HARDECANUTE

also spelled Hardicanute, or Harthacnut, Danish Hardeknud born c. 1019, d. June 8, 1042 Hardecanute king of Denmark from 1028 to 1042 and of England from 1040 to 1042. Son of King Canute and Emma, daughter of Richard I, duke of Normandy, Hardecanute was made king of Denmark by Canute in 1028. On Canute's death in 1035, a party led by Emma and Godwine, earl of Wessex, wished to elect Hardecanute king of England, but Leofric, earl of Mercia, with the Londoners and the northern thanes obtained the appointment of Canute's illegitimate son Harold as regent of England, while Emma and her son's retainers stayed at Winchester to guard Hardecanute's interests. Hardecanute's delaying in Denmark resulted in Harold's recognition as king of England in 1037 and in Emma's exile. After Harold's death in 1040 Hardecanute became an unpopular king in England. He had Harold's body dug up and thrown into a fen; and when two officials collecting a tax were killed at Worcester, he sent an army that burned the city. The murder of Eadwulf, earl of Northumbria, while under Hardecanute's safe-conduct caused Hardecanute to be described as a pledge breaker in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.