Harthacanute - Death

Death

On 8 June 1042, Harthacnut attended a wedding in Lambeth. The groom was Tovi the Proud, former standard-bearer to Cnut. The bride was Gytha, daughter of the courtier Osgod Clapa. Harthacnut presumably consumed large quanties of alcohol, as he was drinking to the health of the bride— he "died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with an awful convulsion; and those who were close by took hold of him, and he spoke no word afterwards…" The likely cause of death was a stroke, "brought about by an excessive intake of alcohol" In The Death of Kings: A Medical History of the Kings and Queens of England (2000), Clifford Brewer suggested a cardiac arrest as the immediate cause of death.

Harthacnut was buried at Old Minster in Winchester, his father's place of rest. His mother donated a valuable relic, the head of Saint Valentine to New Minster, her offer for the salvation of his soul. In 1052, Emma herself was buried at Old Minster. Her surviving son, Edward the Confessor, had assumed the throne on Harthacnut's death, restoring the Saxon royal line of the House of Wessex. A contradictory account in the Knýtlinga saga (13th century), reports Harthacnut buried in the city of Morstr, alongside his half-brother Harold Harefoot and their father Cnut. While mentioned as a great city in the text, nothing else is known of Morstr. The Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson reports Harthacnut buried at Winchester, alongside Cnut and Harold Harefoot.

Ian Howard speculates that Harthacnut could have been suffering from a terminal illness, such as tuberculosis, something known to himself and his court for a while. This would explain why Emma turned her attention to her other son, Edward, why Magnus seriously expected to succeed the rival king, and why Henry III was eager to have a connection to the Danish monarch (see succession below). While Harthacnut was fairly young, several people were interested in designating an heir for him, as if the young man was already dying, and was not expected to have sons of his own. Alan R. Rushton notes that Harthacnut was son to Emma of Normandy, and that there was a pattern of sudden deaths among descendants of the House of Normandy. In 1027, Richard III, Duke of Normandy died with no apparent reason. Widespread rumors suggested that his brother and heir, Robert I, Duke of Normandy, had him poisoned. Robert I himself went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1035, Robert died in Nicaea, Bithynia during his return journey. A contemporary chronicler suspected poisoning as the reason behind the sudden death. In 1040, their cousin Alan III, Duke of Brittany died of unexplained causes. Again poison was suspected as the reason. In 1066, his son Conan II, Duke of Brittany also died of unexplained causes. His cousin William the Conqueror was suspected of having him poisoned.

Rushton notes that historians for centuries believed that poison was indeed the most likely explanation behind "an otherwise unexplained death". He speculates, however, that the actual cause could be a hereditary disease, an autosomal dominant pattern. He admits that William the Conqueror, another descendant of this dynasty, generally enjoyed good health but points out that William fell seriously ill following the Battle of Hastings (1066), resting for a month near Canterbury. He then had to return to Normandy for further medical attention. His health problems were attributed to a combination of exhaustion, dysentery and chronic gout. Twenty years later, William was incapacitated by abdominal colic, supposedly caused by the bow of his saddle. He rested in a monastery near Rouen for three weeks, then died. Symptoms of his last days included a fever and a marked sensitivity to noise. Rushton suspects that William himself could have been suffering from "an unknown ailment."

On the other hand, David C. Douglas had pointed out that "allegations of secret poisoning" were rather common in the primary sources from 11th-century Normandy. Any writer on Norman affairs attributed to venom any sudden death, except those involving violence. Surprisingly, these allegations were rare in sources from 11th-century England, even when the sudden deaths would justify the suspicion. He noted the deaths of Harthacnut (1042), Godwin, Earl of Wessex (1053), and Edward the Exile (1057) formed a suspect pattern, though the primary sources were silent on the subject. He believes that, had the deaths occurred in the Duchy of Normandy, the matter would be seen in a different light. Kelly DeVries noted that while Douglas implied that Harthacnut was poisoned, he did not further explore the notion, never mentioning potential murderers or their motivation. Sten Körner also noted that the death of Harthacnut could be part of a plot, but also did not further explore the notion though the implication would be that Edward the Confessor was behind this plot. In The Death of Kings: A Medical History of the Kings and Queens of England (2000), Clifford Brewer pointed that Edward benefited from the sudden death of Harthacnut and that Godwin, Earl of Wessex, was the father-in-law to Edward, but once led an uprising against his son-in-law. He died suddenly after dining with said son-in-law, again pointing suspicion at Edward, as the probable culprit behind both deaths. Katherine Holman was certain that Harthacnut was poisoned, but felt that that the culprit will never be known with certainty due to "no shortage of discontented candidates."