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Harold I
Died 1040
Ruled 1037-40
Harthacnut
Born c. 1019, died 1042
Ruled 1040-42
When King Cnut died in 1035, his successor to the English throne was supposed to be Harthacnut, his son by his second wife Emma. However, because Denmark – of which Harthacnut was also monarch – was threatened with invasion from Norway, he was unable to travel to his coronation and instead sent as regents Emma and his half-brother Harold Harefoot (so called because of his fleetness of foot), son of Cnut and his first wife Elgifu.
Harold and Emma bitterly argued over who should govern the kingdom. The powerful Earl Godwin sided with Harold, and in1037, Emma having fled, Harold seized the treasury at Winchester – and thus the throne – and was crowned at Oxford. Little is known about his reign, and other than the fact that he usurped the throne, he appears to have been a colourless and weak character.
Furious at his half-brother's actions, Harthacnut sent a fleet to invade the kingdom. But the 24-year-old Harold Harefoot died before it arrived and Harthacnut was accepted as his successor. After his coronation at Canterbury, he had Harold's body disinterred, beheaded and flung into a marsh. He also punished the English for having allowed Harold's usurpation by imposing a savage 'fleet tax' to pay for Harthacnut's expedition from Denmark.
Harthacnut was universally disliked by his new subjects – according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he 'never did anything worthy of a king while he reigned'. His time on the throne is really only notable for the fact that he invited his other half-brother Edward (son of Emma and Ethelred the Unready) to return to England as his heir.
Harthacnut died suddenly – and childless – at a wedding feast at Lambeth. Edward succeeded him peacefully.
Harold Harefoot
www.nndb.com/people/744/000093465/
Harthacnut
www.nndb.com/people/743/000093464/
Concise biographies of the two brief kings.
The Godwins: The rise and fall of a noble dynasty by Frank Barlow (Longman, 2003)
The family of Earl Godwin of Wessex stands among the most famous in English history, whose most renowned son was King Harold. Set against a backdrop of Viking raids and, ultimately, the Norman Conquest of 1066, this book unravels the history of a feuding family that nevertheless determined the course and fortunes of all the English.
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The House of Godwine: The history of a dynasty by Emma Mason (Hambledon & London, 2004)
Emma Mason tells the turbulent story of a remarkable family that, until King Harold's unexpected defeat, looked far more likely than the dukes of Normandy to provide the long-term rulers of England. But for the Norman Conquest, an Anglo-Saxon England ruled by the Godwine dynasty would have developed very differently from that dominated by the Normans.
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Northey Island, Essex
About 2 miles south-east of Maldon
Before the battle in 991, the Vikings sailed up to a small island at the mouth of the River Blackwater. According to the poem, at low tide, the river left a land bridge from this island to the shore. It is known that, at that time, there was a similar causeway between Northey Island and the shore, and thus it is thought that this is the site of the battle, with the Anglo-Saxons first defending the causeway and then misguidedly allowing the Vikings on to the shore.
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