The Siege of London, 1016: Immigration, Government and Europe in the Age of Æthelred and Cnut

How can the past help us to understand the present? What can the study of the Middle Ages offer to current political debate? This research network brings together scholars from across the UK and Europe to investigate the issues of immigration, government and Europe in early medieval England. With a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU forecast for as early as 2016, the question of our relationship with Europe has never seemed so important. And yet, 2016 also marks an important anniversary in the history of that relationship: one thousand years ago, on 30 November 1016, the siege of London was lifted and the Danish warrior Cnut became king of England. England became part of a Scandinavian empire whose influence stretched across Northern Europe, from Ireland to the Baltic. Born of a Danish father and a Polish mother, Cnut rewrote England's place within Europe, altering the political and cultural landscape for decades to come. Winchester, the site of his royal court, became a cross-roads of linguistic, ethnic and cultural exchange for two decades. When he married Emma of Normandy, the Franco-Scandinavian wife of the defeated English king Æthelred, the early Norman influence on England also increased. Ruling from 1016 to 1035, Cnut ushered in a new Scandinavian migration that made England more cosmopolitan and multilingual. Although began in war and conquest, his reign oversaw a bloom of cultural productivity in London, Winchester, and beyond.

Through this network, academics at the University of Winchester and the University of London aim to commemorate the transition from Æthelred to Cnut while exploring the social, cultural and political consequences of that transition. We will focus on the issues of immigration, government and England's relationship with Europe, asking how an understanding of these issues in the medieval context can inform public debate today.

Our main research questions are:

1) Were the Danes invaders who destroyed England or immigrants who enriched the country they settled in?

2) How did government change when Cnut took over from Æthelred?

3) What were the consequences of Cnut's new regime for England's relationship with Europe?

This network will bring together scholars working in diverse fields, including literature, history, art history and archaeology. Through a series of academic workshops and seminars, as well as a major international conference, we seek to answer the questions above with the benefit of new digital resources such as the Portable Antiquities Scheme website, the English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions and the Skaldic Project website of Old Norse poetry. The network will make a timely and substantial contribution to scholarship through the publication of a dedicated collection of essays and a special journal issue on the age of Æthelred to Cnut.

We also seek to stimulate discussion about the role of medieval studies in the modern day. In collaboration with our non-academic partners in London (the Museum of London, the British Museum and the British Library) and Winchester (Hampshire Cultural Trust, Hyde 900 and The English Project), we will host a series of activities aimed a non-specialist audiences. These will include a round-table discussion, 'England and Europe: The Medieval Perspective', public lectures on the theme of 'What have the Vikings ever done for us?' and a virtual, online exhibition on medieval Winchester. In order to promote debate among all participants, both academic and non-academic, the network will be supported by an interactive website and blog, complete with podcasts of all events, and a full social media platform.

This research network will be of substantial benefit to academic and non-academic participants alike. It will result in two research outputs: first, a book-length study of immigration, government and Europe during the early medieval period entitled 'King Cnut and English Identity in Early Medieval Europe', and second, a special issue of the journal 'Scandinavica' entitled 'Anglo-Scandinavian Relations in the Age of Æthelred and Cnut'. Both outputs will be freely available to the public through UCL's open access repository, UCL Discovery.

In addition to these research outputs, the network will organise a series of seminars, lectures, exhibitions and workshops aimed specifically at non-academic audiences in order to disseminate research and to engage with the public on issues of immigration, government and Europe from a medievalist perspective.

As part of the UCL Festival of the Arts the network will host an interactive, round-table discussion on the theme of 'England and Europe: The Medieval Perspective'. This session will bring together academics from the University of London, local policy-makers and members of the public to provide a historical overview of our three key issues while inviting open debate on their relevance in the modern day. These questions will also be raised in two public lectures held at the Museum of London given by Dr Goeres ('What did the Vikings do for us? London, Danes and Diversity') and Prof North ('Regime Change: Wulfstan and the Government of Cnut'). We expect a minimum of fifty people to attend each of these events, and priority will be given to non-academic participants.

Also as part of the Festival of the Arts, we will run an interactive workshop, 'Literature at the Court of King Cnut', based on readings from Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse texts. This workshop will encourage members of the public to try their hand at reading medieval texts, and to discuss the cross-cultural interactions such texts reveal, set within the wider context of the research network and its aims. Based on the numbers from last year's Festival, we expect up to 60 people to attend this event.

In collaboration with local community groups based in Winchester, we have begun planning an online exhibition hosted by the British Museum and the Google Cultural Institute. Such exhibitions can attract viewing numbers in the thousands, as the first pilot exhibition on Sutton Hoo (another medieval theme) has demonstrated. The theme of our exhibition will be 'Winchester: Heart of Cnut's International Empire' and will feature objects from the British Museum, British Library and Museum of Winchester, as well as content provided by Winchester-based members of the groups Hyde 900 and The English Project. Working with these groups has enabled us to make contact with local networks of amateur historians, linguists, and re-enactors, and to reach a wide audience in the community. Our network website will, in return, offer a platform from which to publicise local events organised by these groups and bring them into contact with like-minded organisations across the country and internationally.

The network will command a significant online presence through the establishment of an interactive website, blog and full social media platform (including a Facebook page, Twitter account and Instagram feed), linked to these local and third-party groups. All of the above events will be recorded and uploaded as podcasts or videos, allowing ongoing communication with non-academic participants through an accompanying online 'comments' section.