Canute IV of Denmark

Canute IV, later called the Holy (c. 1042–1086), a son of Sweyn II Estridsson, was king of Denmark from 1080. He had led raids on England and married Adela of Flanders. As king he enforced tithes, enriched Lund Cathedral in 1085 and tightened royal law over nobles and peasants.

In 1085 he gathered a fleet to invade England, but it never sailed. A peasant revolt drove him to Odense, where rebels slew him in St. Alban's Priory on 10 July 1086. Canonized in 1101, he became Denmark's patron saint.