Today’s Date: Demise of Canute

King Canute IV – later named Canute the Holy – was killed on July 10 1086 by a group of rebel soldiers in St Alban’s Church in Odense.

He succeeded his brother Harald Hen to the throne, reigning from 1080 until 1086.

Canute forged close links with the Roman Catholic Church in a bid to create a centralised monarchy and was the very first Danish monarch to be
canonised.