Godwin of Wessex was an English nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the first Earl of Wessex. Godwin was the father of King Harold II and of Edith of Wessex, who in 1045 married King Edward the Confessor.
England in 1065; Earldoms in Godwin's immediate house are those east of Dehaubarth and Gwent shaded white
Cnut, also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire by historians.
Contemporary drawing of King Cnut from the New Minster Liber Vitae, 1031
This runestone in Sweden (U 194), in memory of a Viking known as Alli, says he won Knútr's payment in England.
Medieval illumination depicting Kings Edmund Ironside (left) and Cnut (right), from the Chronica Majora written and illustrated by Matthew Paris.
Coins of Cnut the Great, British Museum