King Canute's Chair

There is a famous legend that after King Canute (Knut) became king of Denmark and England he thought he was so powerful that he could sit on a chair in front of the sea and command the tide back.

People in the north Wirral areas of Leasowe, Moreton and Meols used to believe - some still do - that this event took place somewhere between Moreton shore and Leasowe.

In this video, Professor Stephen Harding travels to Moreton Shore to tell King Canute's story.

 

The legend of it happening in Wirral goes back at least as far as the Victorian period because they reconstructed the chair which Canute allegedly sat on. On the back of the chair is inscribed "Sea come not hither nor wet the sole of my foot".

How far back the legend (and not necessarily the event itself) goes is impossible to tell but it is not unimaginable it went back to the Vikings for two reasons:  

One is that the mainly Norwegian Viking population would have given their fellow Scandinavian Canute a very sympathetic welcome even though he was a Dane.  

Two is that the locals would have been fed up with the frequent flooding of the area which happened with annoying regularity up to the construction of the 20th century sea defences, so any offer of help in keeping the sea back would have been greatfully accepted.  However, the real event is considered to be Canute showing to his arrogant courtiers that he was really just a human like everybody else by failing to get the sea to go back.

Sadly the Victorian chair itself was broken by vandals and used as firewood in 1950.  Rumours abound that there are plans to construct a new one.

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