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King Canute and the Murder of the Danish Earl over a Chess Game

Cryptic references to King Canute's murder of a Danish nobleman, allegedly over the results of a game of chess appear on the Internet. Bill Wall, for example (in one of the versions of his Chess History Timeline), is cited as a source for this piece of chess trivia in the chess encyclopedia La Mecca, http://www.maskeret.com/mecca/mecbigc.htm (scroll down to the entry under "Canute").

Canute: circa 995-1035 BCE, King of England, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden]. Intrigued, our spies embarked upon an investigation and were successful in tracking down the truth behind this chess trivia nugget.

The following information was obtained from the Online Medieval and Classical Library,
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/haraldson6.html,

"Heimskringla" or "The Chronicles of the Kings of Norway"

From the "Saga of Olaf Haraldson: Part VI":

162. OF KING CANUTE AND EARL ULF. When King Canute saw that the kings of Norway and Sweden steered eastward with their forces along the coast, he sent men to ride night and day on the land to follow their movements. Some spies went forward, others returned; so that King Canute had news every day of their progress. He had also spies always in their army. Now when he heard that a great part of the fleet had sailed away from the kings, he turned back with his forces to Seeland, and lay with his whole fleet in the Sound; so that a part lay on the Scania side, and a part on the Seeland side. King Canute himself, the day before Michaelmas, rode with a great retinue to Roeskilde. There his brother-in-law, Earl Ulf, had prepared a great feast for him. The earl was the most agreeable host, but the king was silent and sullen. The earl talked to him in every way to make him cheerful, and brought forward everything which he thought would amuse him; but the king remained stern, and speaking little. At last the earl proposed to him a game at chess, which he agreed to; and a chess-board was produced, and they played together. Earl Ulf was hasty in temper, stiff, and in nothing yielding; but everything he managed went on well in his hands; and he was a great warrior, about whom there are many stories. He was the most powerful man in Denmark next to the king. Earl Ulf's sister Gyda was married to Earl Gudin (Godwin) Ulfnadson; and their sons were Harald king of England, and Earl Toste, Earl Valthiof, Earl Morukare, and Earl Svein. Gyda was the name of their daughter, who was married to the English king Edward the Good.

163. OF THE EARL'S MURDER. When they had played a while the king made a false move, at which the earl took a knight from the king; but the king set the piece again upon the board, and told the earl to make another move; but the earl grew angry, threw over the chess-board, stood up, and went away. The king said, "Runnest thou away, Ulf the coward?" The earl turned round at the door and said, "Thou wouldst have run farther at Helga river, if thou hadst come to battle there. Thou didst not call me Ulf the coward, when I hastened to thy help while the Swedes were beating thee like a dog." The earl then went out, and went to bed. A little later the king also went to bed. The following morning while the king was putting on his clothes he said to his footboy, "Go thou to Earl Ulf, and kill him." The lad went, was away a while, and then came back. The king said, "Hast thou killed the earl?" "I did not kill him, for he was gone to Saint Lucius' church." There was a man called Ivar White, a Norwegian by birth, who was the king's courtman and chamberlain. The king said to him, "Go thou and kill the earl." Ivar went to the church, and in at the choir, and thrust his sword through the earl, who died on the spot. Then Ivar went to the king, with the bloody sword in his hand. The king said, "Hast thou killed the earl?" "I have killed him," says he. "Thou didst well." After the earl was killed the monks closed the church, and locked the doors. When that was told the king he sent a message to the monks, ordering them to open the church and sing high mass. They did as the king ordered; and when the king came to the church he bestowed on it great property, so that it had a large domain, by which that place was raised very high; and these lands have since always belonged to it. King Canute rode down to his ships, and lay there till late in harvest with a very large army."

Here is a brief biography of King Canute, from http://viking.no/e/people/e-knud.htm:

From "Viking Warrior to English King" - "Canute (Knud) The Great"
"The King Who Could Not Stop the Sea but Stemmed the Viking Tide on England's Shores

Written for The Viking Network by Barrie Markham Rhodes


Canute the Politician
"Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obey".
"So spoke King Canute the Great, the legend says, seated on his throne on the seashore, waves lapping round his feet. Canute had learned that his flattering courtiers claimed he was "So great, he could command the tides of the sea to go back". Now Canute was not only a religious man, but also a clever politician. He knew his limitations - even if his courtiers did not - so he had his throne carried to the seashore and sat on it as the tide came in, commanding the waves to advance no further. When they didn't, he had made his point that, though the deeds of kings might appear 'great' in the minds of men, they were as nothing in the face of God's power.

Canute the Viking
"Who was this man, who started his adult life as a Viking warrior and went on to become the ruler of an empire which, at its height, included England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden?

"Canute (who is known as Knud in Denmark and Knut in Norway) was the son of Svein Forkbeard Canute's grandfather was Harald Bluetooth and his great-grandfather was King Gorm.

"In England, in the year 1000, the Saxon King Aethelred plundered the Isle of Man and parts of The Danelaw, to try to crush the independently-minded Scandinavians living there. Aethelred always feared a resurgence of Viking power in England. In 1002 he married Emma, sister of Duke Richard of Normandy. This marriage was probably a 'political' one. But Aethelred's fear of the Scandinavians caused him to make a serious mistake. In the year of his marriage to Emma, perhaps feeling more secure in his new links with the Norman ruling dynasty, he ordered the massacre of all 'Danish' men in England. Svein Forkbeard's sister and his brother-in-law, Pallig, were amongst those killed and this brought Svein to England to avenge their deaths. Svein raided south and east England throughout the years 1003 and 1004, but took his army back to Denmark in 1005 when they could no longer support themselves because of a great famine in England.

"Svein carried out many more raids for several years after this, extracting vast amounts of silver as 'Danegeld'. In 1013 he returned with his son Canute, for a different purpose. This time he intended to conquer England. Though he landed his forces in southern England, he made The Danelaw his first objective, probably recognising that, being’Scandinavian" in character, this province would accept him without too much resistance. He went on to conquer the rest of the country and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that "...all the nation regarded him as full king". Aethelred fled to Normandy.

"Svein, though, died the next year and Aethelred saw a chance to regain his kingdom. He returned from Normandy and managed to expel Svein's army, now under Canute's leadership.

Canute the King
"In 1016 Canute returned and was victorious at the Battle of Ashingdon (Ashingdown) over Edmund 'Ironside', Aethelred's eldest son and successor. Canute and Edmund drew up the Treaty of Olney, which allotted The Danelaw and the English midlands to Canute, while Edmund retained control of southern England. This was almost a repeat of what had happened between King Alfred the Great of Wessex and the Vikings in the ninth century. Edmund died shortly after this treaty and so Canute found himself the first Viking king of all England.

"In 1017 Canute married Aethelred's widow, Emma. But her two sons by her first marriage remained in Normandy (which was to have far-reaching consequences for England later). Emma had two children by Canute, Harthacnut and Gunhild. Canute was a Christian and very religious-minded. However, this did not stop him having an English mistress, Aelfgifu, who bore him two sons, Harald and Svein

A Viking Empire Emerges
"Canute's brother, Harald, King of Denmark, died in 1018 and Canute went to Denmark to secure his hold over that realm. Two years later, Canute started to lay claim to Norway, eventually capturing it and putting his son Svein and his mistress Aelfgifu to govern it. Scotland also submitted to Canute and, by the late 1020s, Canute was able to claim to be 'king of all England, and of Denmark, of the Norwegians, and part of the Swedes'. Canute was anxious to consolidate political unity in England and, as part of his drive towards this, he razed some of the burghs which had been created to defend southern England against The Danelaw Vikings, and vice versa. It is thought that defensive walls and ditches at Cricklade, Lydford, South Cadbury and Wareham were destroyed as part of this move.

Canute's Achievements
"Most people think of Canute in connection with the story about him commanding the tide to halt. But he should be remembered for more than this. He was perhaps the first king to successfully rule over a truly united realm of England, free from internal and external strife and unrest. Because he also ruled the Viking homelands, he was able to protect England against attacks, maintaining twenty years of badly-needed peace during which trade, Anglo-Scandinavian art and Christianity were able to flourish. Canute had great respect for the old English laws, to which he brought a keen sense of justice and a regard for individual rights. As part of his promotion of himself as an 'English' king, he did penance for the wrongdoings of his Viking forefathers, building churches and making many generous gifts to others.

The Passing of Canute and the Viking Empire
"Canute died in 1035, a relatively young man by today's measure, aged about forty. He was buried in Winchester, the former capital of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex and a town where he was often in residence.

"Canute's sons, unfortunately, were not made of the same stuff as their father so, on his death, the Anglo-Scandinavian empire he had acquired began to break up. Aelfgifu's son, Harald, became king of England but died in 1040. Harthacnut then ruled for only two years before he, too, died, leaving behind little to remember him by other than the huge taxes he imposed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said of him, "He did nothing worthy of a king as long as he ruled".
"None of Canute's children produced any heirs and it was one of Emma's sons by Aethelred, Edward (later to be known as 'the Confessor'), who returned from Normandy to ascend to the English throne in 1042."