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to halt and not to wet his feet and robes. Yet "continuing to rise as usual dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: 'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom
233:, the fifth book (by story date) of the Hornblower Saga. The monarch's inability to control the tides is ironically juxtaposed to the fact he otherwise "ruled the waves" through naval might, as recently (in the story) demonstrated by the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
64:
of God. The episode is frequently alluded to in contexts where the futility of "trying to stop the tide" of an inexorable event is pointed out, but usually misrepresenting Canute as believing he had supernatural powers, when
Huntingdon's story in fact relates the opposite.
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has no mention of the episode, which has been taken as indicating its ahistoricity, as it would seem that so pious a dedication might have been recorded there since the same source gives an "eye-witness account of his lavish gifts to the monasteries and poor of
228:
has his character, Horatio
Hornblower, compare the limits of the powers of "His Majesty" (implicitly referring to King George III) to his "illustrious predecessor," King Canute, by contemplating His Majesty's inability to control the tides in
189:. This, and many other popular representations, are a misrepresentation of Huntingdon's account, in which Canute uses the tide to demonstrate his precise inability to control the elements and his deference to the greater authority of God.
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Political power or office often gives those who possess it the illusion that they control events. That, after all, is the reason why the story of King Canute retains, and will always retain, its relevance to the current political
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Canute’s exercise on the seashore was designed to persuade his courtiers of what he knew to be true but they doubted, i.e., that he was not omnipotent. Don’t imply he was surprised to get his feet wet.
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Later historians repeated the story, with most of them adjusting it to have Canute more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers.
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tells the story as one of three examples of Canute's "graceful and magnificent" behaviour (outside of his bravery in warfare), the other two being his arrangement of the marriage of
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Proverbial reference to the legend in modern journalism or politics usually casts the story in terms of "Canute's arrogance" of "attempting to stop the tide". As to usage, however,
60:
In the story, Canute demonstrates to his flattering courtiers that he has no control over the elements (the incoming tide), explaining that secular power is vain compared to the
221:(447 U.S. 303), stating the denial of a patent for a micro-organism "is not likely to put an end to genetic research". Burger likens doing so to Canute commanding the tides.
258:, writing later in the 11th century, instead has Canute place his crown on a crucifix at Winchester one Easter with no mention of the sea and "with the explanation that
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says the story is simply "a 12th
Century legend... and those 12th Century historians were always making up stories about kings from Anglo-Saxon times".
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city centre's Canute Road reads, "Near this spot AD 1028 Canute reproved his courtiers". Other traditions place this episode on the north coast of the
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is also a small peninsula within
Chichester harbour, very close to another claimed location, Bosham, and conflictingly a sign on
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was more worthy of it than he". Nevertheless, there may be a "basis of fact, in a planned act of piety" behind this story.
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as "the King Canute of football" for his attempts of stopping "the unstoppable tide of information" on the internet in the
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refers to the story, without misattributing motives of arrogance to Canute, in the context of the
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Enimvero extra numerum bellorum, quibus maxime splenduit, tria gessit eleganter & magnifice
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when on the way to Rome, and of the tears and breast-beating which accompanied them".
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In
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The Palace of
Westminster Factsheet G11, General Series, Revised March 2008
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Living
Heritage. History of the Parliamentary Estate: Anglo-Saxon origins
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Parliament of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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and the negotiation of a reduction in tolls on the roads
537:. Southampton City Council. January 2001. Archived from
389:(9th ed.). The Economist. August 2005. p. 22.
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J. P. Sommerville, King Canute (= Cnut) and the waves
587:(3rd ed.). University of Chester. p. 178.
236:
609:"Sweyn Forkbeard: England's forgotten Viking king"
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472:. Little, Brown and Company. 1999. p. 51.
272:The site of the episode is often identified as
122:stories of men who commanded the tides: Saint
187:2011 British privacy injunctions controversy
104:heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.
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446:"Diamond V. Chakrabarty | Findlaw"
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561:"Google Maps, Canute Road Southampton"
197:British reaction to the Ukraine crisis
435:, The Salisbury Review, 4 March 2014.
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323:Xerxes I's whipping of the Hellespont
318:Cultural depictions of Cnut the Great
118:There are also earlier parallels in
376:, Vol. 60, (January 1960), pp. 7–8.
138:, and Tuirbe of Tuirbe's Strand in
108:" He then hung his gold crown on a
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470:Hornblower and the Atropos
231:Hornblower and the Atropos
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41:anecdote illustrating the
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426:Droning over the Caucasus
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664:12th-century literature
244:Encomium Emmae Reginae
218:Diamond v. Chakrabarty
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689:West Sussex folklore
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424:Theodore Dalrymple,
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55:Henry of Huntingdon
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431:2014-04-19 at the
370:Cnut and the Waves
193:Theodore Dalrymple
82:Holy Roman Emperor
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455:2016-11-25
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306:tidal bore
204:situation.
183:Ryan Giggs
167:Stacy Head
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39:apocryphal
356:, p. 199.
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638:Archived
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429:Archived
312:See also
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140:Brittany
110:crucifix
49:of King
47:humility
694:Modesty
615:21 July
250:St Omer
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132:Maelgwn
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298:Mercia
294:Wirral
282:London
211:, the
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120:Celtic
37:is an
302:aegir
43:piety
654:Cnut
617:2023
589:ISBN
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