Cnut was, according to
legend, to have shown that the
Divine Right of
Kings was wrong when he infamously sat on his
throne at the edge of the
sea and ordered it to not come any closer or to wet his boots and clothes. The
water invariably came nearer and (what a surprise) he got a
tad bit wet. This proved to his
subjects that he was just an average man and that
God was not listening to him.
If this was his intention is another matter.