His father, a known illegitimate son of King Sweyn II,[3] died in 1104, as a consequence of trying to press his claim for the Danish throne following the sudden death of his brother, Erik the Good.
[4] Henrik became a candidate for a political marriage under the influence of King Niels' Swedish queen Margaret Fredkulla, who sought to tie kinship between the thrones of Denmark and Sweden.
Together with the conspirators, Henrik aided the murder of Canute under the leadership of Magnus the Strong who slew him in an ambush outside of Ringsted on Zealand on 7 January 1131.
[1] The civil war culminated in the Battle of Fotevik in south-western Scania in 4 June 1134 where Eric II of Denmark emerged the victor.
After Harald Gille passed, she had several marriages with the powerful nobles in Norway and became mother to the next generation of bishops and pretenders to the Norwegian throne.