Harthacnut of Denmark
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Most Danes know that the official line of Danish kings begins with Gorm the Old, the father of renowned king Harald Bluetooth who ruled Denmark in the 950s.
It ought to begin with his father, though. In the 890s king Helge was deposed by a warlord called Olav, who supposedly came from Sweden, but may have been of Danish ancestry, perhaps related to one or more of the Danish kings of the early 9th century.
According to Adam of Bremen, who came from Germany to record the history of the archbishops of Bremen and was allowed to "interview" king Sweyn Estridsson, Olav and two or more of his sons took the realm "by weapons and violence". When Olav died, two of his sons seem to have ruled simultaneously, and around 915 a son of Olav's son Gnupa and Danish noblewoman Asfrid became king. This young man, whose name was Sigtrygg, is remembered on two runic stones erected by his mother after his death.
And this is where Harthacnut enters the picture. Probably born in the 880s, he was the son of an otherwise unknown "Sweyn", and is often described as being the grandson (or adopted grandson) of semi-mythic viking chieftain Sigurd Snakeeye, one of the sons of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrog. This is however impossible to verify. Adam says that Harthacnut (Danish: Hardeknud) came from "Northmannia", by which he may mean either Norway or Normandy, which had recently been colonized by Danish vikings. But it is also likely that Harthacnut was brought up in the Danelaw territories in East Anglia.
He must have been a full-grown man with a certain reputation when he came (back?) to Denmark around 916, and according to Adam and his star witness king Sweyn, Harthacnut immediately deposed the young king Sigtrygg. This happened "in the last days of archbishop Hoger", says Adam, and Hoger died around 917. Harthacnut then ruled unopposed for approximately thirty years, and while some researchers have used a single somewhat dubious source, the Saxon chronicles of Widukind, to establish that Sigtrygg's father Gnupa was still king in 934 when the Danes had an altercation with German king Heinrich, there can be little doubt that the king who was supposedly forced to pay a tribute to the German ruler was in fact Harthacnut. Claims that king Heinrich I forced the "heathen" Danish king to be baptized are almost certainly erroneous.
In 948, the archbishop of Bremen appointed three bishops to Denmark, and that probably signifies a change in government...Harthacnut is usually portrayed as indifferent or hostile towards Christianity, and while that may only be the church's interpretation, it seems likely that a new and more open-minded king had ascended to the throne around 947 or 948.
| Preceded by: Sigtrygg | King of Denmark | Succeeded by: Gorm the Old |
