Knut Sveinsson, also known as Canute or Cnut the Great c.995-1035
King of England, Denmark and Norway

The son of Svein I Haraldsson, 'Fork-Beard', he accompanied his father on his attempted conquest of England (1013-14), but on his father's death withdrew to Denmark where his elder brother Harald had inherited the throne. The English recalled Ethelred II, the Unready, from refuge in Normandy to be their king again, but in 1015 Knut challenged him and gained all of England except London. When Ethelred died in 1016, Knut challenged his son and successor Edmund Ironside, defeated him at the Battle of Assandun in Essex (1016), and then concluded a treaty sharing the kingdom between them. Edmund died a month later, and Knut then became undisputed King of all England, banishing or executing all possible claimants to the throne from the royal dynasty of Wessex. He discarded his English mistress, �lgifu of Northampton, and summoned Ethelred's widow, Emma, from Normandy to be his wife (their son was Hardaknut, King of Denmark and also, briefly, of England). He inherited the throne of Denmark from his brother (1018) and went to Denmark the following year to consolidate his power there. Later he helped to overthrow Olaf II Haraldsson (St Olaf) of Norway, and seized the throne there in 1030, installing his son Svein (by �lgifu) as a puppet ruler. As King of England he brought firm government, justice and security from external threat, and showed reverence and generosity to the Church and its native saints. The story of his apparent attempt to turn back the tide has been totally misconstrued in folklore: in fact, he was trying to demonstrate to his courtiers that only God could control the tide, not man. When he died, his Anglo-Scandinavian Empire quickly disintegrated. He was succeeded in England by Harold I Knutsson, Harefoot, his younger son by �lgifu, and then by Hardaknut, and in Norway Svein was immediately deposed by Magnus I Olafsson, who also inherited Denmark on the death of Hardaknut. Knut is regarded as one of the most effective early kings of England.