Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 5. Svein and Knút
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Svein had become de facto king of England. Thorkel’s
fleet of Danish mercenaries was the only refuge for
Æthelred, who followed his queen and family to
Normandy in January 1014. On February 3 King
Svein died.
Knút, son of Svein, succeeded him in the kingdom
of England, not without severe opposition on the part
of the English, which forced him at first to take ship
for Denmark. Finding Harald, his brother, already
on the Danish throne, he returned in 1015 to England
to recover his father’s realm. Olaf Haraldsson for
some little time remained in England ; whatever
side he may have taken previously, it was he who
brought back Æthelred from Normandy on the death
of Svein. But Æthelred was already dying. His son,
Eadmund Ironside, estranged from him, and finding
assistance from none but his brother-in-law, Uhtred of
Northumbria, kept up some show of resistance until
Knút marched to York and Uhtred gave up the contest.
On April 23, 1016, Æthelred died, and all
England, except London, adhered to the Dane. Knút
brought his fleet to Greenwich, and besieged Eadmund
in the city, cutting a canal through the marshes of
Southwark in order to tow his ships above London
Bridge, and then making a dyke round the north side
of the walls to complete the blockade. Eadmund
escaped, and gathered troops in the west, fought a
notable series of battles at Penselwood, Sherstone,
London, and Brentwood, driving the Danes down to the
coast of Kent, and defeating them in a battle at Otford.
They withdrew into Sheppey and thence into Essex,
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