Harthacanute was King of England from March 1040 to June 1042, a little over two years.
Five years before he became King of England he had ascended to the throne of Denmark in 1035 - so for those final two years he reigned both kingdoms simultaneously.
Harthacanute was the son of Canute, who was King of England for about 19 years from 1016 to 1035.
His mother was Emma, a Normandy noblewoman, who had previously been married to AEthelred the Unready, who had been king of England from 978 to 1016.
Towards the end of his life King Canute found that trying to rule two kingdoms - England and Denmark - was troublesome, mainly because in the 1020s Denmark was being threatened by Norway and Sweden.
Canute countered this by bolstering his defences there and sending eight year old Harthacanute to Denmark to prepare him for his rule in the future.
Canute stamped his authority all over the region and in 1030 placed his eldest son from his first marriage Svein Knuttson on the Norwegian throne, ably assisted by his mother AElfgifu, also mother of Harold Harefoot, who we covered in our previous video.
The mother and son pairing proved unpopular, in essence because they imposed heavy taxes and favoured Danish advisors over Norwegian ones.
Pretty soon they found themselves on the run from angry Norwegians and had to seek shelter in Harthacanute’s Danish court.
Things got so bad, the Norwegians even started threatening the Danish court itself.
It’s at this point that the two half-brothers - Harthacanute and Svein - turned to their father Canute for help … unluckily for them, the news came through that Canute had died in November 1035.
Harthacanute was, naturally, crowned king of Denmark, as had long been planned.
But he was immediately placed in a quandary. On the one hand he needed to go back to England so that he could be crowned king there as well, on the other he couldn’t leave Denmark at such a dangerous time, with the Norwegians threatening invasion.
In the meantime, Harthacanute’s half brother Harold Harefoot had staked a claim to the throne of England.
As we learned in our previous video, Harold Harefoot was eventually accepted as king, though many noblemen in England refused to back him.
As time wound on however, English noblemen gradually came to accept Harold as their king, including the Godwin of Wessex, one of the most powerful men in England and the father of another Harold - Harold Godwinson who would later be king only to be defeated by William the Conquerer at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Back in Denmark, Harthacanute and Svein started making plans to recover Norway.
In the late 1030s though Svein died and Harthacanute set aside invasion plans and instead settled a treaty with King Magnus I of Norway. More of that treaty later.
In England meanwhile, Harthacanute’s mother Emma began plotting - she felt outraged that her upstart step-son had rushed onto the English throne ahead of her son Harthacanute.
It seems she decided on a course of action, writing a letter to her older sons from her marriage to King AEthelred - Edward and AElfred - who were in exile in Bruges at this time - though some believe the letter was a fake sent by Harold Harefoot to lure the two men to England.
Regardless, both men made their way to England.
Edward - later crowned the English King Edward the Confessor - sacked Southampton and sailed back to Bruges. AElfred however was captured with the help of Godwin of Wessex, taken to the king, blinded and soon died.
Emma was outraged and fled to Bruges. There she commissioned a book called the Encomium Emmae Reginae which was full of prose singing her praises and attacking the King Harold Harefoot.
An invasion of England was now on the cards. According to the Encomium Harthacanute was outraged at his half-brother’s fate and, having signed a treaty with Norway, he was effectively free to do so.
Before any invasion could happen though, Harold Harefoot became gravely ill and died.
Harthacanute was invited to come to England and be crowned king. Not taking any chances he turned up with a large invasion force, just in case there was any opposition from English nobles who had supported Harold Harefoot.
Still furious that Harold had done away with AElfred, Harthacanute ordered the recently deceased King Harold’s body to be dug up and beheaded. His dismembered corpse was then thrown in a river.
One day he decided to attend a friend’s wedding in Lambeth in London; as Harthacanute raised his drink to toast the bride he keeled over, possibly having suffered a stroke.
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