The Bad Luck Of York In 1069

Although William “the Conqueror” of Normandy defeated King Harold Godwinson and seized the throne of England in 1066, pockets of resistance continued to fight back against the new Norman regime. Two branches of Anglo-Saxon royals continued to inspire resistance against William. Until around 1068 or 1069, the surviving sons of the late Harold Godwinson launched unsuccessful raids from Ireland against William’s lands and vassals. Alternatively, Northumbrian lords looked with hope to Edgar the Ætheling (grandson of King Edmund Ironside, r. 1016). Edgar, a teen when the conquest occurred, was quickly declared king of England upon Harold Godwinson’s death, but William the Conqueror consolidated power quickly enough to stop Edgar from being officially crowned. Nevertheless, the Northumbrians continued to fight on Edgar’s behalf.

Friction between the Normans and the Northumbrians began to increase in 1067 and 1068, when William the Conqueror imposed taxes on his conquered land and started a great construction spree to build castles that would cement his power in England. Heightened tax, civil unrest, and increasing Norman military presence in Northumbria forced Edgar the Ætheling to flee to Scotland in 1068. A breaking point occurred in early 1069, when Northumbrian rebels ambushed and killed the Norman earl, Robert de Comines, who had been given an administrative role in the north. After slaying the Norman earl, the Northumbrian rebels converged at York and Edgar the Ætheling reportedly returned from Scotland to meet with them. Yet, William the Conqueror quickly mobilized an army and confronted the rebels near York before they could grow into a bigger threat. King William won the battle, but the rebellion leaders, including Edgar the Ætheling, were able to escape. After dispersing the rebels, William the Conqueror reportedly let his troops pillage York and increased the local garrison, additionally building new forts in the city.

Although pushed back by the Normans, the Northumbrian rebels would soon find outside help. The Anglo-Saxon nobles and royalty apparently reached out to their friends in Denmark, and successfully arranged for a Danish fleet to arrive in England by September, 1069. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, the Danes sent to England 240 ships, led by Jarl Asbjörn, the brother of King Sweyn II of Denmark. Edgar the Ætheling and his followers were said to have joined this Danish fleet, and together they moved against the Normans at York. By this time, William the Conqueror and the bulk of his army had withdrawn from the city, leaving behind only a garrison. This barracks of Normans in the city, however, soon learned of the approaching coalition, and, knowing that they did not have the strength to resist an attack, the Normans in York reportedly adopted drastic measures to spite the Danes and rebels. According to the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, “The Normans, who garrisoned the forts, set fire to the adjacent houses, fearing that they might be of service to the Danes in filling up the trenches; and the flames spreading, destroyed the whole city, together with the monastery of St. Peter” (AD 1069).

Despite the Normans setting York alight in hopes of making their forts impregnable, the Danes and rebel Northumbrians still found a way to scale the fortifications and defeat the garrison. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester went on to report, “the Danish fleet arrived before the city was entirely consumed, and the forts being stormed the same day, and more than three thousand of the Normans killed…the ships drew off laden with plunder” (AD 1069). Unfortunately for Edgar the Ætheling and the Northumbrian rebels, the reliability of Jarl Asbjörn and the Danish fleet was wanting. When William the Conqueror marched once again toward York to restore order, he was reportedly able to strike up a deal with Asbjörn, allowing the Danish troops to forage and pillage Northumbria without hindrance as long as they left after winter was over. With such a deal in place, William the Conqueror was able to force Edgar the Ætheling and the rebels back into hiding, and York was once again occupied by the Normans.

By this point, all in 1069, the city of York had been twice seized by rebel forces and twice retaken by William the Conqueror’s Normans. In the second round of hostilities, York had the further misfortune of being burned by the Norman garrison and looted by the opportunist Danes, before being exposed to more punitive actions once William the Conqueror’s forces regained the city. While these direct consequences of war hit the city hard, war’s more indirect effects also caused havoc. As armies of Anglo-Saxons, Normans, and Scandinavians had been frequently trampling through Northumbria since 1066, with each group demanding food and resources from the region’s people and land, the English north was beginning to experience extreme famine. As the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester colorfully stated, “throughout nearly the whole of England, so severe a famine prevailed in most parts of the kingdom, but chiefly in Northumbria and the adjacent provinces, that men were driven to feed on the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and even human beings” (AD 1069).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (The Bayeux tapestry elucidated (1856), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester translated by Thomas Forester. London: Petter and Galpin, originally published 1854. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edgar-the-Aetheling 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Malcolm-III-Canmore 

The Gamble Of Norway’s King Olaf II For The Island Of Hísing

In 1015, a royal-blooded Viking and mercenary named Olaf Haraldsson (Saint Olaf) launched his bid for power in Norway, intending to end fifteen years of foreign domination over Norwegian land by the Danes and Swedes. The last Norwegian king had been slain in the year 1000 by a coalition consisting of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark (r. 987-1014), Olaf the Tax-King of Sweden (r. 980-1022), and dissident Norwegian jarls. In the years after that battle, Norway was ruled by jarls who deferred to the Danish and Swedish authority. It was against these foreign-backed Norwegian jarls that Olaf Haraldsson campaigned in 1015, forcing them into exile or submission by 1016. After consolidating power, the upstart ruler proclaimed himself King Olaf II of Norway and began the precarious balancing act of trying to keep foreign influence out of Norway while also striving to enforce his newfound authority over the weariest of his Norwegian chieftains, such as a conspiracy of five minor kings against him that was thwarted in 1017.

Although the Dane, Canute the Great (r. 1016-1035), was on the rise at the same time as King Olaf II of Norway, Canute’s early focus was on England, making Denmark less of a threat to Olaf during his early years. Sweden, on the other hand, gave the fledgling King Olaf II quite a bit of trouble as he tried to establish his authority in Norway. Although the Swedish-aligned jarls had been defeated by 1016, Olaf the Tax-King of Sweden refused to acknowledge the new Norwegian monarch’s authority, and pointedly attempted several times to send tax collectors into Norway. According to the Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) of Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241), the Norwegian king or his agents clashed with Swedish tax collectors on at least three instances, and in another incident the Swedes even commandeered a ship laden with goods meant to adorn the throne room of King Olaf II. Such isolated friction and contained harassments continued until 1019, by which time both Olafs, of Norway and Sweden, had tired of their feud. That year, King Olaf II of Norway married the Swedish king’s daughter, Ástrid, and the two monarchs met together to finally settle their differences.

When the monarchs met, the Swedish king reportedly granted, without much debate, recognition of the Norwegian Olaf’s authority over most of what King Harald Finehair (r. 860-940) of Norway had once ruled in the past. The arguments apparently heated up, however, when the two discussed the large Island of Hísing, presumably referring to modern Hisingen, in Sweden. Instead of resuming their hostilities over the issue, the two in-laws reportedly decided to resolve their disagreement through a non-violent competition. According to folklore, they played a game of dice, and the Island of Hísing was the stake.

As the story goes, the game involved throwing two numbered dice (with the highest number being six on each die) and the one that threw the highest sum won the round. Whichever king provided the dice must have brought a loaded pair, for both kings consistently began rolling double-sixes. Snorri Sturluson described the bizarre dicing scene:

“Then the Swedish king threw two sixes and said that it was no use for King Oláf to throw. He replied, while shaking the dice in his hand, ‘There are two sixes still on the dice, and it is a trifling matter for God, my Lord, to have them turn up.’ He threw them, and two sixes turned up. Thereupon Oláf, the king of Sweden, again threw two sixes. Then Oláf, the king of Norway, cast the dice, and one six showed on one of them, but the other split in two, so that six and one turned up” (Heimskringla, Saint Olaf’s Saga, chapter 94).

Such was the way, according to folklore, that King Olaf II of Norway gained control of the island of Hísing. Snorri Sturluson, for his part, recognized this was a far-fetched story, even for the folklore-riddled sagas which were frequently prone to artistic license. He made sure to distance himself from the story by crediting the tale to a certain Thorstein the Learned.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Hall scene from the saga of Olaf Tryggvason, illustrated by Christian Krohg (1852–1925), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Sources:

• Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson and translated by Lee Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964, 2018. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf-II-Haraldsson 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf-Tryggvason 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I  

The Early Politics Of Earl Godwine And His Interesting Apology Gift To King Hardecanute

Earl Godwine of Wessex was one of the great power-players in 11th-century England. In that time of wild monarchal regime changes, Godwine was able to thrive. He navigated, sometimes with difficulty and bloodshed, between the various conquerors, usurpers and successors who claimed the throne of England. Godwine was appointed Earl of Wessex by King Canute the Great around 1018, after the Danish nobleman had outlasted the Anglo-Saxon monarchs Æthelred the Unready (d. 1016) and Edmund Ironside (d. 1016) in a war over the throne of England. Godwine watched as Canute spread his domain out from England to encompass Denmark and Norway, a kingdom for each of Canute’s three known sons: Harold Harefoot, Sweyn and Hardecanute. Hardecanute was reportedly the only legitimate heir of the brothers, yet Canute gave the other brothers governance roles. Sweyn was sent to oversee Norway and Hardecanute was appointed to rule Denmark, while Harold Harefoot remained behind in England, where he became quite close with the English nobility. When King Canute suddenly died in 1035, with succession not fully clear, savvy nobles such as Earl Godwine must have known the following years would be apt for intrigue.

Hardecanute easily maintained control over Denmark after his father’s death, but politics in England would prove much more difficult. In particular, Harold Harefoot was rallying English support in his own bid to seize the throne. Immediately after the death of Canute, Earl Godwine joined the faction that supported Hardecanute for the throne of England. During this time, the earl worked closely with Hardecanute’s mother Queen Emma, the twice-widowed Norman noblewoman who had been married first to Æthelred the Unready and, second, to King Canute. Together, Godwine and the queen were able to quarantine Harold Harefoot’s power to the position of co-ruler with Hardecanute, or possibly regent. Yet, Earl Godwine could sense that he was on the losing side in England, and before 1036, he defected to the faction of Harold.

After joining the camp of Harold Harefoot, Earl Godwine quickly showed that he was willing to get his hands dirty. He was unfortunately implicated in one of the most gruesome events of the power struggle between Queen Emma and Harold Harefoot—in 1036, Alfred, one of Queen Emma’s sons by the late Æthelred, was kidnapped in England by Godwine and other members of Harold Harefoot’s faction. While in their custody, Alfred was allegedly tortured and mutilated to such an extent that he died of his wounds. The horrible death of Alfred showed the growing advantage of Harold Harefoot in England, and, by 1037, Harold was able to proclaim himself sole king of England, forcing Queen Emma to seek shelter in Flanders.

Unfortunately for Harold Harefoot, fate gave him very little time to enjoy his victory in England. Harold died in 1040 and was succeeded by Hardecanute. Upon arriving in England, Hardecanute was apparently so irate at his late brother’s successes, that he had Harold’s body dug up and rudely tossed the remains into a wetland, a sewer, or the Thames.

Although Hardecanute cared little about the death of Harold Harefoot, he was more protective of his other half-brothers, especially those born to his mother, Queen Emma. This put Earl Godwine in an awkward situation, as he had personally played a role in the torture and mutilation that had led to the death of Hardecanute’s half-brother, Alfred, in 1036. In order to apologize to the new king, Earl Godwine pulled together a mixture of showmanship and wealth in hopes of gaining Hardecanute’s forgiveness. The gift-giving feat of Earl Godwine was described in fine detail by the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester: 

“Godwin, to obtain the king’s favour, presented him with a galley of admirable workmanship, with a gilded figure-head, rigged with the best materials, and manned with eighty chosen soldiers splendidly armed. Every one of them had on each arm a golden bracelet weighing six ounces, and wore a triple coat of mail and a helmet partly gilt, and a sword with gilded hilt girt to his side, and a Danish battle-axe inlaid with gold and silver hanging from his left shoulder; in his left hand he bore a shield, the boss and studs of which were also gilt, and in his right hand a lance” (Florence of Worcester, AD 1040).

After this floating gift-basket was presented to Hardecanute, Earl Godwine reportedly gave the king a typical ‘I was only following orders’ excuse for his part in the death of Alfred. King Hardecanute apparently accepted the apology, and Earl Godwine was allowed to continue building his family’s power in England, ultimately setting up his son, Harold Godwinson, to eventually participate in the famous multi-pronged power struggle for the throne of England in 1066.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Scene showing Walter Espec and William of Albemarle, illustrated by James William Edmund Doyle (1822–1892), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester translated by Thomas Forester. London: Petter and Galpin, originally published 1854. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hardecanute 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Godwine  

The Wrath of Hardecanute Against The City Of Worcester

In 1040, King Harold Harefoot of England died, and the English throne passed to his estranged half-brother, King Hardecanute of Denmark. There was no love lost between Hardecanute and his late half-brother. Hardecanute thought he, himself, should have been king of England from the beginning, and Harold Harefoot’s successful ascendance to the throne was deemed unforgivable by the new king. Hardecanute was such a wrathful and vindictive man that when he finally inherited England in 1040, one of his first actions was to dig up his half-brother’s body and unceremoniously throw it into a sewer, river or wetland. This king—impulsive, unforgiving, grave-exhuming Hardecanute—is the monarch from which the city of Worcester decided to withhold their taxes in 1041. Even worse, the city announced its taxation rebellion by killing two tax collectors who had come with Hardecanute from Denmark.

The monk and chronicler, Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), described this event in great detail, no doubt benefiting from his personal connection to the city. According to Florence, two Danish tax collectors, whom he named Feader and Thurstan, arrived in Worcester to collect taxes and tribute for King Hardecanute. As the story goes, on May 4, 1041, the Danes were lured into a tower of the local abbey, where they were ambushed and killed by a group of citizens who did not want to pay taxes to Hardecanute.

It did not take long for King Hardecanute to discover that two of his Danish comrades had been killed, and that the city of Worcester was responsible. The king quickly called on all the earls of England to mobilize their troops for a great punitive campaign against the audacious tax-evading city. Florence of Worcester described the scale of mobilization for the mission and the drastic orders that were given to the army:

“This [slaying of the tax collectors] so incensed the king , that to avenge their deaths he sent Thorold, earl of Middlesex, Leofric, earl of Mercia, Godwin, earl of Wessex, Siward, earl of Northumbria, Roni, earl of Hereford, and all the other English earls, with almost all his huscarls, and a large body of troops, to Worcester…with orders to put to death all the inhabitants they could find, to plunder and burn the city, and lay waste the whole province” (Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, AD 1041).

Hardecanute’s punitive army was on the march by November, 1041, but the city of Worcester was fortunate enough to receive prior warning of the incoming force. Thankfully, by the time the army reached Worcester on November 12, 1041, a great majority of the city’s population had been evacuated. Yet, as with natural disasters, there are always a few who try to ride out the storm.

Those who did flee the city limits spread out in multiple directions, but a huge portion of these refugees apparently grabbed weapons, boarded boats, and sailed out into the River Severn. They reportedly anchored at a small island in the river and set up camp there while Hardecanute’s army occupied the city of Worcester. The king’s troops reportedly pillaged the city for four days and, according to Florence of Worcester, they even set it on fire. While this rampage was ongoing, the marauding army discovered the island of refugees in the Severn. Yet, the army was content to quarantine the armed refugees to that island while Worcester was ravaged. Hardecanute’s army reportedly withdrew on the fifth day of the occupation, allowing the refugees from the island and elsewhere to return to their pillaged and burned city.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Siege of Jerusalem from BL Royal 1 E IX, f. 222 (c. 1400-1425, [Public Domain] via picryl.com and Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester translated by Thomas Forester. London: Petter and Galpin, originally published 1854. 
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hardecanute

The Odd Tale Of A Joust And Duel Between Edmund Ironside And Canute The Great

From 1013-1014, the Danish King, Sweyn Forkbeard, usurped power in England, displacing the Anglo-Saxon monarch, Æthelred the Unready, and his son, Edmund Ironside. After Sweyn’s death in 1014, Æthelred sailed back to England and was proclaimed king once again by his people. At the same time, Sweyn’s son, Canute, also had a claim to the throne of England. Canute was in a precarious political situation, however, for at the same time that much of England was siding with Æthelred against the Danes, a rival son of Sweyn Forkbeard, by the name of Harald (II) Sweynsen, was simultaneously staking his own claim to Denmark. Thus, unsure about the manpower he could muster or the resources he could access, Canute found himself unprepared for war against the resurging Anglo-Saxons. It would take him about a year to gather enough funds and troops to truly begin campaigning against Æthelred the Unready and Edmund Ironside in 1015 and 1016.

Æthelred the Unready died in early 1016, as a fleet led by Canute was closing in on London. With Æthelred’s death, his crown passed to Edmund Ironside. As his “Ironside” nickname suggests, King Edmund (II) put up a stout defense against Canute’s attempts to reclaim the throne of England. Throughout 1016, Edmund and Canute skirmished and battled in multiple clashes of various intensity, the final of which was said to have been the Battle of Ashingdon or Assandun. After that battle, the rival leaders (or their vassals) tired of war, and a peace meeting was arranged on an island then called Olney or Olanege.

According to the histories of Henry of Huntingdon (c. 1080-1160) and Roger of Wendover (d. 1236), Edmund Ironside and Canute were convinced by their supporters to settle their differences once and for all in a duel. As the story goes, an arena was prepared on the designated island and both monarchs arrived in their best sets of armor. They began their fight with spears at opposite ends of a list, competing in something like a joust, yet the two kings wore such exquisite sets of armor that the spears shattered on impact. Next, the kings unsheathed their blades to continue the duel. The English chroniclers claimed, of course, that Edmund Ironside was the superior of the two in the fight, and Henry of Huntingdon outlandishly claimed that Canute, in a moment of fear, offered Edmund control of Denmark in hopes of stopping the duel. Yet, Canute (in this odd scenario) apparently regained some momentum in the duel, and brought the fight back to a standstill. The peculiar tale concluded with Edmund and Canute ending the duel as friends and they agreed to partition England between themselves.

As you may have guessed, this entertaining but unlikely story is viewed with great skepticism, especially since older sources, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, make no mention of a duel occurring during the peace negations between Edmund Ironside and Canute that occurred on the island of Olney or Olanege. Either way, duel or not, Canute would be victorious in the long-run. Edmund Ironside died of illness before the end of 1016, leading to the ascension of Canute as king of all England. Canute would go on to add Denmark and Norway to his realm, and was eventually given the epithet of “the great.”

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Depiction of Edmund Ironside and Canute the Great at the Battle of Assandun, by Matthew Paris  (1200–1259), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester translated by Thomas Forester. London: Petter and Galpin, originally published in 1854. 
• https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang11.asp 
• https://archive.org/details/chroniclehenryh00foregoog/page/n235 
• https://archive.org/details/rogerofwendovers01rogemiss/page/292 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethelred-the-Unready 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I  

King Hardecanute Reportedly Desecrated The Remains Of His Half-Brother

King Canute the Great seized the throne of England following the deaths of King Æthelred the Unready and Edmund Ironside in 1016. After seeing to things in England, Canute then asserted his claimed over Denmark between 1018 and 1019 (his father had been King Svein Forkbeard of the Danes) and he later usurped power in Norway by deposing King Olaf II Haraldsson (Saint Olaf) in 1028.

In addition to taking the English throne, King Canute also claimed the queen. Canute married Queen Emma, the widow of Æthelred the Unready, in the year 1017. Although Emma returned to England, her sons Ælfred and Edward (fathered by the late Æthelred), remained in exile. Not long after the marriage, presumably 1018 or 1019, King Canute and Emma had a son named Hardecanute, who would eventually inherit much of his Canute’s domain. Hardecanute was soon shipped off to Denmark, where he was tutored and prepped for kingship. By 1028, King Canute had enough trust in Hardecanute’s loyalty and talents to affirm the young prince as a governor or minor king in Denmark.

Yet, not all of Hardecanute’s siblings had been exiled and one half-brother, in particular, posed a significant challenge to Hardecanute’s future. While Hardecanute was seeing to his responsibilities in Denmark, a half-brother named Harold “Harefoot” was making powerful friends in England. Harold was born from Ælgifu of Northampton, who was favored by King Canute before he married Emma, and although Hardecanute seemed to be the favored prince, Harold managed to build himself a formidable faction of English thanes and earls. When King Canute died in 1035, Hardecanute easily assumed the full kingship over Denmark, where he had been the region’s effective ruler since at least 1028. Yet, England was another matter—it became a political warzone, with Earl Leofric of Mercia leading a party in favor of King Harold Harefoot, while Earl Godwine of Wessex and Queen Emma rallied to the cause of Hardecanute. Yet, Hardecanute’s long absence from England was used as a political weapon by Harold, who, in contrast, was a familiar face to the English noblemen. In the end, Emma and Earl Godwine could only contain Harold to the rank of co-king of England, or possibly regent. Yet, by 1037, Harold had gathered enough strength to do away with political pretenses—he declared himself the sole king of England and forced Queen Emma to leave Britain.

Harold’s reign was bittersweet. On the one hand, he successfully defended his kingdom’s frontiers against attack, albeit he reportedly took considerable casualties on the Welsh front. On a more negative note, his reign also saw a gruesome assassination—Ælfred (son of Æthelred and Emma) was said to have been kidnapped while in England to see his mother; he was then reportedly mutilated and left to slowly die from his wounds. Additionally, the threat of an invasion by Hardecanute always loomed over England in the years after Harold’s proclamation of sole rule. Nevertheless, Harold Harefoot died in 1040, before any conflict could erupt between the half-brothers. After Harold’s death, Hardecanute, who was lurking beyond the English Channel with a fleet of sixty ships, crossed over to England and assumed control of the vacated throne.

King Harold I Harefoot was buried in Westminster after his death. Yet, Hardecanute had unfinished business with the man who usurped his throne and exiled his mother. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Hardecanute was willing to go to incredible lengths to get payback against his troublesome sibling. Not long after arriving in England, Hardecanute reportedly “caused the dead Harold to be dragged up, and had him cast into a fen” (ASC 1040). The act of tossing his half-brother’s remains into a wetland was a poor start to what would be an ungraceful and unpopular reign in England. In his short period of rule, Hardecanute earned himself a reputation for brutality and oath breaking before he died of drinking problems in 1042. He was succeeded by his half-brother, Edward the Confessor, a fellow son of Queen Emma.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image of King Canute from the Young People's History of England, c. 1870s, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources;

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson and translated by Lee Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964, 2018. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hardecanute 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Godwine 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leofric