y, on account of the affection which it had
borne to Edmond, and the resistance which it had made to the Danish
power in two obstinate sieges [s]. But these rigours were imputed to
necessity; and Canute, like a wise prince, was determined that the
English, now deprived of all their dangerous leaders, should be
reconciled to the Danish yoke by the justice and impartiality of his
administration. He sent back to Denmark as many of his followers as
he could safely spare; he restored the Saxon customs in a general
assembly of the states; he made no distinction between Danes and
English in the distribution of justice; and he took care, by a strict
execution of law, to protect the lives and properties of all his
people. The Danes were gradually incorporated with his new subjects;
and both were glad to obtain a little respite from those multiplied
calamities from which the one, no less than the other, had, in their
fierce contest for power, experienced such fatal consequences.
[FN [s] W. Malm. p. 72. In one of these sieges, Canute diverted the
course of the Thames, and by that means brought his ships above London
bridge.]

The removal of Edmond's children into so distant a country as Hungary,
was, next to their death, regarded by Canute as the greatest security
to his government: he had no farther anxiety, except with regard to
Alfred and Edward, who were protected and supported by their uncle,
Richard Duke of Normandy. Richard even fitted out a great armament,
in order to restore the English princes to the throne of their
ancestors; and, though the navy was dispersed by a storm, Canute saw
the danger to which he was exposed from the enmity of so warlike a
people as the Normans. In order to acquire the friendship of the
duke, he paid his addresses to Queen Emma, sister of that prince; and
promised that he would leave the children whom he should have by that
marriage in possession of the crown of England. Richard complied with
his demand, and sent over Emma to England, where she was soon after
married to Canute [t]. The English, though they disapproved of her
espousing the mortal enemy of her former husband and his family, were
pleased to find at court a sovereign to whom they were accustomed, and
who had already formed connexions with them; and thus Canute, besides
securing by this marriage the alliance of Normandy, gradually
acquired, by the same means, the confidence of his own subjects [u].
The Norman prince did not