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The North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, 1016 - 1035
A map illustrating the rise and extent of the North Sea Empire under the rule of Cnut the Great (aka Canute, Cnut Cyning, or Knútr Inn Ríki) as a personal union of England, Denmark, and Norway between 1016 and 1035 CE. One of only two English kings to bear the title of “Great,” Cnut was the son of King Sven, the Dane, Forkbeard, and grandson of Harald Bluetooth. During his short reign, King Cnut ruled England as the center of a North Sea Empire that included most of Scandinavia and Ireland and claimed vassalage from as far away as Scotland and Pomerania. After more than two centuries of Viking raids and Cnut’s early years of aggressive conquest, his rule is considered one of the most stable and prosperous of the early medieval period. After his death at 40 from an unknown illness (both his sons died without leaving heirs in just a few years,) a period of messy political instability disintegrated Cnut’s North Sea Empire and, in 1066, made England a target for another foreign appetite - this time from Normandy across the English Channel.
