbers,
you're finding tiny percentages.
10% of the men, something like that,
will have come stumbling out
of the forest on the other side.
Horribly frost burned,
and maybe half of those
would have had crippling injuries.
NARRATOR: The few survivors return
home without glory,
and, above all, without booty.
Defeat leaves them humiliated
and filled with bitter resentment.
- Olaf must have promised
vast amounts
to the Norwegian nobility.
That they were going down
to Denmark,
they were going to steal everything,
they were going to eat Danish food,
live there, key themselves in,
and most of them would come home
happy men, rich and fat,
and live very good lives.
What instead happened is
he took lots of people down there,
and he stumbles out the forest
a year and a half later
with a very tiny number
of frostbitten people
and the nobility who stayed behind
say, right, where's the money?
Where's the payment?
Where's the gold? Where's the food?
Where's the sheep?
Where's the cows? Where's the goods?
And he has to say,
I haven't got any.
We made a terrible tactical error.
That's not going to go down
well at all. Surely.
(soft medieval music)
NARRATOR: On his return from Rome,
Knut sets sail for Denmark.
Officially,
to celebrate his victory
but in reality,
to purge his kingdom.
Ulf's role during the campaign
is unclear.
And Knut no longer trusts him.
- (speaking French)
The two men are at loggerheads.
Ulf tries to negotiate
with his brother-in-law,
to talk things through with him.
Knut seems, though this is somewhat
of a cliche in the sagas,
to maintain a deathly silence
in his presence.
The atmosphere isn't exactly rosy.
Ulf thinks a quick game of Hnefatafl
would be a good way
to lighten the mood.
The two sit down and play together.
It turns out Ulf wins.
So that creates a bit of tension.
NARRATOR: Knut watches
his brother-in-law closely.
Every one of his gestures
betrays his duplicity.
Then Knut breaks the silence
and raises his voice.
And Ulf realises his life
now hangs by a thread.
- He begins to vaguely try
to explain himself
and, annoyed by the situation,
Knut asks one of his followers,
then another,
to simply kill Ulf outright.
- But what can Ulf have expected?
I mean he couldn't be trusted again,
he's Eadrit Strayner,
but in Denmark.
What did he really think
was going to happen?
He has to die.
It's unfortunate, but it's politics.
NARRATOR: Ulf flees
and takes refuge
in Roskilde Cathedral,
hoping to find protection there.
But nothing can stop Knut's fury.
(low, tense music)
On his orders,
his men enter the sacred place
and, under the helpless gaze
of the prelate
Ulf is coldly executed.
- Ulf meets his end from
a well-aimed blow of an axe
in Roskilde Church
which later became a cathedral,
whilst he was praying.
Perhaps he was aware
that his life hung by a thread,
but clearly the cathedral
was of little help in this matter.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
Knut sets sail for England.
In just a few months,
he has achieved
what once seemed impossible.
He has risen to the ranks
of Europe's greatest rulers.
He has defeated the Norwegian
and Swedish armies.
And rid himself of the traitors
who threatened his kingdom.
A victory he intends to share
in a letter addressed
to all his subjects.
- He styles himself King of England,
King of Denmark, King of Norway
and part of Sweden.
He hadn't gone to Norway
at this point.
But he feels,
probably quite rightly,
in the Scandinavian sense,
he is the king of Norway
and part the of Sweden,
because he's bested them
on the battlefield.
- From Knut's perspective,
this representation of Knut
as king of the Norwegians
is something that Knut could see
for himself as legitimate.
But of course, for many in Norway,
this was not legitimate.
NARRATOR: But to subdue Norway,
a simple letter will not suffice.
For in the northern lands,
Olaf Haraldsson continues
to defy him.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Knut desires more than
anything to conquer Norway,
the kingdom that has eluded him
time and time again.
But Godwin tempers his enthusiasm.
A new campaign would be long
and, above all,
with no guarantee of success.
- Norway's geography presents
particular challenges for Knut.
It's high mountains, its fjords,
its isolated communities,
has tended naturally to lead
to a fragmented political system,
where it's quite possible
in the Norwegian landscape
to set up a position of authority
in one region
and be largely impervious
to external influence.
NARRATOR:
If he cannot prevail by force,
then he will do so by cunning.
He knows that the crushing defeat
at the River Helgea
still haunts people's memories
and that the imposition of
Christianity is still resented.
A single spark would be enough
to set the country ablaze.
- This is something we see
quite often with the conversion
of medieval peoples and kingdoms,
is that there's an initial move
towards the new faith,
often quite a strong move,
and then eventually a counter
reaction as people wish to leave it.
Some of those who converted
choose to apostatize.
Others who never converted
seek to reassert themselves.
NARRATOR: The Danish fleet sails
into the Nidaros Fjord,
when Norway capital lay.
Knut's ship glitters with gold
in the sunlight.
- Knut turned up not only
with a ship covered in gold,
but he turned up
with a ship full of gold.
- He has the resources of England
behind him,
so he can throw money at the problem
as well as resource.
And this does mean that
when it comes to a showdown
with Olaf, he both has troops
he can potentially send there,
but he can also seek to buy people.
(tense medieval music)
NARRATOR: Knut distributes his
wealth without counting the cost.
To some, he offers gold.
To others, honours.
In return, he has one demand:
that the nobles swear
absolute loyalty to him.
- Scandinavian kingship
is an elective kingship.
Kings hold power
because the nobility,
or significant factions
of the nobility, say they can.
Scandinavian kings have
to demonstrate constantly success.
It's about the fact that you have
to demonstrate
that the gods are still with you.
You have luck every single time,
because the moment
you don't have luck,
your power base drains away from you
and you're left on your own.
And that's what happened to Olaf.
(tense, dramatic music)
NARRATOR:
Olaf refuses to believe in defeat.
How could God have abandoned him,
the man who evangelised
the northern lands?
So he gathers
his last remaining followers
and leads his troops
towards Nidaros.
But his former subjects,
now loyal to Knut,
refuse him passage.
So with all the strength
of his faith,
he throws himself into battle
for one last fight.
(battle cries)
That of a man rejected
by his own people.
- Olaf Haraldsson meets a group
of courtiers,
many of whom are associated
with Knut, but they are Norwegians,
and he meets them at a place
called Stiklestad, and he dies.
He's killed by his own people.
And that is the end
of Olaf Haraldsson
and his claims to Norway.
And from then on,
the Danes rule perfectly happily.
(horses neigh)
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR: After two decades of war
and conquest,
Knut now reigns over
a vast territory.
From England to Denmark and
as far as the borders of Norway
everywhere he restores order
and establishes his dynasty.
Knut is no longer just a king,
he is an emperor.
The Emperor of the North Sea.
- You can certainly say that Knut
has achieved more than his fathers,
or perhaps rather has realised
what their ambitions were.
- He's centralised power in Denmark
further than any
of his forebears would.
He's taken control of England.
That's really under his thumb
and it's not going anywhere.
He's taken control of Norway.
He's made sure that the Danes
never have to fear incursions
from the Norwegians. On top of that,
he's met the Emperor.
So did he go further
than his father and grandfather?
Miles, I mean miles past them
If that isn't a meteoric life
of achievement,
I don't know what it is.
NARRATOR: At the twilight of a reign
that lasted 20 years
Knut had his throne erected
on the shores of the dark waters
of the North Sea.
With his eyes fixed
on the relentless flow
of the rising tide
he raised his voice
and commanded the ocean to recede.
- People see it as a sign of hubris
that Knut's there
thinking he can stop the waves,
thinking he can stop the inevitable.
- (speaking French)
And of course,
one might expect as much.
But the rising tide pays no heed
to the royal command
and gradually washes over
the king's feet.
NARRATOR: Unmoved, Knut stares out
at the sea that defies him.
He senses behind him the crowd of
anxious and incredulous courtiers.
Then, very slowly, he rises.
His steely gaze sweeps over
the silent assembly.
- And what he says is at the end,
as its feet are wet:
"Do you see my power as
a temporal king,
a lord of the world? It's nothing
before the lord of the heavens".
He's not God and he's not a saint.
He's saying, I can control lots of
things in this world,
but I can't control that.
The story is designed to show him
as a perfect Christian king
who is humble before God,
as it were.
NARRATOR:
Gently, Knut removes his crown
then places it beside the Christ
figure, as a sign of humility.
- Here we are shown a king who is
aware of the limits of his power,
who, despite his true power,
has never succumbed to hubris.
He's always remained,
if I may say so,
with his feet in the water, but also
with his feet on the ground,
incapable of thinking himself
to be more than he was.
- And while it's a later
fictionalised account,
I suspect it probably gets
at the heart of his spirituality,
which may have been a rough one,
but seems to have been also
a very genuine one.
And that Knut, I think, deep down,
did always think
that it was God
who'd given him his powers.
And so in that sense,
it probably is evoking something
of his ethos of kingship.
(soft dramatic music)
NARRATOR: Knut died peacefully
on Wednesday 12th November 1035,
in Shaftesbury, Dorset.
- He dies presumably from this
weakness men in his family have,
some aneurysm,
some stroke like thing.
He dies. He's gonna be about 40.
I think everybody who studies Knut
needs,
on somewhere around
their 40th birthday,
to look back, as we all do,
as I did and say, what have I done?
Because it's nothing
in comparison to him.
NARRATOR:
His remains were transferred
to Winchester Old Minster,
where he now rests alongside
the greatest West Saxon rulers.
He leaves behind a legacy
whose influence endured in England
for centuries.
- Knut's legacy was to change
the political system
within the English kingdom
and that idea that England
could be conquered and ruled
by a foreign invader
and legitimately controlled as such
must have been important,
in the minds of contemporaries.
And it's interesting that Norman
writers of this period
were aware Knut's legacy.
And perhaps in some sense,
that echo of Knut's conquest
may have echoed through
into what William the Conqueror
achieved in 1066
and after.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: In 1034, his eldest son
Svein had died prematurely,
soon followed by
his two other heirs.
The crown then passed
to Edward the Confessor,
son of Aethelred
and Emma of Normandy.
In less than a decade,
the empire built by Knut collapsed.
For, in reality,
it rested solely on his authority.
Yet Knut the Viking remains
etched in history,
in the pantheon
of England's greatest kings.