Eric I of Denmark

Erik I. Ejegod (* around 1070 in Slangerup, † July 10, 1103 at Paphos in Cyprus ) was King of Denmark ( 1095-1103 ).

Genealogy

Erik I. - an illegitimate son of King Sven Estridsen - was married to Bodil Thrugotsdatter ( 1065-1103 ). From this marriage came Lavard Knud, Jarl from 1115 in the area of Schleswig and first Older man the oath of brotherhood Knudsgilde. In other women he had further sons Harald Kesje, Benedict and Erik and daughter Ragnhild. Erik I. was the grandfather of Waldemar the Great.

Life

1080 was Erik I. Jarl of Zealand. He escaped a 1086 assassination attempt, which his half-brothers Knut the Holy and Benedict fell victim. During the rule of his half brother Olaf Hunger (1086-1095) he lived in exile in Sweden, because he feared the revenge Olaf I. for his support Knuts. He succeeded his half-brother Olaf I. in 1095 to the throne. During his reign he attached great importance to the cooperation with the Church. He was facing much the English Church. Shortly before 1100 he took English Benedictine monks from the monastery of Evesham in the monastery of Odense. He also certainly made ​​sure that the English canons of the cathedral chapter in Lund Hubald bishop in Odense was. He had built five stone churches. He also ran the canonization of his half brother Knut IV, what 1100 or 1101 succeeded him. This meant a strengthening of his royal power and that of his successor. In addition, so were the conditions for its church-political plan to get an archbishop chair in Denmark created.

When the archbishop of Hamburg due to dubious accusations imposed the ban on Erik, he traveled to Rome to justify himself, and succeeded him. In his bitterness over his adversary in Hamburg, he traveled a second time to Rome and asked Pope Paschal II to a private detached Archdiocese of Hamburg. As Pope Paschal II, the German dominance in northern Europe faced skeptical, he granted that wish. The Scandinavian region was solved with the establishment of the archbishopric under the first Archbishop Asser from the Archdiocese of Hamburg -Bremen. In return, the Pope called for the introduction of the tithe and the delivery of the Peter 's Pence directly to him. Documented evidence can the tithe but only from 1135th

In 1101 he took part in a Dreikönigstreffen in today Kungälv. There included King Magnus of Norway, King Inge of Sweden and Erik I. a peace treaty.

To 1101 broke on Erik and his wife Bodil for pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was the first Danish king, who made such a pilgrimage, after the first crusade had conquered Jerusalem in 1099. He is also the first documented secured Danish pilgrims to Jerusalem. He traveled with a large entourage to Russia to Constantinople Opel, where he was received by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. There he fell ill on his journey but by sea continued and died in July 1103 in Paphos in Cyprus, where his wife had him buried. Bodil continued on their journey without her husband and reached Jerusalem, where she died and was buried on the Mount of Olives. Successor of Erik I. was his younger brother Niels.

In the Icelandic skald Poem " Eiriksdrápa " from 1104 King Erik is represented as a positive role model of a good king. In contrast, the Roskilde Chronicle judged by around 1140 Eirik more critical, accusing him to have adopted many unjustified and unjust laws. But this chronicle considers him a good king.