In the mid-980s, Swein revolted against his father,Harald Bluetooth, and seized the throne. Harald was driven into exile and died shortly afterwards in November 986 or 987.[2] In 1000, with the allegiance ofEric,Earl of Lade, Swein ruled most ofNorway. In 1013, shortly before his death, he became the firstDanish king of the English after a long effort.
A coin of Swein Forkbeard, minted in 995; this is the earliest known coin with a Latin inscription minted in Scandinavia, based on Anglo-Saxon models and made by an English moneyer (obv.:ZVEN REX AD DENER "Sven, king of [or among] the Danes", rev.:GOD-WINE M-AN D-NER "Godwine, moneyer among the Danes").[3][4]
According toAdam of Bremen, Swein was the son of Harald Bluetooth and a woman named "Gunhild". When Harald converted to Christianity, Swein was baptised "Otto" (in honour of German kingOtto I).[7]
In the mid-980s, Swein revolted against his father and seized the throne. Harald was driven into exile and died shortly afterwards in November 986 or 987.[2]
Adam of Bremen depicted Swein as a rebellious pagan who persecuted Christians, betrayed his father and expelled German bishops fromScania andZealand. According to Adam, Swein was sent into exile by his father's German friends and deposed in favour of kingEric the Victorious of Sweden, whom Adam wrote ruled Denmark until his death in 994 or 995. Sørensen (2001) argues that Adam's depiction of Swein may be overly negative, as seen through an "unsympathetic and intolerant eye".[9]Adam's account is thus not seen as entirely reliable; the claimed 14 years' exile of Swein to Scotland does not seem to agree with Swein's building churches in Denmark throughout the same period, including the churches inLund andRoskilde.[10] According to Adam, Swein was punished by God for leading the uprising which led to king Harald's death, and had to spend fourteen years abroad (i.e. 986–1000). The historicity of this exile, or its duration, is uncertain. Adam writes that Swein was shunned by all those with whom he sought refuge, but was finally allowed to live for a while in Scotland. Adam also suggests that Swein in his youth lived among heathens, and only achieved success as a ruler after accepting Christianity.
Division of Norway after theBattle of Svolder according toHeimskringla: The red area was under direct Danish control, with Swein ruling it as a Danish extension.Eiríkr Hákonarson ruled the purple area as a fiefdom from Swein Forkbeard. The yellow area was underSveinn Hákonarson, his half-brother, held as a fief ofOlof Skötkonung, the Swedish king.
Swein built an alliance with Swedish kingOlof Skötkonung andEirik Hákonarson,Jarl of Lade, against Norwegian kingOlaf Tryggvason.TheKings' sagas ascribe the causes of the alliance to Olaf Tryggvason's ill-fated marriage proposal toSigrid the Haughty and his problematic marriage toThyri, sister of Swein Forkbeard. According to the sagas, Sigrid pushed Swein into war with Olaf because Olaf had slapped her.[11]
The allies attacked and defeated king Olaf in the westernBaltic Sea when he was sailing home from an expedition, in theBattle of Svolder, fought in September 999 or 1000. The victors divided Norway among them. According to the account of theHeimskringla, Swein regained direct control ofViken district.
KingOlof of Sweden received four districts inTrondheim as well asMøre,Romsdal andRånrike (theFagrskinna, by contrast, says that the Swedish part consisted ofOppland and a part of Trondheim). He gave these to his son in law, JarlSvein Hákonarson, to hold as a vassal. The rest of Norway was ruled by Eirik Hákonarson as King Svein's vassal.
The Jarls Eirik and Svein proved strong, competent rulers, and their reign was prosperous. Most sources say that they adopted Christianity but allowed the people religious freedom, leading to a backlash against Christianity which undid much ofOlaf Tryggvason's missionary work.[12]
Swein apparently recruited priests and bishops from England, in preference to theArchbishopric of Bremen. In part, this reflected the fact that there were numerous Christian priests of Danish origin in theDanelaw, while Swein had few personal connections to Germany. Swein's preference for the English church may also have had a political motive, because German bishops were an integral part of the state.[citation needed] It has been suggested that Swein was seeking to pre-empt any diminution of his independence by German leaders.[13] This may have been a reason for Adam of Bremen's apparent hostility in his accounts of Swein; by accentuating English ecclesiastical influence in his kingdom, Swein was effectively spurning the Archbishop of Bremen.
The "Chronicle of John of Wallingford" (c. 1225–1250) records Swein's involvement in raids againstEngland during 1002–1005, 1006–1007 and 1009–1012. According to Ashley (1998), Swein's invasion was partly motivated by theSt Brice's Day Massacre in November 1002, where Danes in England were massacred under orders fromÆthelred the Unready, in which Swein's sister and brother-in-law are said to have been killed,[14] but Lund (2001) argues that the main motivation for the raids was more likely the prospect of revenue.[10]
At the outset of the invasions, Swein negotiated an agreement with Duke Richard II of Normandy whereby the Danes gained permission to sell their spoils of war in Normandy.[15]
Swein campaigned in Wessex and East Anglia in 1003–1004, but a famine forced him to return to Denmark in 1005. Further raids took place in 1006–1007, and in 1009–1012Thorkell the Tall led a Viking invasion into England.Simon Keynes regards it as uncertain whether Swein supported these invasions, but "whatever the case, he was quick to exploit the disruption caused by the activities of Thorkell's army".[16]Swein acquired massive sums ofDanegeld through the raids. In 1013, he is reported to have personally led his forces in a full-scale invasion of England.[17]
before the month of August came king Swein with his fleet toSandwich. He went very quickly aboutEast Anglia into theHumber's mouth, and so upward along theTrent till he came toGainsborough.EarlUchtred and allNorthumbria quickly bowed to him, as did all the people of theKingdom of Lindsey, then the people of theFive Boroughs. He was given hostages from eachshire. When he understood that all the people had submitted to him, he bade that his force should be provisioned and horsed; he went south with the main part of the invasion force, while some of the invasion force, as well as the hostages, were with his son Cnut. After he came overWatling Street, they went toOxford, and the town-dwellers soon bowed to him, and gave hostages. From there they went toWinchester, and the people did the same, then eastward toLondon.[18]
But the Londoners put up a strong resistance, because King Æthelred andThorkell the Tall, a Viking leader who had defected to Æthelred, personally held their ground against him in London itself. Swein then went west toBath, where the western thanes submitted to him and gave hostages. The Londoners then followed suit, fearing Swein's revenge if they resisted any longer. King Æthelred sent his sonsEdward andAlfred to Normandy, and himself spent Christmas on theIsle of Wight, and then followed them into exile.[18]
Based inGainsborough, Lincolnshire, Swein began to organise his vast new kingdom, but he died there on 3 February 1014,[2][19] having ruled England for only five weeks. Swein's cause of death is unknown.[20] Some theorise that he was killed, whereas other sources say he died after falling off a horse.[20][21] His embalmed body was returned to Denmark for burial in the church he had built. Tradition locates this church inRoskilde,[16] but it is more plausible that it was actually located inLund in Scania (now part of Sweden).[22]
Swein's elder son,Harald II, succeeded him as King of Denmark, while his younger son,Cnut, was proclaimed King of England by the people of the Danelaw. However, the English nobility sent for Æthelred, who upon his return from exile in Normandy in early 1014 managed to drive Cnut out of England. Cnut soon returned and became king of all England in 1016, following the deaths of Æthelred and his sonEdmund Ironside; he succeeded his brother as King of Denmark in 1019 and eventually also ruled Norway, parts of Sweden,Pomerania andSchleswig.
Cnut and his sons,Harold Harefoot andHarthacnut, ruled England over a combined 26-year period (1016–1042). After Harthacnut's death, the English throne reverted to the House of Wessex under Æthelred's younger sonEdward the Confessor (reigned 1042–1066).
TheChronicon ofThietmar of Merseburg and theEncomium Emmae report Cnut's mother as having beenŚwiętosława, a daughter ofMieszko I of Poland.Norse sources of theHigh Middle Ages, most prominentlyHeimskringla bySnorri Sturluson, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they callGunhild and a daughter ofBurislav, the king ofVindland. Since in the Norsesagas the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko (not his sonBolesław). Adam of Bremen inGesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is unique in equating Cnut's mother (for whom he also produced no name) with the former queen ofSweden, wife ofEric the Victorious and by this marriage mother ofOlof Skötkonung. To complicate the matter, Heimskringla and other sagas also have Swein marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, namedSigrid the Haughty, whom Swein married only after Gunhild, the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, had died. Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Swein's wives (or wife) have been advanced (seeSigrid the Haughty andGunhild). But since Adam is the only source to equate the identity of Cnut's and Olof Skötkonung's mother, this is often seen as an error on Adam's part, and it is often assumed that Swein had two wives, the first being Cnut's mother, and the second being the former Queen of Sweden. Cnut's brotherHarald was the younger of the two brothers, according toEncomium Emmae.
^Sørensen, M.P. (2001). "Religions Old and New",The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Ed. P.H. Sawyer. Oxford University Press (2001), p. 202
^abLund, Niels (2001). "The Danish Empire and the End of the Viking Age",The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Ed. P. H. Sawyer. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 167–181.ISBN0192854348.
^This is according toHeimskringla andFagrskinna, see Lee M. Hollander (trans.) (1991)Heimskringla, p. 244 and Finlay Finlay, Alison (editor and translator) (2004)Fagrskinna, p. 130.According toHistoria Norwegie andÁgrip, the Jarls actively worked to uproot Christianity in Norway, see Driscoll, M.J. (editor) (1995). Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum. Viking Society for Northern Research, p. 35 and Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003). Historia Norwegie (2003), p. 101.
^Lund, Niels (1986). "The armies of Swein Forkbeard and Cnut: leding or li(th)"Anglo-Saxon England 15 (1986), pp. 39–40The Christianization of Scandinavia, Birgit Sawyer, et al., ed. Kungälv: Viktoria Bokforlag, p. 80.ISBN918670804X.
^Ashley, Mike (1998).British Monarchs: A complete genealogy, gazetteer and biographical Encyclopaedia of the Kings and Queens of Britain. Robinson Publishing, p. 483: "Probably his [Æthelred's] worst decision was the St. Brice's day massacre on 13 November 1002... he ordered the killing of every Dane who lived in England, except the Anglo-Danes in the Danelaw. The massacre brought back to English shores the Danish commander Swein, whose sister and brother-in-law had been killed in the massacre".
^abKeynes, Simon (2001). "Swein Forkbeard". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Scragg, Donald (eds.).The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Blackwell Publishing. p. 437.ISBN0631155651.
^abThe Anglo-Saxon ChronicleArchived 21 April 2006 at theWayback Machine. Everyman Press: London, 1912. Translation by James Ingram (London, 1823) andJ. A. Giles (London, 1847). Medieval and Classical Literature Library Release #17. Retrieved 12 October 2006.
^Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". InLapidge, Michael (ed.).The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.ISBN978-0-470-65632-7.
^Kirby, D. P.The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge.ISBN978-0-4152-4211-0.
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