Sweyn Invades

It may well have been news of the wholesale slaughter of Danes in 1002 that was ordered by King Æthelred that motivated Sweyn Forkbeard to invade England. The St. Brice's Day Massacre is said to have killed Sweyn's sister Gunhilde and her husband, Pallig.

According to John of Wallingford, a Benedictine monk in the early 13th century, Sweyn was behind invasions between 1002 and 1012, many of which were commanded by Thorkell the Tall. Despite the massacre, an apparent arrangement between Sweyn and Duke Richard II of Normandy to sell Sweyn's plunder in Normandy suggests that the main reason for invasion was, as always, loot. Of course the Danes were often bought off with Danegeld, and Sweyn accumulated a lot of it in those invasion years.

Sweyn is said to have personally led an invasion force in 1013, accompanied by Cnut. According to the Peterborough Chronicle:

before the month of August came king Swein with his fleet to Sandwich. He went very quickly about East Anglia into the Humber's mouth, and so upward along the Trent till he came to Gainsborough. Earl Uchtred and all Northumbria quickly bowed to him, as did all the people of the Kingdom of Lindsey, then the people of the Five Boroughs. He was given hostages from each shire. 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 over Watling Street, they went to Oxford, and the town-dwellers soon bowed to him, and gave hostages. From there they went to Winchester, and the people did the same, then eastward to London.

London resisted, partly because by then they had Danish help from Thorkell the Tall, who had defected, with many men and ships loyal to him, because he objects to the stoning of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ælfheah. Sweyn then went to Bath and other locations where they all surrendered. London soon followed, fearing how severe his revenge would be if they continued to resist.

With the capitulation of London, Æthelred went to the Isle of Wight, and sent his sons to Normandy. Sweyn started to manage his new kingdom, but he died five weeks later, on 3 February 1014. His body as embalmed and returned to Denmark for burial.

His position in England was taken over by Cnut, of whom much has been said. Who has never been mentioned is Sweyn's daughter, Estrid, who lived a long and not-dull life. Let's talk about her next time.