whom he considered dangerous, but when this had once been
done he ruled as a thoroughly English king of the best type. The Danes
who had hitherto fought for him had come not as settlers, but as an
army, and soon after Eadmund's death he sent most of them home,
retaining a force, variously stated as 3,000 or 6,000, warriors known
as his House-carls (_House-men_), who formed a small standing army
depending entirely on himself. They were not enough to keep down a
general rising of the whole of England, but they were quite enough to
prevent any single great man from rebelling against him. Cnut
therefore was, what AEthelred had wished to be, really master of his
kingdom. Under him ruled the ealdormen, who from this time were known
as Earls, from the Danish title of Jarl (see p. 64), and of these
Earls the principal were the three who governed Mercia,
North-humberland, and Wessex, the last named now including the old
kingdoms of Kent and Sussex. There was a fourth in East Anglia, but
the limits of this earldom varied from time to time, and there were
sometimes other earldoms set up in the neighbouring shires, whereas
the first-named three remained as they were for some time after Cnut's
death. It is characteristic of Cnut that the one of the Earls to whom
he gave his greatest confidence was Godwine, an Englishman, who was
Earl of the West Saxons. Another Englishman, Leofwine, became Earl of
the Mercians. A Dane obtained the earldom of the North-humbrians, but
the land was barbarous, and its Earls were frequently murdered.
Sometimes there was one Earl of the whole territory, sometimes two. It
was not till after the end of Cnut's reign that Siward became Earl of
Deira, and at a later time of all North-humberland as far as the
Tweed. The descendants of two of these Earls, Godwine and Leofwine,
leave their mark on the history for some time to come.

10. =Cnut's Empire.=--Beyond the Tweed Malcolm, king of the Scots,
ruled. He defeated the North-humbrians at Carham, and Cnut ceded
Lothian to him, either doing so for the first time or repeating the
act of Eadgar, if the story of Eadgar's cession is true. At all events
the king of the Scots from this time ruled as far south as the Tweed,
and acknowledged Cnut's superiority. Cnut also became king of Denmark
by his brother's death, and king of Norway by conquest. He entered
into friendly relations with Richard II., Duke of the Normans, by
marrying his sister Emma, the widow of AEthelre