Essex, and London. Cnut had all the rest; but it seems that Edmund was to be his "over-lord."

29. This did not last, for before the year was over the brave Edmund, the last worthy descendant of Egbert and Alfred, died. How he died is not exactly known. Some said he was murdered; some think he was worn out Edmund by his almost superhuman exertions. But when he died Cnut the Dane became king of all England.

1016. Death of

LECTURE XIII.-CNUT.

A Danish king-his fierce beginning his reform-his religion—pilgrimage to Rome-his letter-his sons.

1016.

1. CNUT did not wish to appear a usurper, or one who had taken a kingdom to which he had no right; nor did he wish only to seem a conqueror, having seized on the kingdom by force. There were no strict rules then, as there are now, about who should succeed to the throne. If the king when he died left a brave son already grown up, it was almost sure he would be chosen, as Alfred's son Edward was; but if he left only young children, then one of their uncles would very likely be made king instead. In those days, as we have seen in the last reign, it was of the very greatest importance to have a king who was a real leader and ruler. The fortunes of all the people much depended on him and his personal character. In our days this does not matter nearly so much. The Houses of Parliament, and the ministers in whom they have confidence, and whom we may say they really appoint, govern the country, make the laws, and lay on the taxes. The king or queen cannot do anything without their good-will. It is still a very happy thing for the country to have a good and wise king or queen, because they have great influence, and by their example lead the people to some extent; as our queen all through her reign has set an example of a good and pure life, and so has had a thoroughly beneficial influence; while a bad, selfish, and immoral sovereign would set a bad example, and have a thoroughly evil influence. But neither one nor the other could make or unmake laws, or lay on taxes, or govern in any way according to their own will or pleasure.

2. In these old times the king had indeed to consult his witan or wise men ; but in general it seems that he made all the plans, proposed the laws, and laid them before the wise men to discuss, and approve or disapprove. This is why it was better in those days to have no hard and fast rule as to which of the royal family

should be king, because it left the power of choosing him who was likely to be the wisest and best ruler. The king himself often pointed out whom he wished to succeed him, and this was considered to give him a certain claim. In the present day it is fixed quite clearly that the eldest son and his eldest son succeed to the throne; or if he have no son, then his daughter. Our own queen was a young girl of eighteen when she came to the throne, although she had grown-up uncles. This would not have happened at the time we are speaking of now; no doubt she would have been passed over, and a strong man made king. But in our day it did not matter; the government of the country went on just as well.

3. The English then were accustomed to elect their kings, though always hitherto they had been chosen from their own royal family, and until the time of Swend it was a most unheard-of thing for a man not of that family, not even an Englishman at all, to be king of England. But Cnut, who had already half the kingdom, would not appear to take forcible possession of the rest. He assembled the wise men, and laid his claim before them. There were several princes of the English royal family left, though Edmund Ironside was dead. He had left two little sons, but no one would be likely to wish to make one of them king. He had also left some brothers—one of them, Edwy (or Eadwig), a grown young man of high character and well esteemed; beside his two half-brothers, Edward and Alfred, who were still very young, and were being brought up in Normandy.

4. Even if the wise men had wished to make Edwy king they would hardly have dared to propose it, Cnut being so powerful; but perhaps they had grown tired of all the endless wars, and thought it best to give in at last. At any rate they passed over all these princes, ethelings, as they were called, and declared that Cnut had a right to the whole kingdom.

Cnut's

5. In the beginning of his reign Cnut showed a very fierce and cruel spirit. He was determined to be and to remain king of England; and though he had been elected by the cruelties. witan, he could not be easy while so many of the royal family remained alive. If not dangerous now, he felt that they might be so by and bye. Still he did not exactly like to appear as an open murderer. He outlawed the grown-up prince Edwy, and before the year was past he died; it was reported that Cnut had him privately murdered. He sent Edmund Ironside's little sons out of the country to his

own half-brother, the King of Sweden, in order that he might privately make away with them. But the Swedish king had pity on the innocent children, and instead of killing them sent them off to the distant land of Hungary, where there was a very good king, Stephen, who was afterwards called St. Stephen. He received the children kindly, and brought them up well and honourably. One died young, but the other grew up and married a relation of the Queen of Hungary, named Agatha, and he lived to see England once more.

6. Cnut next put to death some of the English noblemen; we cannot exactly say why; but probably he thought they would in some way endanger his throne. And about the same time he sent for Queen Emma, the widow of Ethelred the Unready, and married her. She was much older than he was, but they say she was very beautiful. It seems that she now quite forsook her two sons Edward and Alfred, who continued in Normandy; and she and Cnut agreed that if she had a son by him he should succeed to the throne of England, and so it afterwards was.

The

One

7. But though Cnut began his reign in this cruel manner, and might have been expected to be a very bad king, it turned out quite differently. An Italian author, who hundreds of years after this time wrote a clever but wicked book called Prince,' gives advice to kings and rulers how to govern. piece of advice is that they should "do all their cruelties at first," because then afterwards people will feel so thankful to them if they are merciful and just. Whether Cnut had any idea such as that in his head, or whether his character really improved, is not quite clear, but the latter appears most probable. He was professedly a Christian, and had been already baptized; and after this terrible beginning we hear no more of cruelty in England.

He reforms.

8. One might have expected that he would set up his Danish followers above the English; but no-he favoured the English in every way. He sent away almost all his ships and their crews back again to Denmark, and he assembled the English witan to consult upon the government of the country. There were already many Danes established in England, who continued to live there peaceably, and both these Danes and the English looked back to the time when they had last had a good king, peace, justice, and order, and longed to be governed as they had been then. This good king to whom they all looked back was Edgar the Peaceable, who, as was mentioned, had been just and kind to the Danes, as well as to the English.

Now his memory was honoured, and both Danes and English wished to be governed by "Edgar's law.' Cnut and the wise men agreed to their desire. Cnut was as just to the English as Edgar had been to the Danes; and now England had peace for sixteen years.

Godwine.

9. At this time we first begin to hear of Earl Godwine, an Englishman, whom we shall meet again afterwards. Cnut seems to have liked and favoured him very much, and he became in time the most powerful subject in all England. Nobody quite knows who he was to begin with, or who his father was. One story is that his father was a wealthy churl or farmer in Gloucestershire. Some time during the wars a Danish earl, Cnut's brother-in-law, who was going to the Danish ships, lost his way. He met a handsome young man driving cattle, and asked him to guide him to the sea. The young man said it would be very dangerous to do that, for the English were much enraged against the Danes, but he would try to do what he could. The Danish earl offered him a gold ring, but he would not accept it until he had earned it, and he said that if he succeeded the earl might reward him at his pleasure. So he took the earl home to his father's house, which was a plain, comfortable dwelling, with plenty of good food and drink. The earl was much pleased with everything and everybody, and stayed there all the next day, and at night he and the young man started off on two good horses to find their way to the ships. After riding all night they arrived safely at the shore, and the earl was so delighted with his young guide, who was a clever and pleasant talker as well as good-looking, that he adopted him almost as a son. He presented him to Cnut, and in time he rose to great honour, and married the earl's sister. This young man was Godwine, whom we find in great trust and favour during the reign of Cnut.

10. Cnut not only favoured the English nobles at home, he even made the Danish people jealous by appointing English clergymen to be bishops in Denmark. He was king of that country as well as of England, and afterwards got possession of Norway and Sweden also, but he always liked England best.

11. He now showed himself a very zealous Christian, according to the ideas of those times. He built a fine church or minster at Assandun, the place of his sixth battle with Edmund Ironside, where he had won the victory. He was also very anxious to appease the saints and

Cnut's religion.