(Svend
I Haraldsson Tjueskjegg of Denmark)
Born: cir. 960 AD
Died: 3rd February 1014 AD
Sweyne
(Sweyn, Swein) was King of
Denmark from 988 after overthrowing his father King Harald ‘Blue-Tooth’
Gormsson. His father had ‘made
the Danes Christian’ and the opposition to this was so great that Sweyne
was able to lead a successful revolt against him.
He was also King of Norway from 995.
Sweyne,
with Olaf Trygvasson, repeatedly led raids against England from 994 until 1009.
The raids became successively larger and Sweyne was able to exact
a large tribute payment from Ethelred. The tribute money became know as ‘Danegeld’ and was paid
in 994, 1002, 1005 and 1012. This
money was used to build a huge fleet for Sweyne.
In
1013, Ethelred ordered a massacre of all Danish living in England.
After this Sweyne made plans for a full-scale invasion.
In August 1013 he and his son Cnut sailed into the mouth of the River
Humber and, from there, up the river Trent to Gainsborough.
Whilst
making his winter camp in Gainsborough he received the submission of Eorl Uhtred
and all of Northumbria; the people of Lindsey and of the Five Boroughs.
The Saxon nobility in England had become very disillusioned with their
king Ethelred that before Christmas 1013 all of England north of Watling Street
had surrendered to Sweyne. Ethelred
fled to Normandy.
In
1014 Sweyne went to Bury St. Edmunds to demand tribute payment. The people refused and prayed to St. Edmund for help.
Shortly after, at his camp in Gainsborough, Sweyne died. It is said that St. Edmund appeared to him and ran him through with a lance. Sweyne supposedly shouted, “Help! Help! St. Edmund has come to kill me!” When his men arrived they found him dead, covered in his own blood. However, he actually died after falling off his horse!
