Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 5. Svein and Knút
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zealous; especially honouring St. Cuthbert, St. Eadmund,
the martyr of the early Vikings, St. Ælfheah,
the victim of his own comrades; and in 1026 going
on pilgrimage to Rome, not without an eye to diplomatic
business, for the journey enabled him to attend
the coronation of the Emperor Conrad, with whom he
arranged flic marriage of his daughter Gunnhild to
the heir of Germany ; and he was able also to get
various concessions from the pope and the king of
Burgundy, advantageous to English and Danes on
pilgrimage or on business abroad. As a legislator and
military organiser he found the happy mean between
Danish and English interests. He did not rule in any
altruistic spirit, for he exacted enormous sums of
money from the conquered nation ; nor did he throw
himself on the country which he adopted as his own
without the new safeguard of an efficient standing
army ; but he gave justice, peace and well-being such
as England had not known for a generation.
Knút’s Laws, which Freeman thought to date from
the end of his reign (after 1028), because they mention
Peter’s Pence and Knút’s title of King of Norway,
begin with admonitions to religious duty—to fear God,
hold one Christian belief, and love King Knút with
true faith ; to keep the feasts of Eadward, king and
martyr, and of Dunstan the bishop; to observe
Sunday ; to forsake idols and the worship of sun and
moon, fire and water, wells, stones and trees. The
second part, dealing with secular matters, re-enacts
with some additions the laws of former kings of
England : Eadgar’s recognition of the local rights of
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