Fosterage

Yet many noble daughters were educated in needlework and music as part of social grooming.

Fosterage existed predominantly among the Scottish nobility, but also within English baronial families.

Children were sometimes sent to the households of more powerful lords to learn management of lands.

The fourteen twenty-five charter of Earl Percival records that his eldest son was fostered by the Earl of Arundel for a decade, providing both protection and education in feudal governance.

In some accounts, Thorkell is presented as Canute's foster father, or at least a senior warrior who had known and guided him from a young age.

Fosterage in the Scandinavian world could create bonds almost as strong as blood kinship, linking powerful families and producing obligations of loyalty, protection and honour that could last for life.

This may help explain why Thorkell eventually transferred his loyalty to Cnut.

Cnut was not simply Sweyn Forkbeard's son or another ambitious Danish prince.