It was neither listless choice nor lack of kinglike interest that had detained Harthacanute in Denmark; it was the danger that threatened from Norway. Hostilities seem to have begun in the spring of 1036 and to have continued for about two years. The war was finally closed with an agreement at the Brenn-isles near the mouth of the Gaut River in south-western Sweden. According to this the two young kings became sworn brothers, and it was stipulated that if the one should die leaving no heirs, the other should succeed him.[473] It was not so much of a treaty on the part of the kings as of the chief men of the kingdoms, as both peoples were evidently tiring of the warfare.
Perhaps that which most of all determined the Danes to seek peace was the news that Harold had seized the government of all England the previous year. This must have happened late in the year, as the Chronicler tells us that Queen Emma was driven out of England "without pity toward the stormy winter." In Norway there was no party that still favoured the Knytlings; the situation in England looked more favourable. Evidently Harthacanute's counsellors had concluded that his inherited rights in Britain should be claimed and defended.
Harthacanute came to Bruges with a small force only; but it was probably the plan to use Flanders as a base from which to descend upon England. Nothing seems to have been done in 1039, however, except, perhaps, to prepare for a campaign in the coming spring. But for this there was no need: before the winter was past, Harold lay dead at Oxford. History knows little about the fleet-footed Prince; but from what has been recorded we get the impression of a violent, ambitious youth, one to whom power was sweet and revenge sweeter. So far as we know, government in his day was poor both in state and church. Oxford, it seems, was his residential city.
After Harold's death messengers came from England to Bruges to summon Harthacanute. The succession was evidently not settled without some negotiations, for Harthacanute must have waited two months or more before he left Flanders. No doubt the chiefs who had placed his half-brother on the throne were unwilling to submit without guarantees; their behaviour had not been such as to render their future secure. Just before midsummer Harthacanute finally arrived in England with sixty ships; he was crowned probably on June 18th.[474] For two years he ruled the country but "he did nothing kinglike."[475] Partly as a punishment, perhaps, he made England pay for the expedition that he had just fitted out, and consequently forfeited what favour he had at the very beginning.
Harthacanute is described as a sickly youth, and a Norman historian assures us that on account of his ill-health he kept God before his mind and reflected much on the brevity of human life.[476] He seems to have been of a kindly disposition, as appears from his dealings with his half-brother Edward. His sudden death at a henchman's wedding is not to be attributed to excesses but to the ailment from which he suffered. But the drunken laugh of the bystanders[477] indicates that the world did not fully appreciate that with Harthacanute perished the dynasty of Gorm.
Three men now stood forth as possible candidates for the throne of Alfred: Magnus the Good, now King of Denmark and Norway, Harthacanute's heir by oath and adoption; Sweyn, the son of Canute's sister Estrid, his nearest male relative and the ranking member of the Danish house, a prince who was probably an Englishman by birth, and whose aunt was the wife of Earl Godwin; and Edward, later known as the Confessor, who strangely enough represented what national feeling there might be in England, though of such feeling he himself was probably guiltless. It may be remarked in passing that all these candidates were sons of men whom Canute had deeply wronged, men whom he had deprived of life or hounded to death.
There is no good evidence that Edward was ever formally elected King of England. Harthacanute died at Lambeth, only a few miles from London. "And before the King was buried all the folk chose Edward to be King in London," says one manuscript of the Chronicle. If this be true, there could have been no regular meeting of the magnates. The circumstances seem to have been somewhat in the nature of a revolution headed no doubt by the anti-Danish faction in London.
That Edward was enabled to retain the crown was due largely, we are told, to the efforts of Canute's two old friends, Earl Godwin and Bishop Lifing.[478] The situation was anything but simple. The election of Magnus would restore Canute's empire, but it might also mean English and Danish revolts. To elect Sweyn would mean war with Magnus, Sweyn claiming Denmark and Magnus England. At the time the Danish claimant was making most trouble, for Sweyn seems to have arrived in England soon after Edward was proclaimed. All that he secured, however, was the promise that he should be regarded as Edward's successor.[479] It was doubtless well known among the English lords that the new King was inclined to, and probably pledged to a celibate life. We do not know whether Englishmen were at this time informed of the ethelings in Hungary. To most men it must have seemed likely that Alfred's line would expire with Edward; under the circumstances Sweyn was the likeliest heir.
With the accession of Edward, the Empire of the North was definitely dissolved. Fundamentally it was based on the union of England and Denmark, a union that was now repudiated. Still, the hope of restoring it lingered for nearly half a century. Three times the kings of the North made plans to reconquer England, but in each instance circumstances made successful operations impossible. After the death of Magnus in 1047, the three old dynasties once more controlled their respective kingdoms, though in the case of both Denmark and Norway the direct lines had perished. The Danish high seat alone remained to the Knytlings, now represented by Sweyn, the son of Estrid and the violent Ulf for whose tragic death the nation had now atoned.