When men fell away from King Olaf and joined Canute, as we have related before, so that Norway fell under his sway, Canute determined to return to England. He had Earl Hakon proclaimed Governor of Norway, and his son Hardacanute he led to the high seat at his side, gave him the title of king, and with it the dominion of Denmark. He himself took hostages from all the great lords for their fidelity, and returned to England.
When Earl Hakon died, Canute’s elder son, Sweyn, succeeded him in Norway, but shortly after St Olaf’s fall at the battle of Stiklestad his son Magnus had been accepted as King of Norway by the people, and Sweyn saw that he could not stand before him: so he retired to Denmark, where his brother Hardacanute received him with kindness and gave him a share in the government of Denmark. There is little good to be said of Hardacanute except this one thing, that he was kind to his brothers and sisters, and even to his half-brother, Edward the Confessor, who succeeded him on the throne of England; for, after Hardacanute became King of England, the gentle Edward, wearied with wandering and exile from his native country, came to England, and was most lovingly welcomed by Hardacanute, and allowed to live in peace, so that he was more happy than his brother Alfred, or indeed than any other of his family. In other ways Hardacanute was a man with little to recommend him, wild, undisciplined, and childish. The English had cause to regret that they had chosen him to succeed the great Canute and his feeble son Harald.
Hardacanute came almost as a stranger to England when Harald died in 1040. He had not been in the country since his babyhood, and he was unknown to the English, as they were to him. His first act showed his savage disposition. He caused the dead body of Harald, his half-brother, to be dug up and the head cut off and thrown into the Thames; but it was dragged up soon after in a fisherman’s net, and the Danes buried it in their cemetery in London. His next act was to impose an intolerable tribute on the country in order to pay the shipmen in his fleet a heavy sum of money. This aroused so much opposition that two of his collectors were murdered in Worcester, upon which he sent his Danish commanders to ravage and burn the whole country and carry off the property of the citizens. It was not long, therefore, before all that had been gained of good friendship and understanding between the Danes and English by the wise rule of Canute was lost again and they hated each other as much as before. Nor was there any regret when, two years after his arrival in this country, the people learned that Hardacanute had fallen down in a fit while he was drinking at Lambeth, and that he had died without recovering his speech.
Instantly their thoughts turned to the race of their English kings, and before Hardacanute was buried beside his father at Winchester they had already chosen Edward as their king. He was crowned at Winchester, on the first day of Easter (1043), amid the rejoicings of the people, and with much pomp. Thus came to an end the union of Denmark and England, and with it the mighty sovereignty of which Canute dreamed, and which his own force of character had brought about. Norway and Denmark reverted to their own line of kings, and Edward and his successors sought no more to re-establish the great consolidation of nations over which Canute ruled.
But the power of the Danes in this country, though crippled and broken, did not immediately come to an end: they played a large part in English history for another twenty-four years, when the conquest of England by the Normans brought to our shores another branch of the great Northern family of nations and bound them to us for ever. William the Conqueror was descended from Rolf the Ganger, or Walker, the viking chief who had called the land he conquered in the North of France Normandy, or “the Northman’s Land,” in memory of the country from which he had come. The Dukes of Normandy were never part or parcel of the French people amongst whom they made their home in the North of France, but they speedily felt themselves at home amongst the English and Danish population in England, for the same blood flowed in the veins of Saxon, Dane, and Norman. All alike traced their origin to the free countries of the North.
During the intervening space of which we have now to speak the Kings of Denmark and Norway more than once revived their claim on England; but the time for such a union had gone by, and the English people no longer desired to become a portion of the Danish realm: they felt themselves strong and independent enough to stand alone.
The first case of which we speak was a claim made by King Magnus the Good, son of St Olaf. No sooner was he seated firmly on the throne of Norway and become ruler of Denmark than he began to think of laying claim to England, as his predecessors had done. He sent ambassadors to King Edward the Confessor, with his seal and the following letter: “Ye must have heard of the agreement that I and Hardacanute made, that whichever of the two survived the other should have all the land that the other possessed. Now it hath so turned out, as you have doubtless heard, that I have taken the Danish dominions after Hardacanute. But before he died he had England as well as Denmark; therefore I consider that, in consequence of our agreement, I own England also. Therefore I will that thou now deliver me my kingdom; and if not I will seek to take it by force of arms; and let him rule it to whom fate gives the victory.”
When King Edward read the letter and heard this demand he replied: “It is well known to all of you that King Ethelred, my father, rightfully ruled this kingdom, both according to the old and new law of inheritance. So long as I had no kingly title I served those above me, in all respects as those do who have no claim to the kingdom. Now I have received the kingly title and am consecrated king. If King Magnus come here with an army, I will gather no army against him; but he shall only get the opportunity of taking England when he first hath taken my life. Tell him these words of mine.”[46]
The ambassadors went back to King Magnus and gave him this message.
King Magnus reflected a while, and answered thus: “I think it wisest, and that it will succeed best, to let King Edward have his kingdom in peace, so far as I am concerned, and that I keep the kingdoms that God hath put into my hands.” This was the last time that a King of Denmark laid formal claim to the throne of England.