Cnut's Ravaging of Dorset 1015
Who Fought
History & Significance
In the autumn of 1016, the Danish prince Cnut the Great (Canute), supported by Eiríkr Hákonarson, and Thorkell the Tall successfully invaded England. Cnut's father, Sweyn Forkbeard, had previously conquered and briefly ruled England for less than five weeks.
Sweyn Forkbeard conquered England by 1013, forcing King Æthelred of England to exile by the end of the year. However, Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and the Danes proclaimed his son, Cnut, as king. Meanwhile, the English nobility recalled Æthelred, who went on to successfully expel the Danes by the summer of 1014. That same summer Æthelred's eldest son, Æthelstan died, leaving his younger brother, Edmund, as heir to the English throne.
Cnut wasted no time to prepare for the reconquest. Among the allies of Denmark was Bolesław I the Brave the duke of Poland, (later crowned king) a relative to the Danish royal house. He lent some Polish troops, likely to have been a pledge made to Cnut and his brother Harald when, in the winter, they "went amongst the Wends" to fetch their mother back to the Danish court. She had been sent away by their father after the death of the Swedish king Eric the Victorious in 995, and his marriage to Sigrid the Haughty, the Swedish queen mother. This wedlock formed a strong alliance between the successor to the throne of Sweden, Olof Skötkonung, and the rulers of Denmark, his in-laws. Swedes were certainly among the allies in the English conquest. Another in-law to the Danish royal house, Eiríkr Hákonarson, was the earl of Lade and the co-ruler of Norway with his brother Sweyn Haakonsson – Norway having been under Danish sovereignty since the Battle of Svolder, in 999. Eiríkr's participation in the invasion left his son Hakon to rule Norway. Thorkell the Tall, despite aiding the English in resisting Sweyn's invasion in 1013, swore to aid Cnut in Reconquering England.
In 1015, a great council convened in Oxford. During which, Eadric Streona, Æthelred's son-in-law and Ealdorman of Mercia, assassinated Sigeferth and Morcar, described as two of the most powerful thegns in England who ruled over the Five Boroughs. Following their deaths, Æthelred imprisoned Sigeferth's widow, Ealdgyth, in Malmesbury. In response, Edmund openly rebelled against his father. He freed Ealdgyth from imprisonment, married her, seized the lands of Sigeferth and Morcar, and by August launched a campaign in the Five Boroughs against his father.
In September 1015, Cnut's fleet set sail for England with a Scandinavian army of 10,000 in 200 longships Cnut was at the head of an array of warriors from all over Scandinavia. The invading army was composed primarily of mercenaries.
The ground they fought on
The site of Cnut's Ravaging of Dorset 1015 lies on Bracklesham Group And Barton Group (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is sand, silt and clay.
Queen Emma's Encomium, composed in praise of Cnut, preserves a vivid portrait of the fleet that descended on Dorset: shields of every kind crowded the ships, gold gleamed on the prows, silver flashed on the variously shaped hulls, and carved lions and bulls with gilded horns threatened death from the bows. The encomiast boasted that no slave, no freed man, no low-born or aged man sailed with that host, but only nobles of mature strength fit for any kind of fighting, so fleet on their feet that they scorned the speed of horsemen. Whatever allowance must be made for courtly flattery, this is the force whose arrival at the mouth of the Frome inaugurated the harrying of Dorset in the autumn of 1015.
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- Cnut's invasion of England · Wikipedia
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