Qui es va casar amb Cnut the Great?

Cnut ( kə-NYOOT; Old Norse: Knútr; c. 990 – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire by historians.

As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His later accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut sought to keep this power base by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. In 1031, Malcolm II of Scotland also submitted to him, though Anglo-Norse influence over Scotland was weak and ultimately did not last by the time of Cnut's death.

Dominion of England lent the Danes an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, where Cnut, like his father before him, had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the Norse–Gaels. Cnut's possession of England's dioceses and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen – was a source of great prestige and leverage among the magnates of Christendom (gaining notable concessions such as one on the price of the pallium of his bishops, though they still had to travel to obtain the pallium, as well as on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome). After his 1026 victory against Norway and Sweden, and on his way back from Rome where he attended the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor, Cnut deemed himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes" in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects. Medieval historian Norman Cantor called him "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".

He is popularly invoked in the context of the legend of King Canute and the tide.

Aelfgifu Aelfhelmsdotter va néixer possiblement l'any 970, com a filla del cavaller Aelfhelm, qui va ser assassinat per ordre del rei Etelred l'Indecís.

En algun moment, durant la conquesta danesa d'Anglaterra, Aelfgifu es va casar amb Canut II de Dinamarca, naixent de la seva unió dos fills: Harold Harefoot i Sveinn Knútsson.

Més tard, Canut es va casar amb la filla d'Etelred II, Emma de Normandia, la qual fou considerada l'única i legítima esposa d'acord amb les lleis de l'Església Catòlica. Després d'això, les seves relacions amb Canut són incertes. De totes maneres, ella va romandre lleial a la seva causa i va acompanyar al seu fill Svend a Noruega, qui va viatjar com a lloctinent del seu pare després de conquerir aquest país. Però el govern d'ambdós es va guanyar l'odi dels noruecs pels excessius impostos. A l'any següent (1036), van ser expulsats de Noruega, i Svend va morir en el camí cap a Anglaterra on pensava cercar refugi; entre tant Aelfgifu torna cap a Dinamarca.

Temps més tard, Aelfgifu torna a Anglaterra per donar suport al seu fill Harold per prendre la corona d'aquest país, fent front al seu pare Hardecanut i a Emma.

Va morir cap a l'any 1044.

Emma de Normandia (Normandia, 987 - Winchester, 1052), fou reina consort d'Anglaterra i, després, de Dinamarca. Era anomenada "La Rosa de Normandia" per la seva bellesa. Fou un dels 11 fills de Ricard I de Normandia, duc de Normandia, i de la seva segona esposa Gunnora de Crepon.