| Notater |
- Konge av DK + England + N 985-1014.
Wikipedia/answers.com, http://www.answers.com/topic/ethelred-ii-of-england#Conflict_with_the_Danes:
Æthelred ordered the massacre of all Danish men in England on St Brice's Day, 13 November 1002. No order of this kind could be carried out in more than a third of England, where the Danes were too strong, but Gunhilde, sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, was said to be among the victims. It is likely that a wish to avenge her was a principal motive for Sweyn's invasion of western England the following year.
By 1004 Sweyn was in East Anglia, where he sacked Norwich. In this year a nobleman of East Anglia, Ulfcytel Snillingr met Sweyn in force, and made an impression on the, until then, rampant Danish expedition. Though Ulfcytel was eventually defeated, outside of Thetford, he caused the Danes heavy losses and was nearly able to destroy their ships. The Danish army left England for Denmark in 1005, perhaps because of their injuries sustained in East Anglia, perhaps from the very severe famine which afflicted the continent and the British Isles in that year.
An expedition the following year was bought off in early 1007 by tribute money of 36,000, and for the next two years England was free from attack. In 1008 the government created a new fleet of warships, organised on a national scale, but this was weakened when one of its commanders took to piracy, and the king and his council decided not to risk it in a general action. In Stenton's view: "The history of England in the next generation was really determined between 1009 and 1012...the ignominious collapse of the English defence caused a loss of morale which was irreparable." The Danish army of 1009, led by Thorkell the Tall and his brother Hemming, was the most formidable force to invade England since Æthelred became king. It harried England until it was bought off by 48,000 pounds in April 1012.
Sweyn then launched an invasion in 1013 intended to make him king of England, and showed himself to be a general above any other Viking leader of his generation. By the end of 1013 English resistance had collapsed and Sweyn had conquered the country, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy, but the situation changed suddenly when Sweyn died on 3 February 1014. The crews of the Danish ships in the Trent immediately gave their allegiance to Sweyns's son Canute, but leading Englishmen sent a deputation to Æthelred to negotiate his restoration. He was required to promise to be a true lord to them, to reform everything of which they had complained, and forgive all that had been said and done against him. The terms are of great constitutional interest as the first recorded pact between a king and his subjects, and also as showing that many noblemen had submitted to Sweyn because of their distrust of Æthelred.
Æthelred then launched an expedition against Canute and his allies, the men of Lindsey. Canute's army had not completed its preparations, and in April 1014 he decided to withdraw from England without a fight, abandoning his Lindsey allies to Æthelred's revenge. The debacle damaged the young and inexperienced Canute's prestige, but in August 1015 he was able to launch a new invasion with the assistance of his sister's husband, Eric of Hlathir. He returned to a complex situation in England. Æthelred's son, Edmund Ironside, had revolted against his father and established himself in the Danelaw, which was so angry at Canute and Æthelred for the ravaging of Lindsey that it was prepared to support Edmund against both of them. Over the next months, Canute conquered most of England, and Edmund had rejoined Æthelred to defend London when Æthelred died on 23 April 1016. The subsequent war between Edmund and Canute ended in a decisive victory for Canute at the Battle of Ashingdon on 18 October 1016. Edmund's reputation as a warrior was such that Canute neverthess agreed to divide England, Edmund taking Wessex and Canute the whole of the country beyond the Thames. However, Edmund died on 30 November and Canute became king of the whole country.
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