Guildford, Kent, 1037 ADEsteemed, sustained by the majority of the lords of the land, and in possession of the Treasury, Harold Harefoot"s position was unassailable. Far from being resigned to his becoming king, Queen Emma redoubled her opposition from her confinement. Her campaign of defamation did not stop at Harold, nor did it respect the dead.
She spread the rumour that Aelfgifu wanted to bear a son by Knut but, being unable, she secretly adopted the newborn children of strangers and pretended to have given birth to them. Harold, she insinuated, was the offspring of a cobbler, while his brother Sweyn Knutson was the illegitimate child of a priest. She insisted that her rival deceived Knut into recognizing both babes as his own.
I ignored this nonsense and condemned it as such before
