He was the first 'King of all England.' One story tells how King Cnut stood on the shore and commanded the sea to turn back. By getting his feet wet, he was showing people he had less power than God.

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. After Alfred, Anglo-Saxon kings took the Danelaw territories back from the Vikings. Alfred's grandson, Athelstan ...

In the meantime, the Danes completed their conquest of England. The Dane Cnut, crowned king in 1016, set about the business of reconciling himself to his new English subjects. And as a dead man ...