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MAGNUS THE GOOD AND OTHERS. 161 which ill this instance, what is very singular, took actual effect ; drunken Harda-Knut dying so speedily, and Magnus being the man he was. One would like to give the date of this remarkable Treaty ; but cannot with precision. Guess somewhere about 1040 : * actual fruition of it came to Magnus, beyond question, in 1042, when Harda-Knut drank that wassail bowl at the wedding in Lambeth, and fell down dead ; which in the Saxon Chronicle is dated 3rd June of that year. Magnus at once went to Denmark on hearing this event; was joyfully received by the head men there, who indeed, with their fellows in ]N'orway, had been main contrivers of the Treaty ; both Countries longing for mutual peace, and the end of such incessant broils. Magnus was triumphantly received as King in Denmark. The only unfortunate thing was, that Svein Estrithson, the exile son of Ulf, Knut's Brother- in-law, whom Knut, as we saw, had summarily killed twelve years before, emerged from his exile in Sweden in a flattering form ; and proposed that Magnus should make him Jarl of Denmark, and general

  • Munch gives the date 1038 (ii. 840), Adam of Bremen 1040.

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