Guthfrith the Conqueror

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**AEthelred the Unready** was King of England from 978 to his death in 1016. In his 38 years on the English throne, he greatly expanded the domains of the English Crown under the House of Wessex, conquering the Kingdom of Strathclyde and its scottish dominions. In addition to claiming and winning the Crown of Ireland amidst an Irish civil war, he proclaimed himself Ruler of Scotland. He also has a poor reputation. His conquests laid the groundwork for William the Conqueror to be crowned as King in England in 1066.

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## Biography

### Early life

Born the only son of King Edgar the Peaceful in September 966, Aethelred came to the throne in a tumultuous period of time for the early Kingdom of England. His father had been constantly at odds with the council, who had forced him to make a number of concessions on his powers, including the right of final appeal. When Edgar died of cancer at age 32, his eldest son was put on the throne, but was assasinated in 978, so Aethelred, under the regency of the council, was chaired by his mom aefflwith. His education suffered as a result: many modern historians consider King Aethelred o be self-taught in many of the skills he exhibited during his reign.

### Defence of Christianity

Guthfrith, after being crowned by the Pope, played an important role in his early reign for the defence and propagation of the Catholic faith. The short-lived victory of the Pannonian Crusade as Saint Ruigi of SaÞmi sought the aid of the English King, scion of one of the remaining powerful Christian convert families, to consult the monks of his land to help interpret a vision he had received prompting his conversion. Guthfrith believed strongly that God had given his sign for the Christianisation of Europe and the containment of the Pagan threat, and sent a large amount of Priests to assist in a mass baptism of the Saami peoples, which took place in 968. The young King and the later saint became solid friends after the King visited the newly converted realm in 973.

The disastrous end of the Pannonian Crusade sparked a new fervour in Guthfrith, which concentrated especially on the native Scandinavian land of his dynasty, where the old Norse customs were being revived in Denmark. Believing that the erratic King Sörkver of Denmark was suffering fits and receiving visions from God much like Saint Ruigi, he sent his court chaplain, Bishop Kol, to the Danes. Kol was banished a few years later, but Sörkver converted to Christianity later.

### Conquest of Britain

After a humiliating defeat against the combined forces of Mercia and Ireland in 970, trying to assert his control over England, the English King decided to nurse his wounds and take his revenge later. Compelled by the truce with Mercia, he turned his sights to other parts of the British isles. In 978, Guthfrith turned his gaze on the Duchy of Cornwall, invading it and claiming overlordship by right of conquest with a fabricated claim going back to the legendary King Arthur's birth at Tintagel (the use of this legend shows the continuing amalgamation of local customs into the culture of the Thorgilings). The Cornish, knowing they could not stand against the might of the English armies, fled to the Mercians, hoping to find military support there. However, they were kept waiting for years outside the gates of the Mercian capital, and many of their troops died of hunger. They were easily dispatched in november of that year, and Duke Oswallt of Cornwall was forced to swear fealty to King Guthfrith. In witness of the brave contribution of the men of Somerset, the King granted them the Freedom of Somerset, absolving them from feudal ties and creating a republic centered on the city of Bristol.

The opportunity to wreak revenge on the Irish for the humiliation suffered in 970 and during the reign of his father came as his cousin Congal II, the High King of Ireland, suffered a huge rebellion led by Duibne of Leinster, splitting the Kingdom in two. Claiming the throne through his Irish mother's line, he rallied his forces and marched on Ireland, claiming that Duibne had invited him to take the throne. When Duibne was victorious, he refused and let himself be crowned (some historians presume because there was no such deal), prompting the English to turn on him. In a multi-front war with the old Mercian allies of the Irish joining in for a different claimant, the War of the Irish Succession became a protracted conflict that resulted in the obliteration of both the Irish and Mercian forces and the victory of King Guthfrith, who had himself crowned High King of Ireland in 987.

This also brought the Welsh marches of the Irish Crown under English control. In a magnanimous gesture, Guthfrith absolved the Welsh princes from their allegiance to the Irish crown. In return, the Welsh swore fealty to Guthfrith instead, who created the title of Prince of Wales for himself. This title was universally recognised in the South of Wales, but some Northern princes still refused to acknowledge English overlordship, preferring their bonds with the Mercians or the distant Crown of Léon.

### The English ascendancy

With rule over most of the old Britannic lands south of Hadrian's wall secure, England and its dominions experienced a renaissance of arts and culture patronised by the King. Chroniclers of the *Vita Godefridi Regi* (Life of King Godfrey) mythologised many of the King's exploits, referring to his coronation by the Pope as a sign of destiny to restore Britannia south of Hadrian's Wall. The focus shifted abroad once more, but this time with great self-confidence. The King's eldest son, Prince Magnus the Holy, a pious man, joined the Knights of Santiago with his father's permission in 989 to fight for the defence of the Southern frontiers of Christendom from the Moors: his dynasty's prestige ensured his election as Grand Master of the Knights of Santiago in 996.

At home, the King continued to expand his domains, with his vassals eating into Mercian territory. Meanwhile, he was determined to restore the power of the monarchy, and his popularity (and a few bribes) enabled him to implement a new code of laws, the Codex Godefridum, in 990, reaffirming the ancient balance of rights and privileges within the realm and thereby limiting the power of the Council. This law also regulated the inheritance of the crowns of England, Ireland and Wales by primogeniture, ensuring the uniform succession of his secondborn son, Prince Kjartan. In compensation to his other sons, he set out to win them their own titles, promising them land in various parts of the Kingdom. He honoured this promise in a series of wars against vassals who he was convinced were plotting against him, landing all his sons except his son and heir.

Another curious tale about King Guthfrith stems from the episode of plague which ravaged England earlier. The King had a love of dogs, maintaining an impressive kennel of hunting dogs. Those studying the historical record have found a proclamation of 991 where King Guthfrith ordered the extermination of all cats in the Swithlaw, convinced that they were spreading disease. The populace acclaimed him for this decision, according to the chronicle.

In 998, a community of Benedictine monks sent an envoy to King Guthfrith asking him for patronage of their new monastic community. This community, built in a new romanesque style with the patronage of the King of England, would become the mighty abbey of Cluny, motherhouse of a Benedictine congregation.

### The Alexandrian Crusade

In 1000, Pope John IX sent emissaries throughout Christendom, hoping to find support for a new crusade to expand the growing Christian sphere of influence in the near east. He originally intended to target the Turkish Arslan Sultanate of Anatolia, who had destroyed centuries of Byzantine Christian culture in their settlement of Asia Minor. Guthfrith is recorded to have been hesitant as to the wisdom of this plan (although not officially), and pledged monetary support. However, the night after the papal emissaries had left his court, the *Vita* among others reports that the King's second daughter, Princess Svanhildr, had a dream in which St. Mark the Evangelist appeared to her, commanding her to tell her father to conquer his see of Alexandria beneath the banner of the cross. Beset by millennial enthusiasm which swept much of Western Christendom after the Holy Land remained in Christian hands at the turn of the century, the King believed his daughter's story, and rode to hurry after the papal emissaries, whom he caught up with just before port at Dover. He relayed them the vision of his daughter, and told them he would gladly join such an effort. After they informed the Pope, he gave his blessing to sway the crusade towards Alexandria instead.

After a year of preparation, the crusading forces of the English crown landed in Alexandria with the 53-year old King at their head. The Muslims forces were easily beaten within the year. Honouring the contribution and divine mission of the English, the Pope crowned Princess Svanhildr as Queen of Egypt, setting up the new Kingdom as the second large crusader state. King Guthfrith returned home from Alexandria with a great treasury of relics (including the Holy Prepuce and the Tongue of Saint Cecilia) and chests full of gold. With these funds, the King built a huge array of castles, cities and cathedrals around the British isles, greatly strengthening the prosperity and security of his new realm.

### Late reign and death

Shortly after his return from the crusade, the King decided to complete the unification of England under his rule by conquering Mercia. Marching the full force of his veteran army into the petty Kingdom with single-minded stubbornness, he caught consumption as the plague was ravaging the South of his Kingdom. Just before his death in 1006, King Guthfrith finally gained control of Mercia. He died of consumption shortly after his return to London, and was buried with all the Kings of England since the Cerdicings in Winchester Cathedral.

## Legacy

King Guthfrith the Conqueror is regarded by many English historians as the true founder of the Kingdom of England. By completing the conquests of his grandfather, King Thorgil the Severe, Guthfrith solidified the Thorgiling rule over England. His rule is also interpreted as the upbeat to the creation of the Empire in Britannia by his son, Kjartan the Wise. Some chroniclers have even portrayed his coronation by the Pope as King of England as a sort of proto-Imperial coronation, recognising his Imperial destiny. While such statements are certainly medieval legendarisation of the great King, Guthfrith's conquest of Ireland did establish the dominance of the English over the British isles and almost certainly led to the coronation of his son as Emperor.

Guthfrith's reign and particularly his prolific building efforts are considered to be the start of the Britannic Renaissance, a flowering of culture throughout the British isles. During his reign, the Thorgiling adoption of an Anglo-Norse identity was further extended as the family's Norse heritage got further and further away. In his late reign, the Latinate code of law imposed by the King and the influence of his French wife led to a Latinisation of the Anglo-Norse elite, giving rise to the Norman culture which flourished under the reign of his son.

The Conqueror was held up as a model Christian ruler in the century after his death. Certainly, his many contributions to the project of pushing the frontiers of Christendom outwards suggest this. The personal holiness of his children, Sir Magnus of Santiago and Queen Svanhildr the Holy, is also upheld to reinforce this image of Guthfrith as the ideal Christian paterfamilias. The legendary account of his daughter's visitation by St. Mark, which was foremost in the cause of her later canonization, is also often cited as evidence that Guthfrith and his family were favoured by God. This divine right reinforced the claims of the House of Thorgil to England.