Harald III of Denmark

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Harald III Hen (1041 – April 17, 1080) was king of Denmark from 1074 or 1076 to 1080. Harald III was the eldest illegitimate son of Sweyn II of Denmark.

He was proclaimed king at the Zealand Assembly (Danish:landsting) in 1076. Harald was dependent on the great nobles of Denmark for his election and did nothing to oppose them. As a result, he fought no wars and spent his energy improving the few things that lay in his perview. On the whole he was a peaceful and able ruler. He is best known for improving and standardizing Danish coinage. He established mints at Ribe , Viborg, Lund, and Schleswig. Harald's second accomplishment was changing Danish legal customs. Harald deplored the ancient customs of trial by ordeal and trial by combat. He introduced a system used by the English of calling upon honorable men to make oaths in behalf of the parties in a trial, rather than resort to the "ancient" customs of holding red-hot iron bars or trial by combat. However, his reforms were not fully accepted until the reign of Valdemar II.^[1] Saxo Grammaticus) scorned him as a weak and ineffective king yielding to the will of the common people. Perhaps this gives the explanation for his nickname Harald the Whetstone (Danish: Harald Hen or Hejn), in other words, Harald the soft.

Later historians regard him as a "democratic" monarch for the same reasons.

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Regnal titles
Harald III Born: 1041 Died: April 17, 1080
Preceded by Sweyn Estridson	King of Denmark 1074-1080	Succeeded by Canute the Saint

v • d • e Monarchs of Denmark

Early Danish monarchs	(Harthacnut) · Gorm the Old · Harald Bluetooth · Sweyn Forkbeard^†* · Harald II · Canute the Great^†* · Harthacanute* · Magnus the Good^† · Sweyn II · Harald III · Canute the Saint · Olaf I · Eric Evergood · Niels · Eric the Memorable · Eric Lamb · Sweyn Grathe & Canute V & Valdemar the Great · Canute VI · Valdemar the Victorious · Eric Plough-tax · Abel · Christopher I · Eric Klipping · Eric Menved · Christopher II · Valdemar III · Christopher II · Valdemar Atterdag · Olaf II^† · Margaret I^†^‡

House of Palatinate-Neumarkt	Eric of Pomerania^†^‡ · Christopher of Bavaria^†^‡

House of Oldenburg	Christian I^†^‡ · Hans^†^‡ · Christian II^†^‡ · Frederick I^† · Christian III^† · Frederick II^† · Christian IV^† · Frederick III^† · Christian V^† · Frederick IV^† · Christian VI^† · Frederick V^† · Christian VII^† · Frederick VI^† · Christian VIII^† · Frederick VII

House of Schleswig- Holstein-Sonderburg- Glücksburg	Christian IX · Frederick VIII · Christian X^§ · Frederick IX · Margrethe II

^† also Monarch of Norway · ^‡ also Monarch of Sweden · * also Monarch of England · ^§ also Monarch of Iceland