Age of the Dragonships // Evolution of the Viking Longship #3 (975-1027)

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[Music] in 1957 an archeological discovery was made that would change our understanding of the Viking world forever just to the north of the Viking Age capital of Denmark Roskilde within the long feud that stretches out from the suburbs of modern-day Copenhagen to the Straits of Kattegat to the north the group of sports divers came face-to-face with not one but five mostly intact long boats from that long gone by time dating from a thousand years before it took five long years for the necessary administration and organizing to be fully carried out but by 1962 a section of the channel was dammed and drained revealing their in the muddy waters Denmark's early medieval past in all its glory surviving only because they were purposely sunk there by 11th century Kings as a makeshift fortress against enemies from the sea Viking ships had been found before this time and have been found since in Scandinavia France Scotland and the Irish Sea along with related types in England Germany the Netherlands and all over the shores of the Baltic but these were mostly ship burials sometimes elaborately constructed ceremonial craft rather than conventional vessels used for day-to-day tasks the boats found at Skjold aleph still being analyzed and reconstructed today were never meant to be discovered surviving through a mere accident of history and thus giving us a unique insight into the realities of the Viking world literacy was rare during those murky centuries so much so that that time is often referred to as the dark ages and it wasn't until at least a century after its close that chroniclers such as sack so dramatic us in Denmark and Snorri Sturluson in Iceland began to write down the tales and oral traditions long told by their ancestors the sagas talked of great heroes of unspeakable villains of epic journeys beyond the edge of the known world and huge magnificent vessels fit for kings manned by hundreds of warriors known as dragon ships one of the boats found at scold Olaf a large war vessel gave researchers their first real hint of the dragon boats spoken of in the saga tradition previously thought to be little more than later embellishment by medieval writers harking back to the time before at nearly 30 metres in length this is an impressive craft though not quite a dragon as defined by the sagas anyway a fleet of ships like this led by a dragon would have been an impressive sight yet still many thought of dragon boats as a fantasy [Music] finally in 1997 another discovery was made at Roskilde a war vessel with a body cut from two mighty trees which dwarfed any that came before at 37 meters in length there were skilled a six had been built to awe opponents into submission as much as to carry its crew of close to a hundred man into battle dating to around 10:25 the boat may once have been owned by King Canute or his great rival Olaf Harrelson king of Norway [Music] longer than nany battleships of the later Middle Ages its discovery proved that the sagas were at least partly true for this was a ship fit for a king reminiscent of the long serpent owned by Olaf Tryggvason one of the most famous of all the ships talked off in the sagas though the Norwegian King Harald fine hair may have had some sort of an early dragon boat as hinted at by Snorri Sturluson cruise of the 9th century seemed Herff consisted of 50 or 75 men at most by the 11th century times had changed warships might have carried upwards of 200 each one a small army in its own right as we shall see these highly valued boats had names and their own stories behind them a symbol of royal prowess at the height of the Viking Age for a hundred years and more from the late 900 many would be the sea battle engaged in by these boats [Music] of all the errors of the Viking Age due to a slightly increased literacy by this time this is the era we know the most about an era of warring kings and Viking empires the age of the dragon ships this episode of history time is sponsored by 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description below now back to the post Roman Twilight [Music] in the mid-90s according to later saga tradition a young man arrived at the Danish King Harald Bluetooth skort claiming to be his son Harald had other sons a whole brood of them in fact eager and ready to take up his mantle as the most powerful dynasty in the kingdom upon his death just as he had done from his father before him yet the newcomer seemed harmless enough and knew soldiers were always welcome for Denmark in the latter 10th century was built for war the most powerful of the Scandinavian kingdoms Denmark had the largest population the best farmland and was the most unified both Sweden and Norway having huge wilderness areas and rival centres of power each independent in its own right the boy's mother had allegedly been a servant girl and whilst no particular stigma was attached to illegitimate children in Viking Age Denmark he was still at a marked disadvantage by not having a second family to call on support from yet nevertheless in time he would prove himself a capable and useful young man to have around for he was Sven Forkbeard and his father's dynasty having made themselves masters of Denmark and even neighbouring parts of the Scandinavian world had many enemies [Music] most of our knowledge of Harold and his family often known as the yelling dynasty due to the monumental rune stones and royal complex found at that site on the Jutland Peninsula comes from near contemporary German chroniclers such as Adam of Bremen Wedekind of korvac and T atma of Mercer burg they lived through these times though undoubtedly wrote through an outsider Christian lends invaluable sources to compliment and add context to these writers are the later Icelandic saga traditions later Danish writers and of course archaeology back in the nine 30s Harold's father a C king of disputed origins named ghorm the old perhaps hailing from the Danish Isles seized the chaos of a German invasion from the south to overrun the Jutland Peninsula claiming the important trading towns there and their lucrative revenues as his own the largest of these towns Hedeby had already been minting its own coins since the ninth century a rarity in Scandinavia at this time this monopoly over trade and tax revenues thus allowed gone and his descendants to construct huge warships to cement their power and in time great wooden fortresses that still dots the landscape today arguably the first of this new breed of ships was discovered in 1935 on a Danish island though only the ghostly outline remained in the ground the lad B ship complete with dragon headed prow is nearly 22 metres long and only 2.9 meters wide being capable of carrying a large band of warriors to war unlike earlier multi-purpose ships for raiding as much as trading such as the Gok starship perhaps this was the beginnings of a tradition which would eventually lead to the colossal dragon boats of the next century upon succeeding his father in 958 one of her a loot oaths first acts had been to take his power north seizing control of the vacant region of Norway from the heirs of Harald fine hair the first king of Norway he also looked south sending fleets to aid the fledgling count of Normandy Richard the fearless in his power struggles against the West Frankish magnates each as independent as the last unlike East Frankia the other descendant of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire unfortunately for Harald the ruler of East Frankia Otto the first was the most powerful monarch in all of Europe we can see the effects of German power in the refor to fake a ssin of the Dane verka along Jutland southern border and eventually the relocation of the Danish capital from yelling to Roskilde yet despite all of these monumental efforts Harald Bluetooth could not stop the Germans from riding north to attack his lands on several occasions perhaps it was for this reason as Adam of Bremen suggests that he converted to Christianity though this may have begun as a ruse soon enough Christian insistence on the Divine Right of Kings and no doubt new trade links with the south convinced him otherwise eventually even going so far as to dig up his father and reinsert his remains in a Christian burial by 970 Bluetooth influence extended yet further when hackin son of the murdered yo love laid Sigurd killed in a hole burning eight years earlier returned to claim his birthright the far northern Norwegian province of laid in return for his support in overthrowing Harold gray Koch bluetooths former ally the last surviving son of Eric Bloodaxe and the murderer of Hawkins father so the Norway was ceded to Denmark parts of the Baltic were also seized at this time such as the settlement of Valen in modern-day Poland which may be the origin of the fabled yawns Vikings order we get a rare glimpse into this world when the slightly later travelling Cordoba merchant Alta to she speaks of fallen on the Baltic as an impressive place more so than Hedeby by 974 however the Germans now under a new ruler after the second returned to raid over the Dana burka Bluetooth along with his ally hack on met them there but could not withstand the army by 975 had to be had fallen perhaps under pressure from the Germans Bluetooth began pushing his new faith upon his subjects even in Norway to completely alienating kaqun y'all in doing so in June 9 82 a battle fought on the other side of Europe on the scorched Plains of southern Italy against the Arabic emirate of sicily the people most Scandinavians scarcely knew existed sent shockwaves all the way to the Arctic Circle in that year Otto the second most powerful ruler in all of Christendom and heir to Charlemagne had been heavily defeated along with his lombard allies by the cowbird Emir a ball cusine the Emir had given his life in the battle but Otto had been forced to flee by boat his army destroyed he died in the next year a broken man as soon as the news reached the north a gigantic Slavic revolts broke out pushing back Christian ization in the region by decades of course the Danes moved quickly to though it wasn't Harold who capitalized on the Battle of Steel Oh but his cerned span now every bit the embodiment of a Viking warlord but no doubt leading numerous long boats to war within the Year Hedeby was reclaimed gaining spend much renowned in the process of course the Germans would inevitably retaliate but that would take time and when they did so Sven had made himself known as the man to fight them and in time to do away with his father entirely much of what we know about Spain Forkbeard comes from the 13th century saga of Olaf harrelson written by Snorri Sturluson though puts to paper much later than contemporary German writers Snorri heavily used skaldic poetry much of which is thought to have dated to only a few years later than the events described such as the scowled re Thor Gilson the Weisse nevertheless spends early years are still shrouded in myth and contradiction Adam of Bremen for example makes much of his paganism and many stories abound of his raising a pagan Alliance alongside his former mentor slash folk hero Paul natok though archaeology suggests a different story spend probably being as much a Christian as his father quickly realizing it's political necessity by 986 all of Harold's legitimate sumps seemed to have died perhaps his massive building operations had led to high taxation and perhaps his forced Christian Isaac really had alienated the population but when the Germans again invaded though the exact order of events is shrouded in myth Sven rose up in Revolt alongside Haqqani all of Norway and perhaps Eric the victorious King of Sweden Bluetooth fled to his fortress on the Baltic a broken man where he died of his wounds not long after the way was now clear for the Sun to rule though he now had the issue of two powerful overbearing neighbors in the form of hakkon yawl and erik the victorious in the nine 80s though the exact details as usual for this time remain shrouded in legend spain is thought to have launched a seaborne attack on hakan's norwegian lair supported by the fabled homs vikings perhaps danish settlers on the baltic [Music] after the ensuing battle of her onclick 'var fought in the midst of a howling hailstorm only half of the Danish fleet made it home a little later perhaps in around 990 if the saga traditions are to be believed it was Sven's turned to whether a Viking invasion of his own Erik the victorious the first historically verifiable king of the Swedes was on the warpath ruler of the people around lake mälaren in the north of modern-day Sweden he'd made his name on the centuries-old battlefield against the gates around the forested southern lakes and now in Denmark's weakness he seems to have smelled an opportunity though the invasion was short-lived perhaps amounting to little more than raiding van on the search for wealth would soon engage in Viking raids of his own we get a unique insight into the ships of this era perhaps used in sea battles in a site excavated in 1979 in the harbor at old Hedeby at the time one of the most important trading hubs of Scandinavia at 30 meters in length this was undoubtedly a war vessel and dated to around 985 it may have even been owned by Sven Forkbeard making sure to secure his southern border by making alliances with the Slavs span married the sister of Juke boleslav ruler of the fledgling polish realm for they had a common enemy in imperial germany this wife Gaither who would soon become known as Gunnhild would eventually be the mother of Knut his southern border secure span when trading sailing out of the mists of legend and into the contemporary historical records there is another story said to have taken place at around the same time a Sven Forkbeard came to power in Denmark this one takes place on a tiny island chain off the southwestern shores of Britain one of the smallest inhabited chain of islands to surround those waters at some point in the past this may have been a single island peopled by druids and ripe with our Thorian legend by the 1980s after a decade of renewed Viking raids many of its people having been carried off into slavery Hermits and holy man called it home we know it as the silly oils by the latter nine 80s according to the saga tradition one of those Vikings arrived at that tiny weigh station along with a vast fleet of ships larger than many national armies of that time he was Olaf Trigg vassan long ago he had been a prince of Norway one of the descendants of Harald fine hair its first king now he was better known simply as crow boned due to his penchant for pagan divination having lived an especially hard life as a slave in the Baltic Sea somewhere in modern-day Estonia before serving in the Dracena of the Roose Prince Vladimir many of whose warriors had once served the great Hakan yawl before finally embarking on his own career as commander of his own private army he'd married in the Baltic and would do so again in Ireland forging dynastic links in the process though England would be where he would make his fortune and now something about the Scilly Isles intrigued Crowe bowed a fervent pagan Olaf had very much adopted the status of priests king of his people known for looking for futures in the bones and entrails of dead animals yet nonetheless when he met a Christian hermit on that windswept Shore the story goes that he was offered a kingdom should he convert we don't know anything else about that hermit and though olaf could sense a change in the winds he would still have to fight for his kingdom but he was in the right place to do so [Music] Britain was a place irrevocably changed by the Viking Age during the nine 70s and likely even before long ships manned by Anglo Danish inhabitants of the Daniell under the command of King Edgar the pacifier a king who called himself emperor of Britain had patrolled English waters against piratical attacks as far back as Alfred the Great's time fleets of long ships had been built to combat Vikings though now anglo-saxon England's prosperity would be its downfall court factionalism and a lack of new regions to conquer and thus lands to give to ambitious alderman led to the fragmenting of society [Music] for the huge number of Scandinavian pirates amassing on all of its borders this was now easy pickings on the western side of the island the descendants of Ivar the boneless the hui Amer had long dominated the sea ways this was pirate country evidenced by ship graffiti in the 10th and 11th centuries and vast amounts of swords and hoards all over the sea ways [Music] we even have slightly later vessels such as the scold Aleph which was made in Ireland in many areas are not quite yet Christian place where ships still meant everything in a situation not very different from coasts all the way from here to the far side of the Baltic Sea surely these kinks ruling over spits of land from Cork to Shetland at some form of Dragon ship to purposely built for war for they didn't live in a vacuum and very much engaged in the arms race of the Viking world [Music] yet the eastern shores of Britain who wear Olaf would make his name in 980 though we don't know any of their names after an absence of nearly a century Vikings came to Southampton and Thanet this time independent of wind they came on dragon boats professional pirate companies trained to systematically strip wealth and take captives for the slave trade England's Viking Age had begun anew the city of Southampton had first been built by the Romans as Klaus entin that had been abandoned entirely for saxon ham which in around 700 then again in the ninth century after Viking raids now for the third time in its history it would be burned again and remained depopulated until after the Norman Conquest in 1066 in 982 Portland was burned and weeks later London itself attacked the 1980s saw new attacks every single year and by the time Olaf arrived in British waters his was just one company amongst many the anglo-saxon Chronicle records many of these attacks in sorrowful tones until finally in 1991 we get a single extraordinary account Olaf came with 93 ships to Folkestone raided round about it and went from there to sandwich and so from there to hip switch and over on all that land and so to Molden the battle fought at Molden one of the most famous epic poems in Old English was a disaster the King Ethelred and his kingdom on that day the Vikings perhaps 2,000 to 5,000 men were met by earl breath north solidifying himself in legend by dying in battle alongside the Essex feared [Music] by 994 crow bone is joined by perhaps an unlikely ally a Sven Forkbeard arrives from Denmark to join the chaos together with 94 ships between them they attacked Essex Kent Sussex and Hampshire along with launching an ultimately unsuccessful attack on London after which they rode across the land together on horseback destroying and raiding good wealth ultimately this would be crow bones last foray if the wealth he acquired hadn't been enough before that year it would be by 995 for in that year the anglo-saxon Chronicle records his baptism by the Bishop of Winchester with King Ethelred standing as his Godfather and no doubt benefactor with a large sum of money in other words a bribe to finally leave his kingdom which he did for crow bone had bigger plans for the first time since being sold into slavery by a rival as a small child he was going home [Music] news of Olaf's approach probably preceded him and just as his Armada came in to anchor off the coast Hakan yawl veteran warlord and priest king was murdered by his own people his sons fleeing to take refuge with the new king of the sweets olaf Scott Conan Trigg Vasan using the money pulled out of England was soon proclaimed king according to Snorri Sturluson placing the head of hawkins murderer on a spike as one of his first acts if the regional the Isles had hoped Olaf would be a just ruler they were sorely mistaken simply replacing one tyrant with another though crow bone professed to be a Christian now he was Old Testament brutally massacring scores of nobles who refused to convert and presiding over a reign of terror that extended outwards to the Orkneys and Iceland - it is at this time that Olaf crow bone most famous Viking in the world now with the resources of a kingdom behind him according to saga tradition had the greatest ship the North had ever seen constructed the ship was both long and broad and high sided and strongly timbered the ship was a dragon built after the one the king had captured in hallow garland but this ship was far larger and more carefully put together in all her parts the king called this ship the long serpent and the other the short serpent the long serpent had 34 benches for rowers the head and the arched tail were both gilt and the bull walks were as high as in seagoing ships this ship was the best and most costly ship ever made he and he wasn't alone either it seems that every Viking King had a giant ship built Hakan son y'all Eric had a ship called the bearded one built because it had the carved head of Thor in the prow though this head was later replaced with a cross by the year 1000 our economy was on the way and crow bone and Fork beards paths would cross once more the iron beard and the long so intuitive at'll after a confrontation in the frosted North Sea crow bone left to his death Denmark and Norway were finally unified but not quite in the way that crow bone had envisioned wary of Germany from earlier in his life span used English priests instead he combatted sea kings by going on his own raids whilst England remained weak and divided its Anglo Danish population now mostly alienated by the king relations made worse by massacres such as sent prices day in 1002 which provided a pretext for span to return after years of chaos as not just spend Forkbeard but a variety of independent fleets set about ravaging the land Sven finally achieved his goal in 1013 being accepted by the Danelaw as ruler and forcing Ethelred to flee to his family in Normandy setting up a new capital at Gainsborough and settling in to finally rule over Denmark England and Norway the first king in history to do so by early February 1014 dark omens yet again hunk over England after a rain of just five weeks the king was dead and now a roll call of Danish mercenary commanders Anglo Saxon warrior lords and Viking Marauders began waging war yet again over the leftovers though Spain had already named an heir to his new possession his son Knut the ruling council of elders in England known as the witan had other ideas inviting Ethelred back from his exile in Normandy instead though there was still the matter of getting back into his kingdom let alone his capital in order to do so according to one skaldak tradition the King turned once again to Scandinavian mercenaries to help him reclaim his crown specifically a young Norwegian named Olaf haraldson but there was a problem Danish man loyal to Spain and now Knut still held the capital safely hidden behind the indica fat herbal barrier that had halted long ships there since the early 10th century much like similar River defenses built by Charlemagne and offer centuries before at the beginning of the Viking Age it was a low bridge across the river in that year of 1014 if the saga traditions are to be believed some sort of confrontation was fought here at London Bridge with at least one story having Olaf pulling down London Bridge to help restore Ethelred to his kingship perhaps the origin of the popular English nursery rhyme [Music] the young Knut meanwhile his father's army hemorrhaging around him and his brother Harold now ruling as king in Denmark as per his father's instructions had no choice but to leave the kingdom that as far as he was concerned should have been his vowing to return Knut cast off not long after Ethelred was made King again leaving his brutally disfigured hostages on a Kentish Shore scions of powerful English noble families the raft of their hands ears and noses like olaf crow bone before him olaf haraldson known as the stout but probably only been in his teens when he'd first made a name for himself like crow bone he had the fortune of a royal pedigree claiming descent from Harold fine hair the first King of Norway yet this alone wasn't enough he had to be a feared warrior too if the sagas are to be believed he'd been raiding in the Baltic since his late childhood forced out of his homeland by the power of Denmark as well as Machiavellian schemes by other noblemen earning renown for himself in the brutal cold woodland of Finnmark fighting hostile wizards and finished bowmen for reasons long since lost to us today like many warrior companies at the time traversing the seas in search of fortune Olaf and his man probably arrived in England by around 10th an offering their services a swords for hire he is said to have participated in the siege of Canterbury in 1011 under the Youngs Viking leader Thor called at all another grandson of Gorm the old who'd made life difficult for Sven Forkbeard probably acting independently of the Danish crown before abandoning the Danish cause entirely in preference to direct access to English coin and the service of King Ethelred a path Olaf would soon also take for himself in the scandinavian world of the late 10th century there was a long-standing precedent for exiled sea kings eventually returning to their homelands to reclaim their kingdoms or even striking out anew to claim an entirely new one scions of royal and noble houses had been doing this for centuries but by the 900s we finally get reliable contemporary accounts of their actions [Music] the exiled Norwegian king Eric Bloodaxe being a prime example repeatedly setting himself up as king in Northumbria before being ousted and returning to the high seas once more finally meeting his end on a lonely Cumbria moorland in 954 [Music] many were the Norse Irish kings who had done the same the kinsman goth Freeth Ragnar and citric had all done it along with their sons Olaf Gareth CERN and Olaf's Ericsson not to mention hack on y'all in late and later his son Eric hakonsen yet these had all been provinces or smaller kingdoms in 1013 Spain Forkbeard had bucked the trend by going straight for the entire kingdom of England a determined invasion not seen since the days of Alfred the Great and the great heathen army and he pulled it off to swaying the Anglo Dame's of eastern England to his course as well as the English noblemen at Bath and then forcing Ethelred to leave but then span had died and the entire North Sea world he'd spent decades in fortune collapsed once again with the death of a new king came a new beginning a perfect opportunity for Olaf to return home and restore the kingdom of his forefathers dominated by Denmark for so long no doubt receiving a large payment from Ethelred for his services Olaf left England though at first he seems to have gone south perhaps not deeming his winnings enough to pay for his new kingdom perhaps heading south to raid in Iberia for a time and according to the sagas being baptized in Normandy along the way upon returning home the Norwegian nobility had little choice to accept Olaf as their new king receiving the submission of the petit Lords in 1015 before defeating Hakan son Sven in 1016 at the Battle of nasiha the kingdom of Norway had been born anew of course as befitted a Scandinavian King Olaf had a great dragon boat built called the Bison with a great Bulls head adorned with gold in the stem and a tail at the stern he also had a ship built called the Karl's head on the bow a king's head was carved out and he himself had carved it this head was used long after in Norway on ships which Kings steered themselves it would be a while yet before these boats went out to war for now there was much work to be done at home but what of the other y'all of late Eric he too was busy for a great mustering was taking place to the south like any good Emperor Spain Forkbeard had a number of sons and he had lived long enough to see at least one of them follow in his footsteps becoming a Viking warlord when Spain died however the young Knut found himself in a particularly precarious situation he'd been promised England whereas his brother Harold took Denmark he couldn't afford to challenge his brother without a kingdom behind him there was only one path for Knut to take he'd have to reconquer the kingdom raising the largest fleet the Viking world had ever yet seen to do so with the real muscle provided by thorkell the tall and y'all Erik hakonsen both veteran leaders of man with large private armies who stood to benefit immensely from a successful campaign even at this young age Knut must have been an impressive figure to secure the loyalty of these men t at maar of Mercer berg says Knut had 340 ships when he finally sailed back to England each manned by 80 men perhaps an exaggeration yet still larger than most other forces of the day they weren't just Danes either Norwegians Swedes bolts poles and Wentz all marched in his ranks alongside men from the Scottish Isles and Ireland perhaps the largest Viking army ever assembled after yet another war which included a spirited English fight back under Ethelred son Edmund Ironside this new great army conquered England entirely carving it up between themselves with thorkil getting East Anglia and Eric Northumbria yet from the beginning Knut made it known that if possible he would work with the English not against them the time for fighting was over even marrying ethelred's Widow Mr of Normandy Peace Weaver of the powerful Norman dynasty ruling across the channel also descended from Scandinavians and forging alliances with English dynasts such as Godwin of Wessex and Lea wine of Murcia [Music] Amma's alienated sons by Ethelred meanwhile edward and alfred entered their own lengthy exile at the norman court spending most of their lives there we will hear from edward again in 1080 further good news came for Knut as his brother Harold conveniently died allowing Knut to take the danish throne as well yet it wasn't just england and denmark that would come under Knut sway the Irish Sea and Scottish islands had been tinged with Norseman for centuries having long forged unique nor scale identities in Ireland the Isle of Man and even Strathclyde royal burials are found all over this region many of them interred in boats suggesting long-held pagan beliefs here grave goods and hoards show items from all over continental Europe including silver from as far away as Central Asia and expensive state-of-the-art Frankish swords worth considerably more than most traders would make in their entire lives even places we don't usually think of as Scandinavian such as Galloway had adapted and changed by this point even utilizing their own long ships in time evidence suggests the majority of these power brokers came to accept Knut as some sort of an overlord no Scandinavian ruler before or after would achieve such a feat and it was probably on dragon headed boats such as there were skilled a six that he achieved it for according to the saga tradition Knut dragon was the largest ever constructed and he had a whole fleet of similar ships Canute's reign was the absolute pinnacle of Scandinavian power by this time the takeover and superseding of the Carolingian North Sea trade system was complete with the cities of York Dublin and Hedeby having become the new places to be yet these were mostly Christian towns now allowing Englishmen Germans and Irish to take part too though this trade system utilized a very different form of boats than that which had come before allowing much more wide-reaching trade missions these boats known as canals regularly traversed the North Sea heading deep into the Atlantic for the first time this example founded Hedeby could carry 60 tons of cargo we will hear more about these next time by 1025 Treasury brimming with riches the island of Britain subjugated Knut was ready for war again turning his sights on Norway of course Norway already had a king but in truth Olaf the clock had been ticking for 10 years Knut now had the resources of all England and Denmark to call from heading out into the North Sea Canute's dragon and Olaf's bison would do battle of course seeing olaf once more forced into exile on the high seas just as Scandinavians had long adapted to their surroundings and merged with local cultures wherever they went Knut would attempt to emulate the greatest of all English kings Athelstan and his hero too greatest of all European monarchs Charlemagne to his warriors Knut was still a Viking warlord but to his Christian subjects he was emperor of the north Charlemagne reborn in 1027 in the crowning achievement of his reign only a decade since he'd claimed England by the sword Knut rode south to Rome in a great ceremony alongside the German King and Holy Roman Emperor Konrad their predecessors had been enemies for centuries but Conrad and Knut weren't even just allies they seemed to have been good friends eventually bringing their houses together in marriage in such a short period of time the world had changed irrevocably this was a very different ruler to his father though according to skaldak tradition he'd been born on a longboat on the frosted northern seas he was now a European monarch with modern sensibilities yet the Viking Age wasn't over yet not by a long shot the wars and power struggles that followed the collapse of Canute's North Sea Empire would rage on for decades their fallout would define the European world for centuries to come [Music] [Music] and thank you for watching history time is a one-man team run by me Pete Kelly if you want to see me visiting ancient cities medieval Citadel's megalithic monuments Iron Age hill forts and so much more than subscribe to my other channel by that same name I'll also be making book reviews video essays and anything else that doesn't quite fit in to history time thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one [Music] you
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Channel: History Time
Views: 444,917
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Keywords: iMovie, vikings, viking, vikings documentary, viking ships, viking ship, ships, naval history, viking longship, longships, dragonboats, dragonships, dragon ships, glad tryggvason, Olaf tryggvason, Olaf haraldsson, crowbone, Olaf crowbone, erik bloodaxe, northumbria, danish history, Scandinavia history, viking history, vikings history, evolution of the viking longship
Id: NbvVzs25QqU
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Length: 53min 28sec (3208 seconds)
Published: Tue Dec 31 2019
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