Cnut’s charters survive. Two law codes, one of them
substantial and revealing the infl uence of Archbishop
Wulfstan, were published in his name, and he issued
letters to the English people in 1020 and 1027. In the
latter he claims to have negotiated, during his visit to
Rome, for the abolition of the tolls exacted from mer-
chants traveling to Italy and the large sums required
from archbishops for papal recognition.
In 1017 Cnut had replaced the ealdormen by four
earls, though other earldoms were later created. This
was to be less signifi cant than the fact that such new men
as Earl Godwin displaced the cadre of ealdormen and
thegns who had formerly been tied to the Anglo-Saxon
kings through a complex network of relationships.
Godwin’s power base in Wessex, the heartland of the
English kingdom, later weakened Edward the Confessor
and enabled Godwin’s son, Harold, to gain the throne
that he held through most of the year 1066.
Cnut did not found a lasting dynasty. After his death
in 1035 Harold Harefoot, his son by Ælfgifu, eventu-
ally succeeded him in England, and in 1040 his and
Emma’s son, Harthacnut, became king for two years.
Unlike his predecessor Æthelred II, Cnut died in time to
leave his reputation intact. He gave England 20 years’
respite from invasion, though he left a native dynasty
fatally weakened and the country with strengthened
ties to Normandy. When he died, the young William
the Bastard had just inherited the Norman duchy; as
“the Conqueror,” William was to accomplish a far more
successful coup d’état than Cnut and bring the Anglo-
Saxon era to a close.
See also Edward the Confessor; Harold Godwinson;
Wulfstan of York
Further Reading
Primary Sources
Arnold, Thomas, ed. Henrici archidiaconi Huntendunensis
historia Anglorum: The History of the English, by Henry
of Huntingdon, from A.D. 55 to A.D. 1154. Rolls Series 74.
London: Longman, 1879.
Greenway, Diana E. ed. and trans. Henry, Archdeacon of
Huntington: History of the English People. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Palsson, Hermann, and Paul Edwards, trans. Knytlinga Saga: The
History of the Kings of Denmark. Odense: City of Odense,
1986.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. English Historical Documents. Vol. 1: c.
500–1042. 2d ed. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979 [documents
47–50 pertain to Cnut’s reign].
Secondary Sources
Fleming, Robin. Kings and Lords in Conquest England. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Hudson, Benjamin T. “Cnut and the Scottish Kings.” HER 107
(1992): 350–60.
Lawson, M.X. Cnut: The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh
Century. London: Longman, 1993.
Raraty, David G.J. “Earl Godwine and Wessex: The Origins of His
Power and His Political Loyalties.” History 74 (1989): 3–19.
Rumble, Alexander R., ed. The Reign of Cnut: King of England,
Denmark, and Norway. London: Leicester University Press,
1994.
David A.E. PelteretCŒUR, JACQUES (ca. 1395–1456)
The most important businessman of medieval France,
Jacques Cœur was born into a wealthy family in
Bourges. By 1430, he was established as a fi nancier,
merchant, and master of France’s Levantine trade, and
he soon became a favorite of Charles VII. Royal argen-
tier after 1438 and ennobled after 1441, he reorganized
Valois coinage and fi nances and served as royal commis-
sioner in fi nancial and commercial negotiations. His vast
fi nancial, commercial, and industrial empire eventually
made him the wealthiest man in Europe. During this
period, he built a house in Bourges that symbolized his
magnifi cence and remains a monument of Gothic archi-
tecture. His most signifi cant public action was to fi nance
the reconquest of Normandy and Guyenne, but by 1451
his wealth and pride had won him the envy and resent-
ment of both crown and nobility. Charles VII found it
easier to ruin than repay his greatest creditor. Arrested
on the absurd charge of having poisoned the king’s
mistress, Agnès Sorel, Jacques Cœur was condemned
for irregularities in fact typical of contemporary public
fi nance. His holdings were confi scated by the crown,
and he was imprisoned until 1454, when he escaped to
Rome, where Calixtus III gave him command of a papal
fl eet. He died on campaign against the Turks at Chios
in November 1456.
See also Charles VIIFurther Reading
Dauvet, Jean. Les affaires de Jacques Cœur: journal du Procureur
Dauvet, procès-verbaux de séquestre et d’adjudication, ed.
Michel Mollat, Anne-Marie Yvon-Briand, Yvonne Lanhers,
Constantin Marinesco. 2 vols. Paris: Colin, 1952–53.
Kerr, Albert Boardman. Jacques Cœur: Merchant Prince of the
Middle Ages. New York: Scribner, 1927.
Mollat, Michel, Jacques Cœur. Paris: Aubier, 1988.
Paul D. SolonCOLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER
(1451–1506)
Christopher Columbus is seldom associated with late
medieval European thought. Yet his written work and
other written sources suggest that he was informed
by an intellectual tradition resting more heavily on
ancient, medieval, and scholastic authors than on the
authority of experience one associates with the ModernCNUT