9. King Canute’s North Sea Empire

I often do shopping for the first day, and the platform does not have any problems.

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I have the feeling that Shopify allows you to continue to optimize. Everything is super simple, integrated and balanced. And the time and the money that I can't invest in there. For all of them, in Waxton. It's the year 1028, somewhere on the south coast of England.

It's a cold day, there's a stiff onshore breeze. Up on the coastal path, armed heavies keep a lookout.

Down on the beach, pages hold horses while they're masters,

a group of Anglo-Norse nobleman, gather at the water's edge. They stand there and they're finest cloaks and furs, looking rather awkward.

“Range behind a man sitting in a large oak chair.”

He stairs out to sea, raises his hand as if him command. And holds it there as the waves roar in. Scuds of foam washing over his soft leather shoes. It's a fast tie, but the man is implacable. Within a couple of minutes, the water is up to his knees.

His nervous entourage, getting soaked now themselves, pleave with him to withdraw. The man nods and rises. He has made his point. On his head rests a gold crown. He's not just king of England, but of Denmark and Norway too.

“Ruler of a vast North Sea, North Atlantic Empire.”

Contrary to the later myth that will develop around him, he does not believe he has the part to control the elements. Rather, it is that not even he, an ordained Christian monarch, one of such expansive realms, can stem the tide. No one is above God's law.

After wizard is said, back in Winchester, he will hang his crown on the royal chapel's crucifix. Never to be worn again. Alongside Alfred, he will be the only king of England known as The Great. And his act today, much misconstrued,

will become a colorful vignette in the long history of the English monarchy. His name is Canute. I'm Ian Glam, and from the noise of podcast network, this is Rio Vikings, part nine. Going into the 11th century,

the medieval world is transforming. At the dawn of the Viking era, Norseman had exploded onto the scene as he then raiders. As plodging turned to trading, then to settling, Viking colonies have been established in England and France,

the Dain law and Normandy. In Ireland, there are Norse enclaves, known as Longpaws. Out on the wild ocean, Scandinavian navigators have extended their reach through Iceland and Greenland, all the way to North America.

To the east meanwhile, Nordic entrepreneurs dominate the river networks that snake down through Russia to the Black Sea and Constantinople. One of the biggest motivators for settling lands in you

that always being the prospects abroad

will rose you than those at home. But the old world has been evolving too.

Part of the legacy of the Viking age for the home lands of Scandinavia

“is the emergence of three states, three kingdoms in Denmark,”

Norway and Sweden. In this series, we've used the terms Norway, Denmark and Sweden for geographical convenience rather than as defined nation states. Descriptions are complicated by the terminology of the age, particularly in the lands the Vikings invade.

The word Norse, for example, sometimes reserve for things that are specifically Norwegian, is often deployed as a generic term. In Anglo-Saxon England by contrast, it is Dain which is the catchall label for anyone

pitching up from across the North Sea.

In terms of the lands from Pennsylvania, Norway means simply the North Way.

“The great sea lane that winds up the islands and fjords of Scandinavia's west coast.”

In Denmark it is not the sea but the gentle terrain which gives it its name. Dain means low ground. Mark, like the English marches, indeed like the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom called Mercia, means a territory, particularly a borderland.

Denmark is thus the flatland or flat borderland. The name Sweden means while refers to its people, the sphere, who have tussled with the Uttars or Gaiats,

for dominance of Southeast Scandinavia.

It is one Gaiat, a monster slaying one, who is the hero of the epic old English poem that is a big hit of the day. Beautiful. But all three regions have been evolving into distinct self-contained units. Professor Stefan Brink.

The beginning of the emergence of the Kingdom sort of states, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, takes place in the 700s and 800s, when kings over the days, especially on mention in Frankish alms. However, it is fast around a year, thousand,

that we see Denmark and Norway consolidated as a larger territory of kingdoms. In the reign of King Godfrey, who rules from 804, the Dain strengthened their defensive earthworks, known as the "Dana Viet",

to resist Frankish aggression from the south. With this land border secured, Godfrey begins unifying his territory, from the Jatland Peninsula across to Skania, in today's southern Sweden.

By the reign of Gorm the Old, in 936, it is being administered from the ancient capital of Yelling. Gorm will be buried in Yelling in one of two massive mountains built by his son, Harold Gormson. On the giant Rune stones erected there, both kings refer to their realm as Denmark.

When Harold becomes King in 958, the Danish state becomes part of Christendom. It's 1997, where in Santa Clara, California, deep in Silicon Valley.

Amid the tech start-ups, computer companies and software developers, it's an exciting place to be. The epicenter of the digital Big Bang, populate by Hip Young Techies and Gene and T-shirt CEOs.

At one company, Intel, known for its micro-processors, they've been developing a short range wireless technology. Something that originated with partner's Ericsson, the Swedish mobile phone company. It will do away with cables and link devices remotely.

Laptops, headphones, MP3 players, printers, televisions.

“It's especially important with the new generation of handheld devices”

that are being financed, the so-called smart phones. Intel's owner, Jim Cardak, has a code word for this new kit. He came up with it over a few beers at a recent conference, and nod to its Nordic origins.

It was inspired by a novel that was lent to him,

The book features King Harold Gormson

“and highlights his skills at bringing people together,”

using them as one. He's an inspirational figure, Cardak Reckens, one worthy of naming their new technology after. Though not Gormson, that would be silly, rather Harold's nickname. Due to a dental quirk, a prominent decaying insider.

The King of Denmark was known to everyone as Harold Bluetooth. Look, Cardak demonstrates. They can deploy the Runex version of his initials, H.B. as the new tech's logo. He's a deafening silence, a few winces.

Don't worry, Beads. Bluetooth, it's just a working title.

You can always change it later.

Harold Bluetooth, in my mind,

“is the King who does the most form a state out of Denmark.”

The birth certificate in the sense of Denmark is sometimes named as the yelling roomstone. The yelling roomstone has the first depiction of Christ in the kind of crucified pose. And it's got a text where Harold claims

that he built these monuments in memory of his parents and that he united all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danish Christian. Those are big claims. But archaeology has largely supported this claim.

In a previous episode, we followed the settlement of Iceland. His population had swelled you to an exodus of people from Norway, driven out by the rule of Harold Fairhead.

“Fairhead had united Norway, or much of it,”

on exceeding to the throne in 872. Although unlike the fairytale version, his rule will turn out to be far from PG. His power doesn't last, and I don't think he fashions what any of us would consider a true state.

And it disintegrates after his death. And there's metaling of the Danish King in the Norwegian politics of the Danish King often controls the Oslo fjord, area of Norway, in a way that limits the power that any Norwegian King can gather for himself.

With at least 20 sons vying for the crown, there is not almighty scrap brewing over the running of the family business. The last man standing is someone we've referenced earlier in this series. The splendidly monocard Eric Bloodhacks, so called for his enthusiastic elimination of his brothers.

He will hack his way to the Norwegian throne in 931. Eric portfolio will, for a while, include King ships of both Norway and Northumbria, over in the north of England. And it is there across the water, where there will be a further twist to a family drama.

It seems the youngest brother had escaped Eric's hatchet. Spirited out of harm's way the boy named Harkham, has been brought up in England, adopted by King Athelstan and baptised. Known as Harkham the good, and who wouldn't be compared to Eric,

he will soon be at war with his sibling.

Park and the good will become Norway's first Christian King in 934,

though ongoing bloodfuts will lead to years of instability and Danish intervention. Eric Bloodhacks will be forced out of York, and will make a last-standing cambria in the year 954. Sweden will not find Jesus until the 12th century. It is also slower in achieving nationhood.

But with the accession of Eric, the victorious in 970, its war infactions put aside their differences. But the situation is much more wobbly, and with the strife between 2 realms, the year 30th of the South, and the sphere in the east centre Sweden. And this strife shifted back and forth for hundreds of years.

So Sweden can best be described as a federation between the year 30th of the sphere.

grow from patchwork collectives of petty kingdoms into bonafidey countries.

Christian ones.

“The very type of entities that their Viking warriors once plundered.”

And with their royal houses and denastic claims, they are once again to have a huge impact on the lands with whom they interact. And most significantly, Anglo-Saxon England. When we were last in England, offered the Great Had in 878, made his peace with the Danish King Guthrum.

This had seen the establishment of an autonomous Viking region, the Dain law. Guthrum had converted to Christianity, ruling East Anglia personally under a new name. Athol-Stan. Not to be confused with the later King Athol-Stan,

the one who adopted Prince Harkin.

To create the Dain law, England is bisected on a diagonal south east to northwest. The boundary follows approximately the path of the old Roman road, whatling street, whose main leg runs from London to Chester. Pretty much the route of today's A5.

“But the Dain law was never a homogenous entity.”

It's all rather fragmented. Professor Levi Roach. So we've got politics there, plural, but the precise nature of them is actually quite hard to establish. But we do know that there was all of these areas

that have seen significant Scandinavian settlement. The biggest part, Northumbria,

literally the land north of the Humber,

had extended as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom from Northern England up into the lowlands of modern Scotland. Under Danish control, its southern portion evolves into the kingdom of York, ruled jointly at times with the Norse King of Dublin.

The Danish East Midlands, meanwhile,

“is subdivided into what are known as the five boroughs,”

Lester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford, and Derby. South of the border, by contrast, the Anglo-Saxon lands are beginning to coalesce. Though not without internal turmoil. It will take until the rule of Alfred's grandson,

the aforementioned King Athostan, to solidify the realm. After decades of uneasy coexistence with the Nordic settlers, conflict will once more break out. Athostan will beat the Danes at York in 1927.

Ten years later, at the Battle of Brennanburg, an undetermined location somewhere in Northern England. He defeats a combined army led by the King's of Scotland, Stratth Clyde, and Norstummen. The coins, Athostanmins, declare himself,

Rex, Toteus, Britanniai, or King of the whole of Britain. But it is an ever-shifting landscape, one of conquest and reconquest. It is Athostan's successor Edmund,

who regains the five boroughs in 1944. And this is not until the advent of King Edgar, in 1959, that the monarch is recognised definitively as the ruler and lord of the whole Isle of Albion. On Edgar's death in 1975,

his two young sons are next in line as rulers of this new entity, the land of angles, England, England. England. When the elder son dies in suspicious circumstances at Corf Castle, almost certainly murdered,

it is his 10-year-old brother who comes to the throne. His given name, Athol Red, will forever be conjoined with a nickname, deriving from an ironic Anglo-Saxon sense of humour. Entering to the frame, the boy King of England,

Athol Red, the unready. Dr. Pragervora. It's highly likely that this is something that is sort of retrospectively being applied to Athol Red. His name itself means no book council,

and the unready part comes from the Anglo-Saxon unred, which means ill council. So it seems to be some kind of play on his name. He will at a stroke and do the work of his forebears.

It is a unitary entity, well-covered and above all, wealthy.

Such things do not go unnoticed,

“not least by an Norwegian warlord, Olaft Trigverson.”

As the great grandson of Harold Fair here, violence is in Olaft's DNA. He's an unreconstructed pagan to boot, nicknamed Crobone, for his ritualized shredding of bird carcasses.

Aware of England's growing riches, this Viking throwback sells an army over to East Anglia to loot and pillage. It will culminate in the Battle of Maldon, where in the mud of the Essex marshlands, Olaft defeats an English army.

Ethel Red, now in his 20s, seems as ill-canceled as the legend suggests. Learning nothing from history, he bungs Olaft a huge amount of silver to go away. Together with a rather hopeful suggestion

that the hairy heathen might undertake some Bible study. So after the Battle of Maldon,

“which is recorded in 1991 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,”

the invaders are paid £10,000, and asks to please leave. Thank you very much. Which they do, but that only highlights to these Viking raiders,

just how wealthy the kingdom of England is, and so they come back, and they keep coming back. 200 years on from Lindisfarne, the reemergence of a barbarian hoard must have struck terror into the shires.

As no English poem of the day called simply, the Battle of Maldon. It will, but it's for boating sense of good versus evil, be hugely influential on J.R. Art Talkins,

Lord of the Rings. Ethel Red generally gets

“a bit of a reputation as being a poor king,”

or a bad king, and that's perhaps a little bit unfortunate. Rather than indicative of his capabilities as a ruler, he inherits his kingdom at a particularly difficult time in the time of his father and his brother,

we've got this period of sort of relative calm, and then as soon as Ethel Red comes to the throne, the Viking raids begin again. Olaf Trigverson will return home and seize the Norwegian throne.

He will overflow the sitting king, Harkham, not Harkham the good, but Harkham the bad. But maybe Ethel Red's plea registered after all,

ruling as Olaf the first,

Trigverson will become a fervent, Evangelical Christian. He is said to have personally baptized Explorer Leaf Ericsson, prior to his mission to Vinland. In 1997, Olaf will find an Norwegian capital,

Trondheim, halfway up the country, far removed from neighbouring Denmark, which has become increasingly embroiled in Norwegian affairs. Back in England, Ethel Red, newly emboldened, decides to go in the offensive.

He leads a raid against Normandy, which is becoming a safe haven again for Viking raiders. A peace concludes with Ethel Red's marriage. In 1002, he ties the knot with the Norman Princess named Emma, herself half Danish,

but it is a false dawn. The raiding does not stop. It is the old Norse problem all over again, exactly as it's happening over in Ireland. I mean, once we come to the end of direct Scandinavian rule in Northumbria,

in this mid-10th century period, the historical record really falls silent completely until it starts to record the raids at the end of the 10th century, so Vikings appear on the horizon, once again in the 90s.

In some historical tax, you will find people talking about

the first Viking age and the second Viking age.

There has to be an explanation for this phenomenon, the King's men suggest. With advisors for spring and efforts year about an enemy within, and a fifth column, he decides to take drastic action.

He will purge his realm of anyone with Norse blood.

The settled Norse and the Anglo-Saxons have over the past century

being intermingling.

“Particularly in the north of Ethel Reds Kingdom,”

where the female locals have been rather taken with the new arrivals. Dr. Elena Baracluff. There's some absolutely wonderful material written from the point of view of the Anglo-Saxons or the English, later, who come into contact with them,

and they tell us things like, they're really quite clean. They wash, maybe even every week, heaven forbid. There's a wonderful later source that says, essentially the Anglo-Saxons are absolutely furious

because the Scandinavian settlers used to bathe

and used to brush their hair and change their clothes and their socks. There were lots of women who were very attracted to these clean Scandinavians. It's an easy fit.

“The English and the Norse are culturally and ethnically similar.”

Fellow Germanic travellers. Not so long before Anglo-Saxons worship the same pagan gods. They speak languages that are to some extent mutually intelligible. Whether or not it's accurate, that speakers of all English and all Norse could somehow communicate with each other.

They could somehow interact enough to be able to create

some sort of hybrid language.

And we see a lot of that hybridity even in the language that we speak today. So for instance, if you ate an egg for breakfast this morning, you have the Vikings to thank for that word egg. If you died, another grim, you have the Vikings to thank for the word

that tells you that you have died. The Norse impact on the English language to this very day remains significant. Words like you, window, foot, bug, not to mention an excess of terms associated with raiding.

Heal, starboard, berserk, ugly, skull, knife, slaughter, ransack, club. There's everyday nouns like lad, sky, fellow, husband, oath, which means literally elf and countless more besides. Our days of the week, Tuesday through to Friday,

a named after the old Norse gods or their Anglo-Saxon variants. Tier, Odin, Thor, and Frig. To cut a long story short, by the turn of the 11th century, the Norse are of these subred generations who were born in England. Speak the Lingo, our Christian, and would consider themselves English.

Just ones with Scandinavian heritage. Nordic English, if you will, or Anglo-Nores. And we have a different and unique culture, Anglo-Scanonavian culture, that we see manifested in the archaeology, as well as in the laws that they're following.

Other elements of Scandinavian culture, we see decorated in places like the Dossforth Cross, where you have Scandinavian methodological scenes, combined with Christian symbols. So the Vikings, the Scandinavians, which I call now,

because they're no longer sea-born pirates. There's Scandinavian settling in England. Or, pretty quickly, it seems adopting Christianity, and mingling some of their own artistic and ideological traditions. That it seems like a multi-faith community.

It is a state of affairs that does not seem to have been thought through by Arthur Red. I'm Theresa and my experience at all entrepreneurs, started with Shopify erfolgreich through.

“I think Shopify is already the first day,”

and the platform makes me no problem. I have many problems, but the platform is no one from now. I have the feeling that Shopify platforms continue to continue, everything is super integrated and connected. And the time and the money that I can't invest in there,

and that the money that I can't invest in there. For all of them, in Waxtum.

and an extraordinary encounter with a humpback whale. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories,

“where amidst the misty expense of Dartmore,”

for one of Conan Doyle's most beloved works, the hound of the basketballs. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Neiser Plus. And by the way, a short history of ancient Rome,

Neuser's first book is out now in paperback,

available in all good bookshops. (gentle music) It's November the 13th, 1002, since Bryce's day. We're in Oxford.

In the marketplace, a group of young men, Anglo-Daines, are being cornered by a bayonet mob. They had all against the chill wind blowing in from the east, and from the abuse, stones, and rotten fruit that are being held at them.

The aggression is reaching fever pitch.

“Soldiers, lighter, enjoying the spectacle”

rather than intervening. Civilians, and unarmed,

the young men appear harmless enough.

They protest their innocence at whatever it is they seem to have been accused of. Something about being foreigners, not welcome. They are English-born, they repeat Christian, and know their allegiance to the king.

It was ever thus. That their words fallen deaf ears. Under a hail of rocks they cower, with hands raised to protect their heads they dash for a nearby church,

the church of St. Fritha Smith, and force their way in.

Here, at least they can seek sanctuary.

Soldiers not knowingly. In a premeditated move, a wooden beam is lowered to lock the men. Soldiers climb ladders and smear the wooden roof with pitch. Once out of the way, and to gleeful cheers from the crowd, archers looks flaming arrows to set the building ablaze.

Within minutes the church is a waging and furno. From inside a frantic banging against the door is replaced by screams of terror, an agony. And then, as the rafters collapse, silence. A shout goes up from the ranks.

Some of its gate, look, they must have got out round the back. There they are in the distant staggering spluttering towards the river. Cavaria dispatched to cut them down every last man. Their 37 bodies will be buried in a mass grave. They will lie there till a 2008 excavation had such on-scolage later built over the site.

Analysis will confirm the skeletons to have been mailed. Age 16 to 25, containing Danish DNA. They died from serious defensive wounds and slashes to their backs. A similar grave, only with the young male victims dismembered this time, will be found on Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth.

And there will be more acts like this repeated up and down the country. It is, according to Ethored's decree, a most just extermination. It will come up for all the Danes that sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat. And this is a biblical metaphor for sinful elements.

In the middle ages, this was often interpreted as being like a reference to things like heresy and heretics. And it's a reliant, it's frequently invoked in later years for burning heretics. So there it is, the strong image of pollution in our kingdom and of these being. The polluting elements in a religious as well as a secular sense. There remains debate to this day about Ethored's true intentions.

Allegedly tipped off about a plot against him. Some say the plan was merely to snuff out the ringleaders. Others that it was caught blanched to exterminate any one of Nordic extraction living in England. The surprise day, massacre, conjures up images that,

“I think going some ways helpful in other ways, not in terms of modern events and ethnic cleansing and the like,”

There's no signature of this. It would have been impossible to ascertain Danes versus English. So it's clearly not that, actually. It's clearly something targeted, it's not nice, it's a nasty move. But it seems to be a targeted move against recent arrivals and probably recent mercenaries.

It doesn't seem to have taken the whole of the English kingdom by storm.

“There seem to have been pockets of violence directed against court and court deans.”

And there is some suggestion that the people that were targeted were people who had come as part of these renewed raids, Rather than the settled populations that had been part of the English kingdom. Either way, it has the same repercussions. For among the casualties of the massacre, just happens to be a noble woman named Gunhilder, wife of the Olderman of Devonshire, who just happens to be the sister of the latest King of Denmark.

A man with an idiosyncratic grooming style, Sven folk beard.

Sven folk beard is not one to mess about. A son of Harold Bluetooth, he had forced his own father into exile and allegedly colluded in his grizzly death.

“It is said he died with an arrow up his rectum.”

All the better for his son to grab the Danish crown. And along the way, amid some Danish Norwegian ranker, find himself King of Norway too. In ten o' three, Sven folk beard lands on the southwest coast of England with a vast amounter and burns down extra. He has plunged a dagger into the very heart of all blessings. And so, when Sven invades England, the explanation is that this is revenge for his sister's murder,

that's part of the St. Bryce's day massacre. Whether this is a real story or not is almost impossible to tell, but what we do know is that after St. Bryce's day massacre, the amount of tribute money demanded and paid increases exponentially.

“But what it does lead to is a huge amount of unrest and instability in Apple Red's own kingdom.”

But Sacks of Dane Guilt aren't going to buy peace this time. This thing is personal. Sven has a blade with F-Red's name on it. F-Red's son from a previous marriage Edmund will do his best to help dad man the defenses. Quite valiantly it turns out. An effort which will earn him the nickname Edmund Ironside.

Sven is unsuccessful in ten o' three, but he will try again in ten o' nine and in ten thirteen. For Sven, like the Chinese military philosopher, Sun-Tu, knows his enemy. He is fully aware that Earth Red's rule is now fragile. In particular, the Northern English, the Anglo-Scanternavians, have been completely alienated by his attempt to wipe them out.

When Sven sends a Danish fleet up the river Humber in the northeast, many of the locals welcome him as a liberator. Fearing for the lives of his family, F-Red dispatches Queen Emma and their free young children off to Normandy. There's still very much the sense of parts of England being perhaps more Scandinavian, and that's being layered on top of the fact that there were strong regional identities anyway. So there certainly is a very strong sense above all in Yorkshire of uncertainty about this southern dynasty,

who never historically ruled us, and this willingness therefore to have Scandinavian worlds come over and rule them.

One could argue that an England or in Britain generally, a north-south divide persists to this day. At the very least, northern linguistic differences remain. In all of these areas, what we really start to see is that this merger, we see Old Norse-Lonewards being borrowed into English, and that everyone's speaking, are shared distinct, divisional dialect that does set them apart from the southeners. The north influence on the English language has already mentioned one's deep,

but you can see it too reflected northern English place names. The suffix, thaw, as in scum thaw or maple thaw, is a term-meaning assettlement. Thing-wall on the moose-like ting-wall in Shetland was once the seat of an assembly, a thing. The word also lends itself to the Isle of Man Parliament, tin-world. The B-Y-B on the end of Derby, Grimsby, Whitby, many others, it means simply town.

From back-meaning stream to nass-meaning headland to fell-meaning hill, it goes on and on.

“In England, still, the Great Accent Division, the long-ar versus the short-ar, path and path, southern, versus path, path, northern.”

Still pretty much delineates according to the old Dain-Law B-Handry. The suing a peerless PR campaign, Spend leads his army south into the Mercyan Midlands, where it turns out they're numb to fond of ethyl-red either. The English King knows his number is up. He is soon sailing across the channel to join his family. With a hop-in-a-stab, Spend fork-beid is in London.

He is declared on Christmas Day 1013, not just King of England, but the first Viking King of England.

Not that the history books have a given much credit.

“Probably because after a mere five weeks and having never formally been crammed, he suddenly dies, possibly as a result of falling off his horse.”

From his base in Gainesbury, Lincolnshire, Spend had reportedly been on his way to his coronation in York. Back-down south, it prompts the council of west-ex Elders, the Witter, to summon ethyl-red back again. Returning in the spring of 1014, ethyl-red and his allies restore England to Anglo-Saxon rule. Though no sooner has ethyl-red done so than he, too, takes a turn for the worse and delegates his son, ethyl-man iron-side to rule in his stead. This does not sit well with a rival claimant, Sven's own son.

Someone who had fought alongside his father in the invasion and has substantial support in the English North. That man is canoeed.

“Little is known about the early life of canoeed. He was most likely born in Denmark around 990.”

Sources suggest his mother was Polish, probably his Via To Slava, daughter of King Mieshkov the first,

and a former wife of Sweden's Erik the Victoria's. While his brother-ruled Denmark has harrowed the second, Prince canoeed is invited over by the Northern English Yars, or Earl's, as their preferred choice as King of England. Ethel-red seems is not just unready, but unpopular. Intentum restoring his father's legacy, canoeed resembles another invasion force and lands at sandwich on the Kent Coast in September 1050,

with about 10,000 men in 200 ships. We have from the later Chronicle, which is the Encomium-Emergency, we've got a wonderful description of what these ships looked like sailing into England, with many kinds of shields and gold shining on the prowls and silver flashing.

It's an absolutely incredible description of canoeed's fleet, coming into Wessex.

Canotas assembled a coalition of the willing. It is a mix of Scandinavians, men from the Baltic regions, which includes a contingent of Polish troops learned by his uncle, Duke Polish love. As Erieudite and Philosophicalis canotas been painted, he's no shrinking violet. On landing, his first task is to order what is described politely as the mutilation of the English hostages.

Those Anglo-Saxon noblemen who had been held for diplomatic leverage. In the manner of the day, it's a market to lay down. This is war. Just as his father had done, canot exploits his support in the north. He also persuades a number of English nobles to defect. By late-1015, Wessex has submitted, canoeed begins a mopping up operation.

But when Ethel Red does eventually die on April 23, 2016,

With Edmund Ainside in nominal charge, it only stiffens canoeed's resolve. England has two pretenders, an northern one, and a southern one. In a war that has been raging for 14 months, Edmund Ainside has seen off several attacks on London,

“not yet the capital, but fast-becoming England's most important city.”

One devastating assault, launched by an Norwegian warlord, will become the source of a nursery rhyme. London bridges falling down. But in October, 2016, at the Battle of Ascendant, believed to be near Safran Wald and Essex, canoeed just like his father, wallops the English army once and for all.

Edmund flees west. It results in another territorial division of England, though this time on far less favourable terms for the English than had been agreed when setting up the old Dame law. All land north of the Thames goes to canoeed, no ifs or buts. Edmund Ainside gets everything south of the river, plus London.

In terms of territory, that's about 70/30 split in favour of the Norseman, with a winner takes all twist. The two would be kings come to an agreement.

“Should one of them die first, the other will inherit the others kingdom in its entirety?”

It should come as no surprise that Edmund Ainside perishes in peculiar circumstances pretty soon after. Why possibly murdered whilst sitting on the toilet?

And so, canoeed becomes the second Viking king of England,

crowned in London by the archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. For good measure, he will see to it that all immediate denastic rivals are bumped off, including Edmund's brother. And with the cherry on top, he will take Ethra Reds Widow, Queen Emma as his wife. He fetches her back from Normandy. If it seems a matcho humiliation of the vanquished, it probably is.

But it is also smart politics. The English princes stranded in Normandy are now canoeed's own stepsons, and at his disposal.

“Plus Emma, if you remember, is actually half Danish half Norman.”

canoeed is shoring up his room, giving himself international legitimacy. And if she can bear him as son. Edmund Ainside has a couple of lads of his own, it should be pointed out. They are banished by canoeed to Sweden. The plan is for them to meet unfortunate accidents on the quiet.

But shipped on by the Swedes, the princes will travel to Kiev, then end up in Hungary.

To the loyalists, the eldest will always be the legitimate heir to the throne of England.

He will be known as Edward the exile. Queen Emma, as it happens, is fully on board with a new arrangement. canoeed has a certain swagger way more rock and roll than Wimpy Ethra Red. For a red-blooded man of Viking stock, one wife will never be enough, however. His union with Emma is blessed by the church, and she does deliver him a baby boy.

Arthur canoeed. But Papa has another love interest up in the Midlands. Her name is Elf Gefu.

Elf Gefu of Northampton, a second common law wife.

And she too will bear canoeed to brace of sons. Another Sven and another Harold. Throw in Emma's kids with Ethel Red, hold up across the channel, plus those whessex areas in Hungary, and there are going to be plenty of candidates when canoeed shuffles off this mortal coil.

As a king, canoeed tempers the bloodlust. The archbishop of York makes him promised to rule even handedly. As we saw at the start, canoeed is often presented, erroneously, as an egotist. A man who believed he could actually turn back the tide.

canoeed in the tides is one of those great set pieces.

It's been like Alfred burning the cakes in that it's only recorded a couple of centuries later.

“So we don't really have any reason to believe it's true.”

But it's one of those anecdotes that is meant to sum up the essence of a ruler, who's being seen as being a foundational figure. It's a statement of actually saying, "No, I'm not." You know, don't put me too much of a pedestal. I'm not God, only God controls the waves.

So it's a kind of a correction to hyperbolic praise at his court. That's also then meant to redown to his kind of Christian humility. Under canoeed, the English economy remains strong.

He also builds up the navy and crucially Viking raiding stops.

In ten eighteen, when his brother Harold II dies, he inherits the Danish crown too, though there will be complications back in the old country.

“In something of a role of a vessel, an Anglo-Danish expedition is launched to put down a sweetish Norwegian thread.”

It results in victory for Canute in an epic naval showdown, the Battle of Helgia. Canute will then attack Norway, take Trondheim, depose Olaf II, and in 1028 declare himself King there too. It was thus the king of a huge north Atlantic empire,

consisting of England, Denmark, and all the colonies in North Atlantic, and in a electorate also claims that he controlled parts of Sweden. It will become known as the North Sea Empire. Overlaunch it will, in fact, be a dependence he's in colonies, extend all the way briefly to North American bin land.

In ten thirty-one, three kings of Scotland will submit to Canute,

“Malcolm II, E. Mark, and another who will feature in English literature.”

A gentleman whose name we should perhaps not utter for fear of ill fortune. Macbeth. And then there are the Norse-Gale fielties that remain after the Battle of Kondaf in Ireland. Canute's domain is of such geographical scope, but it will not be rivaled till the advent of Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire in the 13th century.

It's March 26th, 1027, Easter Sunday. We're in Rome, in the sumptuous old St. Peter's Basilica. A vast crowd has lined the streets. There to witness the coronation of the new Holy Roman Emperor, Kondrad II.

He's a descendant of Charlemagne.

Air of the Seasers, arguably the most powerful man in Europe, if not the known world.

The Supreme ruler of what today constitutes Burgundy Germany and Northern Italy. And here today comes his anointing. The ceremony to be conducted by Pope John 19th himself. It's the culmination of a seven-day event, enacted before the crowned heads of Europe.

Only in friendly recognition of Kondrad's power, another king has been permitted to stand at his side. A fellow emperor to all intents some purposes. Knot the Great. And whose own daughter has just been pledged to Kondrad's son.

Knot's rule is secure enough to have afforded him the long journey to Rome. Not only that, he is now at the behest of Kondrad presented to the world if not as an equal, then as near as dammit. It is the absolute zenith of Norse glory, the pinnacle of the Viking age. With Knot's most prosperous, populous kingdom England,

seemingly secure as the centerpiece of the Scandinavian universe. There is an alternative history in which parts of Scandinavia are held by England, or parts of England and the Bershals are held by Scandinavia. Well, you know, into the early modern period and beyond. And of course, that is to a place like me and a hepperady and some of the aisles.

Different story there. But there's no reason why that couldn't be the case with place like Yorkshire,

So Knot's king really does allow us to see a different kind of world

and how it could be created. And the fact that he's able to rule these kingdoms, these realms in a unified manner, shows us that this is very much achievable. And Knot, or Knot, the great at the Englishman calling, was generally remembered as a wise, very successful king of England, good reputation.

Although this you may import the attribute to his good treatment of the church, which is notably coming from Pagas Scandinavia. Lars Brownworth.

“He's one of the greatest of the English kings, I think,”

if we can call him an English king and he ruled this great,

your north sea empire, which no other Viking before him had managed to do. He is the epitome of Viking power and prestige. He's accepted as a brother in law by the Holy Roman Emperor, which quite a change from the beginning of these raiders, who are just kind of smashing, grabbing their way through Europe.

With so many balls to juggle, Knot must delegate. His mistress, Elgifu, like Krinema, seems a true political operator. At one point, she is dispatched to implement Knot's rule in Norway. Quitely known as Elgifu's time. This period will be marked by crippling taxes and growing resistance.

There are austerity measures in England too. It's not just the economy. Knot's frequent absences from England do not endear him to his subjects either. He's this remote figure.

You know, his citizens respected him, but they never loved him.

Despite all the churches he built, and he took two pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome, they always thought he was a heathen, they never kind of accepted him into their hearts in a way. The maintained control, Knot groups the shires into regional entities. They will each come under the purview of assigned O's, and one in particular, a mid-ranking English thay, who is risen beyond his station to be appointed Earl of Wessex,

is stated to sealed by marriage to a Danish noblewoman. As Knot's enforcer is right hand man, head of the most significant Earl of him,

“he will become the second most important person in the country.”

His name is Godwin, ambitious and tough is embedded himself into the royal power structure. And he has big plans for his own Anglo-D Danish boys, including one named Harold, Harold Godwinson. Next time, in the final episode, A Varangian warrior, Harold Hadrada, becomes king of Norway. The title comes with a claim to the throne of England. In Normandy, Duke William, a descendant of Rolo, lays out his own case for seizing the disputed crown.

It will spell disaster for Harold Godwinson, the sitting ruler of the Anglo-Saxon realm. The year 1066 will usher in the ultimate Norshoda, bringing down the curtain on the Viking Age. That's next time, in the final episode of Real Vikings. You can listen right now, without waiting and without adverts, by joining Noiserplace. Click the banner at the top of the feed or head to Noiser.com/subscriptions to find out more.

We are live and tour, history of the 26th and 26th of this spring. In May, and there is still a few last tickets that you don't want to go to.

“We always want to live live, live on our own, with Fibern, then you should go back home and know where you can go to the end.”

That's why we want to tell you our terminum. I just said the city of the termina is there. We are in Vienna, in south, in Erlang, in Frankfurt, in Heidelberg, and in Stuttgart. We are happy to see you again. We are happy to see you again.