Harold Harefoot: Danish King Of England
A son of King Cnut, he reigned from 1035 to 1040
Much less is known about the first than the second King Harold of England, as it was the latter who lost his throne and his life at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and was thus the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings. The first King Harold is usually known as Harold Harefoot.
King Harold’s claim to the throne
King Harold I, although King of England for a brief period in the 11th century, was not an Anglo-Saxon but a Dane, being a member of the short Danish interregnum before the Anglo-Saxons, in the person of Edward the Confessor, were restored to the throne.
Cnut (Canute) of Denmark had ruled an impressive empire, comprising England, Scotland, Denmark and Norway, but when he died in 1035 this all fell apart. One major problem was that there was no obvious successor, as he left behind several offspring who laid claim to various parts of the empire.
It did not help matters that Cnut would appear to have been a bigamist, having married Elfgifu of Northampton in 1016 and Emma of Normandy, the widow of King Ethelred (the Unready), in 1017. However, all sorts of claims and counter-claims were made in the records of the time as to which marriage came first, whether one or other “wife”…