On the Comparison Between Cnut the Great and Charlemagne

Well there certainly are some similarities; the large expanse of their empires (Cnut ultimately ruling over all of England, Denmark, Norway, and a part of Sweden, Charlemagne most of Europe north of Muslim Spain and west of the Byzantines), their occasional ruthlessness (the Germans of Saxon descent still pretty pissed at Charlemagne, I hear), their infatuation with the Catholic Church (Charlemagne's likely more sincere), and most striking of all, the way that their empires collapsed after their deaths (the Frankish way of passing on the throne all but ensuring division). Of course there are also some differences between them (Cnut having spent a great deal more time on the water, for example) but, yeah, overall a pretty striking likeness, I'd say.