took off his crown and deposited it within the cathedral of
Winchester, never wearing it again.

After his visit to Rome, Canute ruled with greater mildness and justice
than ever before, while his armies kept the turbulent Scotch and Welsh
and the unquiet peoples of the north in order. In the latter part of his
reign he could boast that the English, the Scotch, the Welsh, the Danes,
the Swedes, and the Norwegians were his subjects, and he was called in
consequence "The King of the Six Nations," and looked upon throughout
Europe as the greatest of sovereigns; none of the kings and emperors of
that continent being equal in power, wealth and width of dominion to King
Canute, a descendant of the vikings of Denmark.

Canute spent the most of his life in England, but now and then visited
his northern realm, and there are some interesting anecdotes of his life
there. Though a devout Christian and usually a self-controlled man, the
wild passions of his viking ancestry would at times break out, and at
such times he spared neither friend nor foe and would take counsel from
no man, churchman or layman. But when his anger died out his remorse was
apt to be great and he would submit to any penance laid upon him by the
Church. Thus when he had killed one of his house servants for some slight
offense, he made public confession of his crime and paid the same
blood-fine as would have been claimed from a man of lower rank.

The most notable instance of these outbursts of uncontrollable anger was
that in which he murdered his old friend and brother-in-law Ulf, who,
after rebelling against him, had saved him from complete defeat by the
Swedes, by coming to his rescue just as the royal fleet was nearly
swamped by the opening of the sluices which held back the waters of the
Swedish river Helge-aae. Ulf took Canute on board his own ship and
brought him in safety to a Danish island, while leaving his men to aid
those of Canute in their escape from the Swedes. Yet the king bore a
grudge against the earl, and this was its cause.

At one time Ulf ruled over Denmark as Canute's regent and made himself
greatly beloved by the people from his just rule. Queen Emma, Canute's
wife, wished to have her little son Harthaknud--or Hardicanute, as he was
afterwards called in England--made king of Denmark, but could not
persuade her husband King Canute to accede to her wishes. She therefore
sent letters privately to Ulf, saying that the king wished to see