xxi Character of Canute.

The great change in Canute’s character after his accession to the throne has been noticed by all writers.  Each year he seemed to grow in self-command and in the practice of virtue, while all men were edified by his strict attention to his religions duties.  Later in life he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and a letter written thence gives a good idea of his general affection for his people.  It is addressed to the archbishops and bishops and great men, and to all the English people, and is written in the familiar style a father might use to his children, especially telling them all he had seen at Rome, and about the way in which he spent Easter with Pope John and the Emperor, whom he persuaded to abolish certain dues exacted from English pilgrims.  In the last portion of the letter he tells them how he has made up his mind to amend his life in every way, and to atone for all the wrongs committed in the violence of youth.  He forbids any person to use violence or to make the royal needs an excuse for wrongdoing, saying, “I have no need of money gathered by unrighteousness.”  He concludes by saying that he is sure they will all be glad to hear how he has fared, and that they know he has not spared himself any trouble, and never will, to do all that lies in his power for the good of his people.

There is something in the whole tone of the letter which warms one’s heart towards the writer, and one cannot help contrasting the reigns of the two conquerors, Canute and William:  the first, beginning with violence and bloodshed, grew daily in justice, mercy, and the love of God, and so passed lamented to his grave; the latter, promising at first to govern justly, grew worse and worse in oppressive cruelty and all sorts of wrongdoing, until the sad and hopeless death scene in the abbey of St. Gervase.  But the delineation of the latter period must be reserved, all being well, for the “Third Chronicle of Aescendune.”