This is the user sandbox of LordSeaSnake. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here.
Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review!
Harald Svendsen (c. 996–998 − c. 1018) was King of Denmark (being Harald II) from 1014 until his death in around 1018.[1] He was the youngest son of Sweyn Forkbeard and Gunhild of Wenden,[2][3][4][5] and was regent while his father was fighting Æthelred the Unready in England. He inherited the Danish throne in 1014, and held it while his brother, the later king Cnut the Great conquered England.[6] After his death in 1018(?), he was succeeded by Cnut the Great. Little detail is known about Harald II.[1]
Harald was the eldest son of Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark. Harald's family was only recently established in Denmark, having their origins as petty kings in Jutland. Harald's own grandfather Harald Bluetooth was the first Danish king to convert to Christianity, only a few decades prior to Harald's birth in the mid-960s. Over half a century, the family consolidated and expanded power, and Harald Bluetooth secured his dynasty's control over Denmark through the building of infrastructure, even expanding his rule to Norway. Harald Bluetooth and Sweyn Forkbeard spent the decades up to Harald's birth and those if his youth in constant activity to solidify their authority over neighbouring Scandinavian petty kings and chieftains
The name of Harald's mother is uncertain. Harald's mother is described by the contemporary German chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg as the unnamed sister of Bolesław I the Brave, king of Poland, and the widow of Eric the Victorious, king of Sweden; the chronicler Adam of Bremen, writing over a century later, confirms this. Some later Scandinavian sources identify her as a Swedish noblewoman named Sigrid the Haughty, but historian Timothy Bolton dismisses this as artistic license. By this marriage, Sweyn had two sons Harald and Cnut, as well as a daughter Estrid. Harald's mother was Sweyn's second wife; he and Cnut had a half-sister Gytha from Sweyn's first marriage that was wed to Eiríkr Hákonarson, Jarl of Lade. Thietmar of Merseburg states that Harald's mother was later repudiated by Sweyn many years before her death and returned to Poland. Harald and Cnut remained in Denmark, where Bolton suggests they were either raised in Sweyn's court or fostered at the courts of other Danish noblemen.
Thietmar of Merseburg (1012–1018). "Chronicon Thietmari Merseburgensis". In Warner, David A. (ed.). Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg (2001). Translated by David A. Warner. Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-7190-4926-2.
.jpg)
