Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jimmy and this is Episode 352.

Chaos.

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It was November 11th of 1035 and King Knute was dead.

He was buried at Winchester Cathedral.

Now it seems that Knute and also likely the court anticipated his death, possibly because

he'd been ill for some time.

But even though they almost certainly knew his death was coming, the fact was that the

ruling classes of Europe were still completely unprepared for the chaos that would follow.

Consolidating multiple kingdoms under one ruler was a double-edged sword.

When it's done well, nations often benefit from greater stability and security.

There's less risk of going to war.

Kingdoms become less likely to fall to the ambitions of rivals or rebels.

And so what Knute provided the ruling class of his near empire was a chance to grow their

wealth in relative peace.

Provided of course that they played along and didn't piss him off.

...