Harthacanute

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Harthacanute
King of Denmark and England
Image:CoinHarthacnut.jpg
Reign	March 17 1040 – June 8 1042
Born	1018
	England
Died	Template:Death date
	England
Buried	Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England
Predecessor	Canute the Great (Denmark) Harold Harefoot (England)
Successor	Magnus I (Denmark) Edward the Confessor (England)
Father	Canute the Great
Mother	Emma of Normandy

Harthacanute (Canute the Hardy, sometimes Hardicanute, Hardecanute; Danish: Hardeknud) (1018 – June 8, 1042) was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 as well as King of England from 1040 to 1042. He was the only son of Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy.

He succeeded to the throne of Denmark in 1035, reigning as Canute III, yet a war against Magnus I of Norway meant he could not secure his claim to the throne of England. Consequently, it was agreed that his elder illegitimate half-brother Harold Harefoot was to be regent there.

Harold, of course, took the English crown for himself in 1037 — Harthacanute being "forsaken because he was too long in Denmark"^[1] — and the Queen-mother, Emma, who had previously been resident at Winchester with some of her son's housecarls, was made to flee to Bruges, in Flanders. Harthacanute at last brought a settlement to the difficulties of his in Scandinavia, through a treaty he had made with his contestant, in 1038 or 1039, stating that they agreed if one of them, either he or Magnus, were to die without an heir, his opponent should be his successor. At once he began to prepare for an invasion of England, and the deposition of his usurper from the kingship. Harold, however, died before any conquest could occur, on March 17 1040. It is thought, he was known to be ill, and the rightful claimant, Harthacanute, had made allowance for this in his plans, with anticipation of Harold's death, for he went first to the court of the Count of Flanders, his mother's host, in 1039.^[2] Harthacanute was then invited to England, and the landing at Sandwich, on June 17 1040, "seven days before Midsummer"^[1], 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 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.^[2] The story of Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry to persuade the local earl to lower taxes may come from the reign of Harthacanute. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives a dismal assessment of him: "He never accomplished anything kingly for as long as he ruled." It also says that in 1041 Harthcanute broke a pledge and betrayed Earl Eadwulf of Northumbria, who was under his safe conduct.^[2]

In 1041, Harthacanute invited his half-brother Edward the Confessor (his mother Emma's son by Ethelred the Unready) back from exile in Normandy to become a member of his household, and probably made Edward his heir.^[2] Harthacanute was unmarried and had no known children. It is rumored he fathered an illegitimate son, William Canute. On June 8, 1042, he died at Lambeth — 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…"^[1] 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 royal line of Wessex.

[edit] References

↑ ^a ^b ^c The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), Oxford University Press (1998 paperback), page 421–422; see also ASC, 1039–40.