After his first harsh measures were over he sought the friendship of both Church and people.  He gave the country peace.  Tradition reports that he rebuked the flattery of courtiers by showing them that the inrolling tide is no respecter of persons; he endeavored to rule justly, and his liking for the monks found expression in his song: 

“Merrily sang the monks of Ely
As Cnut the King was passing by.”

64.  Canute’s Plan; the Four Earldoms.

Canute’s plan was to establish a great northern empire embracing Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England.  To facilitate the government of so large a realm, he divided England into four districts,—­Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria—­which, with their dependencies, embraced the entire country. (See map facing p. 38.)

Each of these districts was ruled by an earl[1] invested with almost royal power.  For a time the arrangement worked well, but eventually discord sprang up and imperiled the unity of the kingdom.  After Canute’s death two of his sons divided England between themselves; both were bad rulers.

[1] Earl ("chief” or “leader"):  a title of honor and of office.  The four earldoms established by Canute remained nearly unchanged until the Norman Conquest, 1066.

65.  Restoration of the Saxon or English Kings; Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).

On the occasion of the Danish conqueror Sweyn (S63), Ethelred II, the English King, sent his French wife Emma back to Normandy for safety.  She took her son, Prince Edward, then a lad of nine, with her.  He remained at the French court nearly thirty years, and among other friends to whom he became greatly attached was his second cousin, William, Duke of Normandy.

The oppressive acts of Canute’s sons (S64) excited insurrection (1042), and both Danes and English joined in the determination to restore the English line.  They invited Prince Edward to accept the crown.  He returned to England, obtained the throne, and pledged himself to restore the rights of which the people had been deprived.  By birth King Edward was already half Norman; by education and tastes he was wholly so.

It is very doubtful whether he could speak a word of English, and it is certain that from the beginning he surrounded himself with French favorites, and filled the Church with French priests.  Edward’s piety and blameless life gained for him the title of “the Confessor,” or, as we should say to-day, “the Christian.”

He married the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful noble in England.  Godwin really ruled the country in the King’s name until his death (1053), when his son Harold (S67) succeeded him as earl.

66.  Edward the Confessor builds Westminster Abbey.

During a large part of his reign the King was engaged in building an abbey or monastery at the west end of London, and hence called the Westminster.[2] He had just completed and consecrated this great work when he died, and was buried there.  We may still see a part of the original building in the crypt or basement of the abbey, while the King’s tomb above is the center of a circle of royal graves.