Cnut the Great (
Old Norse:
Knútr inn ríki;
c. 995– 12 November 1035), more commonly known as
Canute, was a king of
Denmark,
England,
Norway and parts of
Sweden, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or
North Sea Empire. After his death, the deaths of his heirs within a decade, and the
Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history. The medieval historian
Norman Cantor has made the statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history", although Cnut himself was Danish not British or
Anglo-Saxon.