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The Viking Emperor Season 1 Episode 3
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00:12This is a story of conquest, betrayal, and courage.
00:20The story of a son of a Viking sovereign forged in the shadow of battle.
00:25A man destined for nothing, yet fated to build an empire.
00:31He was larger than life in his lifetime, and is somebody who had wide-ranging achievements
00:38that surprised even many of his contemporaries.
00:42The story of a man who became ruler of three kingdoms.
00:47A Viking who became an emperor.
00:51He's one of the great medieval success stories.
00:54What he does, we have no word for.
00:56It's completely new.
00:58This is the legend of Canute.
01:01Emperor of the North Sea.
01:27The End
01:27The End
01:31The End
01:43The End
01:59As his men raise their cubs in celebration,
02:06Canute has every reason to rejoice.
02:14In just a few weeks, he has subdued Wessex, the political and economic heart of the kingdom.
02:22He has won over Iadric Streona, once the chief advisor of King Æthelred.
02:29And in the north, he has laid a trap for Earl Utrecht,
02:34before entrusting his lands to his loyal ally, the Norwegian Erik of Lado.
02:42Now, a large part of the kingdom lies under his control.
02:48And yet, the young Dane does not savour his victory.
02:52One man still resists him.
02:55A man who has rallied the English army to his cause.
03:00Edmund Ironside, son of King Æthelred.
03:06Edmund's sudden success as a military leader throws a real spanner in the works for Canute.
03:12Nobody knew quite what to expect of him.
03:15But his nickname, Ironside, is very much contemporary,
03:18and he proves himself very quickly to be a highly capable military commander
03:22and willing to take the kind of risks that his father was very wary of.
03:27And so this makes what looks like a fait accompli, perhaps, an almost inevitable conquest by Canute,
03:33suddenly come into question.
03:37Canute must put an end to this swiftly before Edmund grows too powerful.
03:43So, he gives the order.
03:46Tomorrow, they break camp.
03:49Their destination, London.
04:03King Æthelred is now little more than a shadow of his former self.
04:08At his side stand his son, Edmund, hastily returned from campaign,
04:15and his second wife, Emma of Normandy,
04:19accompanied by her two younger sons, Edward and Alfred.
04:26Queen Emma stands beside the dying King Æthelred.
04:29She's determined to see her own faction prevail and to promote the cause of Edward.
04:32But as he's only ten years old, the chances of success are slim.
04:36I think we can only imagine the difficulties of the situation for Emma at this time.
04:42Her position and her prestige is reliant on being the widow of King Æthelred.
04:49But her sons by King Æthelred are the younger sons of the king.
04:54And obviously, Edmund Ironside's seniority within the family
04:58is putting him at a greatly advantageous situation.
05:04After 37 years of an inglorious reign,
05:08King Æthelred is no more.
05:13His body is carried to the old St. Paul's Cathedral,
05:19where he is granted all due honours.
05:22And yet, even in his final moments,
05:25he had fled from battle,
05:27leaving his people alone to face their fate.
05:32London's been very loyal to Æthelred.
05:34Æthelred is buried there,
05:35as the first English monarch to be buried in London at old St. Paul's.
05:39But there's no doubt then that once Æthelred is gone,
05:42that Edmund is their king.
05:44They've probably had enough of inaction,
05:47and enough of them are willing to roll the dice for one last time
05:53in support of a ruler who looks like they're ready to save the kingdom.
06:00Before the assembled nobles,
06:02Edmund seizes the crown and claims the throne.
06:06The nobility immediately bows,
06:09recognising in this 25-year-old warrior
06:12the qualities needed to succeed King Æthelred.
06:17Emma understands then that her future and that of her children
06:21has grown darker.
06:28She's now in a very difficult scenario
06:30because her sons have definitively lost out
06:33in terms of the succession to Edmund.
06:35And her worst fears, in a sense, risk being materialised.
06:38Edmund's on the throne.
06:39He's now married.
06:41He doubtless will soon be having children
06:43who he'll want to line up for the succession.
06:47But for Edmund,
06:49the recognition of the London nobility
06:51is only the first step.
06:53To be crowned,
06:55he must first reconquer the entire kingdom.
07:15In the south of England,
07:17Knut has dropped anchor.
07:20A few days earlier,
07:22his informants had brought him news.
07:25Ethelred is dead.
07:28And his son has claimed the throne.
07:31Without hesitation,
07:33Knut summons all the abbots, earls,
07:35and nobles of the regions under his control.
07:41The very same men who, two years earlier,
07:44had denied him the crown.
07:50If you're a leading magnate,
07:51you also don't want to back the wrong horse.
07:54The results of that can be catastrophic.
07:56So you are also having to make a calculation
07:59as to who do I think is going to win.
08:01And if I think Knut's chances are notably better,
08:04even if I might prefer Edmund,
08:06I'd do better to support Knut.
08:08And so it's very likely that some of this support
08:10is highly pragmatic
08:12and is people who simply want to survive.
08:15Now, Knut, in his turn,
08:17is recognised as the legitimate king of the realm.
08:21England, more divided than ever,
08:22has two monarchs.
08:25The young Dane understands what it means.
08:29From this moment on,
08:30between Edmund and him,
08:32it will be a fight to the death.
08:41The fleet glides slowly over the grey waters of the Thames.
08:48In the distance,
08:49Knut sees the thick walls of London take shape.
08:54He has come to confront his rival on his own ground.
08:59But taking the city will be no easy task.
09:04For in a century of Viking raids,
09:06London has never been taken.
09:12At the time,
09:13London was defended by Roman walls
09:15that had been regularly maintained.
09:17And the problem was
09:18that the means available to attack fortified cities
09:20were extremely limited.
09:23London was a hard nut to crack
09:26and is not a place that Knut is able to very easily take,
09:29even with a substantial military force.
09:34from the ramparts.
09:36From the ramparts,
09:36Edmund watches the hundreds of ships
09:38gathering at the city's gates.
09:42Yet, the young king remains confident.
09:50Across the river stands an obstacle
09:52long-considered impassable.
09:55London Bridge.
09:58A massive fortified structure
10:01linking the city to the stronghold of Southwark
10:03on the opposite bank.
10:07And this means that Danes
10:09going up the Thames past London
10:11are having things thrown or poured on them
10:13as they go past.
10:14I mean, one imagines rocks,
10:15one imagines boiling oil,
10:16whatever there is that could possibly
10:18upset the Danes going past underneath
10:20to damage their ships or kill the men.
10:28To surround the city,
10:30Knut has no choice.
10:33He must take the bridge at any cost.
10:37But forcing a passage
10:39would mean devastating losses.
10:42So the young Dane comes up
10:44with a stroke of genius.
10:46If his ships cannot pass under the bridge,
10:51they will go round it.
10:55So here is the city,
10:57here is the river
10:58and here is the bridge.
10:59And they dig on their side,
11:01the southern side,
11:01they dig a trench down here
11:03around the bridge head
11:05where the bridge meets the land
11:06and they dig another trench here
11:07and they dig another trench here
11:09and as far as an arrow can fly.
11:11And that's where they then
11:12dig the trenches outside
11:13because the idea is then
11:14what can the English do
11:15apart from watch this trench
11:16go around them
11:17and rejoin the Thames?
11:19And these trenches
11:20don't have to be very deep
11:21because they've got flat-bottomed boats
11:22and they've got hundreds
11:23of men sitting around.
11:29Day and night,
11:31the Danes dig relentlessly.
11:35From Southwark,
11:37English sentries can only look on
11:39as the enemy advances inexorably.
11:46And then in the course of what,
11:47a couple of days,
11:48200 boats go upstream
11:49and the English can't stop them at all.
11:52All they can do is watch
11:53from the other bank
11:53and be cross.
11:55It's absolutely pure Canute
11:57that is minimum effort,
11:59maximum damage to the other guy.
12:03Canute sets up his camp
12:05on a strip of sand,
12:06safely beyond the reach
12:08of English archers.
12:12And they sit,
12:13staring at the city,
12:15making lots of noise,
12:16sharpening weapons,
12:19feasting,
12:19but they're sitting there
12:20just reminding the English
12:22inhabitants
12:22who are locked inside
12:23their walled,
12:24their walled city
12:25that this is the army
12:27just outside.
12:28The idea is terror.
12:31Terror for this heartland
12:32of Æthelred and Edmund's support
12:35rather than
12:36sort of shimming up ladders
12:37and waving swords.
12:42Inside the besieged city,
12:44bread now sells
12:45for its weight in gold,
12:50while the clergy call for prayer.
12:56But no one is under any illusions.
12:59In this duel between Edmund
13:01and Canute,
13:02time is working against them.
13:04If Canute has indeed managed
13:06to cut off supplies
13:07to the south of London,
13:09and if he holds part
13:10of the walls
13:11to the north and west
13:12that still leaves
13:12only very limited opportunities
13:14to enter or leave the city.
13:17Inevitably,
13:17sending messengers
13:18becomes more difficult
13:19and food shortages
13:20are likely to arise
13:21sooner or later.
13:23At a place like London
13:24would probably not have
13:25more than enough
13:26food stores available
13:27to last more than a few weeks
13:29really at most
13:30because London
13:30has a population
13:31by this period
13:32of more than 10,000
13:33plus there are
13:34the defenders of London,
13:35potentially another army,
13:36actually a real army itself
13:37in addition
13:38to the local population.
13:39So,
13:40it certainly would have
13:41threatened
13:42considerable hardship.
13:46Edmund senses
13:46the trap closing
13:48in around him.
13:50If he stays,
13:51he risks losing
13:52the initiative.
13:54So,
13:55under cover of night,
13:57accompanied
13:57by his most loyal men,
13:59he flees the city.
14:03The young king knows
14:04he still has one card
14:06left to play,
14:07his reputation
14:08as a war leader.
14:13For Canute,
14:14Edmund's military resistance
14:16ends up being
14:17a real thorn in the side
14:18because Edmund is willing
14:19to offer battle.
14:20What he's showing
14:21is that actually
14:22Canute is not undefeatable
14:23and that actually
14:25there's potentially
14:26a military solution
14:27to these problems.
14:31With Edmund,
14:32a new wave of hope
14:34spreads across England.
14:38From all corners of Wessex,
14:40thousands of men
14:41take up arms
14:42and rally under his banner.
14:48After decades
14:50of humiliation
14:50and defeat,
14:52England finally begins
14:53to rise again.
14:54to rise again.
15:15In the Danish camp,
15:17bad news keeps piling up.
15:20For weeks,
15:21Canute has been
15:22besieging London
15:23in vain.
15:24in vain.
15:25while boredom spreads
15:27like poison
15:28among his army.
15:32There is a real risk
15:34with sieges
15:34that your army
15:36becomes stationary.
15:37It loses momentum.
15:38It loses focus.
15:40Things like epidemic
15:41can break out
15:42much more easily
15:42when you're stationary
15:43as a military force.
15:45So there's all sorts
15:45of reasons why
15:46it's actually potentially
15:47quite risky
15:48to embark on
15:49a lengthy siege
15:50when you have
15:50alternative means
15:51of achieving
15:52what you wish to get.
15:58Even worse,
16:00part of Wessex
16:01has fallen back
16:01into Edmund's hands.
16:04If he does not want
16:05to see his alliances
16:06unravel one by one,
16:08Canute has no choice.
16:11He must lift the siege
16:12and face Edmund
16:13once and for all.
16:30Edmund has won his gamble.
16:34He has gathered
16:35the loyal forces
16:36of the south beneath
16:37his banner.
16:40He believes this army
16:41can carry him back
16:42to victory.
16:46Especially now
16:47that his scouts report
16:48that Canute's army
16:49is getting closer.
16:55So he deploys
16:57his men along
16:57the hillside,
16:59an ideal position
17:00to repel an attack.
17:08Pencilwood is a symbolically
17:10crucially important
17:11political place
17:14within the West Saxon kingdom.
17:16This was the place
17:17where Alfred the Great
17:18had gathered
17:19his armies
17:20against the Danes
17:21during his victory
17:23in 878.
17:24And perhaps
17:25Edmund Ironside
17:26had hoped
17:27to draw on
17:28a little bit
17:28of that magic
17:29when he gathered
17:32his forces
17:33to fight
17:34against Canute
17:35in 1016.
17:39At the head
17:40of an army
17:41numbered in the thousands
17:42Canute advances
17:43towards the English lines.
17:48For the first time
17:49the two kings
17:50face each other
17:51on the battlefield.
17:55Each aware
17:56that the fate
17:57of the kingdom
17:57may be decided here.
18:00For Edmund
18:01and Canute
18:02England
18:03represents
18:04everything.
18:05neither have
18:06any other prospects.
18:07Canute's only kingdom
18:09and kingship
18:09is going to be
18:10in England
18:10at that moment.
18:11No other prospects
18:13immediately in Denmark
18:14as he's discovered.
18:15For Edmund
18:16his entire
18:17dynastic line
18:18hinges upon this.
18:20He's seen his father
18:21fail
18:22to prevent
18:23external conquest.
18:25He's determined
18:25to prevent
18:26that repeating itself.
18:31Edmund rallies his men.
18:33No grand speeches.
18:36No grand speeches.
18:36Only a call
18:36to defend
18:37their homes,
18:38their families
18:39and their land.
18:45The majority
18:46of those fighting
18:46are not professional soldiers.
18:48They'll be members
18:49of the lower aristocracy,
18:51probably the majority
18:52and the maybe
18:53some wealthy peasants.
18:54these are individuals
18:55who are not highly trained.
18:59The English
19:00defensive line
19:01braces itself
19:02ready to absorb
19:03the shock
19:04of the assault.
19:08Though Edmund
19:09has the advantage
19:10of ground,
19:12Canute knows
19:13his men are far
19:13more battle-hardened.
19:16so he gives the order
19:18to attack.
19:19With a roar,
19:21the two armies
19:22crash together.
19:28It's a straightforward
19:30land army
19:31style of fighting
19:32without apparently
19:34cavalry support.
19:35It's far more likely
19:36to be two giant blobs
19:38hitting each other
19:38at speed.
19:41The Vikings slam
19:43into the English
19:44shield wall
19:45with full force.
19:47Shield against shield,
19:50axe against sword.
19:55Combat between
19:56Saxons and Vikings
19:58at this time
19:59is very much
20:00about the press
20:01of the shield wall.
20:03The idea
20:04of large infantry
20:06formations
20:06with overlapping shields
20:08with one man
20:10protecting his neighbour.
20:13Canute watches
20:14the battle.
20:17Inspired
20:17by Edmund's leadership,
20:19the English fight
20:20with a ferocity
20:21he has never
20:21seen before.
20:24What was meant
20:26to be an easy victory
20:27turns into a disaster.
20:29The Viking line
20:31breaks
20:31and flees
20:33leaving their dead
20:35behind.
20:39Edmund despite
20:40all predictions
20:41wins.
20:42This isn't meant
20:43to happen.
20:44The Danish invading
20:45forces are vast.
20:46I think
20:47his father died.
20:48He was elevated
20:50by that act.
20:51Finally
20:52he can start
20:52ordering people
20:53around in a way
20:54he couldn't
20:54when his father
20:55was alive.
20:56And he's maybe
20:57just very good
20:58at PR.
21:02Edmund crosses
21:04the battlefield
21:04as a hero.
21:10For the first time
21:12in a long while
21:13England dares
21:14to hope again.
21:17So a comparative
21:18victory
21:18at Pencilwood
21:19in 1016
21:20ensures that he
21:21is not seen
21:22as the loser.
21:24And military victory
21:25at this time
21:25is about being seen
21:27as successful
21:28and as long as
21:30you're seen as successful
21:31people are willing
21:31to support you.
21:33And evidently
21:34Edmund
21:34has enough people
21:35supporting him
21:37at this time.
21:43Canute
21:44fully grasps
21:45at the scale
21:46of the disaster.
21:50Many of his men
21:52have fallen
21:53while countless others
21:55tend to their wounds.
21:59He knows
22:00that another defeat
22:01could be fatal.
22:05There must be people
22:07around him.
22:07Englishmen around
22:08Canute
22:08who are suddenly thinking
22:10oh whoops
22:11have I gone to the wrong side?
22:13What's happening?
22:14This is a situation
22:15in which people
22:15are sort of making
22:16their mind up
22:16almost by the day.
22:18And Canute
22:19stands a very serious risk
22:20of his forces
22:21draining away from him.
22:25But Canute
22:26refuses to admit defeat.
22:30Instead
22:30he changes strategy.
22:34From now on
22:35he will wage
22:36a war of attrition.
22:37a slow
22:38and calculated
22:39war of pressure
22:40and raids.
22:43He's a true strategist.
22:45He takes
22:46no unnecessary risks.
22:47He is in many ways
22:48representative
22:49of what a Viking
22:50truly was.
22:51Not the operatic
22:52caricature
22:53but a man who knows
22:54he's outnumbered
22:55far from home
22:56and must be
22:57extremely cautious
22:57before attacking.
22:59Otherwise
22:59he risks losing
23:00both his life
23:01and everything
23:02he's come to achieve.
23:12Edmund has gathered
23:13the finest
23:14of the southern English
23:15nobility around him.
23:18His recent victory
23:20has restored confidence
23:21and brought the wavering lords
23:23back into line.
23:31Chief among them
23:32is Erdrichs Triona
23:33who after betraying Edmund
23:35for Canute
23:36has once again
23:37switched sides.
23:42Why Edmund would have trusted him
23:44is a very good question.
23:46I suspect frankly
23:47that he didn't
23:48but Edmund needed support.
23:50This is one of those moments
23:51where people are lining up
23:52behind different backers.
23:53Edmund is one of the most powerful men
23:56in the kingdom.
23:57Edmund cannot say no to him.
23:59He doesn't like him
23:59almost certainly
24:00because he's been part
24:01of different factions
24:02in the past.
24:03But Edmund needs
24:04every man he can get
24:06if he's going to defeat Canute
24:08who also has Thorkell
24:09on his side.
24:10But I suspect in the long term
24:12Edmund's plan
24:13is to defeat Canute
24:14with Edmund
24:15and then get rid of Edmund.
24:24But the Danes remain elusive.
24:31Their ships move along
24:33the coasts of Essex and Kent
24:34striking wherever they can.
24:39Burning villages.
24:44Slaughtering the inhabitants.
24:46And seizing everything of value.
24:50Canute is probably nervous
24:52at this point.
24:52I mean, he is dancing around him.
24:55He is raiding.
24:56That will certainly help pay
24:58and feed his troops.
25:00So you might suspect
25:01that Canute is biding his time
25:03and wondering
25:04what's going to happen next.
25:07A deadly game of cat and mouse
25:09in which Canute always seems
25:12one step ahead.
25:15This sort of string of battles
25:17is where they focus their attention.
25:19this is the exciting car chase
25:22of the film
25:23as it were.
25:23Where they're moving around
25:24and it is.
25:25It is nail biting stuff.
25:30A game where every move counts.
25:36A few days before the Battle of Shurston
25:41canute quietly succeeds in winning over
25:44part of the lesser English nobility
25:46who had until then remained loyal to Edmund.
25:52So at Shurston,
25:54some deal has been made,
25:56some almighty great payment
25:57or promise has been made.
25:58It's psychologically devastating
26:01because it's been turned against
26:03by these high ranking Englishmen.
26:05And what's more shocking than that
26:07is almost all of them that we can trace
26:09of these collaborators,
26:10these traitors,
26:11is related to the English royal family.
26:14This is where the power drains away from him.
26:16This is where he gets that sinking sensation
26:19and the sand just runs through his fingers.
26:27But at last,
26:29Fortune turns in favour of the English king.
26:32His scouts locate Canute's forces inland.
26:37Just a few miles from the coast near Ashington.
26:44For Edmund,
26:46this is the moment to strike.
26:48As long as the Viking army is cut off
26:50from its ships,
26:51it remains vulnerable.
26:53But above all,
26:54a few weeks earlier
26:55during a battle at Shurston,
26:57Edmund had seen a number of his soldiers
26:59turn against him.
27:02Medieval battles are high risk affairs.
27:04It's not,
27:06you know,
27:07for no reason
27:07that many commanders
27:08actually avoid open battle.
27:10But if you've got your back to the wall,
27:12as Edmund does,
27:13they're often also high risk, high gain.
27:15If he wins outright
27:16a major victory against Canute,
27:19that's his best bet
27:20for expelling Canute
27:21completely from the kingdom.
27:31Canute listens to his commanders.
27:35Among them is the fearsome Thorkell the Tall,
27:39the veteran warrior
27:40who has pledged himself
27:41to Canute's cause against Edmund.
27:47But can Canute really trust him?
27:52For behind this display of loyalty,
27:55no one has forgotten
27:56his former alliance with Æthelred.
28:01And being seen to be a part of the conquest in England,
28:04engaging in battle against Edmund,
28:05is very important to him
28:07because it means that he is showing his loyalty
28:10to his new master
28:11and he's also then lining himself up for a share
28:15of the spoils of victory.
28:16I don't think he's doing it meekly.
28:18He's showing his worth
28:19and he's saying,
28:20you need me,
28:21look at me,
28:22look how glorious,
28:23what a great war leader I am.
28:25He's out there
28:26and he's proud of his role,
28:28as one would expect of somebody
28:30who's possibly pushing 50
28:31and has been a warlord all his life.
28:33And Canute is a boy by comparison.
28:38Canute senses that what is about to unfold
28:41is no ordinary battle.
28:43He knows his future will be decided here,
28:46in mud and blood.
28:52His thoughts drift back over the past two years.
28:56His first steps on this land,
28:58in the shadow of his father.
29:01Two broken oaths,
29:03two humiliations he has never forgotten.
29:10But those trials have forged him.
29:13He's no longer merely the son of the great Svein.
29:17He is Canute the conqueror
29:19and for the first time he knows it.
29:23England will be his.
29:27Here we are at the final battle.
29:29We know that both leaders are present.
29:31There's no doubt about that
29:33and both appear to be organizing their battle formations.
29:36The only certainty our sources provide
29:38is the violence of the fighting.
29:40It is a battle that lasts a considerable time,
29:42with both sides fighting
29:43with great determination and courage.
29:51In a surge of bravery,
29:53Edmund charges into the heart of the melee,
29:55cutting through enemy ranks
29:57like fire through dry grass.
30:04It's cold.
30:07Across the front line,
30:10Canute rallies his men,
30:12urging them to fight to the very last drop of blood.
30:16If the Vikings have an edge at this point,
30:19it could be because these are our crews of warriors
30:24row together and sail together
30:26and act as a body with a kind of a speed of core.
30:31In the heart of the melee,
30:34Edmund turns towards his flank.
30:37On the ridge above,
30:39Eadric stands motionless,
30:41staring back at him.
30:45In that instant,
30:47Edmund understands.
30:49In a final act of betrayal,
30:51Eadric withdraws and abandons the king to his fate.
30:57Edmund is stunned.
30:59Edmund is stunned.
30:59He realizes that victory is slipping from his grasp.
31:04Some suggest that Eadric was already on Canute's side,
31:07but pretended to support Edmund,
31:09and that when the battle begins to turn in favor of the Anglo-Saxons,
31:13he abandons the field.
31:16Other sources,
31:17including Iacomium Emma Regine,
31:20suggest a withdrawal even before the battle begins.
31:23Based on a straightforward argument,
31:25the Danes are too strong.
31:26If we fight, we'll lose and die for nothing.
31:29Better to withdraw and negotiate.
31:36Rather than risk his life,
31:38Edmund chooses to flee the battlefield.
31:43Leaving his great army behind,
31:45defeated.
31:54The flower of the English nobility was killed.
31:57You get the feeling this is the battle to end them all.
32:02And this is where Edmund's forces are in retreat,
32:04and they describe it as a massacre.
32:07This is where the Danes are,
32:08what we would say,
32:08mopping up the English as they flee.
32:11So there's not only this clash at Asandon,
32:13there's probably also a chasing of the English forces
32:16and killing them on the hoof as they're leaving.
32:23Canute has won the battle.
32:26But at what cost?
32:32Facing an enemy who stubbornly refuses to bend the knee,
32:36perhaps it is time to change strategy.
32:52Canute gazes out over the waters of the Severn,
32:55a natural frontier between the lands under his control
32:59and those that still remain loyal to Edmund.
33:06It is here that Iadric's Treona,
33:08more elusive than ever,
33:10has arranged a meeting.
33:16On the bank, Edmund is already waiting.
33:24The negotiations take place at Iadric's initiative.
33:28He appears to have pushed both sides toward discussion.
33:32Edmund wanted to continue fighting.
33:35Canute could have done so as well,
33:37but did not necessarily stand to gain from it.
33:40There seems to be more of a sense that they fought one another to a standstill.
33:44Neither they can overpower the other and they've realized it at this point.
33:49The meeting takes place on a small islet lost in the middle of the river.
33:56On both sides, armies stand ready, poised to surge forward at the slightest signal.
34:07Obviously, an island is the best place to have any form of negotiation like this,
34:11because both kings are coming with an army.
34:13Even if they strip that army down,
34:15they're going to come with enough forces to really have a very ugly incident, as it were.
34:21For the first time, Canute and Edmund face one another within sword's reach.
34:29Time itself seems suspended between them.
34:32Time itself suspended between them.
34:36Canute knows that everything could still tip either way.
34:41As a gesture of good faith, he salutes his adversary.
34:48One of the things about Scaldic Verse is respect for the enemy.
34:52If you respect your enemy, and even if you slightly fear your enemy,
34:56well, then the fact you've defeated him glorifies you as well as him.
35:00So one imagines that is also part of Canute's make-up, as it were.
35:04When he meets Edmund, he meets him as a fellow warrior,
35:07who he's got an enormous amount of respect for.
35:14Negotiations begin.
35:16Each man seeks compromise, without losing face.
35:25Gradually, mistrust fades, and a strange complicity settles between the two rivals.
35:35Both saw, I think, almost a reflection of themselves.
35:39Someone young, ambitious, militarily capable.
35:43And that may well have fed into, in the end, a willingness to strike an agreement.
35:48The two men divide the kingdom.
35:50Edmund is offered the north.
35:52Canute takes the south, a logical division in light of his ancestry.
35:56The two men thus become co-kings of England, effectively bringing the war to an end.
36:01Most of our sources agree that both armies are extremely satisfied with the outcome,
36:06having been severely tested by a year and a half of campaigning.
36:13For Canute, this victory is not the one he had hoped for.
36:17He sought to conquer an entire kingdom.
36:20Instead, he must settle for half of it.
36:26But fate has one final cruel twist in store.
36:48A few weeks after signing a peace treaty with Canute,
36:52Edmund, young king and tireless warrior, dies suddenly at the age of 26.
36:59Whether from a sudden illness or the result of a plot remains uncertain.
37:06There is, however, a villain who perfectly fits the archetype.
37:10The ultimate traitor, the Adric.
37:16He is said to have bribed or persuaded men to kill King Edmund while he was in the privy.
37:22Allegedly striking from below.
37:25Either with a hook or a dagger.
37:27Or with a dagger.
37:29These are conceivable, if horrible, horrible ways to die,
37:34and also horrible ways to have to kill somebody.
37:35If you're an assassin, climbing up a toilet is probably not the best way to go.
37:43Edmund's body is laid to rest at Glastonbury Abbey, beside his grandfather, King Edgar.
37:55For Canute, Edmund's disappearance is a blessing.
38:01It's almost too good to be true.
38:13Edmund's death is one of those suspicious deaths for which a conspiratorial interpretation offers a convenient explanation.
38:20Who benefits from it?
38:22Knut does.
38:24By the end of 1016, he becomes sole king.
38:28Many medieval historians were inclined to apply this line of reasoning.
38:34In other words, Knut may have arranged Edmund's death.
38:42It's perhaps just most likely that Edmund Ironside had wounds.
38:46I mean, people often overlook that.
38:49But after the division of the kingdom, a few months later, Edmund is dead.
38:53This is exactly what you'd expect from some nasty, gangrenous cut.
39:06In St Paul's Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury crowns Knut King of England.
39:16From this moment on, nothing escapes him.
39:21The Dane is ready to assert his authority and rule without rival.
39:28But conquering a kingdom is one thing. Holding it is another.
39:50Aethelred and Edmund are dead.
39:55Yet for Knut, one final threat remains.
39:59He must silence those who, one day, might challenge the legitimacy of his reign.
40:05Beginning with Edmund's two young sons.
40:13They are heirs presumptive, sons of a king, entirely legitimate claimants to power, provided they come of age.
40:23Any of those English aethelings are a potential rallying point for some of the noblemen.
40:32And there's always the possibility that, you know, as those young men get older, that they could become a flashpoint
40:38for rebellion against Knut.
40:43Faced with the children, Knut hesitates.
40:47Eliminating them would be tempting, but politically dangerous.
40:53It seems to be too controversial to kill an aetheling, to kill somebody who might inherit the throne one day.
40:59In Scandinavia, I certainly would have had done in ten minutes.
41:01But he sends them out to Sweden.
41:03Whether they're meant to be murdered there or just forgotten, they continue to survive.
41:11But the most serious threat does not come from England.
41:15It comes from the continent.
41:21Edward and Alfred, the sons of Æthelred and Emma, have found refuge with their uncle Richard II, the powerful Duke
41:29of Normandy.
41:32And Knut has no way of reaching them.
41:39Worse still, Edward, only 14 years old, could one day lay claim to the throne of England.
41:47The Normans are very power-hungry.
41:50Extremely ambitious, very power-hungry.
41:52And they have now got, sitting in their court, in exile, these heirs, which give them a method of ruling
42:00England.
42:02Knut is worried that the Norman conquest is going to happen in 1016, not 1066.
42:08He's worried that they're going to try and sweep in and take control of some part of England for the
42:13wealth, and they're going to use one of these little boys as an excuse for doing it.
42:19The Norman threat cannot be ignored.
42:24So Knut devises a plan, one whose cornerstone is none other than the widow of his former enemy, Emma of
42:35Normandy.
42:40There's a lot of good reasons for him to marry Emma of Normandy.
42:45She's the English queen, but she also represents an alliance with Normandy.
42:51And that also means that the Duke of Normandy, Richard II, is much less likely to support his nephews as
43:02a flashpoint for rebellion against Knut.
43:08Once you've married Emma, she's now not just part of Aethelred's establishment, she's part of Knut's establishment, and they will
43:15not move against a powerful member of their own dynasty.
43:21The plan seems perfect, with one complication.
43:27Persuading Emma to marry the man responsible for her downfall.
43:32The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles says that Knut fetched Emma to be wed.
43:38Of course, if we read the word fetched, it kind of indicates that Knut has some kind of power in
43:45this situation.
43:46And quite possibly, she does have no choice.
43:49But Emma tells her own story.
43:51She tells that Knut sends men to woo her, to persuade her to become his queen.
43:58So she tells it as kind of a love story.
44:01He has everything, and now he needs the perfect imperial spouse.
44:09For Emma, the temptation is immense.
44:12To accept would be to regain her status as queen.
44:16But it would also mean abandoning her two sons in exile.
44:28She quickly decides, as part of that marriage negotiation, that what's most important to her is not supporting Edward and
44:37Alfred, but having a son with Knut and seeing that son on the throne.
44:43It is a poison chalice for her, in a sense, because up to this point she's worked so tirelessly to
44:49try to secure the succession of her two sons with Æthelred, and she has to decide what she loses and
44:54how best to maintain her power and influence.
44:56And she ultimately opts for her own prospects over those of her sons.
45:01And her sons never forgive her.
45:06Before marrying Emma, Knut must settle one final matter.
45:11To inform his first wife, El Gifu of Northampton, married according to Scandinavian custom, that she will never be Queen
45:18of England.
45:22He must have just sat down with her and said, look, I'm terribly sorry, darling, you know, I'll give you
45:27X amount a year, keep the children, but you and me are done because I've got to get married again.
45:32And he hasn't broken any religious or social or moral code by setting aside El Gifu.
45:38All that happened is life changed, the world changed, she became irrelevant, and that marriage and that union became irrelevant.
45:45And so he can set her off and say, Emma, come here, now we're going to be married.
45:51Knut and Emma pass through the doors of St Paul's.
45:58Ironically, it is here that Æthelred lies buried, an impotent witness to his widow's remarriage to his greatest enemy.
46:10This is, above all, a political union.
46:14Emma regains her influence while Knut secures a partner who knows the English court intimately.
46:28Emma's been married to an English king for a long time, she knows how it works, she knows what to
46:32do, she knows which way to hold a knife and fork, as it were.
46:34And she understands what it was like to come in as an outsider into the English political system, so she
46:43has that experience to pass on to Knut.
46:46And they seem to work very closely together.
46:48And so they end up becoming this real power couple, if you will, of the 1020s, 1030s, who dominate English
46:55and Northern European politics.
47:06A few months later, Emma gives birth to a son.
47:13Harta Knut.
47:16The child becomes the first cornerstone of a dynasty Knut hopes to place at the head of the kingdom for
47:22centuries to come.
47:42Knut spends most of his time in Winchester, the capital of Wessex.
47:49The city houses the royal treasury, the archives, the mint, as well as the most powerful monasteries and religious institutions
48:02of the realm.
48:04Churchmen whom the young king must win to his cause.
48:11For a Christian England, no power can endure without the support of the clergy.
48:19And from among them, Knut chooses his eminence Wulfstan, the austere and formidable Archbishop of York.
48:32For Knut, Wulfstan is the key player alongside Emma in solidifying his control of the regime and remodeling himself in
48:42the traditions, local traditions of monarchy.
48:45It seems quite clear that Knut follows Wulfstan's advice almost to the letter in order to become a king of
48:50the English.
48:50Indeed, a better king than the English themselves.
48:52He integrates himself immediately into the kingdom.
48:55He writes in Old English, he communicates in Old English.
48:58He adopts all the titles in regalia and appears to have been more popular than many of the previous English
49:03kings,
49:03particularly because of his policies, notably his extraordinary generosity towards the church and the monasteries.
49:13With Wulfstan at his side, Knut begins to learn the subtleties of the English court
49:20and gradually exchanges his Viking garb for that of an English king.
49:27Yet, behind appearances, the young Dane has not forgotten where he comes from
49:34or to whom he owes his victory.
49:41These allies he must now reward.
49:46East Anglia, in the east, is granted to Thorkell the Tor.
49:54Northumbria, in the north, is entrusted to Érika Vlade.
50:00Mercia, in the west, remains in the hands of the notorious Eadric Striona.
50:09For himself, Knut keeps Wessex, the historic heart of power.
50:15He cannot rule simply through terror.
50:18So he needs to bring some of the English onside.
50:20At the same time, he needs to reward some of his Scandinavian men with him.
50:24And these two imperatives are somewhat at odds, because if he does too much of one, it threatens the other.
50:29Then Knut is waiting for people to step out of line.
50:31And as they step out of line, he gets rid of them and then he sprinkles in Scandinavians who are
50:37loyal to him.
50:38That's how you do it. You do it carefully, slowly, trying to keep as much of the existing machine as
50:44possible,
50:45but putting your Scandinavians into just the right place so that they have control.
50:58Eadric Striona has every reason to believe himself untouchable.
51:06He survived the deaths of Aethelred and Edmund alike,
51:10shifting loyalties time and again to stand with the stronger side.
51:15And now he wants more from the young Dane he helped place upon the throne.
51:22Without him, perhaps Edmund would still be sitting there.
51:31Eadric is said to have killed Edmund Ironside, then demanded his reward.
51:36Knut is supposed to have replied,
51:37Ah, you've taken the head of my sworn brother?
51:39Very well, I shall give you what I owe you, the loss of your own.
51:42And Eadric strikes him with an axe, settling the matter.
51:48Here we are dealing with a Knut who may appear extremely calculating politically,
51:52but also with a ruler who understands the cost of betrayal.
51:56Betrayal may happen, but when it happens repeatedly,
51:58it proves that a man cannot be trusted.
52:01Knut's reasoning is, in a way, defensible.
52:03If someone was unable to remain loyal to his rightful king,
52:06why should he now be considered reliable?
52:12Headric's head is mounted on a spike,
52:16and displayed for all to see on Tower Hill outside London.
52:22A dishonourable fate reserved for traitors.
52:27Later Anglo-Norman chroniclers tell a story that this was done very justly
52:33by the Tower of London, essentially,
52:35what becomes a later royal execution site.
52:40This is an indication that Knut is willing to act in a ruthless fashion
52:45when the circumstances suit.
52:51In barely two years, Knut has pacified England.
52:57He has ended the Viking raids.
53:02Rewarded his allies.
53:06And eliminated his enemies.
53:12But in a world where nothing is ever secure,
53:16where power rests upon fragile balances,
53:20the winds are about to change.
53:24And already, across the North Sea,
53:27a new challenger is already rising.
53:32Still little known.
53:34But destined to become one of the greatest threats to his reign.
53:41Chancellor Hall of Market
53:41New Orleans
53:41New Orleans
53:41New Orleans
53:42New Orleans
53:59Transcription by CastingWords
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