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

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