Harthacnut

• General Notes
  • Harthacnut (Cnut the Hardy; Danish: Knud III Hardeknud) (1020 - 8 June 1042) was a Danish King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 as well as King of England from 1040 to 1042. He was the only legitimate son of king Cnut the Great, who ruled Denmark, Norway, and England. Harthacnut struggled to retain Cnut's possessions, as Magnus I took of control of Norway, but managed to regain kingship of England in 1040. Canute died unexpectedly in 1042, and was succeeded by Magnus in Denmark and Edward the Confessor in England. Harthacnut was the last Danish king to rule England.
    
    King of Denmark
    
    Harthacnut was born in 1020, the son of Cnut the Great and Emma of Normandy. Cnut the Great reigned over Denmark, Norway, and England. He succeeded his father on the throne of Denmark in 1035, reigning as Cnut III,  yet a war against Magnus I of Norway meant he did not have the power to secure his claim to his father's throne of England. Consequently, it was agreed that his elder illegitimate half-brother Harold Harefoot was to be regent there. Harold took the English crown for himself in 1037 - Harthacnut being "forsaken because he was too long in Denmark"- 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.
    Harthacnut meeting Magnus. Illustration by Halfdan Egedius.
    
    Harthacnut settled his difficulties in Scandinavia through a treaty he had made with Magnus in 1039. According to the agreement, if one of them were to die without an heir, the other should be his successor. Harthacnut then began to prepare for an invasion of England, and the deposition of Harold from the kingship, and led his fleet to his mother in Flanders.  Harold, however, died on 17 March 1040, before any conquest could occur.
    King of England
    
    Harthacnut was then summoned to England and travelled with a fleet of 62 warships. The landing at Sandwich on 17 June 1040, "seven days before Midsummer", 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.
    
    Harthacnut 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 Harthacnut's housecarls who had been collecting the tax, prompting an attack by Harthacnut in which the city was burned. 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 Harthacnut. 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 Harthacnut broke a pledge and betrayed Earl Eadwulf of Northumbria, who was under his safe conduct.
    
    In 1041, Harthacnut invited his half-brother Edward the Confessor (his mother Emma's son by Æthelred the Unready) back from exile in Normandy to become a member of his household, and probably made Edward his heir. Harthacnut was unmarried and had no known children. It is rumoured he fathered an illegitimate son, William Cnut.
    Death
    
    On 8 June 1042, he died at a wedding in Lambeth, as he was drinking to the health of the bride - 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 Harthacnut's death, restoring the Saxon royal line of Wessex.