In Our Time: Cnut
In this episode of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Cnut, the Danish prince who rocked the throne and became one hell of a King in England back in 1016.
Now, when Cnut took over, England was in a sorry state. Viking raiders had been tearing up the north and east coast, and the Anglo-Saxon nobility? They were all over the place. But Cnut? Oh man, he was something else. He ruled with style and skill, bringing stability and order to the kingdom. He didn’t stop there. Nope, he took the Anglo-Saxon style of centralized government and exported it all the way back to Denmark. Under Cnut’s rule, England became the heart of a multi-national North Atlantic Empire, and let me tell you, they were players in European politics. Cnut, he wasn’t just a king; he was a legend.
