Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of the English queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042, probably by a monk of Saint-Omer, Normandy.
Queen Emma receiving the Encomium Emmae Reginae from the author (kneeling), with her sons Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor in the background. This illustration is found in the extant 11th-century copy of the Encomium in the British Library.
Emma of Normandy was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the Danish king Cnut the Great. A daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor, she was Queen of the English during her marriage to King Æthelred from 1002 to 1016, except during a brief interruption in 1013–14 when the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard occupied the English throne. Æthelred died in 1016, and Emma married Sweyn's son Cnut. As Cnut's wife, she was Queen of England from their marriage in 1017, Queen of Denmark from 1018, and Queen of Norway from 1028 until Cnut died in 1035.
Emma receiving the Encomium, in The Encomium of Queen Emma, c. 1050, British Library MS 33241
Emma fleeing England with her two young sons following the invasion by Sweyn Forkbeard (1013). Detail of a 13th-century miniature (Fugit emma regina cum pueris suis in normanniam cum pueris suis ut ibidem a duce patre suo protegatur)
Queen Emma and her sons being received by Duke Richard II of Normandy (Cambridge University Library)
Mortuary chest from Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England. This is one of six mortuary chests near the altar in the Cathedral; this one claims to contain the bones of Cnut and his wife Emma, along with others. The chest is topped with a crown.
