Harthacanute

Harthacanute, also known as Hardeknud or Hardacanute, was my 10th great grandfather who was born in 1018 of Denmark and died June 8, 1042 in London, Middlesex, England. By these calculations, he must have died when he was only 24 years of age.


Please Note:Below is information taken from the New World Encyclopedia in which I found an article on Harthacanute. I hope you enjoy reading this, as I did.




"Harthacanute (Canute the Hardy, sometimes Hardicanute, Hardecanute, Hörthaknútr; 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. Harthacanute's reign belongs to the end story of England's Anglo-Saxon period and of an era when involvement with the countries of Scandinavia dominated external relations. Payment of the danegeld and constant invasion by Vikings often meant that England was more or less a vassal, or subject state. Historical force however now favored a closer relationship between England and continental Europe, which was to be achieved through Harthacanute's Norman relatives in the person of his mother's great-nephew, William I of England. Arguably, had England remained an off-shore island culturally isolated from Europe, she would not have played the role she later did in world affairs, emerging as a major power and ultimately as a defender of freedom against tyranny in World War I and World War II.

Harthacanute's reign is not credited with any significant achievement. His significance lies in helping to bridge the transition period between the old and the new order. His eyes were more fixed on his Scandinavian, than on his English, inheritance." 

Source: New World Encyclopedia Article on Harthacanute

Harthacanute Legacy

"Harthacanute did not rule long enough to achieve very much. According to accounts of the time, apart from levying a heavy tax to pay for an invasion fleet he did not actually use, he did little enough. Emma's references to his rule are more positive. She speaks of him arranging "his affairs in peace and "being gripped by brotherly love" inviting to Edward "to come and hold the kingdom with himself." Harthacanute, through his father, was a link to a past, when the Scandinavians had regarded England as within their sphere of interest. It was Harthacanute's preoccupation with securing his Scandinavian inheritance that all but lost him the English throne.

Emma's own marriage with Ethelred had been arranged in order to create a new alliance with the Dukes of Normandy. It would be this alliance, rather than any continued link with Canute's Denmark, that dominated England's future." (New World Encyclopedia)

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