Everything about Sweyn Forkbeard totally explained
Sweyn I Forkbeard, in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, in English
Sven the Dane, also known as
Swegen and
Tuck, (
Old Norse:
Sveinn Tjúguskegg,
Norwegian:
Svein Tjugeskjegg,
Swedish:
Sven Tveskägg;
Danish:
Svend Tveskæg, originally
Tjugeskæg or
Tyvskæg), (c.
960 –
February 3,
1014), was king of Denmark and England, as well as parts of Norway. He was a Viking leader and the father of
Canute the Great. On his father
Harald Bluetooth's death in late 986 or early 987, he became King of
Denmark; in
1000, with allegiance of the Trondejarl,
Erik of Lade, he was ruler over most of Norway. After a long effort at conquest, and shortly before his death, in 1013 he became
King of England. For the last months of his life, he was the Danish
sovereign of a
North Sea empire, which only his son Cnut was to rival in northern Europe.
Forkbeard's Cognomen
Sweyn Forkbeard's nickname, which was probably used during his lifetime, unlike many royal nicknames, refers to a pitchfork-style moustache which was fashionable at the time, particularly in England, where Sweyn may have picked up the idea. Similar type moustaches can be seen depicted on the
Bayeux Tapestry.
The Church and Currency
On the northern edges of the relatively recent domain known as the
Holy Roman Empire, with its roots in
Charlemagne's conquests hundreds of years prior to Sweyn's time, Sweyn Forkbeard had coins made with an image in his likeness. The
Latin inscription on the coins produced read, "ZVEN REX DAENOR", which translates as, "Sweyn, king of Danes".
Sweyn's father,
Harald Bluetooth, was the first of the
Scandinavian kings to officially accept
Christianity, in the early or mid-960s. According to
Adam of Bremen, an 11th century historian, Harald's son Sweyn was baptised
Otto, paying tribute to the German king
Otto I who was the first
Holy Roman Emperor. Forkbeard is never known to have officially made use of this Christian name though. He didn't use it on the coins he proudly sent forth, and when he was given the English crown by the
Witenagemot of
Anglo-Saxon nobles, in 1013, he took the crown as king Sweyn.
Life and Legacy
Many details about Sweyn’s life are contested. There is an ongoing dispute among scholars over the extent of trust historians may place in the various, too often contradictory, accounts of his life given in the sources from his era of history, such as the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Adam of Bremen's
Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, and the
Heimskringla, a 13th century work by Icelandic author
Snorri Sturluson. Contrary accounts of Sweyn's later life also appear in the
Encomium Emmae, an 11th century Latin
encomium in honour of his son king Cnut's queen
Emma, of
Normandy, along with
Chronicle of World and English History by
Florence of Worcester, another 11th century author.
Some historians, such as
Lauritz Weibull, have argued that Sweyn’s wife described in the sagas - Swedish dowager queen
Sigrid the Haughty- is purely fictional, whereas others have accepted her existence on the evidence of the
Norse sagas. Weibull's conclusion is shared by
Den Store Danske Encyklopædi which identifies the queen as Gunhild. In some of the old sources, such as the
Jómsvíkinga saga, Sweyn appears as an illegitimate son of
Harald Bluetooth, raised by the legendary
Jomsviking and
jarl of
Jomsborg,
Palnatoke. Sweyn is also depicted as a rebellious son, who lead an uprising against his father, in
987, and chased him out of the court, forcing him to abandon his kingdom. Harald apparently spent the rest of his days with the
Slavs, in
Wendland, within modern-day Germany.
Many negative accounts build on Adam of Bremen's writings; Adam is said to have watched Sweyn and Scandinavia in general with an "unsympathetic and intolerant eye" according to some scholars. Adam accused Forkbeard of being a rebellious pagan who persecuted Christians, betrayed his father and expelled German bishops from
Scania and
Zealand. According to Adam, Sweyn was therefore sent into exile by his father's German friends and deposed in favor of king
Eric the Victorious of
Sweden, whom Adam wrote ruled Denmark until his death in 994 or 995. Historians generally have found problems with these claims Adam made, such as that Sweyn was driven into exile in Scotland for a period as long as fourteen years. As many scholars point out, he built churches in Denmark throughout this period, such as
Lund and
Roskilde, while he led Danish raids against England too.
Ruler of England
According to the chronicles of
John of Wallingford, Sweyn was involved in raids against
England during 1002-1005, 1006-1007, and 1009-1012, to revenge the
St. Brice's Day massacre of England's Danish inhabitants in November 1002, a massacre often seen as large-scale
ethnic cleansing of the Danes in England orchestrated by
Ethelred the Unready. Sweyn is thought to have had a personal interest in these raids due to his sister,
Gunhilde, being amongst the victims, according to Mike Ashley, in
British Monarchs: "Probably his [Ethelred's] worst decision was the St. Brice's day massacre on
13 November 1002...he ordered the killing of every Dane who lived in England, except the Anglo-Danes in the Danelaw. The massacre brought back to English shores the Danish commander Swein, whose sister and brother-in-law had been killed in the massacre".
According to Michael Lapidge, in "Swein Forkbeard" (
The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England), Sweyn was active in Wessex and East Anglia in 1003-1004, but a 1005 famine forced him to return home.
Some scholars have argued that Sweyn's participation may have been prompted by his state of impoverishment, after having been forced to pay a hefty ransom, and that he was in need of the income from the raids.
The contemporary
Peterborough Chronicle (also called the
Laud Manuscript), one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, states that "before the month of August came king Sweyn with his fleet to
Sandwich. He went very quickly about
East Anglia into the
Humber's mouth, and so upward along the
Trent till he came to
Gainsborough.
Earl Uchtred and all
Northumbria quickly bowed to him, as did all the people of
Lindsey, then the people of the
Five Boroughs. He was given hostages from each
shire. When he understood that all the people had submitted to him, he bade that his force should be provisioned and horsed; he went south with the main part of the invasion force, while some of the invasion force, as well as the hostages, were with his son Canute. After he came over
Watling Street, they went to
Oxford, and the town-dwellers soon bowed to him, and gave hostages. From there they went to
Winchester, and the people did the same, then eastward to
London."
But the Londoners are said to have destroyed the bridges that spanned the river
Thames ("
London Bridge is falling down"), and Sweyn suffered heavy losses and had to withdraw. The chronicles tells that "king Sweyn went from there to
Wallingford, over the Thames to
Bath, and stayed there with his troops;
Ealdorman Aethelmaer came, and the western
Thegns with him. They all bowed to Sweyn and gave hostages."
London had withstood the assault of the Danish army, but the city was now alone, isolated within a country which had completely surrendered. Sweyn Forkbeard was accepted as King of England following the flight to
Normandy of King
Ethelred the Unready in late 1013. With the acceptance of the Witan, London had finally surrendered to him, and he was declared king on Christmas day.
Sweyn was based in
Gainsborough,
Lincolnshire, and began to organize his vast new kingdom, but he died there on
February 3 1014, having ruled England unopposed for only five weeks. His embalmed body was subsequently returned to Denmark, to be buried in the church he built in Roskilde. He was succeeded as King of Denmark by his elder son,
Harald II, but the Danish fleet proclaimed his younger son
Canute king. In England, the councillors had sent for Æthelred, who upon his return from exile in Normandy in the spring of 1014 managed to drive Canute out of England. However, Canute returned to become King of England in 1016, while also ruling Denmark, Norway, parts of Sweden,
Pomerania, and
Schleswig.
Religion
Adam of Bremen's writings regarding Sweyn and his father may have been compromised by Adam's desire to emphasize Sweyn's father, Harald, as a candidate for
sainthood, and he claims that Sweyn, who was
baptized along with his father, was a
heathen. This may have been true, as much of
Scandinavia was
pagan at the time, though there's no data to corroborate the assertion. German and French records support that Harald Bluetooth was baptized.
According to Adam, Sweyn was punished by God for supposedly leading the uprising which led to king Harald's death, and had to spend "fourteen years" abroad - perhaps a
Biblical reference from an
ecclesiastical writer. Adam purports that Sweyn was shunned by all those with whom he sought refuge, but was finally allowed to live for a while in
Scotland. The Scottish king at the time was apparently known in
Europe as a heathen and a murderer, and Adam's intention is obviously to show that Sweyn belonged with heathens and murderers and wasn't fit to rule a Christian country. He only achieves success as a ruler once he accepts Christ as his saviour.
Sweyn was tolerant of paganism while favoring Christianity, at least politically. By allowing English ecclesiastical influence in his kingdom, he was purposely spurning the Hamburg-Bremen archbishop, and since German bishops were an integral part of the secular state, Sweyn's preference for the English church may thus have been a political move to preempt any threat against his independence posed by the German kings. Whether King Sweyn was a heathen or not, he did enlist priests and bishops from England rather than from
Hamburg and this may have given Adam of Bremen further cause to dislike him. It also may have been because there were ample converted priests of a Danish origin from the
Danelaw in England, while Sweyn really had few connections to Germany or its priests.
Sweyn must have known that once the
Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen gained influence in Denmark, the German Emperor
Otto II wouldn't be far behind; his
Slavic neighbours to the south-east had all but been under an
annex of Germany once Otto's father
Otto I had divided their lands into
Bishoprics and put them under the "care" of the
Holy Roman emperor. Sweyn may have envisaged the same happening to his own territory.
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