Canute IV of Denmark

Life events

1. Born — 1042

   Canute was born c. 1042, one of the many sons of Sweyn II Estridsson by an unknown mistress.

2. Other — 1069

   Canute is first recorded as a member of Sweyn II's 1069 raid on England; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle names him as one of the leaders of a further Danish raid against England in 1075.

3. Exiled — 1076

   After his father Sweyn II died, Canute's brother Harald III was elected king; Canute went into exile in Sweden and was possibly involved in active opposition to Harald's rule.

4. Consecrated — 1080

   On 17 April 1080, Harald III died and Canute succeeded to the Danish throne. On his accession he married Adela, daughter of Count Robert I of Flanders, cementing a political alliance against William I of England.

5. Wrote — 1085

   In May 1085 Canute issued a donation letter to Lund Cathedral granting it large tracts of land in Scania, Zealand, and Amager — the oldest comprehensive text surviving from Denmark — and simultaneously founded Lund Cathedral School.

6. Other — 1085

   In 1085 Canute assembled a fleet at the Limfjord to invade England with support from Count Robert I of Flanders and Olaf III of Norway, claiming the English crown as grandnephew of Canute the Great; the fleet never sailed and the leding army dispersed to tend their harvests.

7. Martyred — 1086

   On 10 July 1086, during a peasant revolt, Canute and his retinue took refuge in the wooden St. Alban's Priory in Odense; rebels stormed the church and killed Canute, his brother Benedict, and seventeen followers before the altar. A 2008 CT scan determined his cause of death as a thrust to the sacrum through the abdomen, qualifying chronicler Aelnoth of Canterbury's account of a lance to the flank.

8. Translated — 1300

   In 1300 the remains of Canute and his brother Benedict were interred in Saint Canute's Cathedral in Odense, built in his honour, where his relics remain on display.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Canute IV was the first Danish king — and the first Dane — to be canonized. Pope Paschal II confirmed his cult on 19 April 1101 after envoys from Eric I of Denmark presented the case. (certain)
• His May 1085 donation charter to Lund Cathedral is the oldest comprehensive text from Denmark, providing documentary insight into Danish post-Viking Age society and laying groundwork for the Danish Archdiocese of Lund established in 1104. (certain)
• A 2008 X-ray CT scan of his remains showed Canute was right-handed and of slender build, and determined his fatal wound was a thrust to the sacrum through the abdomen — contradicting Aelnoth's claim of a lance to the flank; the absence of defensive injuries suggests he did not resist his killers. (certain)
• According to historian Niels Lund of the University of Copenhagen, Canute's abortive 1085 invasion fleet assembly at the Limfjord "marked the end of the Viking Age." (likely)
• Canute's son Carl ruled as Charles the Good, Count of Flanders (1119-1127), and was likewise slain in a church by rebels in Bruges in 1127; Charles was later beatified by the Catholic Church. (likely)