HARDICANUTE, HARDECANUTE, or HARDACANUTE, was the eldest of the sons of Canute the Great, king of England, Den mark, and Norway, by Emma, styled the " Flower of Normandy," daughter of Richard I., duke of Normandy, and widow of King Ethelred II., whom he had married in 1017. [ErnErstun IL] The death of Canute, in 1035, brought forward as claimants to the inheri tance of his dominions Sweyn and Harold, his two sons by Alfgiva, daughter of Alf helm, earl of Northampton ; Hardicanute, his son by Emma; and Edward, the older of the two sons of Emma, by her former husband Ethelred. Sweyn, who obtained the throne of Norway'p, made no pretensions to that of England. Edward (after wards Edward the Confessor) and his brother were with their uncle, Duke Richard II., in Normandy. Hardicanute was also absent in Danmark, the government of which country had been some time before entrusted to him by bla father. It has bean supposed that Canute bad intended that Ifardicannte, as his eldest legitimate son, should succeed him in all hie three kingdoms; it is certain that he designed him for his successor in the sovereignty of England, in con formity with a special arrangement which had been made on his marriage with Emma. Harold however had the important advantage of being on the spot at the time of his father's death, and was thus enabled to triumph over the pretensions of both his rivals. A civil war was prevented by an agreement that the authority of Hardi canute should bo confined to the country to the south of the Thames, constituting the ancient kingdom of Wessex, and that all the rest of England, including London, should be resigned to Harold. Mean while Hardicanute remained in Denmark, leaving the government of his English province in the hands of his mother Queen Emma. This state of thing. subsisted till the invasion of England, in 1037, by Emma's younger son Alfred, which terminated so calamitously for himself and his followers. [EDWARD VIE CONFESSOR.] On the failure
of this unhappy attempt, Emma fled to the Continent, and Harold became undisputed king of all England. For the next two years Hardicanute did nothing to vindicate his rights. At last, on the repeated importunities of his mother, who had taken up her residence at Bruges, he fitted out en armament for that purpose, with nine ships of which he proceeded in the first instance to that place, to advise with her before proceeding on his enterprise. While they were together, in 1040, news was received of the death of Harold, and soon after a deputation arrived from the English nobility, offering the crown to Hardicanute, who therenpon immediately came over and assumed the government His short reign affords scarcely any events requiring to be mentioned. His character appears to have been that of a good-natured debauchce, not wanting in generosity of sentiment, nor stained with any darker vice than the habit of inordinate eating and drinking. His plentiful table however, which was spread for a numerous company four times a day, is said to have won him the strong attachment of his thanes, who were admitted to feast along with him, however much it may have the body of the people. The chronicler John Rouse, in the of the 15th century, writes that the anniversary of his death even then continued to be celebrated as a holiday by the people of England under the name of Hog's-tide, or Hock Wednesday. Ilia death happened oo the 8th of June 1042, in con sequence of what appears to have been a stroke of apoplexy, by which he had been suddenly rendered speechless four days before, as ho was about to swallow a cup of wine at the marriage feast df one of his Daniell thanes, held at Lambeth, or Clapham. Hardicanute was never married, and left no issue. He was succeeded by his half-brother Edward, surnamed the Confessor.