Valdemar II of Denmark
Waldemar II ( born June 28, 1170 † March 28, 1241 ) " the winner " was Duke of Schleswig ( 1182-1202 ) and King of Denmark ( 1202-1241 ).
Life
Valdemar II was the younger son of King Valdemar I the Great of Denmark and his wife Sophia of Minsk ( * ca 1141, † 1198 ), daughter of Prince Vladimir III. of Minsk and Grodno, and the Rikissa of Poland.
Waldemar was 1182 Duke of Schleswig. Under the reign of his brother Knut VI. of Denmark, he conquered with this common Holstein in 1201 at the Battle of Stellau. Valdemar II was due to this victory the nickname " the winner ".
After Canute's death in 1202, he became King of Denmark and conquered Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Pomerania. Lübeck and Hamburg acknowledged his sovereignty protection. In 1219 he founded the Bishopric of Reval and began the conquest of Estonia and attacked for years in a Norwegian and Swedish throne wars.
On the night of the 6th to May 7, 1223 Waldemar and his son were kidnapped by Count Henry of Schwerin of the Danish island Lyø where they had unguarded rested from the chase. By boat, the prisoners were brought to the German coast. Since Schwerin was occupied by the Danes, Waldemar and his son were first hidden in the castle Dannenberg in Lenzen in the Mark Brandenburg and soon. After the recapture of the county of Schwerin in 1225, the two were finally arrested in the Schwerin Castle.
For the release of Valdemar presented Heinrich von Schwerin high demands, of which he neither Denmark nor by threats of the Pope Honorius III. was dissuaded. He found support in Borwin Henry II (Mecklenburg), Count Adolf IV of Schauenburg and Holstein and the Bishop Gebhard II to the lip of the diocese of Bremen. As Waldemar did not respond to Henry's demands, the situation came to a head and it finally came in January 1225 to the Battle of Mölln, in which the Danes were defeated.
Waldemar eventually agreed to the demands of Henry, which also came to his allies. In November 1225, the release of Valdemar and his son against the payment of 45,000 marks of silver, the assignment of Schwerin and Holstein, renunciation of all German feudal territories except the Principality of Rügen and grant complete freedom of trade for German cities was agreed in the Treaty of Bardo Wick. In addition, Waldemar had to do without revenge and make three of his sons as hostages.
Through the captivity of Valdemar the Danish great-power status in the Baltic region was severely shaken. The pursuit of recovery culminated on July 22, 1227 at the Battle of Bornhöved. Valdemar II was defeated by the Coalition forces. The fighting on the Danish side Duke Otto I.von Brunswick was taken prisoner by the Count of Schwerin. Waldemar was forced to renew the contract of Bardo Wick. The Danish empire in the Baltic Sea broke. He had to give up Holstein and out of Rügen and Estonia, he also lost all his conquests on the southern Baltic coast.
1231, King Valdemar II a version control book, Waldemar - Erdbuch invest in the systematically all the possessions and revenues of the king were recorded. In addition, during his reign the first Danish law books, the Scanian Law ( Skånske Lov ), the Zeeland law ( Sjællandske Lov ) and finally in 1241 the Jutland law ( Jydske Lov ), which formally had in the Duchy of Schleswig until 1900 validity emerged.
Valdemar II is in St. Mary's Church in Ringsted, now St. Bendt, buried.
Marriages and descendants
Valdemar II was from 1205 in his first marriage to Margaret Dagmar († May 24, 1212 ), a daughter of Ottokar I of Bohemia and Adelheid of Meissen, married. From this marriage the following children came:
- Waldemar of Schleswig ( * 1209, † 1231 ), co-regent since 1215 coronation in Schleswig Cathedral 1218 ∞ 1229 Eleanor of Portugal (* 1211, † 1231 )
- Son, stillbirth († 1212 )
In his second marriage he had since 1214 with Berengaria of Portugal (c. 1195, † March 27, 1221 ) married a daughter of Sancho I of Portugal and Dulce. With her he had children:
- Erik IV (* 1216, † 1250), King of Denmark ( 1241-1250 )
- Sofie (* 1217, † 1247 ) ∞ 1230 John I, Margrave of Brandenburg
- Abel of Schleswig ( * 1218, † 1252), King of Denmark ( 1250-1252 )
- Christoph I. (* 1219, † 1259 ), King of Denmark ( 1252-1259 )
He also had two illegitimate sons are known by name:
- Niels, Count of Halland -Schwerin († 1218/19 )
- Knut, Duke of Lolland, Blekinge and Estonia ( † 1260 )