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.