Absalon
Absalon (* 1128 in Fjenneslev, † March 21, 1201 in Soro on Zealand in Denmark) was Bishop of Roskilde and Archbishop of Lund (now Sweden), churches, monasteries and founder of cities, military leader and advisor to the Danish king Valdemar I the Great (1157-1182) and Canute VI. ( 1182-1202 ). The Archbishop is also known as Axel Lund and received as one of the most important figures of the Danish Church History of the Middle Ages in the annals. He drove the Danish claims to power ahead in the Baltic Sea region.
Life
He comes from the noble Hvide ( white ); his father was Asser Rig, his mother probably Inger Eriksdatter. In his childhood home of the future Danish king Valdemar I grew up. With it he formed a lifelong friendship drawing Brothers.
He studied in Paris theology and canon law. He became friends with the canons of the monastery of St. Genevieve Vilhelm, he learned to appreciate so that he appointed him as abbot until about the monastery Eskilsø, later the monastery Æbelholt later. He was in 1157 in the wake of Valdemar in the settlement negotiations between the Mitkönigen Knut and Sven in Roskilde and there escaped narrowly with Waldemar the assassination Sven. Later Absalon involved and his older brother Esbern Snare Asserson at the Battle of Grathe Hede ( Silkeborg ), in which Sven, a competitor was killed around the throne of Denmark.
At age 30, he became Bishop of Roskilde and 50 primate of the Danish-Swedish Church and the successor Eskils Archbishop of Lund in Skåne. The Öresund 1167 he founded a monastery, from the Danish capital Copenhagen grew up is now refuted. With Valdemar and Absalon, weakened by the " prince of war " Denmark again got two capable and energetic potentate on the temporal and spiritual head of the Reich, pushed forward by the Danish hegemony in the Baltic. Both initially focused on the conquest of the Slavic island of Rügen and the destruction of the pagan idolatry of the native Ranen. In May 1168, the time proved ripe. A combined fleet and army of the allied Danes, Mecklenburg and Pomerania under the command Absaolons landed on the coast of West Rügen. Then the troops marched under the leadership of Valdemar and Absalon at Cape Arkona. A week-long siege of the main sanctuary of the island began. The Terran defender Arkonas under their princes Jaromar I. and Tezlaw capitulated in the face of superior enemy forces on 15 June 1168 according to other sources, already at Pentecost, without much resistance. Terran negotiators submitted Absalon, who burned the large wooden idols Svetovid that surrender and thus prevented the storming and burning of the temple castle. The archaeological site Jaromarsburg on Arkona bears witness to this. Moreover, had delivered from the priesthood of the Temple treasury and the adoption of Christianity be guaranteed. The campaign ended with the German Mecklenburg and the Principality of Rügen were subjected to Danish rule. The Pomeranian Dukes Bogislaw I and Casimir I saw cheated in severance and retired as an ally of Denmark. Absalon and his king were now determined opponents of Pomerania (See A. Haas 1925, pp. 28ff ).
As archbishop Eskil resigned from his post, he determined Absalon against his will as his successor. Absalon was afraid of losing his power base in Zeeland. Therefore, it granted the pope, in addition to his archbishop Office will continue to remain Bishop of Roskilde.
His insistence on removal of tithes and strict implementation of priest celibacy led in 1181 to the peasants and priests uprising in Skåne and among other things, the " Battle of the Dösjebro ".
His equestrian statue stands on the Hojbro square in Copenhagen. His successor (1201-1222) in Lund, Andreas Sunononis (Danish Suneson ).
In Absalon's instigation Saxo Grammaticus wrote 1185-1208, the 16 books of the Gesta Danorum or " Historia Danica ," one of the source works on Nordic history and mythology.
Absalon's older brother Esbern Snare Asserson built the castle of Kalundborg. Built in 1179 or he acquired the church of Ubby.