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Valdemar I of Denmark

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"Waldemar the Great" redirects here. For the Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal, seeWaldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal.

Valdemar I
1157bracteatedepicting Valdemar and his wife, Sophia
King of Denmark
Reign1154 – 12 May 1182
PredecessorSweyn III
SuccessorCanute VI
Born14 January 1131
Schleswig,Denmark
Died12 May 1182(1182-05-12)(aged 51)
Vordingborg Castle,Vordingborg,Denmark
Burial
St. Bendt's Church,Ringsted,Denmark
ConsortSophia of Minsk
Issue
Detail
Names
Valdemar Knudsen
HouseEstridsen
FatherCanute Lavard,Duke of Schleswig
MotherIngeborg of Kiev

Valdemar I Knudsen(14 January 1131 – 12 May 1182), also known asValdemar the Great(Danish:Valdemar den Store), wasKing of Denmarkfrom 1154 until his death in 1182. The reign of King Valdemar I saw the rise of Denmark, which reached its medieval zenith under his son KingValdemar II.[1]

Valdemar den Store statue in Ringsted

Childhood

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Valdemar was the son ofCanute Lavard,Duke of Schleswig,the chivalrous and popular eldest son of KingEric I of Denmark.Valdemar's father was murdered by KingMagnus I of Swedendays before the birth of Valdemar; his mother,Ingeborg of Kiev,daughter of Grand PrinceMstislav I of KievandChristina Ingesdotter of Sweden,named him after her grandfather, Grand PrinceVladimir Monomakhof Kiev.

Valdemar was raised atRingstedin the court of Danish noblemanAsser Rig of Fjenneslev(c. 1080–1151). Asser was a member of theHvidenoble family and had been raised together with Valdemar's father Canute Lavard. Valdemar was raised together with Asser's sons, includingAbsalon(c. 1128–1201), who would become an archbishop and go to battle with Valdemar, andEsbern Snare(1127–1204), who was a royal chancellor and crusader. Esbern and Absalon had a close relationship and formed an alliance with Valdemar.[2][3][4][5]

Struggle for the throne

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In 1146, when Valdemar was fifteen years old, KingEric III of Denmarkabdicated and a civil war erupted. Valdemar was a possible contender to the throne. The other pretenders to the throne were:Sweyn III Grathe,the son of KingEric II of Denmark,andCanute V,the son ofMagnus I of Sweden,both of whom declared themselves King of Denmark in 1146. The civil war lasted the better part of ten years. In 1154, Valdemar joined with Canute and was recognized as co-king along with Canute. In July 1157, a temporary compromise was struck in which the three agreed to divide the country among themselves as co-regents in shifting alliances.

Canute was killed at the Bloodfeast of Roskilde in August 1157. Sweyn was defeated by Valdemar in theBattle of Grathe Heath(Slaget på Grathe Hede) on 23 October 1157. Sweyn was killed during flight, supposedly by a group of peasants who stumbled upon him as he was fleeing from the battlefield. Valdemar, having outlived all his rival pretenders, became the sole king of Denmark.[6][7]

Sole reign

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In 1158, Absalon was electedbishop of Roskilde,and King Valdemar made him his chief advisor. The king reorganized and rebuilt war-torn Denmark. He strengthened the Dannevirke fortifications to the south, He builtSønderborg Castleas a fortified fortress, constructed on an islet in theAls Straitthat later was connected toAls Island.[8][9]He reinvented Viking raiding tactics of old to deal with the Wends to the south, which was now optimized for heavy cavalry; this use of amphibious assault was further improved upon by his successorCanute VI.[10]

At Absalon's instigation, he declared war upon theWendswho were raiding the Danish coasts. They occupiedPomeraniaand the island ofRügenin theBaltic Seaand were a definite threat to the Danes in the Baltic as the Wends outnumbered the Danes more than two to one. So the Danes soon began raiding the Wendish coasts in turn; this culminated in the conquest of Rügen, which was used as another base to raid and later conquer more Wendish territory. Danish influence had therefore reached bothPomeraniaandthe Obotrite confederacy,both being raided routinely by the Danes. Around the year 1170, a smaller contingent of the Danish fleet (headed by Valdemar and Absalon) ventured past the mouth of the Oder, where they were ambushed by a Wendish army and fleet underCasimir,at theJulin bridge(modern-dayWolin) hoping to end Danish raiding. But the Danes outsmarted the Wends and smashed their army and fleet, primarily due to the Danish ships also carrying cavalry.[11]In 1175, King Valdemar builtVordingborg Castleas a defensive fortress and as a base from which to launch further raids against the German coast.[12]

In 1180, as unrest spread throughout the rich province ofScania,the people demanded that Valdemar replace the "foreign" governors fromJutland,and instead install nobility from one of the 'Skåneland' provinces who traditionally ruled them. They also completely refused to paychurch tithes.When Valdemar refused their demands, they rose up, saying they would pay neither taxes nor church tithes. Their numbers were so large that Valdemar not only gathered his own levies but also levies fromBlekinge.The armies met atthe Battle of Dysiaa,where Valdemar crushed them, and after this they once more paid taxes. But even though the entire peasant force surrendered, they still refused to pay tithes, so instead Valdemar had them bring generous gifts and donations to the church. They would pay no tithes but they would pay nonetheless, the only point he conceded were the governors, who were replaced by Scanians.[13]This concession to the Scanians, that a Jute rules in Jutland and Rugian in Rügen, was then optimized for the rest of the Danish realm. This assisted immensely with keeping the peace within the kingdom, and the laterextended realm.

Issue

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Valdemar marriedSophia of Minsk(c. 1141–1198), the daughter ofRicheza of Poland,dowager queen of Sweden, from her marriage to PrinceVolodar of Minsk.She was the half-sister of KingCanute V of Denmark.Valdemar and Sophia had the following children:

After Valdemar's death, Sophia married LandgraveLouis III of Thuringia.

Notes

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  1. ^"Valdemar Den Store 1131–1182".Danmarks Historien. Archived fromthe originalon 5 July 2011.Retrieved1 August2018.
  2. ^"Asser (Rig), 1151".Dansk biografisk Lexikon.Retrieved1 August2018.
  3. ^"Asser Rig".Den Store Danske, Gyldendal.Retrieved1 August2018.
  4. ^"Absalon".Den Store Danske, Gyldendal.Retrieved1 August2018.
  5. ^Bradley, S. A. J. (12 December 2008).N.F.S. Grundtvig, A Life Recalled: An Anthology of Biographical Source-Texts.ISD LLC. pp. 464, 578.ISBN978-87-7934-007-7.
  6. ^"Blood Feast of Roskilde".The Post Grad Chronicles.2 December 2017.Retrieved1 August2020.
  7. ^"Slaget på Grathe Hede 1157".Danmarks Historien.Retrieved1 August2018.
  8. ^Otto Norn, Jørgen Paulsen and Jørgen Slettebo,Sønderborg Slot. Historie og bygning,G.E.C. Gad forlag, 1963.
  9. ^"Sønderborg Castle".kongeligeslotte.dk.Retrieved1 August2018.
  10. ^Pratt, Fletcher (1950).The Third King.New York: William Sloane Associates, INC. pp. 101–105.OCLC1350957.
  11. ^Pratt, Fletcher (1950).The Third King.New York: William Sloane Associates, Inc. pp. 108–110.OCLC1350957.
  12. ^About Vordingborg Castle(Museerne.dk)
  13. ^Pratt, Fletcher (1950).The Third King.New York: William Sloane Associates, Inc. pp. 130–131.
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Valdemar the Great
Born:14 January 1131Died:12 May 1182
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Denmark
1154–1182
withSweyn III(1146–1157)
Canute V(1146–1157) 		Succeeded by
Vacant
Title last held by
Magnus 		Duke in Southern Jutland
ca. 1152–1154 		Vacant
Title next held by
Christopher
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