The sources that relate the events of these months are anything but satisfactory and their statements are sometimes vague or ambiguous. But it is clear that soon after the throne became vacant (thirteen days, if the Chronicler is accurate)[469] a meeting of the "wise men" was held at Oxford, the border city where Danes and Saxons had so frequently met in common assembly. At this meeting, as the _Chronicle_ has it, the northern magnates led by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and supported by the Danes in London, "chose Harold to hold all England, him and his brother Harthacanute who was in Denmark." To this arrangement Godwin opposed all his influence and eloquence; but though he was supported by the lords of Wessex, "he was able to accomplish nothing." It was finally agreed that Queen Emma and the royal guard should continue to hold Wessex for Harthacanute.[470] The north was evidently turned over to Harold.
The decision reached at Oxford has been variously interpreted. At first glance it looks as if the kingdom was again divided along the line of the Thames valley. The statement of the Chronicler that Harold "was full King over all England" seems not to have been strictly contemporary but written after the King had seized the whole. What was done at Oxford was probably to establish an under-kingship of the sort that Canute had provided for Norway and Denmark. The overlordship of Harthacanute may have been recognised, but the administration was divided. This did not necessarily mean to the Scandinavian mind that the realm was divided; in the history of the North various forms of joint kingship are quite common.
For one year this arrangement was permitted to stand; but in 1037, Harold was taken to king over all England--the nation forsook Harthacanute because he tarried too long in Denmark.[471] Emma was driven from the land, perhaps to satisfy the jealousy of her rival Elgiva. The cause for the revolution of 1037 is unknown; but we may conjecture that intrigue was at work on both sides. Possibly the appearance of Emma's son Alfred in England the year before may have roused a sense of fear in the English mind and may have hastened the movement.
Sorrows now began to fall heavily upon England. In 1039, the Welsh made inroads and slew several of the Mercian lords. A "great wind" scattered destruction over the land. A remarkable mortality appeared among the bishops, four dying in 1038 and one more in 1039. The following year died Harold, whose unkingly and un-Christian behaviour was no doubt regarded as the cause of these calamities. He died at Oxford and was buried at Westminster. The same year Harthacanute joined his mother at Bruges, whither she had fled when exiled from England.[472]