Canute the Great

Canute is better known as a cunning and charismatic king; his enemies die swiftly and quietly from poison and assassinations due to his clever scheming. Despite his strong hatred for weapons in his youth, Canute takes up sword practice later in the series and becomes a decent and tactical fighter. He has fast reaction when Thorgil tried to assassinate him, It caught Canute offguard but he immediately stopped him with his sword. He also has good aiming in archery. With his North Sea Empire and the vast fleet, he becomes a terrifying force to be reckoned with.

King Sweyn: King Sweyn is Canute's father and appears to harbor very little affection for his second-born son. This is in stark contrast to Canute's older brother Harald who is the favorite of the two sons due to Harald's achievements and skill in battle. As a result, Canute was demoted to the role of "spare son" who got left to his own devices with Ragnar at court.

King Sweyn has therefore very little interest in keeping Canute alive since he would pose a threat to his older brother Harald. So in an attempt to kill or possibly mature his youngest son, King Sweyn sends Canute to battle against Thorkell's forces with a mere 4000 men. Resulting in Canute's capture early in the series.

King Sweyn returns later as an apparition to Canute, acting as the conscience of the crown.

Thorfinn: By order of Askeladd, Thorfinn is put in charge of being Canute's personal guard. Initially, upon meeting Thorfinn, Canute is frightened by him, immediately hiding behind Ragnar after being introduced. However despite this Canute is found staring at Thorfinn on multiple occasions on their journey, seemingly interested in getting to know him better. This is not lost on Thorfinn as he starts prodding the prince to speak his mind after an encounter with the Welsh. Canute responds to Thorfinn, albeit with a noticeable stutter. Thorfinn teasingly refers to Canute as "Princess" which causes the young prince to spring up flustered. This is much to the surprise of Ragnar, as he notes that this is the first time Canute ever speaks to someone that isn't himself. Making Thorfinn the first person Canute has spoken so openly to aside from Ragnar. Thorfinn is later referred to by Canute as a dear comrade, who pursues the same goal as him but albeit by a different path. Thorfinn also refers to Canute as the one responsible for making peace for the majority of people through necessary bloodshed, while he is responsible for creating peace for the rest through non-violence. Through their efforts, they believe peace will ultimately be obtained from the other helping those that they cannot.

When Canute apprehends former Jomsviking commanders and is about to kill them, Thorfinn requests that they accompany him to Vinland to make his dream come true. While Thorfinn explains himself, Canute is again amused and pushes the former Jomsvikings to accept the offer.

Ragnar: Ragnar is Canute's chief retainer, having served him since he was a small boy. He also functioned as a foster father and guardian, educating the prince and ensuring he had a normal upbringing. Ragnar would speak for the prince, sheltering him and guiding the young prince through a difficult life in the Danish court. Where Ragnar describes Canute to have seen horrible things and being very sickly as a child.

Following Ragner's death Canute is devastated, the young prince who had previously been very sheltered and timid, underwent a dramatic shift in attitude and became a much more determined and courageous individual going so far as to go face to face with Bjorn.

Canute's actions as a conqueror and his ruthless treatment of the overthrown dynasty had put him at odds with the Church. He was already a Christian before becoming king—being named Lambert at his baptism —although the Christianization of Scandinavia was not entirely complete. Moreover, like many of the Scandinavian "Christian" kings of his time, he was a syncretist between Christianity and the native Norse religion.

His marriage to Emma of Normandy , despite already being married to Ælfgifu of Northampton , who maintained an estate in Exeter in the south , was another point of conflict with Church teachings. In an effort to reconcile with his ecclesiastics, Canute repaired all the English churches and monasteries damaged by Viking raids and replenished their coffers. He also built new churches and was a fervent patron of monastic communities. His homeland, Denmark, was a burgeoning Christian nation, and the desire to enhance religion was still fresh. For example, the earliest known stone church in Scandinavia was built in Roskilde around 1027, and its patron was Canute's sister, Estrid.

In 1028, he conquered the kingdom of Norway with a fleet of 50 ships from England, also enjoying the support of the Norwegian nobles themselves, who were dissatisfied with their king after the defeat at Helgeå. He then decided to leave the regency of the Norwegian kingdom to his son Svein and his mother Aelgifu, who would lose the kingdom shortly after his death when the country rebelled and restored the previous dynasty in the person of Olaf Haraldsson's son, Magnus I.

His friendly relations with Emperor Conrad II of Germany deepened when he betrothed his daughter, Gunilda, to the emperor's son and heir, the future Henry III ; in addition, Conrad gave Canute the marches of Schleswig and Pomerania to govern.

He died in Shaftesbury , Dorset , on November 12, 1035, at the age of 40. He was buried in Winchester Cathedral .

In 1018, his older brother, King Harald II of Denmark, died, and Canute succeeded him on the throne, but left his brother-in-law, Ulf Thorgilsson, as jarl (or lieutenant) of the kingdom.

Cnut's absence from Denmark led Kings Anund James of Sweden and Olaf Haraldsson of Norway to try to gain an advantage. Ulf convinced the nobles of the kingdom to proclaim Canute Hardeknut, Canute's legitimate son, as king, with Ulf serving as regent due to the sovereign's minority.

When Canute learned of this in 1026, he returned to Denmark, and with Ulf's help, defeated the Norwegian and Swedish forces at the Battle of Helgeå. But the monarch would not forgive his brother-in-law's treachery: the following day, on Christmas Day in 1026, Canute ordered one of his guards to assassinate Ulf in Trinity Cathedral.

He accompanied his father during his successful invasion of England (August 1013), after which Sweyn I obtained a proclamation of himself as King of England from the Witenagemot on December 23, 1013. Sweyn died just six weeks later, on February 3, 1014. Consequently, the Danish troops proclaimed Cnut the new King of England.[6] He returned to Denmark in April 1014, where his brother, Harald II, was proclaimed King of Denmark. Taking advantage of this trip, the deposed English king, Ethelred II the Unwilling, petitioned the Witenagemot to be proclaimed King of England.

In August 1015, he invaded England again, engaging in inconclusive battles against Ethelred II and, from April 1016, against Ethelred's son, Edmund II Ironside, until his crushing victory at the Battle of Assandun (possibly at present-day Ashington, Essex) in October 1016. Following this victory, in a meeting on an island in the River Severn, Edmund was forced by Canute to cede all of England except Wessex. However, Edmund's death in November 1016 left Canute as the sole ruler of England, and he was acclaimed king by the Witenagemot in January 1017.

Sometime during his struggle to conquer England, Canute married Ælfgifu Ælfhelmsdotter.

To consolidate his control over the rebellious nobles, Canute married Emma of Normandy, widow of Ethelred II, stepmother of Edmund II, and daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy. In 1018, Canute received an extraordinary sum of money (danegeld) that allowed him to pay his forces from the English campaign and send most of them back to Denmark.

The marriage to Emma helped Canute establish political and commercial ties between England and Normandy, intending to govern according to Christian principles, to which Emma was deeply devoted. Considering Emma his legitimate wife, he named their son as his heir instead of the children from his previous marriage.

Canute was born on 12th of July in the summer of 996. He is a younger son of Sweyn, king of Denmark, who also conquered large parts of England and Wales. He has an older brother Harald and sister Estrid. Although his father is Sweyn, he spent most of his childhood being raised by Ragnar, who was his guardian and treated Canute as a son of his own. He took good care of Canute and sheltered him quite a lot from everyday schemes and politics that are part of the royal court. Canute was raised to be Christian and is portrayed as very devoted to his faith when we get introduced to his character.

Later on, Canute becomes a clever and manipulative character who doesn't hesitate to get rid of anyone getting into his way of building a paradise on Earth for the Vikings. He even goes as far as poisoning his own brother to rule Denmark, plotting against Ketil to create a pretext to take his lands and increase his profits and even ordering the slaughter of several innocent people to get those lands.

Canute has also started to suffer hallucinations about his father, to the point of even having conversations with him.

What Canute really seeks is peace, to build a utopia where no one else has to suffer; however, he does so through conquest and violence; for him, there is no other method than power.

Because that is precisely Canute's great ideological conflict: he believes that violence is a necessary evil to end even greater violence.

His reasoning goes something like this:

God doesn't intervene to stop human suffering.

The strong take advantage of the weak.

If He waits for people to change on their own, the cycle of war will never end.

Therefore, He must bear the sin of violence to create a world where future generations no longer have to live like this.

It's an idea very close to the concept of "the end justifies the means."

After becoming king, Canute cut his hair short, forming a bob haircut, and grew some facial hair on his chin. Below his left eye is a scar that was left by Thorfinn Karlsefni. In his next appearance, he cut his hair shorter than before, grew a beard that formed a goatee, and wore a cape and a circlet very often.

Canute is the king of Denmark and England, succeeding his father Sweyn for England, and his brother Harald for Denmark.

Canute understands that he lives in the Viking Age. Kingdoms are built with armies, not speeches. If he wants to unify England and Denmark, put an end to the rebel lords, and stop the constant wars between nobles, he first needs to become the most powerful ruler.