This is a recording of Ryan Lavelle’s talk at Chalke Valley History Festival on Thursday 28th June 2018.

Cnut, or Canute, was King of England for nearly 20 years, dying in Dorset in 1035. A formidable figure, Cnut is one of the great ‘what ifs’ in English history. Ryan Lavelle, one of this country’s leading experts on Viking England, gives a fascinating account of a powerful nation builder whose Viking Empire could have permanently shifted 11th century England’s orbit to Scandinavia.