Descended from an earlier English king, Æthelnoth became a monk prior to becoming archbishop.
Æthelnoth was a son of the Æthelmær the Stout and a grandson of Æthelweard the Historian,[3] who was a great-great-grandson of King Æthelred of Wessex.
[9] He also presided over the translation of the relics of Ælfheah, his predecessor at Canterbury who was regarded as a martyr and saint.
[10] Cnut was forced to concede that in the future he would not appoint bishops in Bremen's archdiocese without the metropolitan's advice.
[3][6] Prior to his death, some of his episcopal functions were performed by a royal priest, Eadsige.
While he is listed in Jean Mabillon's Lives of the Benedictine Saints and in the Acta Sanctorum, there is no contemporary or later evidence of a cult being paid to him at Canterbury or elsewhere.