In 1031 Cnut advanced to the North, but the quarrel ended in a formal cession of the district between the Forth and the Tweed, Lothian as it was called, to the Scot-king on his doing homage to Cnut.

The gain told at once on the character of the Northern kingdom.

The kings of the Scots had till now been rulers simply of Gaelic and Celtic peoples; but from the moment that Lothian with its English farmers and English seamen became a part of their dominions it became the most important part.

The kings fixed their seat at Edinburgh, and in the midst of an English population passed from Gaelic chieftains into the Saxon rulers of a mingled people.
[Sidenote: Cnut's Sons] But the greatness of Cnut's rule hung solely on the greatness of his temper, and the Danish power was shaken by his death in 1035.

The empire he had built up at once fell to pieces.