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By the death of Edmund, Cnut was left without a rival. Edmund died on the 30th of November. At Christmas, Cnut summoned to London the Witan of all England to name and crown their king. He questioned witnesses as to the portions of the kingdom, if any, assigned by Edmund to his brothers. As for his infant children, they were not considered. It was found that no portions had been assigned to Edmund’s brothers. Whereupon the meeting unanimously chose Cnut as king of all England. And he was crowned in Paul’s Minster by Archbishop Living. Then the country, in the hands of the strongest king who had ever ruled it, settled down to peace for nineteen years. Never before, not even during the occupation of the Romans, was England at peace for so long. There were no tumults at home; there were no pirates on the seas. As for London, she has no history during this reign. The Chronicle only says as follows:—“A.D. 1018. In this year the tribute was delivered throughout the whole English nation: that was, altogether, two and seventy thousand pounds besides that which the townsmen of London paid, which was ten and a half thousand pounds.”
If the sum paid was at all in proportion to population, London then contained an eighth part of the whole people. Curiously, the population of London is in the same proportion to-day.
“A.D. 1023. This year King Cnut, within London, in St. Paul’s Minster, gave full leave to Archbishop Æthelnothe and Bishop Brithwine and to all the servants of God who were with them that they might take up from the tomb the Archbishop St. Elphege.” This they did, and transported the remains to Canterbury, where they still lie. This archbishop, who had been murdered by the Danes, was sainted. There is a church in the City of London dedicated to him.
The manner of the exhumation and translation, as described in the Translatio S. Elphegi by Osborne, is quoted by Wright (The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon) to illustrate the sturdy independence and the turbulence of the Londoners.
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“When Archbishop Elfey had been slain by the Danes in 1012, the Londoners purchased his body of the murderers, and deposited it in St. Paul’s Cathedral. After Cnut had obtained the crown by conquest, and peace was restored, Archbishop Agelnoth (Elfey’s successor) applied to the king to give up the body of the martyr to the monks of Canterbury. Cnut, who was then holding his court in London, consented, but he would only undertake to get the body away by deceiving the citizens. He gave orders to his huscarles, or household soldiers, to disperse themselves in parties, some on the bridge and along the banks of the river, whilst others went to the gates of the city, and there raised tumults and riots. By dint of promises and persuasions, the men who had the care of the body of Elfey were prevailed upon to assist in the plot, and, whilst the attention of the citizens was called to the disturbances at the gates, the sacred deposit was carried by stealth to the river and there placed in a boat, which was rowed in all haste beyond the limits of the capital, and then landed in Kent. The king stood on the bank of the Thames, and watched its progress with anxious eye, for he was afraid of the citizens. When the latter discovered the trick which had been played upon them, they sent out a party in pursuit of the fugitives, who, however, had reached a place of safety before they were overtaken.”
“A.D. 1035. This year,” says the Chronicle, “died King Cnut.” If, as Freeman maintains, King Alfred was the most perfect character in all history, then is Cnut the wisest and the strongest character in English history. He founded a standing army with his regiment of Huscarles, or Guards; he respected old laws and customs; he recognised the right of the people to accept or refuse new laws; he defined the right of hunting, leaving every man free to hunt over his own land; he denounced the slave trade; he ordered that there was to be no trading on Sunday—surely the weekly day of rest is the greatest boon ever bestowed upon men who have to work for their living. He enjoined the discharge of church duties and the payment of church dues. All these things, however, belong to the history of England.
On the death of Cnut a Witenagemot was held at Oxford for the election of his successor. How the kingdom was partitioned between Harold and Hardacnut; how the partition was found impossible; how Harold ruled over all England; how evil was his rule and how disastrous—these things belong to English history. London, which suffered from Harold’s misrule with the rest of the kingdom, had been mainly instrumental in the election of that king. She was represented at Oxford by her “lithsmen,” i.e. her sea-going men. Were they the merchants? or were they the Danes—men of the sea—who formed a considerable part of her population? Freeman thinks they were the latter; there seems, however, no reason for adopting that view, or for supposing that in a general parliament of the kingdom the Danes of London should be called upon to send special representatives. Why were not the Danes of Leicestershire, or of Norfolk, where there were so many, also called? There is, however, a passage in the laws of Athelstan which seems to clear up this point. Athelstan conferred the rank of Thane on every merchant who made three voyages over the sea with a vessel and cargo of his own. Therefore, in calling the Witenagemot these navigators—men of the sea—who had in this manner obtained192 the rank of Thane were summoned by right. The “lithsmen” were not the merchants; they were not the Danes; they were simply the merchant adventurers who had traded outre mer, beyond the seas and back for three voyages, and claimed for that service the rank of Thane.
The reign of Harold is only important to us for these reasons—First, the part played by London in the election of the king. Next, the illustration of the savagery which still remained among the Danes, and was shown in their horrible treatment of the Etheling Alfred and his men. Alfred, the son of Ethelred, thought that the death of Cnut would give him a chance of succession. He therefore came over, accompanied by a small following. But “Godwin, the earl, would not allow him.” His fate is recorded in the A.S. Chronicle:—
And lastly, the fact that Harold was buried at Westminster, the first of our kings buried there. His half-brother, Hardacnut, had the body exhumed and thrown into the mud of the marsh round Thorney—“into a fen,” says the Chronicle. Thorney stood in a fen, and it is not likely that the new king would desire his savage deed—yet, was it more savage than the acts of Charles II. at the Restoration?—to be concealed. One knows not how many tides ebbed and flowed over the body of the dead king as it lay among the reeds; but presently some—perhaps the monks—taking pity on the poor remains put them into a boat, carried them down the river, and buried them in the little church of St. Clement’s, which, like Thorney, stood on the rising ground of the Strand. And there his dust lies still.
Hardacnut fell down in a fit—“as he stood at his drink”—at Kennington Palace, having crossed over from Westminster to attend a wedding feast. He was buried at Winchester with his father. But before he was well buried the people had chosen, at London, his half-brother, Edward, as king.193
The reign of Edward the Confessor brought little change to London. The194 Danish pirates renewed their attacks, but there was now a fleet well equipped to meet them. The head-quarters of the fleet were at London, or at Westminster. It is said that when Earl Godwin made his demonstration, which threatened rebellion, he passed through the south arches of London Bridge, designing to meet and attack the royal fleet of fifty sail lying at Westminster. It is noticeable that he first assured himself of the goodwill of the City.
A statute of Edward the Confessor (forty-sixth chapter of his laws), in which he appoints the time for holding the hustings, thus speaks of London, and is quoted in the Liber Albus:—
“Therefore in London, which is the head of the realm and of the laws, and always the Court of his lordship the king, the Hustings ought to sit and be holden on the Monday in each week. For it was formerly founded after the pattern and manner, and in remembrance, of Great Troy, and to the present day contains within itself the laws and ordinances, dignities, liberties, and royal customs, of an ancient Greek Troy. In this place therefore are kept the intricate accounts, and the difficult pleas of the Crown, and the Courts of his lordship the King for all the realm aforesaid. And she alone ever doth invariably preserve her own usages and customs, wherever such King may be, whether upon an expedition or elsewhere, by reason of the tumults of the nations and peoples of the realm: in accordance with the ancient customs of our good forefathers and predecessors, and of all the princes, nobles, and wise seniors of all the realm aforesaid.”
In the year 1065 King Edward the Confessor sets forth the history of Westminster as he understood it:—
“Wherefore”—after a general introduction—“I, by the Grace of God King of the English, make it known to all generations to come of time after me, that, by instruction of Pope Leo for penitence and the remission of my sins I have renewed and improved the Basilica of Saint Peter which is situated near the walls of London, the chief city of the English, and on the west side of it, is called Westminster. It was built anciently by Mellitus, first bishop of London, companion and friend of Saint Augustus, first bishop of Canterbury, and by Saint Peter, himself performing an angelic task, and was dedicated by the impression of the Holy Cross and the smearing of the Holy Chrism: but by frequent invasions of barbarians and especially of the Danes (who in the lifetime of my father Ethelred had made an irruption into the kingdom, and after his death divided the kingdom with my brother Eadmund and captured and killed my brother Alfred miserably) was neglected and nearly destroyed.”
I do not know how long a time was necessary for the complete absorption of the Danes among the general population: but there are memories of Danish settlements around St. Clement Danes and outside Bishopsgate Street—perhaps the existence of such a settlement may account for the burial of King Harold in the church of St. Clement.
The Danes, therefore, occupied London first for a period of twelve years. We do not expect to find any remains of that brief occupation: and indeed there are none. When Cnut and his sons were kings they ruled, but did not occupy, the City195 for some five-and-twenty years. We might expect some remains of that period. If Cnut built the King’s House at Westminster, then the vaults and crypts which were filled with cement when the Houses of Parliament were built were probably his work, and the Painted Chamber destroyed by fire in 1835 was also his work. Otherwise there is nothing, not a stone or a fragment, which we can recognise as Danish work. One little relic alone remains. During excavations for a warehouse in the south side of St. Paul’s Churchyard there was found a Danish gravestone inscribed with Runic characters, probably of the tenth or eleventh century. It is now in the Guildhall Museum.
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