Harthacanute

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Harthacanute

Harthacanute (Canute the Hardy, sometimes Hardicanute, Hardecanute, Hörthaknútr; ) (1018 – 8 June 1042) was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 as well as King of England from 1040 to 1042. He came from Northmannia

Northmannia

"Northmannia," the "land of the Northmen," was referred as the place were Harthacnut came from according to Adam of Bremen. He may have meant Norway or Normandy which both are related to the Northmen....
according to Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen was one of the most important Germany medieval chroniclers. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum ....
and was the only son of Canute the Great

Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden ....
and Emma of Normandy

Emma of Normandy

Emma , was daughter of Richard I of Normandy, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of the Kingdom of England twice, by successive marriages: initially as the second wife to Ethelred the Unready of England ; and then to Canute the Great of Denmark ....
.

He succeeded to the throne of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
in 1035, reigning as Canute III, yet a war against Magnus I of Norway

Magnus I of Norway

Magnus I was the King of Norway from 1035 to 1047 and the King of Denmark from 1042 to 1047. He was the illegitimate son of King Olaf II of Norway, also known as Saint Olaf, by his concubine Alvhild....
meant he could not secure his claim to the throne of England

England

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Northmannia

Adam of Bremen

Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden ....
and Emma of Normandy

Emma of Normandy

Denmark

Magnus I of Norway

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. Consequently, it was agreed that his elder illegitimate half-brother Harold Harefoot

Harold Harefoot

Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1035 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" was for his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Canute the Great, King of England, Denmark, Norway, and some of the Kingdom of Sweden, through his handfast wife ?lfgifu of Northampton....
was to be regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present or debilitated....
there.

Harold took the English crown for himself in 1037 — Harthacanute being "forsaken because he was too long in Denmark" — and the Queen-mother, Emma

Emma of Normandy

Winchester

Winchester is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. It lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen, Hampshire....
with some of her son's housecarl

Housecarl

Housecarls were household troops, personal warriors and equivalent to a bodyguard to Scandinavian lords and kings. The anglicized term comes from the Old Norse language term huskarl or huscarl They were also called hird that referred to household troops....
s, was made to flee to Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
, in Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Over the course of history, the geographical territory that was called "Flanders" has varied....
. Harthacanute settled his difficulties in Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
through a treaty he had made with Magnus in 1038 or 1039. This stated that they agreed that if one of them were to die without an heir the other should be his successor. Harthacanute then began to prepare for an invasion of England, and the deposition of Harold from the kingship. Harold, however, died on 17 March 1040, before any conquest could occur. Harthacanute was then invited to England, and the landing at Sandwich

Sandwich, Kent

Sandwich is a historic town in Kent, south-east England. It was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings. While once a major port, it is now two miles from the sea, its historic centre preserved.....
on 17 June 1040, "seven days before Midsummer

Midsummer

Many people say that the fairies dance on midsummer's eve, and those in Ireland may even stay up all night watching for them. They re said to dance after huge feasts, then sing and play music and tell stories....
", with a fleet of 62 warships was a peaceful one. He did though, with apparent scorn, command Harold's body to be taken from its tomb and cast in a fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater. Fens are characterized by their water chemistry, which is pH or alkaline. Fens are different from bogs, which are acidic, fed primarily by rainwater and often dominated by Sphagnum mosses....
with the animals.

Harthacanute was a harsh and unpopular ruler: to pay for his fleet, he severely increased the rate of taxation, and in 1041 the people of Worcester killed two of Harthacanute's housecarls who had been collecting the tax, prompting an attack by Harthacanute in which the city was burned. The story of Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva

Godiva , c. 997 ? 10 September 1067, was an Anglo-Saxons noblewoman who, according to legend, rode nudity through the streets of Coventry, in England, in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants....
riding naked through the streets of Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a City status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. With a population of 303,475 at the United Kingdom Census 2001 , Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom....
to persuade the local earl to lower taxes may come from the reign of Harthacanute. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English language chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great....
gives a dismal assessment of him: "He never accomplished anything kingly for as long as he ruled." It also says that in 1041 Harthacanute broke a pledge and betrayed Earl Eadwulf of Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria is primarily the name of both a medieval petty kingdom of the Angles people, in what is now north east England and southern Scotland, and of the earldom which succeeded it when a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom became England....
, who was under his safe conduct.

In 1041, Harthacanute invited his half-brother Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor

Saint Edward the Confessor , son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxons List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death....
(his mother Emma's son by Ethelred the Unready

Ethelred the Unready

Ethelred II , also known as ?thelred II, Aethelred II, Ethelred the Unready, ?thelred the Unready and Aethelred the Unready , was Kingdom of England ....
) back from exile in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the coast of France south of the English Channel between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands....
to become a member of his household, and probably made Edward his heir. Harthacanute was unmarried and had no known children. It is rumoured he fathered an illegitimate son, William Canute. On 8 June 1042, he died at Lambeth

Lambeth

Lambeth is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth, although the area is now more commonly known as Waterloo, after the railway station whose viaduct separates the former centre of the village from the River Thames....
— he "died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with an awful convulsion; and those who were close by took hold of him, and he spoke no word afterwards…" He was buried at Winchester, his father's place of rest, and his mother's, on her death. Edward assumed the throne on Harthacanute's death, restoring the Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
royal line of Wessex

Wessex

West Saxon redirects here. For other meanings of Wessex or West Saxon see Wessex .Wessex , from the Old English Westseaxe , was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, under the Wessex dynasty....
.

Harthacanute

Ancestry