HARDICANUTE, Harthacnut, or Hardiknut (c. 1018-1042), the last of the Danish sovereigns of England, son of Canute king of England, and his wife AlfgivaEmma, the sister of Richard duke of Normandy, and widow of King Ethelred,was born most probably in 1018 or 1019. When Canute died in 1035 Hardicanute was ruler of Denmark, and Swend, the elder reputed son of Canute by Alfgiva of Northampton, one of his concubines, was ruler of Norway. It is said to have been the wish of his father that Hardicanute should be ruler of both England and Denmark, but his connexion with Denmark seems to have been prejudicial to his English interests; and though his claims were supported by Godwine and the West'Saxons, the witenagemot which met at Oxford decided that his government should not extend further north than the Thames, and that Harold, Canute’s younger son by Alfgiva of Northampton, should reign over the northern provinces, being also in all probability overlord of the whole kingdom. Hardicanute refused, however, to come to England on such conditions, and in 1039 the witan of Wessex deposed him, and chose Harold also for their king. On the death of Harold in 1040, Hardicanute, who was about to invade England, had his hostile intentions disarmed by the message which reached him at Bruges, making him an offer of the crown for which he was preparing to do battle. The witan’s choice of him seems to have been spontaneous, and not at all due to the threatening attitude he had assumed; but apparently he had not forgotten the former slight he had received, and his short reign was marked by great oppression and cruelty. He caused the dead body of Harold to be dug up from its place of sepulture at Westminster, and thrown into a marsh or, according to another account, into the Thames; he ...