for more than 1000 years there have been churches on the spot where the cathedral now stands. the first church on the site was built by harold bluetooth who died around 985 and, according to contemporary writings, is ?buried in the town of roskilde, in the church he himself built to the honour of the holy trinity?. harold's church was made of wood, and later it became the burial site for king sweyn forbeard. after having invaded, plundered and conquered england, sweyn died in 1014. his corpse was brought to roskilde by an english woman and buried by his family. in 1026 the church was the scene of a brutal murder when the king of england and denmark, canute the great murdered his brother in law. canute was then forced pay penance to his sister estrid, the daughter of sweyn forkbeard who used the money to build a new church of stone. her son, sweyn 2. was crowned as king of denmark in 1047. sweyn was born in england. in 1069 he joined forces with the last heir to the anglo saxon royal house. they invaded england, recently conquered by william the conquerer in 1066. sweyn conquered york, but failed in conquering england. sweyn 2. and his mother estrid is buried in roskilde cathedral.
