Incumbents

Events

• 1040
  • 17 March - Harold Harefoot
    Harold Harefoot
    Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
    
     dies.
  • June - Harthacanute lands at Sandwich, Kent
    Sandwich, Kent
    Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
    
    , and becomes King of England.
• 1041
  • Rebellion in Worcester
    Worcester
    The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
    
     against Harthacanute's naval taxes.
  • Edward the Confessor
    Edward the Confessor
    Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
    
     returns from exile to become the heir of Harthacanute.
• 1042
  • 8 June - Harthacanute dies and is succeeded by Edward the Confessor as King.
  • Encomium Emmae
    Encomium Emmae
    Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
    
    , a biography of Queen Emma of Normandy
    Emma of Normandy
    Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
    
     completed.
• 1043
  • 3 April - Coronation of Edward the Confessor at Winchester Cathedral
    Winchester Cathedral
    Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
    
    .
  • 16 November - Queen Emma accused of treason and her ally Stigand
    Stigand
    Stigand was an English churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England. Although his birthdate is unknown, by 1020, he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and then later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury...
    
    , Bishop of East Anglia
    Bishop of East Anglia
    The Bishop of East Anglia is the Ordinary of the modern Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia in the Province of Westminster, England.At present the see is vacant...
    
     dismissed.
  • Earl Leofric of Mercia founds Coventry
    Coventry
    Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
    
     Abbey; according to legend, his wife Godiva rides naked through the town in protest at taxes to fund the abbey.
• 1044
  • King Edward pardons Emma and Stigand.
• 1045
  • Marriage of King Edward and Edith of Wessex
    Edith of Wessex
    Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
    
    .
• 1046
  • Earl Sweyn Godwinson
    Sweyn Godwinson
    Sweyn Godwinson , also spelled Swein, was the eldest son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, and brother of Harold II of England.- Early life :...
    
     is exiled after kidnapping the Abbess of Leominster
    Leominster
    Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located approximately north of the city of Hereford and south of Ludlow, at...
    
     during an invasion of south Wales
    Wales
    Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
    
    .
  • Exeter Book
    Exeter Book
    The Exeter Book, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a tenth-century book or codex which is an anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It is one of the four major Anglo-Saxon literature codices. The book was donated to the library of Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the...
    
    of poetry completed.
• 1047
• 1048
  • Last viking
    Viking
    The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
    
     raid on England; unsuccessful raiders flee to Flanders
    Flanders
    Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
    
    .
  • King Edward goes to war against Flanders, blockading the English Channel
    English Channel
    The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
    
     with a fleet based at Sandwich.
• 1049
  • Sweyn Godwinson returns from exile, murders his cousin, and is exiled again.

Births

• Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile
  Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile
  Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile and Agatha, was the sister of Edgar Ætheling and Saint Margaret of Scotland, born in the 1040s.She came to the Kingdom of England with her family in 1057, from Hungary...
  
  
• 1045
  • Saint Margaret of Scotland
    Saint Margaret of Scotland
    Saint Margaret of Scotland , also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England...
    
     daughter of Edgar Ætheling
    Edgar Ætheling
    Edgar Ætheling , or Edgar II, was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex...
    
     (died 1093)

Deaths

• 1040
  • 17 March - King Harold Harefoot
    Harold Harefoot
    Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
    
     (born c. 1015)
• 1042
  • 8 June - King Harthacanute (born 1018)