148 Capet, Hugh
back to DENMARKin 1005, since the Danes could no
longer support themselves because of a FAMINEin England.
Svein carried out raids for several years after this, each
time extracting vast amounts of silver as DANEGELD.
CONQUEST BY DENMARKIn 1013 Svein returned with his son, Canute, to conquer
England. Though he landed his forces in southern
England, he made for the Danelaw, recognizing that this
Scandinavian region would accept him as king. He then
conquered the rest of the country. The ANGLO-SAXON
CHRONICLESrecorded that “all the nation regarded him
as full king.” Æthelred fled to Normandy. Svein died
the next year and Æthelred saw a chance to regain his
kingdom. He returned from Normandy and managed to
expel the Danish army, now under Canute.
In 1016 Canute returned and was victorious at the
Battle of Ashingdon on October 18, 1016, over Edmund
“Ironside,” Æthelred’s eldest son and recent successor.
Canute and Edmund drew up the Treaty of Olney, which
allotted the Danelaw and the English Midlands to Canute,
and control of southern England to Edmund. Edmund
died shortly after this treaty on November 30, 1016, and
Canute became the first Viking king of all England.
When Canute’s brother, Harald, king of Denmark,
died in 1018, Canute returned to Denmark to take that
throne. Two years later, he laid claim to NORWAY, cap-
tured it, and had his son Svein and his mistress Ælfgifu
govern it. In the meantime, he had married Emma,
Æthelred’s widow. SCOTLANDsubmitted to Canute and,
by the late 1020s, Canute was able to claim to be “king of
all England, and of Denmark, of the Norwegians, and
part of the Swedes,” a North Sea Empire.
ENGLAND UNITEDCanute was the first king to rule successfully over a
united England, free of internal and external strife.
He also ruled the Viking homelands so was able to protect
England against attacks, maintaining 20 years of peace,
during which commerce, art, and Christianity flourished.
Canute had great respect for the old English laws, which
he enforced with a strong sense of justice and a surprising
regard for individual rights. As part of his desire to be
accepted as an “English” king, he did penance for the
wrongdoings of his Viking predecessors by building
churches and making many generous gifts to others.
Canute died on November 12, 1035, aged about 40.
He was buried in Winchester, the former capital of the
Saxon kingdom of Wessex and a town where he often
stayed. Because none of Canute’s children produced any
heirs, one of Emma’s sons by Æthelred, EDWARD(later to
be known as “the Confessor”), eventually returned from
Normandy and ascended to the English throne in 1042.
Further reading:M. K. Lawson, Cnut: The Danes in
England in the Early Eleventh Century(New York: Long-
man, 1993); A. R. Rumble, ed. The Reign of Cnut: King of
England, Denmark, and Norway(London: Leicester Uni-
versity Press, 1994).Capet, Hugh SeeHUGHCAPET, KING OFFRANCE.Capetian dynasty The ruling house of FRANCEfrom
987 to 1328, the Capetians, or the Robertinians, as the
early generations were called, were a noble lineage and a
powerful family in the West Frankish kingdom. The
Robertinians were among the upper nobility from at least
the first half of the eighth century. Likely of Saxon origin,
they might have migrated originally from the Rhine-
Meuse region, where one was mentioned as the duke of
Haspengau in 733. A few years later, some of them were
established on the Rhine and Main Rivers. In 764 the
widow and a son of a certain Count Robert I were instru-
mental in founding the abbey of Lorsch. For generations
of the descendants of that same Robert were counts of
Upper Lorraine or of Worms. The last of that series,
Robert IV the Strong (d. 866), perhaps because of his
support for LOUISI THEPIOUSand CHARLESI THEBALD
against Charles’s brothers, was deprived of holdings in
the Rhineland in the 840s. From then on the family lived
in the western kingdom.
In Charles the Bald’s kingdom, Robert the Strong
was part of a noble faction and developed marriage con-
nections with several prominent lineages. By about 852,
he was the count of Angers and the lay abbot of Mar-
moutier. In the 860s he was count of Blois and abbot of
the rich monastery of Saint Martin at Tours. During the
first half of the 10th century, the family followed a care-
ful strategy of patrimonial descent that maintained their
wealth and cohesiveness. At the death in 956 of HughHeads of kings of Judah, once believed to be those of early
Capetian rulers. At one time on the facade of the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame in Paris, they are now in the Musée National
Thermes & Hôtel de Cluny du Moyen Âge in Paris (Courtesy
Edward English)