Hardiknut

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Hardiknut and his brother in the background of his mother

Harthacnut , Hartheknut or Harti Knut (* 1018 / 1019 ; † 8. June 1042 in Lambeth in London / England) was from 1035 to 1037 and 17 March 1040 to 1042 English king. From 1035 to 1042 he was also King of Denmark . Hardiknut was the son of Canute the Great and his second wife Emma of Normandy as well as the half-brother of Harald I of England , who came from Knut's first marriage.

Hardiknut set no decisive accents during his reign and thus finally destroyed his father's lofty goals with regard to a long-lived Anglo-Scandinavian ruling dynasty. After he had drunk himself to death at a wedding , he was inherited in England by his older half-brother Eduard the Confessor , a son from his mother's first marriage to King Æthelred II Unready .

Life

Hardiknut was first mentioned in 1023 when he was in London with his parents Knut and Emma. When Knut returned to England in 1026, he appointed his eight-year-old son Hardeknut, under the tutelage of his brother-in-law Jarl Ulf Thorgilsson , as King of Denmark. In 1028 Hardeknut was again confirmed as king by Knut and Håkon Eiriksson was appointed regent in Norway .

In 1035 Magnus I drove the good Hardeknuts half-brother Sven Alfivason from Norway. Sven and his mother Ælfgifu fled to Denmark to Hardeknut, who shared the rule with Sven, who died soon afterwards.

Before his death on November 12, 1035, Canute the Great decreed that his empire would be divided among his sons: Sven received Norway, Hardeknut Denmark and Harald should rule over England. Although Queen Emma and Earl Godwin supported Hardeknut, who was militarily bound in Denmark, Harald Harefoot, with the support of Leofric of Mercia and Harald and Sven's mother Ælfgifu of Northampton, was elected king by the Witan in Oxford in late 1035 . This led to the partition of England: Hardeknut got the southern part, Harald the northern part.

Magnus and Hardeknut meet
Illustration by Halfdan Egedius, 1899

In Scandinavia Hardeknut and Magnus the Good faced each other with their armies in 1036, but there was no battle. A peace and inheritance treaty was concluded, according to which the one of the two who lived the longest should inherit the other in power.

Eduard the Confessor and his brother Alfred Ætheling , sons of Hardeknut's mother Emma from her first marriage to King Æthelred II , attempted to gain power in England in 1036 or 1037. Emma lived in Winchester with Hardeknut's bodyguard, but Harald Harefoot sent an army to steal her treasures; penniless Emma fled to Bruges in Flanders to Count Baldwin V, the pious , who received her kindly. Alfred was captured, blinded and died by Earl Godwin of Wessex , his entourage slaughtered or mutilated. Edward the Confessor returned to Normandy . In 1037 Harald had found enough followers and was crowned king over all of England.

Hardeknut had followed his expelled mother to Flanders in 1039 and raised an army there to come to the English throne when his half-brother Harald Harefoot died in Oxford in March 1040 and was buried in Westminster next to his father Knut. On June 14, 1040, Hardeknut landed at Sandwich with 62 warships and ascended the English throne unchallenged. He had Harald's body exhumed and thrown into a sewer or swamp. Hardeknut now ruled England and Denmark at the same time. Godwin was charged with murdering Hardeknut's half-brother Alfred, denied his guilt because he had acted on King Harald's orders, and was acquitted, probably also because he gave Hardeknut rich gifts.

Penning coin of Hardiknut, Lund around 1040

Hardeknut imposed heavy taxes on England. When two of his tax collectors were murdered by the Worcester mob, Hardeknut sent his huscarles to burn Worcester, killing many residents and devastating the surrounding area. Hardiknut murdered his relative Eadwulf III, Earl of Bernicia, in 1041 and gave his earldom to Siward , the Earl of York and Northumbria , and he also sold vacant bishoprics. Within a few months he had become completely estranged from the English, who had greeted their new king with joy.

In 1041 Hardeknut brought his older half-brother Eduard, the last son of Æthelred and his mother, back to England from exile in Normandy and made him the heir of the kingdom.

In 1041/1042 Magnus the Good sailed with an army in 70 ships to Denmark when Hardeknut was bound in England. Hardeknut sent his fleet out, but it was defeated.

On June 8, 1042, Hardeknut drank himself to death during a binge on the wedding of one of his followers in Lambeth near London. Edward the Confessor was proclaimed king even before Hardeknut was buried in Winchester next to his father Canute the Great. After Hardeknut's death, who was childless, there was no suitable heir to the throne in Denmark. Magnus the Good filled this vacuum .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
  2. ↑ a b Heimskringla, Ólafs saga helga
  3. ↑ a b Heimskringla, Magnúss saga góða
  4. ↑ a b c d e Historia regum Anglorum et Dacorum
  5. ↑ Heimskringla, Haralds Harðráði saga Sigurðarsonar
  6. ↑ a b c Hamburg Church History Book 2, chap. 72 ff

swell

literature

Web links

Commons : Hardiknut  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Adams von Bremen Hamburg Church History, translated by Dr. JCM Laurent (1893)  - Sources and full texts
predecessor Office successor
Knut the great King of Denmark
1035-1042 		Magnus I.
Knut the great King of England
(together with Harald I)
1035–1037 		Harald I.
Harald I. King of England
1040-1042 		Edward the Confessor
personal data
SURNAME Hardiknut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartheknut; Hartiknut; Hardicanute; Hardecanute; Hardeknud; Knut III .; Knut the tough
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of England and King of Denmark
DATE OF BIRTH 1018 or 1019
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1042
Place of death Lambeth near London