King Canute’s daughter
Ernest Hall recalls a story associated with the ancient church at Bosham
The village of Bosham, (pronounced Bozzum), lies beside an inlet from the sea near Chichester. Part of its ancient church dates back to Roman times, but the greater part was built towards the end of the Dark Ages, in the Anglo-Saxon period.
King Canute (or Cnut) and his family lived here and it is believed to have been at Bosham that Canute demonstrated, to flattering courtiers, that neither he, nor any other man, could stem the course of the tide. Canute is said to have had a well-loved eight-year-old daughter, who was accidentally drowned in the millstream that still runs through the village. Her body was buried in the nave of the church at Bosham.
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