We should remember in the first place that when Harthacanute and Sweyn received the royal title (in 1028 and 1030), Canute cannot have been more than thirty-five years old, and at that age rulers are not in the habit of transferring their dominions to mere boys. In the second place, these two sons were sent to the North, not to exercise an independent sovereignty, but to represent the royal authority that resided at Winchester. Finally, there is no evidence that Canute at any time intended to leave England or any other kingdom to his son Harold. The probabilities are that he hoped to make the empire a permanent creation; perhaps he expected it to become in time wholly Scandinavian, as it already was to a large extent, except in the comparatively small area of Wessex.
Canute's policy is revealed in the act at Nidaros, discussed in an earlier chapter, when in the presence of lords from all his realms, he led Harthacanute to the high seat and thus proclaimed him a king of his own rank. That Denmark was intended for the young King is undisputed. England was to be added later. The Encomiast tells as that when Harthacanute had grown up (evidently toward the close of Canute's reign) all England was bound by oath to the sovereignty of Harthacanute.[465] The early promise that Canute made to Queen Emma was apparently to be kept. Most likely, the loyalty that Godwin and other West Saxon magnates showed to the King's legitimate heir is to be explained, not by assuming a pro-Danish sentiment, but by this oath, surely taken in England, perhaps earlier at Nidaros.
The situation in Norway, however, made it difficult to carry out Canute's wishes. On the high seat in the Throndelaw sat Magnus the son of Saint Olaf. To be the son of a saint was a great asset in the middle ages; in addition Magnus had certain native qualities of the kingly type and soon developed into a great warrior. Knowing that war was inevitable, Magnus began hostilities and carried the warfare into Danish waters.[466] It was this difficulty that prevented Harthacanute from appearing promptly in England in the winter of 1035-1036, when Harold Harefoot was planning to seize the throne.
After the flight of her son Sweyn in the summer of 1035, Elgiva is almost lost to history. Apparently she retired to England, where she played the part of Queen-mother during the reign of her son Harold: in a will of Bishop Alfric we find the testator giving two marks of gold to King Harold and one mark to my lady.[467] As we do not find that the King had either wife or children the presumption is that the lady was his mother, the woman from Northampton.
We may then conjecture that the struggle for the English crown in the winter following Canute's death was at bottom a fight between the two women who bore Canute's children, each with a son to place in the high seat, each with a party devoted to her cause, each with a section of the country ready to follow her lead. Elgiva had her strength in the Danelaw; there were her kinsmen, and there her family had once been prominent. Queen Emma was strongest in the south; on her side were Earl Godwin and the housecarles.[468]
The sources that relate the events of these months are anything but satisfactory and their statements are sometimes vague or ambiguous. But it is clear that soon after the throne became vacant (thirteen days, if the Chronicler is accurate)[469] a meeting of the "wise men" was held at Oxford, the border city where Danes and Saxons had so frequently met in common assembly. At this meeting, as the Chronicle has it, the northern magnates led by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and supported by the Danes in London, "chose Harold to hold all England, him and his brother Harthacanute who was in Denmark." To this arrangement Godwin opposed all his influence and eloquence; but though he was supported by the lords of Wessex, "he was able to accomplish nothing." It was finally agreed that Queen Emma and the royal guard should continue to hold Wessex for Harthacanute.[470] The north was evidently turned over to Harold.
The decision reached at Oxford has been variously interpreted. At first glance it looks as if the kingdom was again divided along the line of the Thames valley. The statement of the Chronicler that Harold "was full King over all England" seems not to have been strictly contemporary but written after the King had seized the whole. What was done at Oxford was probably to establish an under-kingship of the sort that Canute had provided for Norway and Denmark. The overlordship of Harthacanute may have been recognised, but the administration was divided. This did not necessarily mean to the Scandinavian mind that the realm was divided; in the history of the North various forms of joint kingship are quite common.
For one year this arrangement was permitted to stand; but in 1037, Harold was taken to king over all England—the nation forsook Harthacanute because he tarried too long in Denmark.[471] Emma was driven from the land, perhaps to satisfy the jealousy of her rival Elgiva. The cause for the revolution of 1037 is unknown; but we may conjecture that intrigue was at work on both sides. Possibly the appearance of Emma's son Alfred in England the year before may have roused a sense of fear in the English mind and may have hastened the movement.
Sorrows now began to fall heavily upon England. In 1039, the Welsh made inroads and slew several of the Mercian lords. A "great wind" scattered destruction over the land. A remarkable mortality appeared among the bishops, four dying in 1038 and one more in 1039. The following year died Harold, whose unkingly and un-Christian behaviour was no doubt regarded as the cause of these calamities. He died at Oxford and was buried at Westminster. The same year Harthacanute joined his mother at Bruges, whither she had fled when exiled from England.[472]