Free She Wolves by Elizabeth Norton

the king showed no signs of doing so. Aelfgifu’s whereabouts are not recorded for most of Cnut’s reign but it is possible that she and Emma often came into contact with each other. It has been suggested that Aelfgifu was given a household at Bosham in Sussex and, certainly, it is recorded that a daughter of Cnut drowned there and was buried in the local church. 27 If such a daughter existed, she would have been Aelfgifu’s rather than Emma’s. For Aelfgifu to be lodged at Bosham would have seemed uncomfortably close to Emma’s own base at Winchester, although Cnut may well have liked to keep both his wives within easy access of his court. However, as the sons of both women grew up, Cnut also appears to have realised the difficulties of keeping two rival wives and, in the late 1020s, he apparently began looking around for some way of making provision for Aelfgifu and her children.
    As well as being King of England and Denmark, Cnut was King of Norway. In 1029 his regent in Norway drowned which left Cnut with an opportunity to advance Aelfgifu and her children. 28 In 1030, Cnut named his eldest son by Aelfgifu, Swein, King of Norway and dispatched the boy to Norway, along with his mother who was to act as regent. 29 This appointment must have pleased Aelfgifu and is a measure of Cnut’s respect for his first wife and her abilities. However the move was probably less popular with Emma and it may be significant that around the same time her son, Harthacnut, was appointed King of Denmark by his father. 30 Denmark was Cnut’s ancestral kingdom rather than one of his recent conquests and Emma may have felt a sense of satisfaction in the preferential treatment accorded to her own child.
    Aelfgifu seems to have adopted her role as regent of Norway with gusto. She and Swein quickly took control of the country and set about trying to mould it into a Danish kingdom, as Cnut would have wanted. According to Saint Olaf’s Saga , the pair promptly introduced Danish laws to Norway, such as that forbidding anyone to leave the country without their leave. 31 The king and queen also introduced a number of new taxes to Norway, insisting, for example, that every man over five years of age contribute towards equipping warships as well as taxes in food which were required by the new king and his mother. 32 Although these new laws were introduced in Swein’s name, it was clear to everyone that it was his mother who was the real power in Norway. Even today, ‘Aelfgifu’s time’ is remembered as a period of misery and repression. 33 Aelfgifu was probably only carrying out Cnut’s commands but in the process she made both herself and the other Danes in Norway deeply unpopular, causing a wave of Norwegian nationalism to quickly sweep through the country.
    This nationalism quickly took the form of a cult that began to grow up around the grave of King Olaf, the last native Norwegian king. Aelfgifu is reported to have been Olaf’s mistress in her youth and it is possible that she knew better than most how this king was no saint. However, she also recognised the dangers of this cult to Danish rule in Norway and apparently took steps to try to dispel it. Saint Olaf’s Saga , which recounts Aelfgifu’s attempts to dispel the cult around Olaf is the only source in which this shadowy queen’s character is fully developed and clearly shows her as something of a clever and determined woman. According to the saga, it was decided to disinter the body of King Olaf in order to see if it showed any signs of sanctity. 34 The body was duly found to be remarkably preserved and only Aelfgifu of those assembled seems to have showed any scepticism:
    Then Alfifa [Aelfgifu] said, ‘Mighty little do bodies decompose when buried in sand. It would not be the case if he had lain in earth.’ Then the bishop took a pair of shears and cut the king’s hair and trimmed his whiskers. He had long whiskers as people in those days used to have.
    Then the bishop said to