ИСТИНА

The first coronation of Danish monarch, namely Knútr 6. Valdimarsson (r. 1182-1202), which was held in Ringsted on 25 June 1170 and accompanied by the canonization of Knútr’s grandfather and namesake, duke Knútr Lávarðr (r. 1115-1131), was seen in scholarly literature as an act of sacral legitimation based on the authority of the Church. Danish sources, Annales Lundenses and Saxo Grammaticus, confirm this point of view. However, analysis of little-known hagiographic texts allows to make some adjustments to the well-established interpretation of the Ringsted ceremony and to redefine the perspective of Danish sources. The work Vita et miracula Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis, written by William of Canterbury, contains the text, according to which Knútr 6. successfully subjugated Slavic lands due to the miraculous intervention of Thomas Becket (r. 1162-1170) ‘crowned with the diadem of Danish monarchs’. This indirect reference to the Ringsted ceremony strongly indicates some connection between the archbishop of Canterbury and the first crowned Danish king. It seems that in the mentioned text, Thomas Becket performs the functions of the king’s patron saint, Knútr Lávarðr. The proposed paper examines the parallels between texts composed in Denmark and England at the end of the twelfth-century with the purpose to demonstrate that the proclamation of Knútr Lávarðr’s martyrdom during the Ringsted ceremony corresponded with the legitimation of Knútr 6.’s hereditary rights through the practice of name-giving, which provoked the similarity between the ancestor and the descendant united by the usage of the common name. Such a case study focused on text deconstruction aims to provide new material for kingship research.