Canute reproving the flattery of his courtiers - Canute is most commonly understood to be the man who tried to command the waves. As it is told in legend, the king grew tired of flattery from his courtiers. When one such flatterer gushed that Canute was so great, he might even command the sea itself, he was angry. Canute thought it right to prove his courtier wrong with a demonstration (at Southampton or Bosham; other sources say these events took place near his palace at Westminster). When the waves did not turn back at his word, Canute said that even a king's powers have limits. At his failure to command the waves, it is told, he piously removed his crown, refusing to wear it again, for to him there was no true king except God - Canute I, or Canute the Great, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles also known as Cnut (c.995 - 12 November 1035) was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, some of Sweden, as well as overlord of Pomerania, and the Mark of Schleswig. 固opFoto