CHAPTER I.

DENMARK.[130]

1014–1387.

CANUTE THE GREAT.—HARDA-CANUTE.—MAGNUS.—ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF HARALD HARDRADE.—SWEYN II.—HARALD III.—CANUTE IV.—OLAF II.—ERIC III.—NICHOLAS.—ERIC IV.—ERIC V.—CANUTE V. AND SWEYN III.—VALDEMAR I.—HIS ABLE REIGN.—ARCHBISHOPS ESKIL AND ABSALOM.—CANUTE VI.—VALDEMAR II.—DECLINE OF THE DANISH POWER, AND THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT.—ERIC VI.—ABEL.—CHRISTOPHER I.—ERIC VII.—ERIC VIII.—CHRISTOPHER. II.—INTERREGNUM.—VALDEMAR III.—MEMORABLE TRANSACTIONS WITH NORWAY AND SWEDEN.—OLAF III.—UNION OF DENMARK AND NORWAY.

CANUTE THE GREAT.

1015–1035.

ON the death of Sweyn, his son Canute was proclaimed by the Danes. But this was the signal for the revolt of the Anglo-Saxons against the Danish yoke, and for the restoration of Ethelred. That rash and vicious prince was accordingly invited from the court of his brother-in-law, Richard duke of Normandy, on the condition of his governing better in future. What excited his hope, and that of his people, was the abrupt departure of Canute for Denmark. Harald, brother of the latter, who was invested with the administration, was aiming at the sovereignty of that kingdom; and prudence demanded that he should not suffer the loss of his hereditary realm, when he must evidently have again to fight for England. Released by the death of Harald from all apprehension in that quarter, he returned, with all the forces he could raise, to the English coast. Lord of Denmark, of a considerable portion of Norway[131], of several English counties, and of a fine army in that kingdom, he thought himself equal to any enterprise. What most favoured his views on England was the detestation in which Ethelred was held. His labour would have been easy, except for the valour of Edmund Ironside, who, but for the treason which ruled his father’s councils, and for that father’s utter worthlessness, would have resisted with success. Leaving to the historians of England the task of detailing the battles and negotiations which followed, we shall only observe that on Ethelred’s death (1016), Edmund was acknowledged by London and some counties; and that both parties being tired of the destructive warfare, agreed to a compromise—the counties north of the Thames being ceded to the Dane, those south of the Thames to the Saxon; and that on Edmund’s assassination (probably at Canute’s instigation) the Danish monarch was acknowledged by the whole kingdom. The two children of Edmund, indeed, remained; and, if report be true, the conqueror endeavoured to remove them by violence. But the Swedish prince to whom they were confided, refused to be made the instrument of his purposes, and sent them for greater safety to the court of the Hungarian king. In this relation there is evidently much romance. We have no proof that the Swedish prince of this period was the friend, or even the ally, of Canute. Probably the children were sent by their own friends to a place of security.

[Sidenote: 1016 to 1028.]

The English administration of Canute must be sought in the histories of that kingdom. In Denmark he endeavoured to give to Christianity a predominancy which it had not yet attained. On his accession, full half of the Danes were pagans. To reclaim them, churches were built, and Anglo-Saxon missionaries appointed. This latter measure was hateful to them; and it was not agreeable to his Christian subjects, who wished the dignities of the church for themselves. Both were dissatisfied with his almost continued absence in England. Availing himself of this universal feeling, Ulfo the jarl, as we have before related[132], placed Harda-Canute, an infant son of the king, on the Danish throne. We have related, too, the issue of this rash step—the resignation of the boy, and the murder of Ulfo by the royal order. From this time there was continued tranquillity in both Denmark and England. Canute, indeed, was too powerful and too vindictive to be resisted with impunity. The acquisition of a third kingdom, which he conquered in 1028[133], surrounded his throne with a splendour that no Saxon or Danish prince had before possessed.

[Sidenote: 1029 to 1035.]

That Canute was sullied by many crimes is evident, even, from his most partial historians. He put to death many, without the forms of law, either because he would punish their past, or avert their future, hostility. After his accession to the English throne he acted with great cruelty to many Anglo-Saxon nobles, and with perfidy to more. Yet he had great qualities. He must have been a good ruler, or he would not have dismissed his Danish followers, with the exception of about 3000. That he placed Danes and English on a footing of equality; that he administered justice with strict impartiality; that he improved the laws no less than the administration; that his yoke was felt to be tolerable by the English and the Norwegians, no less than by his hereditary subjects, are historical truths. “In fact, he was one of the best princes that ever swayed the English sceptre. If in his earlier days he was ferocious, after his establishment on the English throne he was humanised by Christianity. Of his zeal for religion, no less than for the temporal welfare of his people, we have evidence enough in his acts. There was an air of barbaric grandeur about the monarch, not to be found in any other sovereign of the times.”[134] Lord of three great kingdoms as he was, we must look for his true elevation to his own mind; and (a rare phenomenon) his moral qualities improved as he advanced in years. Few are the instances, whether in history or in common life, of men so completely reclaimed from evil to good. Much of this reformation has been ascribed by Roman catholic historians to his pilgrimage to Rome. They would be more logical if they called this pilgrimage the effect of the reformation. The state of his mind, his motives, his principles, are well described in the remarkable letter which he wrote from the eternal city, and which exhibits his character in a truer light than the comments of any historian.[135]

This monarch was liberal to his followers, as well as to the church. How, considering the splendid retinue which generally accompanied him, the magnificent presents which he made, the churches and monasteries which he founded and endowed, he could still be surnamed the _Rich_, is not easy to be conceived. His prudence was doubtless great; but his moderation is the virtue on which his biographers dwell with most satisfaction. There may be, and there probably is, no truth in the well-known anecdote of his rebuking his flatterers on the sea-coast. But another, which displays him in a light equally striking, is less known. Many years before his pilgrimage he drew up a code of laws, and was one of the first to violate them by killing, in a fit of anger, aggravated perhaps by intoxication, one of his servants. His good sense told him that this violation was a bad example for his ferocious nobles; and he resolved that his punishment should be signal. Convoking his judges, he appeared before them in the garb of a prisoner, accused himself of homicide, and awaited their decision. The penalty, according to the Germanic jurisprudence, which governed the greater part of Europe, was forty silver marks for one in the condition of the victim.[136] But the slavish administrators of the law deemed that in publicly confessing his crime, he had made sufficient recompence. Seeing their fear of him, he condemned himself to pay 360 silver marks, or nine times the amount of the legal compensation. Of this large fine half went to the kindred of the victim, half to the crown; but the king would not touch his portion, which was distributed to the poor.

In his last testament, and near three years before his death, this monarch divided his states between his sons. To Harda-Canute, whom he had invested with the government of Denmark, he left England also, because that prince was his offspring by Emma, the widow of Ethelred II. To Sweyn, who, since the death of St. Olaf (1030–1035), governed Norway, he bequeathed that kingdom. Whether any provision was made for Harald Harefoot, the eldest of his sons, is not very clear; but Harald taking advantage of his brother’s residence in Denmark, usurped the English crown. He could not expect, and he probably did not wish, that all three should rest on the same brow. Partition was the mania of the age.

HARDA-CANUTE.

1035–1042.

[Sidenote: 1035 to 1040.]

By his father’s death, Harda-Canute, the heir of Denmark, was equally so of England; and he was preparing to pass over into that kingdom when intelligence reached him of Harald’s usurpation. But that usurpation was not sudden, or complete; and had he hastened with a few thousand followers to claim the crown, he would have triumphed. But he had little energy of character; and while he remained irresolute, the period favourable for his hopes passed away. Fortunately Harald’s reign was short; and in 1040 he was called by the English themselves to ascend the throne. On his arrival he committed an act of impotent vengeance against the memory of his brother, whose bones he caused to be disinterred, and cast into the Thames. They were, however, reburied.

[Sidenote: 1040 to 1042.]

In his government of England, Harda-Canute seems to have committed only one reprehensible act, and for that he had provocation. A tax being levied for the support of the Danish soldiery, was condemned by the English, and at Worcester resisted, by the murder of the two collectors. To vindicate his authority, he resorted to severe measures. The ringleaders were executed, the city pillaged and partly burnt. In other respects he was not unpopular. His kindness to the family of Ethelred did him great honour. To Emma he confided a share in the administration; and to prince Edward, the youngest son of Ethelred, afterwards named the Confessor, whom he recalled from Normandy, he gave a splendid establishment. As he died without issue (the result probably of his intemperance), with him ended the Danish dynasty in England.

[Sidenote: 1035 to 1042.]

Of Harda-Canute’s government in Denmark we have few records. He was negligent and intemperate; and his father’s memory, more than his own qualities, secured him on the throne. His transactions with Norway deserve especial consideration. On the death of Canute the Great, as we have just related, the sceptre of that kingdom devolved on Sweyn, who had for some years held the government. But his administration was disliked; he and his mother were equally unpopular; and his father had scarcely been dead a year, when both were expelled from the country by the ascendancy of Magnus the Good, bastard son of St. Olaf.[137] Sweyn took refuge with his nearest brother in Denmark, and died the same year (1036). If the Danish king was feeble, he was not without ambition. He knew that he should succeed to the English throne; and as, after that event, he should be the sole heir of Canute’s extensive empire, he urged his claim to the crown of Norway. Finding Magnus too powerful for him, he met that prince, and concluded a treaty singular in its nature, and in its results important. If either king died without issue, the other was to inherit his dominions. This convention was guaranteed by the chief nobles and prelates of the two countries. Harda-Canute, as we have just related, did die without issue, and the throne of Denmark accordingly fell to

MAGNUS.

1042–1047.

[Sidenote: 1042 to 1044.]

On the arrival of this prince in Denmark, he was received with open arms. He was the son of a saint, with whose miracles the North resounded; and his own virtues (much less questionable than his father’s) justified the expectation of a happy reign. To few princes, indeed, can history accord more virtues than to Magnus; yet he was not deficient in the active duties of his station. The Jomsberg pirates who had revolted, and whose ferocity was the dread of the North, he speedily reduced, and their capital he laid in ashes. This was a service both to the Danes and the Norwegians for which they could not be too grateful. But the former, influenced by fickleness or by attachment to their old line of kings, or by mortification at receiving a sovereign from a country which they had twice conquered, soon cast their eyes on Sweyn, son of Jarl Ulfo and of Estrida, sister of Canute the Great. After his father’s murder[138], this prince sought refuge at the court of the Swedish king. As he approached man’s estate, he grew weary of inactivity, and having something to hope from the generosity of Magnus, he repaired to that monarch in Norway. He did not ask for any portion of Canute’s vast possessions: he wanted employment merely under so generous a monarch; and his request was immediately granted. His talents, his lofty mien, his deportment, and, above all, his skilful flattery, won the confidence of the Norwegian, who made him first minister, and next his lieutenant in Denmark. There was much imprudence in confiding to one so ambitious and so nearly connected with the throne a trust of this nature; but judging of other men’s hearts by his own, Magnus thought that such a trust would for ever bind Sweyn to his interests, and be agreeable to the Danes. On the relics of St. Olaf the young prince swore fidelity to the monarch, and was well received by the people. To deepen this favourable sentiment was his constant care; and by his affability, his attention to his duties, and his liberalities, he completely succeeded. When secure of their affection, he openly revolted. Magnus assembled an armament, proceeded to Denmark, defeated and expelled the usurper, who again sought refuge at the Swedish court.

[Sidenote: 1044 to 1045.]

No sooner was this enemy vanquished, than another appeared in the pagan bands, who occupied all the eastern shores of the Baltic, that are now comprised in the Russian monarchy. These men, scarcely less ferocious than their allies the Jomsberg pirates, invaded Sleswic, wasting every thing with fire and sword. Magnus flew to oppose them, and, after a severe struggle, triumphed. During his absence, Sweyn returned from Sweden, reduced Scania, and passing into Zealand and Funen was again acknowledged by the people. Victory, in two or three successive actions, still declared for the monarch. Yet the cause of Sweyn was not destroyed. In the assistance of the Swedish king, in the adventurers on all the maritime coasts of the Baltic, and still more, in the attachment of the Danes, he had resources which even the power of Magnus was not wholly able to destroy.

[Sidenote: 1045.] A third enemy now appeared in Harald, surnamed _Hardrade_, or the Stern, the son of Sigurd, and the half-brother of St. Olaf. If there be any truth in the ancient sagas, his adventures were most extraordinary. He was present at the last fatal scene of Olaf’s life; and from Norway he fled to the court of the Russian duke Jaroslaf, whose service he entered. With Elisif (Elizabeth), daughter of Jaroslaf, he became deeply enamoured; but his suit being unsuccessful[139], he repaired to Constantinople, and was admitted amongst the Varangians, or Scythian guards of the emperors. By his valour, and his birth, he obtained at length the command of that formidable, though small body, and by his exploits invested his name with much lustre. Heading an expedition against the pirates of the African coast, he was the victor in several battles, and the owner of immense booty, a portion of which he sent to his friends in Russia. He was afterwards employed in Sicily, in Italy, and in a journey to the Holy Land. In all this, there is no great improbability; but what follows is too romantic to be credited. As the reward of his services, Harald had demanded the hand of a princess of the imperial family, and had been refused. “Those Væringjar,” says Snorro, “who were in Miklagard, and received rewards for their services during the war, have said since their return home to the North, that they were told in Greece by wise and grave men of that country, that queen Zoe herself wished for Harald as her husband, and that this in truth was the cause of her resentment, and of his wishing to leave Miklagard, though other reports were spread among the people. For these reasons the king Constantinus Monomachus, who ruled the empire jointly with queen Zoe, ordered Harald to be cast into prison. On his way thither, St. Olaf appeared to him, and promised him protection; and on that same street, a chapel has been since erected, which is standing at this day. Here was Harald imprisoned with Halldór and Ulfr his _men_. The following night there came a noble lady, with two attendants, who let down a cord into the dungeon, and drew up the prisoners. This lady had been before healed by St. Olaf, the king, who revealed to her that she should relieve his brother from captivity. This being done, Harald immediately went to the Væringjar, who all rose up at his approach, and received him with joy. They seized their arms, and went to the chamber where the king slept, and put out his eyes. The same night, Harald went, with his companions, to the chamber in which Maria slept, and carried her away by force. They afterwards proceeded to the place where the gallies of the Væringjar are kept, and, seizing two vessels, rowed into the Bosphorus (Sævidar-sund). When they came to the iron chains which are drawn across the sound, Harald ordered all his men who were not employed in rowing, to crowd to the stern with their baggage, and when the gallies struck upon the chains, to rush forward to the prow, so as to impel the gallies over the chains. The galley in which Harald embarked was carried quite over on to the other side, but the other vessel struck upon the chains, and was lost. Some of her crew perished in the water, but others were saved. In this manner, Harald escaped from Miklagard, and entered the Black Sea, where he set the virgin on shore, with some attendants, to accompany her back to Miklagard, requesting her to tell her cousin, queen Zoe, how little her power could have availed to prevent his carrying off the virgin, if he had been so minded.” The anxiety of Harald was occasioned by the intelligence that his nephew Magnus had ascended the thrones of Norway and Denmark. Proceeding through Russia, he married the daughter of Jaroslaf; and with her returned to Norway through Sweden.[140]

[Sidenote: 1045, 1046.]

On reaching Sweden, where the fame of his riches had preceded him, he entered into a league with Sweyn. The objects of this league are not very clearly defined; but we may infer that one of them was to place Harald on the Norwegian, Sweyn on the Danish throne. The wealth of Harald hired numerous adventurers; and by the two princes the coasts of Denmark were ravaged. Again Magnus prepared an armament to oppose them; but his surer recourse was policy. To detach the celebrated Varangian chief from the cause of the Dane, he offered him half of the Norwegian kingdom (and also no doubt the eventual succession), on the condition of Harald’s allowing in like manner a division of his treasure. The latter eagerly accepted the proposal; he forsook Sweyn, repaired to Norway, divided the treasure, the amount of which is described as wonderfully large, and was admitted to a share in the administration. Contrary to the usual experience of rulers so placed in regard to each other, they lived in harmony to the death of Magnus in the following year. By this defection, or rather by this conversion of an ally into an enemy, Sweyn was compelled to retire. But he had his partisans in Denmark, and Magnus, at his death, had the generosity to declare him his successor in that kingdom. To Harald was left the Norwegian throne. Thus the two adventurers became kings, in little more than a year after the arrival of Harald in the North.

The surname of Harald _the Good_, sufficiently establishes his character. He was indeed an admirable king and a virtuous man. Much praise is awarded to a code of laws which he compiled; but they no longer exist in their original form.

SWEYN II.

1047–1076.

[Sidenote: 1047.]

As with Harda-Canute had ended the ancient male line of Denmark—a line that traced itself to Odin—Sweyn II. may be called the founder of a new dynasty. That dynasty occupied the throne to the extinction of its male line in Valdemar IV., when it was succeeded by the reigning house of Oldenburg.

[Sidenote: 1048 to 1070.]

Scarcely was Sweyn invested with the dignity, when he found an enemy as powerful as Magnus, and less generous, in Harald Hardrade, who claimed the Danish crown. The assertion of this claim led to many years of warfare, ruinous to both kingdoms, but especially to Denmark, the coasts of which were often ravaged. In general the advantage rested with the Norwegian monarch, who, in 1064, obtained a great victory over the Danish fleet at the mouth of the Nissa. With great difficulty Sweyn escaped into Zealand, and began to collect a new armament. Fortunately the mind of Harald was now disposed to peace. Sixteen years of hostilities had brought him little advantage; the fortune of war was dubious; and the Danes, like their king, were averse from a foreign yoke. The two monarchs met, and entered into a treaty, which left affairs just as they had been at the death of Magnus. These were not the only hostilities in which they were engaged. Both undertook predatory expeditions to the English coast; but they could obtain no advantage over the vigilant and intrepid monarch (William I.), who now swayed the sceptre of that kingdom.[145] Sweyn too had the mortification to see his own coasts ravaged (those of Holstein) by the Vandalic pirates, who had renounced Christianity, and who laid both Sleswic and Hamburg in ashes. Before he could reach them they retired. Subsequently he was persuaded to march against the Saxons, then at war with the emperor; but his troops having no inclination to exasperate a people with whom they had long been on terms of amity, he desisted from the undertaking.

[Sidenote: 1066 to 1070.]

Sweyn showed much favour to the church. He built many places of worship, which he endowed with liberality; and he founded four new bishoprics: of these two were in Scania, viz. Lund and Dalby, which were subsequently united; and two in Jutland, viz., Wiburg and Borglum. Yet this liberality did not preserve him from quarrelling with it. His chief vice was incontinence. Numerous were his mistresses, and numerous his offspring: thirteen sons are mentioned, of whom five succeeded him[146]; but the number of his daughters was much inferior; two only appear by history. For this vice he could not hope to escape the censure of holy mother, and he married. He did not, however, marry with that mother’s consent; but chose for his queen a Swedish princess within the prohibited degrees of kindred. When Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, heard of the union, he angrily condemned it, and by his messengers threatened the king with excommunication if he did not separate from the princess. The king resisted, and even threatened to lay Bremen (the legate’s residence) in ashes; but the power of the church was too great even for him to resist, and in the end he dismissed his wife, who had the misfortune to be his cousin. There is no reason to infer, with a recent historian of Denmark[147], that he dismissed her to recal his mistresses; for he was now arrived at an age when the empire of the passions could not be omnipotent. But he was probably taught to believe that a real was less sinful than an imaginary crime—fornication than marriage within the fourth degree.[148]

[Sidenote: 1070.]

In another transaction we must admire, as much as we may here condemn, the conduct of the church. Sweyn was a man of strong passions, and of irritable temperament. In a festival which he gave to his chief nobles in the city of Roskild, some of the guests, heated by wine, indulged themselves in imprudent, though perhaps true, remarks on his conduct. The following morning, some officious tale-bearers acquainted him with the circumstance; and in the rage of the moment he ordered them to be put to death, though they were then at mass in the cathedral—that very cathedral which had been the scene of his own father’s murder.[149] When, on the day following this tragical event, he proceeded to the church, he was met by the bishop, who, elevating the crosier, commanded him to retire, and not to pollute by his presence the house of God—that house which he had already desecrated by blood. His attendants drew their swords, but he forbade them to exercise any degree of violence towards a man who in the discharge of his duty defied even kings. Retiring mournfully to his palace, he assumed the garb of penance, wept and prayed, and lamented his crime during three days. He then presented himself, in the same mean apparel, before the gates of the cathedral. The bishop was in the midst of the service; the _Kyrie Eleison_ had been chaunted, and the _Gloria_ about to commence, when he was informed that the royal penitent was outside the gates. Leaving the altar, he repaired to the spot, raised the suppliant monarch, and greeted him with the kiss of peace. Bringing him into the church, he heard his confession, removed the excommunication, and allowed him to join in the service. Soon afterwards, in the same cathedral, the king made a public confession of his crime, asked pardon alike of God and man, was allowed to resume his royal apparel, and solemnly absolved. But he had yet to make satisfaction to the kindred of the deceased in conformity with the law; and to mitigate the canonical penance, he presented one of his domains to the church. The name of this prelate (no unworthy rival of St. Ambrose) should be embalmed in history. He was an Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastic, William, whom the archbishop of Bremen had nominated to that dignity, and who had previously been the secretary of Canute the Great. During the long period that he had governed the diocese of Roskild, he had won the esteem of all men alike by his talents and his virtues. For the latter he had the reputation of a saint (and he deserved the distinction better than nine-tenths of the semi-deities whose names disgrace the calendar), and for the former, that of a wizard. It is no disparagement to the honour of this apostolic churchman, that he had previously been the intimate friend of the monarch; nor any to that of Sweyn, that after this event he honoured this bishop more than he had done before.

[Sidenote: 1070 to 1076.]

From this time to his death, Sweyn practised with much zeal the observances of the Roman catholic church. By his excessive liberalities he injured his revenues; and by his austerities, perhaps, his health. A faithful portrait is given of him and of his people by one who knew them well, Adam of Bremen. This ecclesiastic, hearing so much in favour of the royal Dane, proceeded to his court, and, like all other strangers, was graciously received. “Sweyn,” says the canon, “is not only liberal towards foreigners, but well versed in literature; and he directs with much ability the missions which he has established in Sweden, Norway, and the isles; from his own mouth have I received most of the facts contained in this history.” In his reign the pagans of Bornholm were first converted to Christianity, by bishop Egin. The image of Frigga, which they had been so long accustomed to venerate, they demolished with contempt. Another proof of their sincerity appeared from their offer of their most valuable effects to the bishop. This, unlike most churchmen of the age, he refused to accept; and advised them to expend it in two noble ways—in the foundation of churches, and the redemption of Christian captives. “The king,” proceeds Adam, “has no vice but incontinence.” The canon speaks of Denmark as consisting almost wholly of islands. “Of them Zealand is the largest and richest, and its inhabitants are the most warlike. Ledra had been, but Roskild was then, the capital. Next to Zealand in importance was Fionia, which was very fertile, but its coasts were exposed to the ravages of the pirates. The capital, Odinsey, was a large city. To cross from one island was perilous, not only from the stormy sea that rolled between them, but from the pirates. Jutland had a barren soil except on the banks of the rivers, the only parts cultivated: the rest of the country consisted of forests, marshes, and wastes, and was hardly passable. The chief towns lay near the narrow bays on the coast. Scania, always geographically, now politically included in Sweden, is represented as fertile, as very populous, and full of churches. No where, indeed, had Denmark much lack of these structures; Fionia, Adam assures us, had 100; Zealand, 150. “Scania is almost an island, and separated from Gothland by large forests and rugged mountains. Here is the city of Lund, where the robbers of the deep laid their treasures. These robbers paid tribute to the Danish king, on the condition of being allowed to exercise their vocation against the barbarians.” Among the Danes, Adam perceives many other things contrary to justice: he sees little indeed to praise beyond the custom of selling into slavery such women as dishonoured themselves. So proud were the men, that they preferred death to stripes; and they marched to the place of execution, not only with an undaunted, but with a triumphant air. Tears and groans they held to be unmanly; and they mourned neither for their wives, nor for their dearest connections.

HARALD III.

SURNAMED HEIN, OR THE GENTLE.

1076–1080.

[Sidenote: 1076.]

As Sweyn left no legitimate offspring, the only claim that could be made was from his numerous bastards. Harald was the eldest; but then as he was of a quiet, gentle nature, he was not very agreeable to a fierce people. On the other hand, Canute, the next brother, had distinguished himself greatly in the wars against the pagans of Livonia. There was, accordingly, a dispute when the states assembled, most declaring for Harald, but all Scania for Canute; and a civil war must have been the result; but for the bribes of two chiefs, who prevailed on the electors of that province to confirm the choice of Harald. After this decision, Canute refused to remain in Denmark, and passed the rest of his brother’s life in his old occupation.

[Sidenote: 1076 to 1080.]

The short reign of Harald affords no materials for history. Silent, reserved, timid, averse to the shedding of blood, even for judicial delinquencies, he was little esteemed. Yet few periods were more happy than that which witnessed his administration. He made new laws, which have been praised and condemned. According to Saxo, whose means of information cannot be disputed, he abolished the judicial combat, and substituted purgation by oath—a change which led to frequent perjury. But if the testimony of Elnoth be admissible, he enacted other laws which were long valued by the people—so valued, that they made every new monarch swear to observe them.

CANUTE IV.

SURNAMED THE SAINT.

1080–1086.

[Sidenote: 1080 to 1085.]

This prince, who had unsuccessfully contended for the crown with his brother Harald, and who was now unanimously elected, was very unlike his predecessor. Fond of martial glory, he prosecuted the war in Livonia, until he had brought it to an advantageous issue. His next project was one of greater magnitude—to subdue England, which the Danes had learned to regard as a revolted province. It is, however, inconceivable how so wild a project could enter the brain of the king, even though the Norwegians engaged to join in its execution, and though he received aid from his father-in-law, Robert, count of Flanders. Perhaps he only aspired to the recovery of Northumbria. But though a large armament was collected, it never sailed, owing to the intrigues of the English monarch, or the revolt of the pagan Vandals, or probably to both causes combined. To pacify the revolted pagans, he sent money and promises, and detained the fleet on the Jutland coast until the result was known. In the mean time, his warriors, ignorant what caused his delay, began to mutiny: when he had punished some, others vainly conspired against his life; while the rest quietly dispersed, and he was compelled to dismiss the Norwegians with gifts. The armament, therefore, led to nothing but disappointment and exasperation.

[Sidenote: 1080 to 1086.]

Internally the administration of this king was distinguished by great vigour and great love of justice. Under the mild sway of his predecessor, and indeed for the greater part of a century, the local governors were so many tyrants, regardless alike of law, of religion, of decency. Of them he made many severe examples; he punished capitally offences which had become almost inveterate; he applied the law of talion to all convicted of striking or mutilating others; he completely reformed the administration, deposing corrupt judges, and replacing them by others of greater integrity, and we may add of greater sternness. Pecuniary fines—the basis of Germanic jurisprudence—were exerted with a rigour never before experienced. In all these measures the king was abundantly justified; but they gave not the less offence to men hardened by long impunity. Open mutiny or smothered discontent, loud menaces, or secret conspiracies, marked the greater part of his short reign. Even the rigour with which he suppressed piracy made him enemies; if it was agreeable to the great body of his people, it was hateful to the licentious nobles who had so long profited by it.

[Sidenote: 1080 to 1086.]

The conduct of St. Canute in regard to the church was no less unpopular. He exempted ecclesiastics from all dependence on the secular tribunals; he placed bishops on the same level with dukes and princes; he brought the clergy into his council, and endeavoured to give them a voice in the assembly of the states. In this policy we see little to condemn. It may be true, in the abstract, that churchmen should be restricted to their peculiar province, the care of souls; but practically they have never been so; and in giving them influence in public affairs,—in converting the bishops into temporal barons, and the higher clergy into local judges,—Canute acted merely in conformity with the spirit of the times. And indeed he seems to have had good reason for that policy. Churchmen were better informed, more regular in their lives, than laymen: he therefore believed that they would make better administrators of the law; and in that belief he increased their powers at the expense of the feudal nobles. He could not foresee that by thus rendering them independent of the crown and of the people, he was preparing a scourge for his successors.

[Sidenote: 1080 to 1086.]

Though these measures raised him many enemies, his prodigality to several churches, and still more, his attempt to make tithes an obligatory impost, rendered three fourths of his people disaffected to his sway. Yet here, too, he is not to be censured by impartial posterity. He, doubtless, saw that if the church must subsist at all, it must not depend solely on so precarious a source as voluntary contributions. He saw that tithes were sanctioned by God’s word, and obligatory in the rest of Christendom; and he thought the impost less oppressive than any other that could be devised. But he did not proceed to his object with sufficient caution; he was too precipitate: he exasperated where he should have conciliated; and he was impatient of the least contradiction to his will. In fact, he was a despot; in most instances a well-meaning one; but his acts were more evident than his motives; and while he had no credit for these, he was hated for those. In another respect he was impolitic. Zealand he conferred, as a fief, on his brother Eric, with the title of Jarl; Sleswic, on his brother Olaf, with the title of Duke; and by so doing set a precedent for the dismemberment of his kingdom.

[Sidenote: 1086.]

When so many causes of dislike existed, the end of Canute could scarcely be one of peace. He could not carry the tithe question in the states-general; but by his own authority he levied a capitation tax, partly as a punishment for the resistance which had been shown to his will, and partly for the use of the clergy. The rigour of the collectors was no less offensive than the tax itself. The inhabitants of Vend-syssel broke out into open revolt, and went in search of the king, who, with his wife, his children, and two brothers, sought refuge in the church of St. Alban in Odinsey. There he was soon invested; the sacred building was forced; his attendants put to the sword, and Benedict, one of his brothers, laid lifeless on the floor. Seeing that his own death was inevitable, the king knelt before the altar, and in that posture, according to one account, received the fatal stroke. Another says that he was killed by a lance through the window. Both agree that he died with resignation.

By the church, Canute was immediately placed in the glorious fellowship of saints and martyrs. His claim to this distinction is rather dubious: if he had been a private individual, or less liberal to the clergy, if he had exhibited greater moral virtues, and founded fewer churches and monasteries, assuredly he would have never been deified,—for canonization may be well called so. His widow returned to her father’s court, accompanied by one only of her sons, Charles. It is not a little singular that the same destiny was reserved for this son as for the father. Becoming count of Flanders, he was slain by his subjects in a church, and, like his father, “inter divos relatus.”

[Sidenote: 1037.]

The people of Jutland, proud of having killed one king, would elect another, and in conformity with the will of Sweyn II., which set aside the children in favour of the brothers, they passed over the infant sons of St. Canute, and chose Olaf, duke of Sleswic, the third son of Sweyn. Olaf was at that time a kind of prisoner at the court of count Robert of Flanders, whither he had been sent by his despotic brother, on the suspicion of complicity in the mutiny of the fleet. But of that complaint there is no evidence. A heavy ransom is said to have been exacted by the count, before he was permitted to join his new subjects.[150]

OLAF II.

SURNAMED FAMELICUS, OR THE HUNGRY.

1087–1095.

During the reign of this prince, Denmark had one blessing,—that of peace. But it had also one curse,—that of famine, which the clergy declared to be a divine infliction for the murder of the sainted martyr, Canute. The people, we are told, died by thousands and tens of thousands, for lack of the mere necessaries of life; and to this cause, if Saxo be correct, is to be attributed the tranquillity of the country. Horses and even dogs were the ordinary nourishment of the people. In a country where agriculture was despised, a barren season could not fail to produce famine; our only surprise is that the visitation was not more frequent. Prince Olaf bore all the blame; it was his fault, not want of foresight in his subjects, that occasioned the evil. His personal character does not seem to have been amiable. He is represented as avaricious, despotic, unfeeling; as regardless of the laws and their administration; hence tyranny in the great, and licentiousness in the people. According to one account, he was found dead in his bed, after an entertainment which he had given or intended to have given to his nobles and clergy: according to another, he died of a natural disease, regretted by nobody. If the prayer which Saxo puts into his mouth were really his, he does not merit the severity with which he has been treated. Afflicted at the continuance of the famine, he said:—“O Lord, I can no longer endure the weight of thine hand! If thou art wroth with my people, spare them, and let me alone suffer!”

ERIC III.

SURNAMED THE GOOD.

1095–1103.

[Sidenote: 1095, 1096.]

Eric was the fourth son of Sweyn II., and from the jarldom of Jutland was raised by the states to the throne of that kingdom. As the next harvest was one of abundance, the people were again contented, and he obtained credit for the abundance with the same injustice as his brother had been condemned for the famine. More active than his predecessor, he administered the laws with vigour; and he destroyed Jomsberg, the stronghold of the pirates, who had again reared their heads during the preceding reign. To keep them in continued subjection, he erected fortresses in their country, and garrisoned them well.

[Sidenote: 1097 to 1103.]

The most remarkable event of this monarch’s reign is the erection of Lund into an archbishoprick. Hitherto, Denmark had depended entirely on the archbishop of Bremen, whose jurisdiction extended over the whole North. The king disputed with the haughty prelate Liemar, who then occupied the see, and by whom he was excommunicated. Instead of submitting, Eric appealed to Rome, and even visited that city to plead his cause in person. He gained it and returned triumphant to his own kingdom. Subsequently (in 1103), on his way to the Holy Land, he again visited the Eternal City, and prevailed on the pope to invest Lund with the metropolitan privileges. The pope could refuse nothing to the brother of a saint, who almost equalled that brother in devotion to the church: besides, the immense authority held by the archbishops of Bremen had rendered them dangerous when they had taken, as they had usually done, the part of the German emperors against the Roman see. By the bull issued on this occasion, Adgar, a descendant of the famous Palnatoko, became primate of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the islands dependent on those kingdoms.

[Sidenote: 1103.]

The cause of Eric’s pilgrimage, from which he was destined never to return, is not well known; but it was probably to expiate an homicidal act which he had perpetrated in a fit of anger or of drunkenness. The idle fable of Saxo, that while under the influence of music he killed four of his attendants (or soldiers of his guard), is characteristic enough of that writer, but has obtained no credit in this country since the authors of the Universal History adopted it. Whatever the cause, he resolved to visit the Holy Land, and that too in opposition to the prayers and tears of his people, by whom he was cherished. Passing through Rome, where, as we have just related, he obtained the erection of Lund into a metropolitan see, he repaired to Constantinople. By Alexis Comnenus he was received with much distinction; though for some time he was narrowly watched, lest, with all his piety, he should place himself at the head of the Varangian guard, and become troublesome to his host. His manners soon dispelled this diffidence, and he was splendidly entertained. Being supplied not only with provisions and vessels, but with a liberal store of gold, he sailed for Palestine; but, landing in the isle of Cyprus, he fell a victim to a pestilential disease.

[Sidenote: 1103.]

Eric III. was one of the best princes that ever swayed the Danish sceptre. “With his people,” says an ancient writer, “he lived like a father with his children; and no one left his presence dissatisfied.” Hence his surname of _the Good_. He never undertook any important matter without consulting his states. His chief fault was incontinence. If, as we are assured, he refrained from the bed of his queen, it was only to indulge himself the more freely with his concubines, of whom he had a considerable number. Saxo assures us that, so far from being offended with her royal lord for this frailty, she admitted the favoured ladies into her own suite, and assisted to adorn them for his gratification. Yet Eric was not far from canonization; and but for this frailty he would probably have obtained the honour. His liberality to the church, his pilgrimage, his settlement of the Cistercians in his dominions, and his foundation at Lucca of a cloister for the accommodation of Danish palmers, procured him the epithet of saint from more than one writer of the times.

NICHOLAS.

1105–1134.

[Sidenote: 1103 to 1105.]

After Eric’s death there was an interregnum of two years. He had left his son Harald governor of the realm during his absence; but the conduct of that prince was so unpopular, that when the states assembled they excluded both him and his brothers, and resolved to choose some one of his uncles. The eldest, named Sweyn, died before he could be elected. Ubbo, the next prince, refused the dignity; which then descended to Nicholas, the next in age.

[Sidenote: 1105 to 1126.]

The long reign of this monarch was one of calamities, occasioned chiefly by his jealousy of his nephew Canute, second son of the late king. Henry king of the Obotrites, a Slavonic people who dwelt on the Baltic coast from Mecklenburg to Pomerania, was nearly connected with the royal house of Denmark, his mother being Sigritha, daughter of Sweyn II. As the Obotrites had been subdued by at least two Danish kings, and forced to embrace Christianity, they were regarded in the light of vassals. But Henry, more powerful than any of his predecessors, since he had reduced other Slavonic tribes to his yoke, would be no vassal to Denmark, though he was certainly one to Germany. He first demanded his mother’s dowry, which he asserted had never been paid; and when it was refused, invaded the southern part of Jutland. Nicholas marched against him, and was defeated. To arrest the career of the invader was reserved for Canute, who had been invested by his father with the ducal fief of Sleswic. This prince not only cleared the duchy of its invaders, but carried the war into the country of the Obotrites. Henry now sued for peace, and was thenceforth the friend of his nephew. Canute had saved Denmark from many evils; and his conduct now showed that he was no less excellent a governor than he had been a general. He exterminated the banditti, restored the empire of the laws, and caused the arts of life to flourish. His reputation gave much umbrage to the king; nor was that feeling diminished when, after the death of Henry, he was presented by the emperor Lothair with the vacant regal fief. With this augmented power he maintained tranquillity the more easily, not in his ducal fief only, but in the whole of Denmark. His eldest brother Harald, whose vices had excluded him from the throne, made many hostile irruptions into Jutland; but Eric, his next brother, was no less ready than he to protect that kingdom.

[Sidenote: 1126 to 1132.]

The contrast between the conduct of Nicholas and of Canute made a deep impression on the Danes. On two of them, the king and his son, it was no less painful than it was deep. To hasten his destruction was the object of both. The first attempt was to accuse him of some crime in the assembly of the states; but he defended himself so powerfully, that he was unanimously absolved. Disappointed in this view, Magnus requested an interview with him, under the pretext of settling all differences amicably; and, while unsuspicious of danger, assassinated him. All Denmark was in instant commotion. The kindred of the victim hastened to the meeting of the states, and displaying his bloody garments, called for vengeance on the murderers. To escape the popular indignation, Magnus fled into Sweden; but Nicholas, who relied on the support of a party, endeavoured to brave the storm. He was, however, solemnly deposed, and Eric, the brother of Canute, elected in his stead. But he refused to comply with the decree. He collected troops, and took the field against his rival, who exhibited no less activity in his own behalf. In the civil war which followed, the bishops took part, and fought like the temporal nobles. Canute had been the vassal of Lothair, and had demanded the assistance of the empire; and that monarch collecting a small army, marched into Jutland to co-operate with Eric in avenging the death of Canute. Seeing that the junction of the emperor and Eric must be fatal to his cause, Nicholas withdrew the former from the alliance by the offer of a large sum of money, and by consenting to hold Denmark as a fief of the empire. Lothair then returned, leaving the fortune of war to decide between the two kings.

[Sidenote: 1132 to 1134.]

The retreat of the Germans was the signal for renewed and more fierce hostilities between the rivals. With his usual perversity Harald forsook the cause of his brother Eric, to fight for Nicholas; and Magnus, who had powerful armies in Sweden, brought reinforcements to the war. Success was varied: on the deep Magnus was defeated; on the land, Eric. But some acts of more than usual barbarity perpetrated by Nicholas and Harald at Roskild, diminished the number of their supporters. Still they were enabled to make another stand on the coast near the gulf of Fodvig in Scania. Victory declared for Eric: Magnus fell in the battle; and Nicholas, with much difficulty, escaped into Jutland. Among the slain were five bishops, and sixty priests. As Magnus was dead, Nicholas declared Harald, the brother of Eric, his successor,—a declaration which did no good to his own cause. To escape the pursuit of his rival, he threw himself into Sleswic, which was better fortified than any city in the North. But this was an imprudent act: in that city the memory of Canute was idolized; and there he was massacred by some members of a fraternity of which the deceased prince had been the head. Thus fell a monarch who in the early part of his reign had afforded his subjects reason to hope that he would prove a blessing to the realm, but whose subsequent conduct had covered him with universal odium.

ERIC IV.

SURNAMED EMUND.

1135–1137.

[Sidenote: 1135 to 1137.]

In the reign of Eric IV., who on the death of his rival succeeded to the government of the whole kingdom, there is little for history. One of his first exploits was to put to death his brother Harald, and eleven sons of that prince. There was a twelfth, Olaf, who escaped into Sweden, and became in the sequel king of Denmark. He next pursued the Vend pirates into their stronghold of Arcona, which he took and destroyed. On his return, he applied himself with zeal to the administration of justice; and was assassinated by a Jutland chief, whose father or brother he had judicially condemned to death. This tragedy took place in the midst, not merely of his court, but of his people, while presiding over an assembly of the Jutland states.

There were candidates for the crown,—1. Canute the son of Magnus, and consequently grandson of Nicholas; 2. Sweyn, a natural son of Eric IV.; 3.Valdemar, the son of Canute king of the Obotrites, who had been murdered by Magnus, and who in 1170 was canonized, like the martyr of that name who had ruled over Denmark. The bias of the assembly was evidently in favour of Valdemar; but as both he and the two other candidates were of tender years, the choice fell on a grandson of Eric the Good by a daughter.

ERIC V.

SURNAMED THE LAMB.

1137–1147.

[Sidenote: 1137 to 1147.]

The surname of this king will sufficiently explain his character. He was indeed one of the most pacific of men. Yet he was compelled to fight for his crown; for Olaf, the only son of Harald that had escaped the bloody proscriptions of Eric Emund, appeared at the head of a considerable force, and claimed it. That if hereditary right only was to be consulted, the claim was a valid one, is certain, for he was the only representative of his father, the eldest son of Eric the Good. But the Danish throne was elective; and though the claim was confined to one family, little regard was paid to primogeniture. After many alternations of fortune, Olaf was vanquished and slain (1143). But Eric himself was conquered by the Slavonic pirates of the Baltic, who, though so frequently humbled (if any credit is to be placed in the national historians), soon re-appeared in numbers formidable enough to alarm the kingdom. This check, and the consequent decline of his reputation in the eyes of a warlike people, induced him soon afterwards to resign the crown, and to profess as monk in the cloister of Odinsey.

[Sidenote: 1147.]

On the retirement of Eric the Lamb, the three princes who had before been rejected on account of their youth were again candidates. Valdemar being deemed still too young, the choice was restricted to the other two. Unfortunately for the interests of order both were elected,—Sweyn by the Lands Thing of Scania and Zealand, Canute by the people of Jutland.

CANUTE V. SWEYN III. 1147–1156. 1147–1157.

[Sidenote: 1147 to 1157.]

That the division of the sovereignty would inevitably lead to civil war might have been foreseen by the blindest. It was a long and a bloody one, which, though suspended for a time through the efforts of the pope, who wished all Christendom to arm against the infidels, burst out with renewed fury. Adzer, archbishop of Lund, led the Danish host against the pagans of the Baltic; but the expedition was inglorious; and the remnant which returned from it embraced one of the two parties. The fortunes of both varied; but when Valdemar, the favourite of the nation, joined Sweyn, the advantage was on the side of that king, who gained at least three battles over his rival. At one time Canute was driven from the realm, and forced to seek shelter at the court of the emperor Conrad III. But tranquillity was not the result of his retirement. The Wendish pirates, not satisfied with having defeated the archbishop, and incited by the agitated state of the public mind, ravaged the coasts both of Jutland and of the isles. Finding their king and nobles unable to protect them, the people entered into armed fraternities, which were consecrated by religion. They not only defended their own coasts, but equipped vessels to cruise in the Baltic, and to surprise such of the pagan ships as they might find detached from the rest. In a few years twenty-two of these vessels took above eighty of the enemy’s. Still these were partial, isolated effects, which had little influence over the general mass of misery. When Canute returned as the vassal of the empire, the civil war again raged. Frederic Barbarossa, as the lord paramount, now interfered, and meeting the two parties, decreed that while the title of king of Denmark should be left to the victorious Sweyn, Canute should reign over Zealand as a fief of the Danish crown. This award satisfied neither party, and least of all the nation, which was indignant with both of them for sacrificing its independence to the emperor. Sweyn refused to cede Zealand to his rival; and the civil war was about to recommence, when Valdemar, to whose valour Sweyn owed every thing, prevailed on the one to give and the other to accept, in lieu of that island, certain domains in Jutland and Scania. Peace therefore was procured for the moment; but it was a hollow peace, which the accident of an hour might break.

[Sidenote: 1152 to 1156.]

The advantage which Sweyn had gained by the aid of Valdemar he lost by his misconduct. He adopted the German costume; imitated the German manners; expressed much contempt for every thing Danish as in the highest degree barbarous; seldom appeared at the national Thing; restored the old judicial ordeal of duel; became luxurious; and levied high contributions on his people. A disastrous expedition into Sweden made him despised as well as hated; and on his return into Scania, he was assailed by the yellings of the infuriated populace. Something worse than this result would have been experienced by him, had not a chief, named Tycho, one of the most influential in the province, rescued him from his position. When at liberty, he allowed his licentious followers to plunder the inhabitants. Many he put to death; and among them was the brave man who had saved him from their fury. This atrocious ingratitude lost him the favour of Valdemar, who passed over to the side of Canute, and cemented the alliance by marrying the sister of that prince. It was now the object of Sweyn to seize both princes, either openly or by stratagem; but they were on their guard; and each was always surrounded by armed attendants. At length he was vanquished, and forced to seek a temporary asylum in Saxony. But he obtained succour from the duke of that province, and from the archbishop of Bremen, who could never forgive the Danes for forcing the abolition of his jurisdiction over the North, and allied himself with the Slavonic pirates, who were always ready to join any party that offered them plunder. At the head of these forces he returned, and compelled the people to receive him as their king. Again Valdemar and Canute marched against him; but the former, pitying the sufferings of the people, offered his mediation, and tranquillity was for the moment reestablished. The chief condition of this treaty was, that the kingdom should be divided into _three_ sovereignties; that Sweyn should have Scania, Canute the isles, and Valdemar Jutland, in addition to his duchy of Sleswic. The whole people abandoned themselves to joy, and Sweyn pretending to join in it, gave a magnificent entertainment to his brother kings in the castle of Roskilda. But at that very festival, he ordered both to be assassinated. Canute fell; but Valdemar, who defended himself courageously, escaped into Jutland.

[Sidenote: 1156 to 1157.]

The reputation of Valdemar, and above all his words, easily induced the people to espouse his cause. Pursued by his active enemy, he was constrained to fight before his preparations were completed. The result, however, was indecisive. In a subsequent and more general action, near Viburg, Sweyn was defeated and compelled to flee. He was eagerly pursued by the victors, who overtook him in a morass, from which the weight of his armour prevented him from emerging; and he was immediately beheaded. Never did the Danes suffer more than under this unworthy prince. Enfeebled at home, degraded abroad, without government or security for either person or substance, they were sunk even in their own estimation. But for these disasters they could only blame themselves; they were the inevitable results of their own folly in dividing the monarchy.

VALDEMAR I.

SURNAMED THE GREAT.

1157–1182.

[Sidenote: 1157 to 1169.]

Never was the joy of people greater than that of the Danes when Valdemar, whose talents had been tried on so many occasions, succeeded to the undivided throne. They had need of an enlightened, a patriotic, an active, a firm governor to rescue them from anarchy at home, and humiliation abroad. One of his most urgent objects was to secure his coasts against the pagan rovers. In his first expedition, however, he effected little; his armament was inadequate to the undertaking. In the second, he subdued most of the isle of Rugen, and obtained great plunder. In the third, he had for his ally Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony; and both princes overran the maritime coasts of the Baltic, dictating such terms as they pleased. But such expeditions had never any permanent effect. If the pagans submitted, or fled, scarcely was their victor beyond the confines of their territory, than they recommenced their lawless career. It was so with Valdemar; it had been so with the most valiant of his predecessors. Five or six armaments in succession had only the temporary result we have mentioned. He saw that unless he entirely destroyed their strongholds, cut in pieces their gods, and converted them sincerely to Christianity, no peace was to be expected from them. With these intentions, in 1169, he led another armament against the isle of Rugen, and assailed Arcona. It was situated on the northern extremity of the island, and so defended by nature and art as to be thought impregnable. To the inhabitants Christianity had been announced; but no sooner were the visitors departed, than they reverted to their idolatry, and expelled the missionaries. To their gigantic idol, Svantovit, they offered human sacrifices, and believed a Christian to be the most acceptable of all. The high-priest had unbounded power over them. He was the interpreter of the idol’s will; he was the great augur; he prophesied; nobody but him could approach the deity. The treasures laid at the idol’s feet from most parts of the Slavonic world were immense. Then there was a fine white horse, which the high-priest only could approach; and in it the spirit of the deity often resided. The animal was believed to undertake immense journeys every night, while sleep oppressed mortals. Three hundred chosen warriors formed a guard of honour to the idol; they too brought all which they took in war to the sanctuary. There was a prestige connected with the temple; it was regarded as the palladium not of the island merely, but of Slavonic freedom; and all approach to it was carefully guarded. Waldemar was not dismayed. He pushed with vigour the siege of Arcona; and was about to carry it by assault, when his two military churchmen, Absalom bishop of Roskild, and Eskil archbishop of Lund, advised him to spare the idolaters upon the following conditions: that they would deliver him their idol with all the treasure; that they would release, without ransom, all their Christian slaves; that all would embrace, and with constancy, the gospel of Christ; that the lands now belonging to their priests should be transferred to the support of Christian churches; that, whenever required, they would serve in the armies of the king; that they would pay him an annual tribute. Hostages being given for the performance of these stipulations, the invaders entered the temple, and proceeded to destroy Svantovit, under the eyes of a multitude of pagans, who expected every moment to see a dreadful miracle. The idol was so large, that they could not at once hurl it to the ground, lest it should fall on some one, and the pagans be enabled to boast of its having revenged itself. They broke it in pieces; and the wood was cut up into logs for the fires of the camp. Great was the amazement of the spectators to witness this tameness on the part of so potent a god; and they could only account for it by inferring that Christ was still more powerful. The temple was next burnt; and so were three others, all with idols. The numerous garrisons of the island were made to capitulate; the victors returned to Denmark in triumph; and missionaries were sent to instruct the inhabitants in the doctrines and duties of Christianity. At the instance of bishop Absalom, the island was annexed to the diocese of Roskild. This was a glorious and it was an enduring conquest; a fierce people were converted into harmonised subjects, and piracy lost its great support.

[Sidenote: 1169 to 1175.]

But with this vigorous effort, piracy was not extirpated: on the contrary, the Danish coasts were themselves ravaged the following year by the Slavonians. This disaster was owing to the anger of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, who had sent a contingent to the corps of Valdemar. He had probably not expected the reduction of Rugen; he certainly was jealous of his ally’s success; and, to provoke a breach, he demanded half of the treasures, of the captives, of the hostages, and of the tribute stipulated to be paid. There was probably some justice in the demand; but the king refused to comply with it, and Henry, in great anger, informed the Slavonians that they might consider themselves at liberty to inflict whatever injuries they could on the Danes. How this prince had acquired so great an ascendency over these people; how they came to call themselves his vassals, is one of those problems which history cannot solve. There must have been treaties, and marriages, and conquests, which chroniclers have omitted. The fact of his ascendency is indisputable. “He was the only prince on earth,” says Helmold, “that could put a bridle into the mouth of that ferocious people, and direct it at his pleasure.” The vast restless tribes, from Courland to Mecklenburgh, wanted only this stimulus to rise; and they did rise, in numbers too formidable to be resisted. Valdemar and his ministers suffered the tide to roll on: they had the mortification to witness its ravages on their shores; but when it had spent a portion of its fury, they raised an armament, cleared their shores, passed into the Baltic, and, after some advantages, carried the war into the Vandalic territories.[151] But what salutary impression could be made on a people who, at the approach of an enemy, plunged, with their substance, into the impenetrable recesses of their forests, and returned the moment that enemy retired? Jomsberg, indeed, one of the most flourishing maritime cities in Europe, was taken, and its great treasures became the prize of the victors; but the place had been taken before by Canute the Great in 1010, and Magnus the Good in 1044. No sooner was it demolished, than it began to rise from its ruins. Valdemar therefore perceived that, as he could not exterminate these numerous tribes, who often acted in a general confederation, and were always ready to descend upon his coasts, his only hope was in the friendly interference of the Saxon duke. He therefore met that sovereign, conceded all his demands, and had the satisfaction to see Henry issue his mandate, that the Danish coasts should no longer be molested. For some years they were not; but a very precarious surety was that which depended on the will of another person—a person who might, at any moment, change his policy, or whose influence might be destroyed by death.

The two prelates whose names we have mentioned, Eskil and Absalom, had great influence over the king, and over all the affairs of the realm. They were ministers of state as well as bishops, and able generals no less than ministers. Eskil had been educated at Hildesheim, one of the best schools in Germany at that period. His first preferment was a stall in the cathedral of Lund; and he rose through the gradations of the hierarchy to the see of Roskild, and lastly to the archbishopric of Lund, with the primacy of the North. The Danish kings soon found that the church had succeeded to more than the authority of the ancient pontiffs. Under the old system there was not a distinct priesthood; any chief of his clan—any at least who could trace his descent to the deified heroes of the North—could sacrifice. But now all the offices of religion were reserved to a body which, from its indissoluble unity, its vast possessions, its exclusive privileges, its favour with the pope, and its sanctity in the eyes of the people, was nearly irresistible. Eskil, while bishop of Roskild, contended with Eric Emund for the rights of his church—not with spiritual arms merely, but with the temporal sword. Being defeated, he was condemned to pay a fine of twenty pounds of gold. This hostility to the royal will did not prevent Eric’s successor from procuring his elevation to the archiepiscopal throne of Lund. In the civil wars between Eric the Lamb and Olaf the son of Harald, he adhered to his lawful sovereign, and was consequently expelled from his see; but on the restoration of the royal authority, he also was restored. In those battles between Sweyn and Canute, the predecessor of Valdemar, he for some time fought valiantly for the former; but, like Valdemar, he turned to the latter, for whom he drew the sword with equal valour. At one time he was a prisoner, but was released through the interposition of his friends, and, above all, through the sanctity of his character, which rendered him amenable only to the pope. It was soon his lot to dispute with Valdemar, on the question of the schism which divided the church. He declared for Alexander, and in so doing acted in concert with the whole Christian world, except Germany, or rather the German emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, who espoused the cause of Victor. Valdemar, influenced by the emperor, followed the same party, and so did Absalom, the friend of the king. For this adhesion Absalom was excommunicated by his metropolitan; but, aided by the king, he resisted: recourse was had to arms, to try which pope had the better right to the tiara; and the result being unfortunate to Eskil, he was compelled to retire into Sweden. At length he sued for pardon, and obtained it, on the condition of his returning into the royal hands some of the domains which the prodigality of former kings had bestowed on the church of Lund. Some time afterwards he resigned his dignity, and retired to the monastery of Clairvaux, in France. To that retirement he gave the preference, from his intimacy with St. Bernard. He had founded in Denmark five monasteries of the same order (that of St. Benedict reformed); and, notwithstanding his martial prowess, he was regarded by the inmates of Clairvaux as half a saint, especially after his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He died in 1181.

[Sidenote: 1175 to 1179.]

The successor of Eskil in the primacy was bishop Absalom. This churchman, a native of Zealand, and descended from one of the noblest families in Denmark, was the most warlike prelate of the age. His attachment to Roskild was such, that he at first refused the dignity, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the electors, and the commands of the king. He would not separate from a people with whom he had been so long acquainted; and to hold both sees was contrary to the canons. When entreaties and rewards were equally ineffectual, application was made to the pope, who commanded him, under ecclesiastical penalties, to assume the primacy, with the legatine authority, and at the same time to hold the see of Roskild. He therefore submitted, and undertook the multitude of affairs rendered necessary by so many posts—chief minister of state, general, admiral, judge, bishop, archbishop, legate: how he found time for all his duties may well surprise us. His military talents were of a high order; and his arms were not suffered to rust after his elevation. He had often assisted to subdue the Wend pirates; and against them he would now defend his flock, on the more exposed coasts of his diocese. For this purpose he caused rude huts to be erected on various parts of the coast; and leaving his palace to his clergy, he resided in one or the other of these, according to the exigencies of the occasion. Day and night he was ready to repel any attack of the pirates on his humble flock. Neither the wintry storm, nor the extreme cold, could prevent him from cruising off the coast in search of the enemy. He was even known to leave the altar when danger approached, and to wield the sword with an arm which few lay nobles could equal. Thus, he was one Palm Sunday informed that the pirates had disembarked, and were ravaging the district. Throwing aside his mitre, his crosier, and his pontifical vestments, he hastily assumed his armour, summoned his household dependents, marched to the spot, and compelled them to retire with great loss to their ships. But if he was thus martial, he was by no means inattentive to the duties of his station. He was an active bishop, and a generous patron of letters. By him Sweyn Aggesen and Saxo Grammaticus were enabled to write their respective histories. He paid great attention to the school which Eskil had founded; and, in the distribution of church patronage (and his was immense), he always gave the preference to the men, who, _cæteris paribus_, excelled in literature. Hence he exercised a much greater influence than his predecessor over the destinies of the kingdom. In the Thing his voice was always heard with respect; he was a stout advocate for the national independence; and his ascendency alike over the sovereign and nobles frequently enabled him to restore peace when other means of reconciliation were wanting. Nor must we omit to state, that to him the city of Copenhagen owes its origin. In 1168 it was a mere fishing village. The bishop erected a fortress on the spot as a defence against the sea-rovers, and in it placed a strong garrison. The security afforded by the place attracted many settlers to it; it rose into wealth and population, and by Valdemar was annexed to the see of Roskild, to remain dependent on an authority which had called it into existence. By the successors of Absalom it was endowed with a municipal charter, and its privileges confirmed by the crown.

[Sidenote: 1176 to 1179.]

There was but one circumstance to diminish the popularity of Valdemar and his archbishop. The latter, a strenuous advocate of all ecclesiastical privileges, persuaded the former to enforce the collection of tithes even by the sword. The ascendency of their characters, and the services which both had rendered to the country, averted mischiefs, that would have followed had any other persons acted with equal rigour in regard to that obnoxious impost. Both thought that resistance to this impost was double guilt—rebellion and impiety,—and on this belief they acted. But they had other reasons for severity. The Scanians, who most distinguished themselves by their hostility to the impost, were also unfriendly to bishops, and still more to clerical celibacy. Nor were they satisfied with remonstrances; they flew to arms, and the archbishop was compelled to retire. But he retired only to collect an armed force; and being joined by the king, he returned to the province. As both were lenient, they tried what could be effected by negotiation. But the insurgents were impracticable: probably they believed that both were afraid of them; and they persisted in their rebellion, until they were routed with great loss. Their only resource was to throw themselves on the king’s mercy, and they were readily pardoned. Still they refused to pay the tithes; and as Valdemar dreaded greater evils, he prevailed on the archbishop to suspend the collection until the minds of his flock were more accessible to reason.

[Sidenote: 1166 to 1177.]

Long before the death of Valdemar, the states of the kingdom, grateful for the services which he was every day rendering to his people, at the perpetual risk of his own life, declared his son Canute his successor. In 1177 the young prince was joined in the administration.

[Sidenote: 1180.]

The transactions of Valdemar with the sovereigns of Norway will be noticed in the chapter devoted to the history of that kingdom. Those with the empire were of a more complicated and not less interesting character. It was the object of Conrad III. and of Frederic Barbarossa, to make both him and his kingdom entirely dependent on the empire. To the latter this object was of greater importance, since in his perpetual disputes with the spiritual head of Christendom he wanted all the support that could be obtained. As little could be effected by embassy, he had at least two interviews with Valdemar, who was accompanied by Absalom. On the first occasion Frederic rather forced than persuaded him into an act of homage. There are writers who contend that this homage was rendered only for the conquests which the king had made on the Baltic coast, or at most for the duchy of Sleswic. The contrary, however, is apparent from written instruments. On another occasion the emperor had need of Valdemar’s aid against the duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion; and the king conducted that aid in person. Arriving with his fleet at Lubeck, his majestic presence won the admiration of the German princes. From the emperor he received many favours, and the question of homage for the kingdom of Denmark was this time waived. We are not told why Valdemar so readily abandoned the Saxon duke (whose daughter was the wife of his son Canute) for the emperor; but interest was probably the chief motive. Flattered by the proposal of a two-fold matrimonial alliance between his family and that of Hohenstauffen, he left the unfortunate Henry to his fate. These alliances, however, were not solemnised, owing to the youth of the parties, and still more to the heavy sum demanded by Frederic as dowry.

[Sidenote: 1182.]

On his return to his own dominions, Valdemar was preparing for another expedition against the Slavonians,—probably to reduce them under his sceptre, and to obtain the same ascendency over them as Henry the Lion had possessed—when death surprised him in Zealand, in the forty-eighth year of his age. Never was monarch more lamented; he was indeed a great and a good one. As a conqueror, and a conqueror over savage enemies, whose humiliation was necessary to the repose of the kingdom, he was celebrated throughout Europe. But he was also a legislator. Three different codes emanated from his authority:—the law of Scania, which was founded on the ancient customs of the inhabitants, was also amplified by new provisions, rendered necessary by an improved state of society. Such as were essentially pagan were rejected; others, pagan in their origin, were easily made applicable to Christian times. This code was published in two parts,—the ecclesiastical and the civil—the former in 1162, the latter in the following year. 2. The Zealand law or code was also founded on the unwritten observances of the inhabitants; which observances were altered, modified, curtailed, or amplified, according to the actual necessities of the period. They were published in 1171, and were also divided into two portions—the civil and the ecclesiastical. These codes, with the addition of the Jutland law, which was added by Valdemar II. form the basis of the present law of Denmark. From the reign of this able monarch, the rights of all classes in the community were more clearly defined. But those of the agricultural class were not improved by the change of circumstances. Prior to Valdemar’s reign even the peasants attended the provincial Thing in arms. They exercised the right of suffrage which they had derived from their pagan ancestors, with as much freedom as the noble. But when feudality made such progress in the kingdom; when compelled to exchange their allodial for vassalitic lands, and to march at the bidding of their temporal or ecclesiastical chief, they lost their noble independence. Yet from evil comes good. Many of them had been unruly subjects; if unable to carry any thing by clamour, they had used their arms with better effect, and through their numerical superiority, they had too often prevailed on the calm wisdom of the old chiefs. Now they were no longer allowed to appear in arms, and the change was a blessing.

CANUTE VI.

1182–1202.

[Sidenote: 1182.]

This prince had been crowned in his father’s lifetime and from his fourteenth year had been admitted to a share in the government. His accession therefore to the undivided sovereignty was expected to pass without opposition. But the people of Scania elected another sovereign—Harald, a grandson of prince Magnus. The contest, however, was short lived; they were reduced, and their ruler compelled to flee into Sweden.

[Sidenote: 1182 to 1189.]

The reign of this monarch was one of conquest and of prosperity. Soon after his accession, Absalom the archbishop led an armament against Bogislas duke of Pomerania, who exhibited ill-will to Denmark and her vassals, and obtained a complete victory over the enemy. During the two following years the warlike operations continued, and Bogislas at length was compelled to throw himself on the royal mercy. Besides offering a large quantity of gold, he did homage for all his possessions to Canute. The two dukes of Mecklenburgh were also reduced, and acknowledged fealty to him. The submission of two such provinces, which had been dependent on Henry the Lion, and had subsequently acknowledged the superiority of the empire, filled the king with so much pleasure, that he assumed the title of king of the Vandals. To this title he had, in his opinion, a two-fold claim: first, in virtue of the investiture of his ancestor, Canute duke of Sleswic, with the royal fief of the Obotrites[152]; and, secondly, in virtue of his present conquests.

[Sidenote: 1183 to 1188.]

To assume the feudal supremacy over these regions was a blow struck at the authority of the emperor Frederic Barbarossa. Between these potentates there was a misunderstanding from the very commencement of Canute’s reign. Frederic invited him to his court under the pretext of drawing more closely the amicable bonds which had been formed between him and Valdemar; but as the king suspected that this was only a lure to enforce the payment of homage, he evaded compliance. It soon appeared that such was indeed the intention; for he was formally summoned to visit the diet for that purpose. A second refusal to attend so exasperated Frederic that he threatened to confer the fief of Denmark on some other vassal. The king replied, that before he could give it, he must first take it. All negotiation being useless, the emperor offered the greatest insult to the majesty of Denmark, by sending back to her own country the sister of Canute, who had been betrothed to his second son, the duke of Swabia. From this moment the breach was irreparable; and the king turned with more zeal to the cause of his father-in-law Henry the Lion.

[Sidenote: 1191 to 1202.]

The next three years were years of tranquillity for the realm; but its peace was now disturbed by a bishop and a member of the royal family. Valdemar, a bastard son of Canute V., held the see of Sleswic. In addition, the king had conferred on him the government of the duchy until Valdemar, the king’s brother, for whom the fief was destined, reached an age fit to govern. When that age arrived, the prince was knighted, and at the same time invested with the duchy, of which he hastened to take possession. The bishop had tasted the sweets of power, and he was deeply hurt at its withdrawal: from that moment he became the enemy of the king. Determined on revenge, he entered into alliance with all whom he knew to be hostile to Canute; and, among others, with Adolf of Schawenburg, count of Holstein. When his preparations were matured, he threw off the mask, declaring that his right to the Danish throne was as good as the king’s, and demanding a share of the sovereignty. Passing into Norway, which at that time was not on friendly terms with Denmark, he obtained supplies, returned to the latter kingdom, and assumed the royal title. At the same period another army, led by the count of Holstein, marched towards the Eyder to support his views. To Canute it was evident that their operations could not be long sustained; that the invaders would soon be in want of provisions, and disperse of themselves. Instead therefore of risking an action, he quietly watched the motions of the bishop. The result justified his policy; the treasures of Valdemar were speedily exhausted; his mercenaries disappeared; he threw himself on the royal mercy; but was conducted a close prisoner to a strong fortress in Zealand (1194). Adolf yet remained; the king marched against him, and forced him to sue for peace. But that peace was of short duration. The count being required to do homage to Canute for some of the domains which he had obtained by the deposition of Henry the Lion, refused to acknowledge any other superior than the emperor; and to fortify himself against the vengeance of the king, he entered into an alliance with the margrave of Brandenburg, whose territory adjoined the Vandalic dominions of the Dane, and who had an interest in preventing any further augmentation in that quarter. To assail both, Canute sent an armament to the northern coast of the Baltic; and as the venerable Absalom was now too old and too infirm for active warfare, the bishop of Roskild was invested with the command. The result was not very favourable to the king. Two years afterwards, however, he took the field in person, and forced Adolf to accept terms of peace: the chief were, that Dithmarsh, with the strong fortress of Ratzburg, should be ceded to Denmark (1200). But in this, as on the former occasion, tranquillity was of short duration. Adolf again quarrelled with his ally; and Valdemar, the king’s brother, invaded Holstein. The result was favourable to the Danish arms: Adolf, who had thrown himself into Hamburg, was compelled to leave it, and to witness the fall of Lubeck, which was feudally subject to him. Most of Holstein was now reduced; and the duke having, in the king’s name, received the homage of the towns and nobles, returned to Sleswic. No sooner had he left the province, than the count re-appeared; but it was only to be made prisoner, and conveyed in triumph to one of the Danish fortresses. The king himself soon appeared amidst his new subjects; and at Lubeck he received the homage of the great vassals of Holstein, Dithmarsh, Stormar, Ratzburg, Schwerin, and other lordships, which were now subject to him, but which he could not incorporate with the monarchy, because they were dependencies of the empire, and for them he must himself do homage to the chief of that empire. This was a proud day for Denmark; but that pride was much alloyed by the sudden death of Canute, in the very flower of his age.

The flourishing state of Denmark under this prince is well described by Arnold of Lubeck. He alludes to its vast commerce, to its ceaseless activity, to its constantly increasing wealth, to its improvements in the arts of life, to its military reputation, to its zeal for learning. Many Danish youths, he informs us, were annually sent to study at Paris, where they distinguished themselves in philosophy, law, and theology. Many became admirable canonists; many subtle didacticians. The visits of young Danes to the capital of France may be explained by the union of Ingeberg, sister of Canute, with Philip Augustus. That union indeed was for many years an unhappy one; she was dismissed to make way for a concubine; until the monarch was compelled by the pope to receive her back to his palace.

[Sidenote: 1201.]

Towards the close of Canute’s reign died archbishop Absalom, who had held the see of Roskild since 1158, and the primacy since 1178.

VALDEMAR II.

SURNAMED THE VICTORIOUS.

1202–1241.

[Sidenote: 1202.]

As Canute VI. died without heirs male, the choice of the states fell on his brother Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, who, as we have just related, had given some proofs of military talent.

[Sidenote: 1203, 1204.]

Like his predecessor, the new king repaired to Lubeck to receive the homage of the conquered inhabitants; and there he assumed the titles, “King of the Slavonians,” and “Lord of Nordalbingia.” In the midst of his triumph he offered to release count Adolf, provided the latter would for ever renounce all pretension to Holstein with his other domains north of the Elbe, and engage not to make war, either personally, or through his allies, on the king of Denmark. The conditions were accepted; and hostages being given for their execution, the count was enlarged. Imprisonment seemed to have sobered him; for he passed the rest of his days in tranquillity.

[Sidenote: 1204 to 1210.]

Having fomented the troubles of Norway in revenge for the aid given to bishop Valdemar, and exacted an annual tribute from Erling, whom he had opposed to Guthrum[153], the Danish king departed on a more distant expedition,—against the pagans of Livonia. It was attended, however, with no great success: the best that can be said of it is, that it was not disastrous. A subsequent expedition into Sweden was more unfortunate: he was signally defeated; but peace was made on terms sufficiently honourable. About the same time the national arms regained their former lustre by the conquest of Eastern Pomerania, the duke of which did homage to Valdemar.

[Sidenote: 1205 to 1218.]

From the prison to which he had been consigned by Canute VI. the bishop of Sleswic was no inattentive spectator of events. He longed for revenge; but he must first recover his liberty. In this view he applied to the pope, to the archbishop of Lund, to many prelates of Denmark, and even to the queen, and interested them so far in his behalf, that Valdemar, at their intercession, agreed to release him, on the condition of his never again entering Denmark, or any other place where he might give umbrage to the state. Of these conditions the pope was a guarantee, and he repaired to Bologna; but that city he soon left to urge his interests with the chapter of Bremen, some members of which showed a disposition to elect him. The king immediately complained to Innocent III. that Bremen was, of all cities, that where the bishop, if elected, would be most likely to injure him; and the pope, admitting the justice of the plea, commanded the prelate to desist from aspiring to the vacant dignity. That command he disregarded. Philip of Swabia, now head of the empire, was hostile to the Danish king: from him the bishop readily obtained troops, and with them hastened to Bremen, where he was soon elected. But Burkard, the other candidate, being favoured by the chapter of Hamburg, which had a voice in the election equal to that of Bremen, also assumed the archiepiscopal dignity, and obtained troops from the Danish king. What confirmed the triumph of the latter was the suspension of bishop Valdemar by the pope, and the death of his patron Philip. Otho, the new emperor, concurred with the pope and with Valdemar in expelling the bishop from Bremen. But on the death of Burkard, bishop Valdemar was introduced to the see, with the full concurrence of the emperor. In revenge, the Danish king espoused the interests of Frederic II. king of Naples, in opposition to those of Otho. For this service the grateful Frederic ceded to the Danish crown the conquests which Valdemar and his predecessor, Canute VI., had made in the empire and in Slavonia. But the letters-patent containing this cession (dated from Metz in 1214) could have no validity, since Otho was yet obeyed by a considerable portion of the empire. Still the cession was a triumph. Not less so was the excommunication of Otho and of archbishop Valdemar by the pope. The first soon died; the latter, succeeded by the bishop of Osnaburg, retired to a monastery, and was for ever dead to the world.

[Sidenote: 1219 to 1223.]

Freed from the cares which had so long distracted him, the king again turned his eyes towards Livonia. His former successes in that region had not corresponded with his preparations: the bishop of Riga was persecuted alike by the pagan inhabitants and the Greek Christians: the glory of vindicating the true faith was no slight one in his estimation; but the ambition of reigning over the whole maritime coast of the Baltic, from Holstein to Livonia, was a still greater inducement for undertaking a new expedition. Never had Denmark equipped so great an armament as that which now left her ports. The Esthonians, against whom his attacks were chiefly directed, prepared to receive him, but they were defeated; a new city, Revel, was built, to awe the province; and a Christian bishop made it his metropolis. The advantages resulting from this conquest were almost neutralised by the hostility of the bishop of Riga, who regarded his new brother as an intruder on his own domain. He claimed the greater part of Esthonia as a part of his jurisdiction, and he sent his missionaries through it to reclaim it from idolatry. On the other hand, the archbishop of Lund, in behalf of his royal master, prohibited those missionaries from labouring in their vocation, and sent those of his own country and his own church to oppose them. It will scarcely be credited by modern readers—though the fact seems indisputable—that the Danes actually hung an Esthonian prince for no other crime than that he had received baptism at the hands of the bishop of Riga’s dependents. What were the motives—shrewd though pagan—to infer from this and similar facts other than this—that the god of the Danes was not the god of the Germans? The pope and the emperor declared for the Danish king, in opposition to the complaints, the remonstrances, of the bishop. At length Valdemar, of his own accord, abated much of his pretensions, and allowed a portion of the disputed territory to be ceded to the bishop, and to the Christian knights whom that bishop had taken into his service.

[Sidenote: 1223.]

At this period Denmark was at the summit of her glory. Her descent was more rapid than her rise. There are few instances in all history where that descent is so remarkable. The occasion of this change was a man insignificant in himself, and in his influence. Among the vassals whom Valdemar had acquired by his successes over the count of Holstein, was Henry count of Schwerin. In granting to Henry the investiture of the lordship, Valdemar had demanded the hand of the count’s sister for his natural son Nicholas, whom he had created count of Upper Halland, and, as a dowry, one half of the castle of Schwerin with the dependencies. Whether this stipulation was sanctioned by the count, we know not; but we know that Valdemar had forcibly occupied a portion of the lordship, and conferred it on that son. This was an injustice, and deeply was it revenged. Count Henry repaired to the Danish court, showed great obsequiousness, won the confidence of the king, and one night while encamped in the wood after a hard day’s hunting, he caused both Valdemar and his eldest son to be surprised, carried on board a vessel, conveyed to the Mecklenburg coast, and confined in the strong castle of Schwerin! All Europe was in surprise at an event which resembled a tale of knight errantry more than a fact—that the obscure, the powerless count Henry should thus seize the greatest monarch of the North, and cast him like a common felon into a dungeon.

[Sidenote: 1223 to 1226.]

That all Denmark did not rise as one man, and hasten to release its monarch, may, to modern readers, seem extraordinary. But had it done so, we know not what the result might have been. If those were days of chivalry, they were also days of gross perfidy: as an army approached Schwerin, he would have been transferred to some more distant fortress until he had acceded to all the terms demanded from him. Many were the princely nobles who were ready to share in the responsibility of the act, provided they might also share in its advantages; even the emperor Frederic was inclined to imitate the example of his predecessor in regard to Richard Plantagenet. More ruinous to Denmark was the captivity of Valdemar, than that of Richard to England. We shall not detail the negotiations which, during three years, agitated the realm; but the reverses experienced by the Danish arms may be noticed. The new conquests north of the Elbe were lost. Livonia and Esthonia were freed from dependence on the crown. The Slavonic provinces of Pomerania asserted their independence. Lubeck and also Dithmarsh showed a disposition to escape from the yoke. At length the menaces of the pope, and still more the gifts distributed among the leading actors in this strange proceeding, led to the monarch’s release. The conditions were that 45,000 marks of fine silver should be paid for his ransom, with all the gold and ornaments which the queen possessed, and complete habiliments for 100 knights; that forty Danes, including two sons of the king, should remain as hostages; that all the domains between the Elbe and the Eyder should be ceded to the empire; that all the Slavonic conquests should be renounced except the isle of Rugen; that Valdemar should swear never to attempt the reconquest of the territories now abandoned.

[Sidenote: 1226 to 1238.]

On his return to his own states, Valdemar applied to the pope to be released from the oath he had taken, and for the restoration of his hostages; promising that if the application were successful, he would join the crusade. In vain did the pope interfere; beyond the release from his oath, he obtained no advantage. There were too many interested in the cause of count Henry to leave him thus exposed to regal or papal vengeance. Adolf of Schawenburg, Albert duke of Saxony, the archbishop of Bremen, the prince of Werle—all had profited by the spoil, and all had troops ready to defend their usurpations. In great wrath Valdemar took the field; but his good fortune had left him for ever; and after many fruitless, however ruinous, efforts, he was compelled to make peace with his enemies, and to pay money for the ransom of his hostages. The loss of Lubeck and of all Dithmarsh grieved him more perhaps than the rest; for Lubeck was already a rich and a populous city, the centre of a large commerce. Equally fruitless were his endeavours to recover the Slavonic provinces. They were in the power of the bishop of Riga, and of the Teutonic knights, who could always depend on the favour of the pope and that of the emperor. Revel and a small district of Livonia were at length restored to him.

[Sidenote: 1238 to 1241.]

During the rest of his life, Valdemar applied himself to the internal administration. He caused a survey to be made of the whole kingdom; and of this important document the greater part still remains. There were eight bishoprics, subdivided into parishes, and into Styreshavne or maritime districts, each district to furnish a certain number of men, and each see a certain number of ships, whenever required by the public service. North Jutland had four of these sees—Rypen, Aarhus, Viborg, Borglum, which together supplied 450 vessels. South Jutland, or Sleswic, one see, was divided into 130 of these districts, each to furnish a vessel. Fionia, Laland, and Langeland, forming the diocese of Odinsey, were rated at 100. Zealand, Moen, Falster, and Rugen, which formed the see of Roskild, were rated at 120; Scania, Holland, and Bleking, subject to the archbishop of Lund, contributed 150.

[Sidenote: 1240.]

As a legislator, Valdemar ranks high in the Danish annals. In 1240, he promulgated what is termed the Jutland law[154], but which he intended for the whole kingdom. The attachment, however, of the Scanias and Zealands to their unwritten customs, inclined them to receive this code as supplementary only. To it we shall revert in the chapter appropriated to northern jurisprudence.

ERIC VI.

SURNAMED PLOGPENNING, OR PLOUGH-PENNY.

1241–1250.

[Sidenote: 1241.]

The late king had associated with him in the government his eldest son, by the title of Valdemar III., and when that prince was killed in hunting (1231), Eric, duke of Sleswic, the next son, supplied his room. Eric therefore had been crowned, and had an active share in the government, ten years before the death of his father. At the time he was thus associated in the regal power, he had relinquished the duchy of Sleswic in favour of his next brother, Abel, while Christopher and other brothers had extensive domains conferred on them in different parts of the kingdom. Nothing could be more unwise than such feudal concessions: they were sure to engender quarrels, and eventually civil wars.

[Sidenote: 1241 to 1248.]

Scarcely was Eric on the throne, when he had a deadly quarrel with Abel, duke of Sleswic, his next brother. He wished to recover some of the territories which his father had been forced to cede, especially Holstein: Abel, who was the guardian of the count of Holstein’s children, resisted, on the specious plea that he was bound to defend their interests; but his real motive, as we shall soon perceive, was a very different one. The two brothers flew to arms; but an apparent reconciliation was effected between them through the interference of German and Danish friends: Abel resigned the tutorship, and ceased therefore to be responsible for the result. But he evidently nursed a vindictive feeling towards Eric, and he could not long refrain from exhibiting it. He refused to do homage for Holstein, which he determined to hold in full sovereignty. Again was the sword drawn; and though returned for a time to the scabbard, the feeling of hatred rankled in the duke’s heart. During this short suspension of hostilities, Eric endeavoured to regain Lubeck, and he sent an armament into the river Trave; but a fleet from Sweden, which had a great interest in the protection of that city, compelled him to raise the siege. The coasts of his kingdom were now ravaged by the combined Swedes and citizens; and at the same time, through the influence of his perverse brother, the count of Holstein and the archbishop of Bremen became his open enemies. Allured by the successful example of Abel, the other brothers also refused to do homage. Seeing that the very existence of the monarchy was at stake, he took the field. Numerous as were his enemies, he created more, and those more formidable than the rest,—his own bishops, who naturally threw themselves into the party of Abel. The ravages committed in the fraternal war were dreadful. At length the city of Sleswic being taken by surprise, Abel fled to his allies; and when he could effect nothing by arms, he had recourse to stratagem. He received with eagerness the proposals of a pacification from the duke of Saxony and the margrave of Brandenburg, who were connected with the regal family of Denmark. The brothers met, swore friendship, and separated.

[Sidenote: 1249.]

Freed from that dreadful scourge, civil war, Eric now projected an expedition into Livonia, to recover the territories which his father had ceded. To defray the expenses, a tax of a silver penny was laid on every plough in the kingdom. With much difficulty he obtained the sanction of the states to this impost; with more difficulty still was it collected, at least in Scania. The inhabitants of that province were fond of rebellion: they rebelled on the present occasion; but as usual they were subdued, punished, and made to contribute like the rest of the Danes. The expedition arrived in Esthonia, but its details are very imperfectly recorded in the national chronicles. They merely tell us that the Teutonic knights acknowledged the king’s right to what he held, and to what he might hereafter conquer from the pagans. Certainly he made no conquests; and probably his troops were defeated by St. Alexander Neusky, governor of Novogrod.[155]

[Sidenote: 1250.]

Eric, on his return, engaged in war with the count of Holstein, who, conjointly, with the archbishop of Bremen and the bishop of Paderborn, laid siege to Rendsburg. To relieve it, the king advanced at the head of a considerable force. But his doom was at hand. Near Sleswic he was met by Abel, who treated him with the utmost deference, with the most obsequious respect; and so disarmed him, that in the joy of his heart he accepted an invitation to one of the duke’s country palaces, in the immediate vicinity of Sleswic. From that palace he was forcibly dragged on board a boat in the Sley, taken to a solitary part of that river, landed, allowed to make his confession, and beheaded. Heavy chains were then fastened to his corpse, and it was thrown into the deepest part of the river. The news was spread that he had perished by accident in the river; but the monks who had administered to him the last offices of religion, declared that he had been murdered,—by whose contrivance was unknown. The body being afterwards found by some fishermen, confirmed that declaration. It was buried in the church of the monastery. The brethren even asserted that miracles were wrought at his tomb, and they were believed: some years after his death he was canonized; and he is the fifth Danish prince who has been thus deified.

ABEL.

1250–1252.

[Sidenote: 1250 to 1252.]

To obtain the reward of this fratricide, Abel sent his creatures to the assembly of the states, convoked for the election of a new king. As there was only suspicion, he was permitted to purge himself by his own oath, and by the oath of twenty-four nobles, that he was innocent of the deed. How he could find that number of men to take such an oath, may surprise us; but we must remember that the tenor of it was that “to the best of their belief” the accused party was not guilty of the crime. He was therefore elected and crowned by the archbishop. By lavish gifts to the clergy, and to the nobles who adhered to him, and by confirming his brethren (from whom he had the most to fear) in their respective fiefs, he stifled all murmurs. To avert war, too, which he well knew would lead to his ruin, he surrendered to the count of Holstein the domains which his brother had occupied, and to the Teutonic knights most of what he yet held in Livonia. These concessions did no harm to Denmark; and some of his other measures were decidedly good. He restored the wisest parts of the Danish constitution, especially the annual meeting of the states; he improved the laws; and began to redeem the crown lands, which during the late reigns had been pledged. In short, like all usurpers, he sacrificed to popularity, and succeeded so well that he was enabled to raise an extraordinary impost to complete his work of redemption. In the western parts of Sleswic, however, the collectors met with opposition, and Abel, to punish the disobedience, marched with a body of troops. He penetrated into a country always marshy, and now rendered more so by the rains. Surprised by a strong party of the inhabitants, he fled, and fell into a morass, from which the weight of his armour prevented him from emerging. In this helpless situation he was discovered and slain.

[Sidenote: 1252.]

The mutilated corpse of Abel was left in the marsh, where it remained for some time, and, if tradition be true, to the great annoyance of the whole country. Abel was too great a sinner to lie peacefully in his grave. He became a wandering spirit. Supernatural voices had so terrified the people that they were glad to deliver the corpse to the canons of Bremen, who honoured it with the rites of sepulture. But they too had soon reason to regret the contiguity of the vampire: he was frequently seen out of his tomb; and at length the corpse was disinterred, and buried in a solitary marsh a few leagues from Gottorp. Still there was no respite; and the inhabitants nearest to the place removed to a distance. To this day the superstition has been perpetuated that the murderer on a dingy horse may sometimes be seen, followed by demon hounds, amidst the echoing of the magic horn. Leaving these wild fancies to vulgar admiration, the Christian will scarcely fail to acknowledge that in the death of Abel there was retribution.

Abel left three sons, the eldest of whom, Valdemar, was designed for his successor; but the young prince, returning from the university of Paris, was seized by the archbishop of Cologne, and detained in prison until a ransom of 6000 silver marks was paid. Probably this act was done at the instigation of Christopher, brother of the late king, who knew that he alone was to be dreaded, since he had been already recognised by the states, and his brothers were too young for the duties of government. Besides, the dislike to Abel’s posterity was general; and Christopher might well aspire to a throne which, after their exclusion, became his of right. Nor was he disappointed: by the states he was immediately elected.

CHRISTOPHER I.

1252–1259.

[Sidenote: 1252 to 1258.]

The reign of this prince was even more troubled than that of his predecessors. Fearing a popular re-action in favour of Abel’s sons, who were minors, he claimed the guardianship. The claim was resisted by the house of Holstein; and to decide the contest both parties resorted to arms. The king was defeated; and though he soon collected a larger force, he found the number of his enemies increased. The people of Lubeck, always hostile to Denmark, and for that same reason always the allies of the counts of Holstein, ravaged the coasts, while those nobles reduced Sleswic. The two margraves of Brandenburg also complained that one of them had not received the dowry promised with his wife, Sophia, daughter of Valdemar II.; and they joined the common league. Nor was this all: during Abel’s reign, there had been some disputes with Sweden and Denmark; and to allay them a conference had been covenanted between the three kings. The death of Abel had prevented the pacification; and Christopher, engrossed by other troubles, was unable to give them the satisfaction required. In revenge the Norwegian arrived with a great armament, while 5000 Swedes penetrated into the heart of the country. Never had the situation of Denmark appeared so critical; but strange to say, its safety lay in the number of its enemies, who became jealous of each other, and of the advantages which each might secure. In this disposition, the offer of mediators was accepted; and conditions of peace between Christopher and his nephews were at length sanctioned. He agreed to invest those nephews, on their reaching majority, with the duchy of Sleswic; and they, in return, were to renounce all pretensions to the crown. In conformity with this treaty, Valdemar, the eldest son of Abel, was released from prison at Cologne, and invested with the government of the duchy. The margrave of Brandenburg was appeased by the pledge of two fortresses, until the dowry could be paid. Thus there remained only Norway and Sweden to be pacified; and though hostilities existed for some time, they were desultory, and were terminated by a reconciliation. An interview with Birger, regent of Sweden, easily led to that result; and when Hako of Norway, who had again arrived with a formidable armament, saw that Christopher was sincerely desirous to satisfy him, he now accepted the will for the deed, and became the friend of the monarch.

[Sidenote: 1256, 1257.]

But the chief troubles of Christopher arose from his own prelates. Jacob Erlandsen, bishop of Roskild, a personal friend of Innocent IV., had imbibed the highest notions of clerical privileges. He condemned the influence of the crown in the election of bishops, which was certainly an evil, since royal favourites only were appointed to the rich sees. Acting on his own principle, that bishops had no earthly superior except the pope, he refused, when elected by the chapter of Lund to the primacy, either to allow royal influence any weight in the election, or to accept of confirmation at the royal hands. He next condemned some of the provisions in the ecclesiastical law which Valdemar I. had promulgated in Scania; and when opposed by the king, he intrigued with the royal enemies. There can be no doubt that in his resistance to the encroachments of the crown, not merely on the freedom of election, but on the ecclesiastical revenues, he was abundantly justified; but the _manner_ of his resistance was censurable; and still more so was his league with the enemies of the king. If the primate was an archbishop, he was also a temporal baron; nothing was more easy than to confound the two characters; and while Christopher determined to punish him in the latter, he chose to forget the privileges of the former. Erlandsen was summoned before the states at Vyburg. In reply he convoked a national council to be held at Vedel, a town in the diocese of Rypen in Jutland. In that assembly it was decreed that if any Danish bishop were taken and mutilated, or afflicted with any other atrocious injury, by the order, or with the connivance of the king, or any noble, the kingdom should be laid under an interdict, and the divine service suspended. If the same violence were committed by any foreign prince or noble, and there were reason to infer that it was done at the instigation of the king or any of his council, in the diocese of that bishop there should be a “cessatio à divinis,” and the king during a month should be bound to see justice done: if he refused, the interdict was to be extended over the whole kingdom. After it was laid, no ecclesiastic, under pain of excommunication, was to celebrate any office of religion in the royal presence. The decree was sent to Rome, and confirmed by pope Alexander in October, 1257.

[Sidenote: 1257.]

The wrath of the king and of his nobles was roused by this bold, though perhaps necessary, act. But the primate was of an intrepid temper, and quite prepared to share, if necessary, the fate of our Thomas à Becket. In the next diet a number of frivolous and two or three substantial charges were made against him; and he begged time until the next meeting of the states to prepare his answers. In the interim efforts were made to reconcile the two; and they sometimes met. But Erlandsen, by excommunicating a lady of Scania, a favourite of the king, again rekindled the half-smothered wrath of Christopher. Repairing to Lund, the latter held his tribunal, invited all who had any complaint against the archbishop to appear before him, and summoned the archbishop himself to appear and answer whatever might be urged against him. As ecclesiastics were, by a regulation of some standing, amenable to their own laws alone, the churchman denied the competency of the tribunal. In revenge the king revoked the concessions of privileges, immunities, and even of domains, made by his ancestors to the cathedral of Lund—a strange and lawless measure, which, if sanctioned by the nation at large, must have occasioned the entire ruin of the church. As well might a private gentleman revoke his father’s will, and reclaim property of which the bequest has been sanctioned by the laws of society. The officer who served the act of revocation was excommunicated by the primate, who had also the people on his side. Two or three of the bishops were gained by the court; the rest adhered to their spiritual head. Every day widened the breach between the two chief personages in the nation. The states being convoked at Odinsey to swear allegiance to Eric, eldest son of the king, Erlandsen refused to appear, and commanded his suffragans also to refuse. The rage of the king was unbounded. From the states which he now convoked at Copenhagen he obtained permission to seize the primate with the other bishops, and imprison them. A brother of the primate’s was the instrument of his apprehension, and he was conveyed to a fortress in Fionia. The dean and archdeacon of Lund, with the bishop of Rypen, were next secured; but the two spiritual peers of Odinsey and Roskild had time to flee from the realm.

[Sidenote: 1258 to 1259.]

In his captivity the primate was treated with much rigour. What his proud spirit could least bear was insult; if it be true, that he was forced to wear a cap made from a fox’s skin, we may smile at what called forth the bitter resentment of himself and the pope. The king was soon made to repent his violence. In virtue of the ordinance of the national council at Vedel, the fugitive bishops laid an interdict on the kingdom; the pope espoused the cause of his church; and Jaromir, prince of Rugen, to whose hospitality the bishop of Roskild had fled, was persuaded by both to arm in behalf of the altar. Great was the wrath of Christopher to see the interdict so well observed, and to hear the murmurs of his people. How could he, alone, resist a power which had proved fatal to so many emperors and so many kings, compared with which his was that of the meanest vassal in his dominions? In the hope of obtaining what he called justice, he appealed to Rome. Yet at the same time he endeavoured to dispose his royal neighbours of Sweden and Norway in his favour. _They_, too, had bishops, and the cause of one was the cause of all: it was a struggle, he observed, between the rights of kings and the insolence of their subjects. They promised to assist him in this war alike on the pope and his own clergy, whom he was about to deprive of their temporalities; and had already powerful armaments in motion when intelligence reached them that he was no more.

[Sidenote: 1259.]

Whether this monarch died naturally, or through poison, is doubtful. The suddenness of that death, and the peculiar circumstances in which he met it, could not fail to create the suspicion, and with some minds suspicion is truth. Even the monk whose fanaticism was said to have occasioned the deed, has been indicated by name. In the letter, however, which both his widow and his son addressed to the pope after this event, no one is implicated, and the charge of poison, true or false, was merely stated in general and indefinite terms. That he fell a victim to poison has not been proved, still less that it was administered by a churchman. The evidence, however, is rather indicative of a tragical end, though the causes and the circumstances must for ever rest a mystery.

ERIC VII.

SURNAMED GLIPPING.

1259–1286.

[Sidenote: 1259 to 1268.]

Eric, the eldest son of the king, was elected by the states; and as he was only ten years of age at his father’s death, the regency devolved on his mother, Margaret, daughter of Sambir, duke of Pomerania. That princess had great courage and great prudence, and both were required in the peculiarly difficult circumstances in which she was placed. Some of the bishops were exiles, some in prison, but all protected by the pope, and venerated by the people. Eric, the son of Abel, supported by the counts of Holstein, by the prince of Rugen, and by the exiled prelates, aspired to the throne. The interdict still remained, and consequently the discontent of the people. And now Jaromir, prince of Rugen, and the duke of Sleswic, accompanied by the bishop of Roskild, made a descent on the coast of Zealand, with a formidable army. Margaret collected what troops she was able, and hastened to meet the enemy. The battle was disastrous to the royal party, 10,000 being left on the field. The consequences were still more disastrous—the occupation of Zealand, and the destruction of several towns, (among others Copenhagen, which had recently been invested with municipal rights,) by the victors. Bornholm was next reduced, then Scania, which remembered its primate with gratitude; and the whole kingdom must have been subjugated by the Slavonic prince, had not a tragical death arrested him in his career. This was a heavy loss to the ecclesiastical party; but the bishop of Roskild confirmed the censure, and denied Christian burial to the dead of the royal party. Jutland only remained faithful to the latter. Yet Margaret was not dismayed: notwithstanding the interdict and the absolute prohibition issued alike by the primate and the bishop of Roskild, she caused her son to be crowned. To soothe in some degree the animosity of the former, she released him and all the churchmen; but he would not compromise what he deemed his duty; he refused all overtures from her, and retired into Sweden to await the decision of Rome. For this conduct he has been much censured by modern historians. They should, however, remember that he could not do otherwise: the decision was no longer in his hands, but in those of the pope, to whom it had been carried by the appeal of both parties. Alexander IV. was dead; and Urban IV., who was raised to the dignity, took cognizance of the cause. He condemned the primate, and ordered him to resign his archbishopric into the hands of two ecclesiastical commissioners whom he nominated for that purpose. Erlandsen obeyed; but, hearing that Clement IV. had succeeded to Urban, he hastened to Rome to plead for himself. Clement did not confirm the judgment of his predecessor; he took up the case _de novo_, and sent a legate to examine on the spot into the circumstances of the dispute, and to decide according to justice. Erecting his tribunal at Sleswic, the papal functionary cited the king and the queen-mother to appear before him; but they refused on the plea that Sleswic was unfavourable to them. The plea was a frivolous one, and devised only to cover their determination not to acknowledge the competency of the judges. Apprehensive for their safety in a city which depended on the king, the legate and the bishops repaired to Lubeck, whence they excommunicated Eric, his mother, and all who had refused to obey the citation. The primate retired to Rome, where he remained about seven years; and during that period, the interdict remained in full force.

[Sidenote: 1261 to 1264.]

While these events were passing, others occurred of still greater moment to the queen and her son. On the death of Valdemar (1257), eldest son of Abel, who had been transferred from the dungeons of Cologne to the ducal palace of Sleswic, and who left no issue, the succession was claimed by Eric, the next brother. Abel, who then reigned, had refused to invest him, and he had therefore thrown himself into the arms of his kinsmen, the counts of Holstein, and by their aid had entered on the administration of the duchy. Unable to dispossess him, Margaret proposed to recognise him, provided he would acknowledge that he held the fief by the pure favour of the crown, and not by any right of inheritance. But in every European country except Scandinavia fiefs had long been hereditary: they had become allodial property; and Eric refused to sanction a condition which must have proved fatal to the hopes of his family. To chastise him, the queen and her son marched towards the south; but on the plains of Sleswic they were signally defeated. Flight did not save them from the power of their enemies: they were overtaken and consigned to imprisonment—the former at Hamburg, in the charge of the counts of Holstein, the latter in the fortress of Norburg, subject to duke Eric. There both might have remained to the close of life (for the bishop and the people were equally disaffected), had not Albert of Anhalt, who had married the princess Mechtilda, sister of the king, interfered in their behalf. The queen was soon released (1263), and enabled to resume the administration: the king was confided to the guardianship of John, margrave of Brandenburg, also connected by the ties of blood with the royal family. It was at length agreed that he should be enlarged, on the condition of his marrying Agnes, daughter of the margrave, whose dowry, 6000 marks, was to be placed against his ransom. Returning to his capital (1264), he was now old enough to assume the reins of government.

[Sidenote: 1272 to 1275.]

In 1272 died Eric, duke of Sleswic—an event which again disturbed the tranquillity of the country. He left two sons, Valdemar and Eric, both minors. To the guardianship a claim was put in by the king, and another by the counts of Holstein. Both parties flew to arms, and at first the counts had the advantage; but seeing the royal forces augmented, they consented to resign the trust into the royal hands, on the condition of his investing the eldest with the duchy when arrived at the due age. Eric now celebrated his marriage with Agnes of Brandenburg; and he had also the satisfaction to see the convocation of a general council, (that of Lyons, 1274,) destined to remove the interdict from his kingdom. He was, however, enjoined not merely to receive the primate into his friendship, but to pay him 15,000 marks by way of indemnification. This may appear a large sum, and it has been censured by historians. They forget, however, to tell us that during the long absence of the archbishop, he had been receiving the revenues of the see—an amount many times greater than the indemnification. The following year (1275), a national council held at Lund finished the work of reconciling the king with the church.

[Sidenote: 1280 to 1286.]

But if Eric was thus at peace with his spiritual, he was often in disputes with his temporal, barons, on whose rights he was always ready to encroach. Notwithstanding his treaty with the counts of Holstein, he endeavoured to evade the investiture of Sleswic in favour of Valdemar. Both parties, however, were equally to blame; for when Valdemar was invested, he claimed other domains in Frisia, on the plea that they belonged to his paternal uncle. When this was refused, he leagued himself with the enemies of Denmark: the plot was discovered, and he was imprisoned while at Eric’s court. But his detention was of short duration; and at the intercession of his allies, he was enlarged, after subscribing some conditions which more clearly established the authority of the crown over the fief. Still, if one enemy was vanquished, others remained, and to some of them, or rather to his own vices, the king fell a victim. To the count of Halland he had been oppressive: he had deprived him of his domains, and if report were true, dishonoured the wife during the husband’s absence. Revenge was sworn, and the oath was kept. One night, after hunting, he was murdered asleep at a rural village in Jutland. The king’s chamberlain was privy to the design: it was he who guided the assassins (all in masks) to the bed. They subsequently fled to Norway, by the king of which they were protected against the vengeance of Eric’s family.

Thus ended a reign of troubles, most of which cannot with any justice be imputed to the monarch. Yet his own vices added greatly to his misfortunes. After his peace with the church, when moderation might have been expected from him, he frequently seized the church tithes, and applied to his own use the produce arising from the monastic domains. With his nobles he was no less severe; and more than once (especially in 1262) he was in danger of being driven from the realm by their united arms. Eric promulgated the code, called _Birkerett_, to the provisions of which we shall allude on a future occasion.

ERIC VIII.

SURNAMED MŒNVED.[156]

1286–1319.

[Sidenote: 1286 to 1308.]

At his father’s death Eric was only twelve years of age. A guardian and regent was therefore necessary; and the post was demanded by Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, the nearest male kinsman of Eric. The queen-mother, Agnes of Brandenburg, willing but afraid to refuse, at length recognised his claim. There could not have been a better choice: he forgot the wrongs of his family in his new duties. In the first assembly which he convoked, he called for vengeance on the murderers of the late king. They were in alarm; and to escape the consequence, they entered into a plot, the object of which was to seize the young king, and detain him as a hostage, until their pardon should be declared by the states. That plot did not escape the vigilance of the regent, who took measures to disconcert it; and also, at the same time, caused a commission to be appointed, with power to inquire into the circumstances of Eric Glipping’s death. That commission consisted of Otho of Brandenburg, brother of the queen-mother; of Vicislas, prince of Rugen; of the counts of Holstein, and of twenty-seven Danish nobles. The result was a verdict of wilful murder against James, count of Halland, Stig, marshal of the court, and seven others. Condemned to perpetual banishment, they repaired to the court of the Norwegian king, then at war with Denmark, by whom they were hospitably received. Assisted by him they were enabled to visit the northern parts of their fief, and to commit, during many years, considerable depredations. That the Norwegian monarch should thus become the ally of murderers—the murderers, too, of a brother king—might surprise us, if we did not remember that he and his father had long applied, but applied in vain, for satisfaction on points, the justice of which had never been denied. One of them was, that the dowry of his mother, Ingeburga, a Danish princess, had never been paid. At the head of a considerable fleet, he himself soon followed the regicides, and devastated the coasts. To no proposals of peace would he listen, unless the regicides were pardoned—for such was his engagement with them. This war raged until 1308, when peace was restored in the treaty of Copenhagen. The chief condition was, that in compensation for his mother’s dowry, the Norwegian monarch should hold northern Halland as a fief from Eric of Denmark. In regard to the regicides, it was stipulated, that some should be allowed to return and enjoy their property, but that the more guilty should never revisit the realm. Yet, even to them a permission during three years was given to dispose of their lands and personal substance.

[Sidenote: 1292 to 1299.]

This long war was not the only trouble of Eric. Like his two predecessors, he was embroiled with the church. To Grandt, a dignitary of Roskild, he was hostile, for reasons apparently which had no foundation. When that dignitary was elected to the see of Lund, he refused, like Erlandsen, either to solicit or to accept the royal confirmation; and he hastened to Rome to obtain that of the pope. On his return, he was arrested by Christopher, the king’s brother, and treated with remarkable severity. His property was seized; he was made to exchange his pontifical robes for the meanest rags; he was fastened to the back of a worn-out horse; and in this state led, amidst the jeers of the royal dependants, to the fortress of Helsinburg. He was soon transferred to the castle of Soeburg, where an unwholesome dungeon, heavy fetters, and meagre fare awaited him. The same treatment was inflicted on Lange, another dignitary of Lund; but he had the good fortune to escape and to reach Boniface VIII. at Avignon (1295). Some time afterwards, Grandt himself was so lucky as to escape, and repair to Bornholm, where he was received as a martyr. He too arrived at Avignon, and was welcomed by the pope, who observed, with much truth, that there were many saints that had suffered less for the church than archbishop Grandt. The dispute between the king and the church was examined at Rome, by a commission of cardinals. The award was a severe one for the king; it sentenced him to pay the archbishop, by way of indemnification, 49,000 silver marks; and until the money was paid, not only was his kingdom to remain under an interdict (it had been subject to one ever since the archbishop was seized), but he himself was to be excommunicated, and also his brother Christopher, the instrument of that arrest. When the king evinced no disposition to pay the money, the papal legate who had been dispatched to Denmark for the occasion, sequestered a portion of the royal revenues in Scania. This measure Eric could feel; and he threw himself on the mercy of the pope. Boniface so far relaxed from his severity as to allow the archbishop to resign his see of Lund, and to abate the indemnification to 10,000 marks. Grandt subsequently became archbishop of Bremen, while the papal legate succeeded to the primacy of Denmark.

[Sidenote: 1299 to 1319.]

But the whole of Eric’s reign was not disastrous. Lubeck and the baron of Rostock sued for his protection, and paid him for it: he obtained from the latter some augmentation of his territory, and from other German powers a large sum of money. Tranquillity, however, for any long period, he was not to enjoy. One of his worst domestic enemies was his brother Christopher, who leagued himself with the kings of Sweden, Norway, and other enemies of the realm. As a punishment, seeing that leniency had no result, Eric occupied his domains. He fled to Wratislas, duke of Pomerania, who espoused his cause; so did the counts of Holstein and some other princes. In 1317, peace was made, but Christopher was not restored. Two years afterwards, the king paid the debt of nature, leaving his kingdom plunged in debt, occasioned by his efforts to contend with his misfortunes. He had more discernment than some of his predecessors. He encouraged the rising municipalities, to some of which he granted charters, analogous to those which existed in Germany. To commerce he was a benefactor; and he was useful to the judicial administration by the compilation of a code (in six books), called the Law of Zealand. He did more; he made a collection of such public acts as might throw light on the national history.[157] Of his offspring, none survived him; one at least, on whom his hopes were placed, met a tragical but accidental death; and grief led his queen to the cloister, where she died a few months before him. There was nobody therefore to succeed him but his turbulent brother Christopher, then in Sweden, whom he advised the states to remove from the succession.

[Sidenote: 1319.]

But Christopher was not to be so easily deprived of what he regarded as his birthright; and when he heard that he should have a rival in Eric duke of Sleswic, he commenced his intrigues, and pushed his warlike preparations with a vigour that showed his determination to attain his object. The promises which he made to the nobles, the clergy, and the municipalities, were exceedingly lavish, and must, if executed, have changed the government into an aristocratic republic. Few of these had he the slightest intention of fulfilling; and as most were never fulfilled, we will not enumerate them. They answered his purpose, for he was elected by the states, and at the same time his eldest son Eric was joined with him in the government.

CHRISTOPHER II.

1320–1334.

[Sidenote: 1320 to 1323.]

Though Christopher was thus placed on the throne, to be soon found that to maintain himself on it, while an active rival was striving to unseat him, was no easy matter. He therefore began to lavish grants on his nobles so as to plunge the crown in new difficulties, and to threaten the dismemberment of the monarchy. To the church he showed great deference: he bore, without complaint, the postponement of his coronation until it suited the convenience of the primate to return from abroad; and he engaged never to violate the privileges which had been usurped. But he had also need of foreign allies, and to procure them he evinced the same disregard of the public interests. To Wratislas, duke of Rugen, he confirmed the investiture of that fief, with some other domains. To Henry of Mecklenburg, who held Rostock in pledge, in consideration of money advanced to the late king, he granted that territory in perpetuity, as a fief of the Danish crown. With Gerard, count of Holstein (then count of Rendsburg), he entered into a closer treaty, by which each engaged to assist the other, whenever required, with all the disposable force at his command. The cession of so many fiefs within and without Denmark Proper, could not but have fatal consequences. Not less fatal was the custom of assigning, until payment was made, whole islands and provinces, in return either for personal services, or advances of money.

[Sidenote: 1324 to 1325.]

What all men might have foreseen soon arrived. Though Christopher was never to impose any tax without consent of the nobles, and never, in any circumstances, to require a tax from the church, his necessities were so great that he soon laid a new and extraordinary impost on both orders of the state. The nobles were to pay one tenth of their annual revenues; the clergy in an equal proportion; the people still more. Suddenly one universal cry of resistance arose from every part of the kingdom. The archbishop boldly declared that he would resist to the last; that if the king did not keep his promises made at his accession, no more would the church or the nobles keep _theirs_; that they should consider themselves absolved from their allegiance. Christopher bent to the influence which he could not resist; but he had already exasperated his people, and his relinquishment of the impost did not restore them to good humour. His next measure was not only censurable, but in the highest degree unjust: it was to recover by force of arms the islands, provinces, and domains, which had been pledged, without paying any portion of the debt. In these days it may appear almost incredible that the whole of Scania, nearly one third of the kingdom, was thus held by one noble. The creditors, thus deprived of their rights, naturally combined to obtain justice by force. They were aided by all that were discontented, and by not a few who had no cause for dissatisfaction, but who hoped to benefit by a change. Scania and Zealand were laid waste by fire and sword. From two of his enemies, viz. the archbishop of Lund, and Eric duke of Sleswic, he was released by death; but the latter event, from which he expected so much advantage, had baneful consequences. Eric left a young boy, Valdemar. Who was to be the tutor? To obtain the post, Christopher invaded Sleswic. But he found a competitor in the very ally on whom he had so much relied, Gerard of Holstein, who has been styled the Great, and who, as the maternal uncle of Valdemar, had equal right to the trust. In the midst of his successes, after reducing most of the duchy, he was defeated by this count, and compelled to retire.

[Sidenote: 1325.]

Many of Christopher’s disaffected subjects had been silent through fear: now that he was vanquished, he was assailed by one universal complaint. The nobles demanded their fiefs, the creditors their money, the people a removal of taxation; and all bitterly complained of his breach of faith, though that breach was the unavoidable result of his position. Revolt became general; and when the states met he was solemnly deposed, the reason assigned for this measure being “the intolerable abuse which he had made of his authority.” When Christopher received this intelligence, he was in Zealand with his son; at the same time he learned that count Gerard was advancing. To repel the invader Eric marched with the disposable troops; but he was defeated, betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and consigned to a dungeon. With the loss of that son, his colleague on the throne, he lost all hope of present resistance; and with two younger sons he precipitately left the kingdom. At Rostock he procured aid from Henry of Mecklenburg and some Vandalic princes, and returned to struggle for his rights. He reduced a fortress, but this success did not render the states more favourable; they persisted in their resolution to elect another sovereign. Besieged and taken by Gerard, he was allowed to retire into Germany. He made another attempt, with equal want of success, was again taken, and again set free, on the condition of his retiring to Rostock.

[Sidenote: 1326 to 1328.]

The states assembled at Nyburg to elect a king made choice of Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, still a minor,—the chief cause, no doubt, of his election, since there must be a regency, and the most powerful might hope to participate in the public spoils. Gerard was the head of the regency: half a dozen other nobles were joined with him, and all were eager to derive the utmost advantage from a tenure of dignity which must evidently be brief. Gerard obtained the duchy of Sleswic, in perpetuity. Count John of Holstein was invested with the islands of Laland, Falster, and Femeren. Canute Porse, who by Christopher had been created duke of North Halland, and who yet had been one of the first to desert that unfortunate king, was confirmed in the fief in addition to South Halland: it was no longer to be revocable, but descend to his posterity. The archbishop of Lunden obtained Bornholm; another noble had Colding and Rypen; a third, Langeland and Arroe; in short, the whole country was parcelled out into petty principalities, which, though feudally subject to the crown, would be virtually so many sovereignties. These measures could not fail to displease all who had any love for their country: a dozen tyrants were more tyrannical, more rapacious than one; and pity began to be felt for the absent Christopher. That prince was not inactive in his retirement at Rostock. By the most lavish promises he obtained succours of men and money from some of his allies; and many of his own nobles, among whom were the primate and the bishops, engaged to join him as soon as he landed in Denmark. He did land, and was joined by the bishops of Aarhus and Rypen, by many nobles, and enabled to obtain some advantages over the regents. But he had not learned wisdom by adversity. One of his allies, count John of Holstein, he converted into a deadly enemy; and he offended the church by arresting the bishop of Borglum. The prelate escaped by corrupting his guard, and hastened to Rome to add the pope to the other enemies of Christopher. The kingdom was immediately placed under an interdict.

[Sidenote: 1329 to 1331.]

In this emergency, Christopher endeavoured to prevent his expulsion from the realm by resorting to the same means of bribery that he had before adopted. To pacify count John, he ceded to him Zealand and part of Scania, in addition to Laland and Falster, which he still held. By grants equally prodigal, and equally ruinous to the state, he endeavoured to secure the aid of other nobles. So well did he succeed, that Gerard, abandoned by many supporters, sued for peace. The articles were signed at Rypen in 1330. Valdemar was sent back to Sleswic; but the reversion to the duchy was secured to Gerard in the event of Valdemar’s dying without heirs male. As this was merely a future and contingent advantage, Fionia was placed in his hands until Sleswic should become his by inheritance; and for that island he was to become the vassal of the Danish crown. Nor was this all: he was to hold the whole of Jutland by way of pledge until reimbursed for the expenses of the war, which he estimated at forty thousand marks.

[Sidenote: 1331 to 1332.]

This tranquillity was of short duration. The two counts, Gerard and John, quarrelled; and Christopher, instead of remaining neuter, espoused the cause of the latter. He was defeated by Gerard; and the greater part of Jutland withdrew from him to swell the cause of the victor. His only resource was now to throw himself on the generosity of the other, who professed his willingness to make peace in return for one hundred thousand marks; and until that sum (immense for those days) were paid, he was to hold Jutland. The two counts also treated with each other, John surrendering to Gerard one half of the debt on Fionia; and they agreed to guarantee each other in the acquisitions which they had made, that is, in the dismemberment of the realm. At the same time Scania escaped for a season from the sceptre of the Danish kings. That province had passed into the hands of John, count of Holstein, through the inability of the crown to discharge the loans which had been borrowed on it. Holstein collectors therefore overran it to collect the revenues claimed by the representative of the creditors. They were even more unpopular than those of the king had been; and the natives not unfrequently arose to massacre them. Three hundred were at one time put to death in the cathedral of Lund. To escape chastisement the inhabitants looked, not to Christopher, who was helpless as an infant, and whom they distrusted, but to Magnus king of Sweden. Him they proposed to recognise as their sovereign, on the condition of his defending them against the counts of Holstein. It is almost needless to add that Magnus joyfully availed himself of the opportunity of obtaining a province which was geographically within the limits of his kingdom, and which had always been an object of desire to his predecessors. He received the homage of the whole country, and sent forces to defend it. Instead of drawing the sword to recover it, John sold his interest in it, and all claim to its government or revenues, for thirty-four thousand marks—a sum which Magnus readily paid him. The latter had now a double right to the province—that of voluntary submission, and that of purchase.

[Sidenote: 1332, 1333.]

In the last year of Christopher’s life, two of his nobles, in the view of obtaining the favour of the Holstein family, entered into a plot for his assassination. They set fire to his house, seized him as he was escaping, and bore him to a fortress in the isle of Laland, which belonged to count John. That nobleman, however, no longer feared a prince who had fallen into universal contempt, and whose cause was hopeless. He therefore ordered him to be released. The following year Christopher died a natural death, after the most disastrous reign in the annals of the kingdom.—By his wife Euphemia, daughter of Bogislas, duke of Pomerania, he had three sons and three daughters. Eric, the eldest, preceded him to the tomb; Otho ultimately became a knight of the Teutonic order; Valdemar, after a short interregnum, succeeded him. Of his daughters two died in youth; but the eldest, Margaret, was married to Ludovic of Brandenburg, son of the emperor Ludovic of Bavaria.

INTERREGNUM.

1333–1340.

[Sidenote: 1333, 1334.]

The two counts of Holstein, who had thus partitioned the kingdom between them, consulted how they might perpetuate their usurpation. The best mode was to delay as long as possible the election of a new monarch; to exclude the two sons of the late king from the succession; and, when an election could no longer be avoided, to procure the union of the suffrages in favour of some prince whom they might control. In any case as their sway might and probably must be brief, their interest lay in deriving the utmost advantage in the shortest possible time from their position. Hence their rapacity, which their armies enabled them to exercise with impunity.

[Sidenote: 1334 to 1340.]

Under no circumstances would the domination of strangers have been long borne without execration: that of rapacious strangers was doubly galling. The murmurs which arose on every side emboldened the two sons of Christopher to strive for his inheritance. But they entered the field before their preparations were sufficiently matured. Otho, with a handful of troops supplied by his brother-in-law the margrave of Brandenburg, landed in Jutland. He evidently relied on the popular indignation entertained towards the two usurpers; but he overlooked their means, their military talents, and the ascendancy which years of success had given. He was vanquished, and committed to close confinement, from which he did not escape for many years. To avert another invasion by excluding the sons from all hope to the succession, Gerard turned towards Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, who had been placed on the throne during Christopher’s exile. If the duke succeeded, the duchy became the inheritance of count Gerard; but he would not wait for probabilities. In return for his promised aid, Valdemar, in a solemn treaty, agreed to surrender that province _immediately_; and if he did not obtain the object of his ambition, he was to receive Jutland in lieu of it. The rights of Gerard over that peninsula, in virtue of the one hundred thousand marks which he claimed from the crown, have been mentioned: these rights therefore he might transfer. In the midst of the negotiation prince Valdemar prepared to return and conquer, or to share the fate of his brother Otho. The people were almost universally favourable to him; and his arrival was expected with impatience. When the Jutlanders heard of the treaty which consigned them to Valdemar of Sleswic, they no longer waited for their prince, but openly revolted. Gerard was compelled to retreat, but only to return with ten thousand German auxiliaries; and with these he laid waste the peninsula. His fate, however, was at hand. A Jutland noble, with fifty accomplices only, resolved to rid his country of a tyrant. Hastening to Randers, where the count lay with four thousand men, at midnight, he disarmed the guard, penetrated into the bedchamber of the regent, murdered him, and escaped before the army was aware of the deed.

[Sidenote: 1340.]

Thus perished Gerard, surnamed the Great, a prince of great talents, and of greater ambition. With him perished the grandeur of his house. His sons had not his personal qualities, and they could not maintain themselves in the position in which he left them. Emboldened by the event, the states met, and declared the absent Valdemar, the third son of Christopher (Otho was still in confinement), heir to the throne. The act of election was sent to that prince in spite of the care taken by the counts of Holstein to prevent all intercourse between the country and the exile. Valdemar received it at the court of the emperor, Ludovic of Bavaria; and that monarch immediately enjoined his son, the margrave, to facilitate the return of his brother-in-law. Under the imperial sanction, there was a conference at Spandau. It was there agreed that Otho should receive his liberty on the condition of his resigning all claims to the crown. The new king engaged to marry Hedwige, sister of Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, whose dowry of 24,000 marks was to be deducted from the 100,000 claimed by the sons of count Gerard. Until the rest were paid, Fionia and a part of Jutland were to remain in the hands of the counts. The king was not to protect the murderers of the late count. There were some other conditions of much less moment—all dictated by the necessity of sacrificing much to obtain a greater advantage. This treaty having been solemnly ratified, Valdemar returned to Denmark, and ascended the throne without opposition.

VALDEMAR III.

SURNAMED ATTERDAG.

1340–1375.

[Sidenote: 1340.]

When this prince ascended the throne, the prospect before him was gloomy: there was no monarchy; there were no revenues. Scania and Holland were in the hands of the Swedes; Fionia and Jutland were forcibly held by the counts of Holstein; Zealand and Laland obeyed another chief; and the rest of the isles had each its ruler who regarded it as his own estate to be inherited by his children. Even these were not the worst evils. The anarchy of so many years had caused the laws to be forgotten; the feeble were every where a prey to the strong; the poor were at war with the rich, the native with the foreigner; and nobody thought either of obedience to authority, or of paying the contributions rendered necessary by the wants of society.

[Sidenote: 1340 to 1344.]

The two first objects of Valdemar were to make the laws respected, and to recover, one by one, by conquest or treaty, the domains which had been alienated. Without the former there could be no security; without the latter there could be no prosperity. To make the judges respected, he himself administered justice. Not for days only but for weeks and months in succession, he thus presided in the tribunals, both in the cities and in the rural towns. At the same time, he caused most of the nobles in whose vicinity he happened to be, to produce their titles to the domains which they held; and when these were not valid, he resumed the fiefs. Against Ingeborga, widow of duke Albert Porse, to whose rapacity we have already alluded, he instituted a suit, and recovered two lordships from her; but in the very court of justice he had his armed men—a proof that the judgment would be in his favour, and, in spite of all opposition, enforced. The firm demeanour of the monarch had a good effect on his people, who rose against their foreign oppressors, while the latter defended themselves with their accustomed valour. This desultory warfare raged for many years.

[Sidenote: 1344.]

The recovery of several domains by justice, or force of arms encouraged the king to persevere in his efforts. But there were some parties against whom neither would avail—who were too powerful for either, and before them he could appear with money only. Where should he obtain it? He looked to Magnus, king of Sweden, who did not feel quite secure in the possession of Scania, and from whom he obtained 49,000 marks as the condition of for ever ceding that province to the northern kingdom. That one so patriotic as Valdemar should thus sanction the ruinous dismemberment of the monarchy, may well surprise us. But probably he reasoned thus:—“If the province _be_ lost, let that loss be counterbalanced by other acquisitions: if it be not finally lost,—if circumstances should arise favourable to my recovering it,—let the fortune of war decide whether the purchase-money is to be returned or not.” Of that money he made a good use: he redeemed from count John of Holstein the isle of Falster, with many domains and castles in other parts; soon too he redeemed Vordengburg and the whole isle of Laland. By this means he increased his own power in the same degree that he weakened that of his enemies. There must, however, have been some concert between the two parties, since he received no molestation in his financial proceedings, and especially since in 1345 he was able to leave the kingdom to settle the affairs of Esthonia.

[Sidenote: 1345 to 1348.]

In that country there was a revolt of the whole servile population against their lords, of whom most were Germans. The grand master of the Teutonic knights being requested to succour the local feudatories, consented to do so; but from his measures it was evident that he aimed at supplanting the Danish monarch. Valdemar sailed to the coast; but on his arrival he found that a truce had been signed between his own governors and the other party. From thence he proceeded to the Holy Land—probably in consequence of some vow—and this circumstance proves that his kingdom must have been in a more secure state than the chroniclers of the age would have us believe. By the pope he is said to have been censured for presuming to visit the holy places without the licence of the apostolic see. His absence, however, must have been short; for in the following year (1346) he was again in Esthonia. His motive for this second expedition may be inferred from the result; he sold that province to the Teutonic knights for 19,000 marks. This act has been much censured by historians; but to us it appears a wise one. The expense of maintaining that distant possession was greater than it was worth: troops could not be spared for it when every disposable man was required at home; and the money was necessary to pay some importunate demands, and to redeem another portion of the national domains. Well was that money employed; it enabled him to recover all the fortresses in Jutland and Zealand that had not been previously redeemed. In exchange for other possessions, he received from the counts of Holstein one half of Fionia and the town of Nyburg. This circumstance confirms what we have just mentioned—that the intervals of war were neither so frequent nor so long as those of peace; that he lived with the counts and his other rivals on terms much less hostile than from the strict language of the chroniclers we should be justified in believing.

[Sidenote: 1348 to 1350.]

Another opportunity of replenishing his empty treasury was opened to Valdemar in the aid which he afforded to his brother-in-law the margrave of Brandenburg, son of the emperor Ludovic of Bavaria. For that aid he received the annual tribute which the city of Lubeck paid to the margrave’s family for the protection (or advocacy, as it was called during the middle ages) afforded by that family to the commerce of the inhabitants.

[Sidenote: 1351 to 1357.]

On his return to Denmark the king proceeded with as much zeal as before in the reforms he had meditated. Rigour was required, and he employed it; but it converted into enemies all whose evil deeds he chastised. This was the most formidable of the obstacles which impeded his career of improvement. A whole generation of anarchy had rendered the nobles impatient of all restraint; they sighed for their former impunity; and they hated a ruler who in the administration of the laws made no distinction between them and the meanest artisan. To humble this tyrant as they considered him, they renewed their alliance with the counts of Holstein; but it led to nothing at this time: these nobles had yet no need to renew the war with the king. Four years afterwards, however (in 1357), they joined the Jutland nobility, and the king, who marched to repel them, was defeated. But the check was of short duration; for in a few weeks he was the victor in his turn—Adolf, one of the counts, being left dead on the field. This was a useful victory: it enabled Valdemar to seize the other half of Fionia without payment of the mortgage. The following year he subdued Langeland, Alfen, Femeren. The second of them, which belonged to the duke of Sleswic he subsequently restored, security being given that the inhabitants would remain neutral in the contest between him and the house of Holstein. With that house, however, peace was soon made; but these alternations of war and peace are perpetual at this period.

[Sidenote: 1357 to 1360.]

If Valdemar had ceded to Sweden the important province of Scania, he had done so either unwillingly, or with the resolution of recovering it whenever the opportunity should occur. That opportunity at length presented itself, and in a manner different from his anticipations. King Magnus became so unpopular, that he was compelled to resign the throne in favour of his son Eric. To regain it, he solicited aid from Valdemar; but the latter would promise none unless Scania were restored. The condition was a hard one; but the prize in view was of more importance; and in a treaty (1359) Magnus conceded the demand. At the same time, to draw closer the alliance between them, Margaret, daughter of Valdemar, then only six years old, was affianced to Hako king of Norway, another son of Magnus. In accordance with this treaty, Valdemar invaded Scania; and in a short time reduced most of the fortresses. From this career of conquest, however, he was recalled, for a moment, by an invasion of Femeren. The invaders were the counts of Holstein, the duke of Mecklenburg, and many nobles of Jutland, who were resolute in hastening the downfall of a stern master. This was a diversion effected by the counts to save Scania, in the preservation of which to the Swedish crown they had an interest. They were the allies of Eric, who had rebelled against his father Magnus; and their sister Elizabeth, in lieu of the Danish princess, was intended for Hako. The advantage lay with the king, who having forced his enemies to disband, returned to Scania, which he wholly seized. This he did without much difficulty, owing to a revolution in the internal state of Sweden. Eric, who had been associated with Magnus in the government, who was hostile to every thing Danish, who was the close ally of the counts of Holstein, fell a victim, we are told, to his own mother’s ambition. Magnus therefore resumed the sole direction of affairs, and the Danish interest again predominated. He was indeed enjoined by the states to defend Scania; but though he marched towards that province, he made no effort to arrest the progress of the Danes. On the contrary, he entered into a new alliance with them, and the projected union between Margaret and Hako was confirmed.

[Sidenote: 1360 to 1363.]

Magnus had again need of his ally’s assistance against his rebellious subjects. The inhabitants of Wisby, capital of the isle of Gothland, refused to pay the impost which he had laid upon them; and Valdemar, in obedience to his wish, sailed to chastise them. Wisby was one of the greatest ports in Europe; it was the magazine where the merchandise of the Baltic was kept. Of this much belonged to the Hanse Towns, especially to Lubeck. Immense was the booty which the Danish monarch seized in that town; but why he should plunder the subjects of his ally for his own benefit, is not easy to be explained. Whatever were his own reasons, he soon repented of his violence. The Swedes, indignant with their monarch whom they knew to have been the occasion of the disaster, shut him up in a fortress, called Hako of Norway to aid them, and declared war against Denmark. To obtain more assistance, they entered into alliance with the enemies of Denmark,—with the counts of Holstein, with the duke of Mecklenburg, and with the Hanse Towns, which were justly exasperated at the plunder of Wisby. The confederated powers put their armaments in motion, and soon reduced Copenhagen. Helsingburg in Scania was besieged, but Valdemar raised the siege and defeated the allied fleet with great loss. Vordingburg was next assailed, but with no better success; and other disasters soon rendered the allies anxious for peace, which was concluded at Lubeck in 1363. But it was of short continuance. There was a general meeting of deputies from all the towns of the Hanseatic League, above seventy in number; and the result of their deliberations was a new war. It was indeed evident, that unless that body secured the free transit of merchandise, there must be an end to all mercantile enterprise, and the worst days of piracy must be restored. Two armaments were soon equipped; and the number of assailants was increased by the adhesion of Denmark’s hereditary enemies. Valdemar, terrified, had recourse to negociations. Adolf, count of Holstein, he detached from the league by investing him with the isle of Femeren. The Hanse Towns he propitiated by commercial privileges. A truce was accordingly made, and the king was left to resume his intrigues in the North.

[Sidenote: 1362 to 1363.]

After the imprisonment of Magnus, who, however, was soon allowed to share in the government, Hako was the only hope of the Swedes: they crowned him in 1362, and then urged him to marry the sister of the counts of Holstein. But the breach of the contract between Margaret and Hako could not be so easily dissolved: it had been written and sealed with the necessary formalities, and under the sanction of an oath. Yet the Swedish states, regardless of these circumstances, sent an ambassador to Holstein to perform the marriage ceremony by proxy. It was celebrated with much pomp; and, soon afterwards, the new queen of Norway and Sweden embarked for her destination. The intelligence was a blow to Valdemar; but fortune enabled him to recover from it. A tempest cast the bride on the Danish coast; and she was conducted to the court, where the most flattering reception awaited her. A succession of feasts and entertainments blinded her for some time to the designs of Valdemar; but at length she perceived that with all the humour so studiously paid her, she was little better than a prisoner. But little did she suspect the deep game that was playing. During her stay at the court, which was protracted for many weeks, Hako was induced to visit the country and to solemnize his marriage with the princess Margaret. Great was the joy of the Danes at this event, and no less great the mortification of that numerous party in Sweden, which had prosecuted the alliance with Holstein. As Margaret was still very young, the marriage was not consummated for three years afterwards. But the advantage was gained; and Elizabeth, in despair, took the veil in a Swedish monastery.

[Sidenote: 1363.]

This marriage deserves especial consideration from one circumstance;—it led to the union of the crowns between Denmark and Norway,—a union which has continued unbroken to our own days. For a considerable period too it occasioned a junction of the three kingdoms which constitute Scandinavia. Many obstacles, however, intervened, before it could be effected; and indeed there was no hope of such a result at the time of its celebration. So indignant were the Swedes at it, that they declared the throne vacant, and elected Albert of Mecklenburg to rule over them. Hako, like his father, therefore, lost the crown; but these circumstances can be detailed only in the chapter devoted to Swedish history.

[Sidenote: 1364, 1365.]

The next year was passed by Valdemar abroad, in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, and France. Why he should abandon the kingdom at so critical a period has exercised the ingenuity of historians; but none of their conjectures are satisfactory; and his motions must remain shrouded in mystery. On his return, after an absence of ten months, he found his own kingdom as tranquil as Sweden was stormy. In the latter there were two parties—that which adhered to Magnus and Hako, and that which had invited Albert to ascend the throne. The former, numerically inferior, had obtained succour from Norway and Denmark, and, with this aid, had made an irruption into the provinces which held for Albert. A battle ensued, in which Magnus was made prisoner; but Hako, though desperately wounded, contrived to escape. But Valdemar recruited his party; and by his arms, no less than his intrigues, reduced Albert to such perplexity, that he was compelled, whatever the price, to propitiate the formidable Dane. Overtures were accordingly made to Valdemar by the kinsmen of Albert; and he received them with eagerness. They were, however, delusive; not one of the promises made was executed, or intended to be executed.

[Sidenote: 1367 to 1370.]

The influence of Albert, and of his connections, proved more disastrous to Valdemar than he could have expected. His own subjects, especially those of Jutland, who were in league with the counts of Holstein, again broke out into open rebellion. They were aided by the king of Sweden (Albert), by the duke of Mecklenburg, by the Hanse Towns, and by other enemies of Denmark. The most extraordinary circumstance is, that at this very period, when the monarchy was menaced within and from without, Valdemar again left the kingdom to pass several months abroad! Was his intention to interest the emperor and the pope in his behalf? Such has been the opinion of writers. Others, again, have attributed his departure to a formidable conspiracy, the object of which was darkly seen by him. The subject must remain in mystery. The hypothesis of a conspiracy, however, derives some confirmation from the fact, that after his departure the Hanseatic Towns, the counts of Holstein, and Albert of Sweden, made simultaneous attacks on different parts of the kingdom, and with some degree of success. In 1370, however, the minister to whom Valdemar had confided the affairs of the realm made peace with all the enemies of Denmark.

[Sidenote: 1370 to 1375.]

The same year Valdemar returned, and the same year too witnessed the extinction of the ducal line of Sleswic, which, as we have before related, originated in Abel, king of Denmark. To recover the duchy was the object of Valdemar, long before duke Henry’s death; and when that event arrived, his measures were so well taken, that in a few weeks most of the fortresses were in his possession. But the counts of Holstein urged their claim, in virtue of the agreement between their father, Gerard, and the duke of that period. They did not, however, immediately proceed to hostilities, nor was it their fortune to measure swords with Valdemar, while busily occupied in the internal reforms which he had so long contemplated, he saw that war was inevitable; and in this apprehension he besought pope Gregory XI. to interfere in his behalf—to teach his subjects obedience, and his enemies moderation. The pope, in his reply, professed his willingness to espouse the royal cause; but before his interference could be availing, Valdemar was no more. He died through his confidence in a quack, whose medicines he took. By his queen, Hedwige, he had six children, four of whom preceded him to the tomb. The survivors were two daughters—Ingeburga, married to Henry duke of Mecklenburg, and the celebrated Margaret, afterwards queen of the North.

[Sidenote: 1375.]

Valdemar was the first Danish monarch that styled himself king of the _Goths_. The assumption was occasioned, either by the conquests which he made in Gothland (they were very temporary), or by the diversions which Albert, to preserve his alliance, proposed to make, and, in fact, did make, in that province.

OLAF III.

1376–1387.

[Sidenote: 1375, 1376.]

With Valdemar III. ended the male line of the dynasty founded by Sweyn, the nephew of Canute the Great. Who was to succeed him? As we have before related, he left two daughters only; viz. Ingeburga, wife of Henry, duke of Mecklenburg, and Margaret, the consort of Hako, king of Norway. As there was no example in the North of female succession, the electors must turn either to some collateral branch of the family, or to the sons of those princesses,—unless indeed they did what they might easily have done, and what many indeed professed to do, viz. make choice of a foreign house. The greater number, however, decided for preserving the sceptre in the ancient house, and without regard to the collateral branches. The choice therefore rested between the issue of Ingeburga and that of Margaret; viz. between Albert of Mecklenburg, and Olaf of Norway. The former was the eldest daughter, and Albert was much older than Olaf, yet merely a child; but the feeling of the states seemed to run in favour of the latter. In the first assembly nothing was effected; in the interval between it and the convocation of the next, Margaret was not inactive. Her intrigues, her presents, her promises, and above all the fact that Olaf was the heir of the Norwegian throne, and consequently that there would be a union of the two kingdoms, determined the question in his favour. In this decision too, dislike of Sweden had some share; for Albert was nearly connected with the king who had been elected the successor of Magnus. On this occasion, there was no general meeting of the states; and those of each province voted separately. Jutland, with its three orders, viz. the nobles, the clergy, the burghers and rich peasants, set the example. It was followed by Scania; and the rest, constrained by their preponderating influence, joined with them.

[Sidenote: 1376.]

The promises of the queen to which we have alluded were not dissimilar from those which Christopher II. had made. In the name of her son (he was but five years of age), she guaranteed to the clergy all their rights, immunities, and privileges. No benefice should be held by a layman. No foreigner should become a dignitary. No bishop or any other ecclesiastic should be arrested, exiled, or deprived of his revenues, without the previous sentence of an ecclesiastical judge only. Abbots, friars, and rectors, were to be dependent only on the bishop, their lawful superior. The nobles and not the crown were to receive the fines inflicted on the rural inhabitants within their respective districts by any secular judge, when those fines fell below a certain amount, according to the custom of the province: in some provinces the maximum was three, in others nine marks; when it exceeded three or nine, it went indisputably to the crown. The king was to undertake no war without the consent of his senators, the prelates, and some nobles of the realm. No man in holy orders should be invested with any temporal employment. No man should be executed unless he had been judicially convicted, or caught _flagrante delicto_ in some matter worthy of death. Even if he had been sentenced by the tribunals, one month and a day should be allowed him to flee from the kingdom! The peasants should not be compelled to repair the royal palaces, without the sanction of the senate. The king should not build on any other domain than his own, without the consent of the owner. The property of no man should be confiscated, even judicially, unless he were proved guilty of high treason, or had borne arms against his country. Foreign merchants might trade freely throughout the kingdom, and should be subject to no other tax or impost than such as were already sanctioned by custom. The great assizes should, according to ancient custom, be held annually on the feast of St. John the Baptist. No officer of justice should cite any one before a foreign tribunal—that of Norway, for instance—but every man should be amenable to the local jurisdiction alone.

[Sidenote: 1376.]

Such were the chief provisions of the capitulation between Margaret and the people. They have been severely condemned by the national historians, as trenching on the just prerogatives of the crown. But surely they do not all merit the censure. Some of them are in the highest degree salutary. That indeed which allowed the nobles to enjoy the fines levied on their vassals, or more correctly freemen (subject, however, to many vassalitic obligations), was censurable; but it was common in most other countries where feudal tribunals existed. Two or three of those which concerned the clergy are also reprehensible; but they were sanctioned by the canon law, and were as obligatory in other places as in Denmark. The greatest defect of this capitulation is that too much influence was left to the nobles. But how should Margaret be condemned for sacrificing to the aristocracy, when aristocratic privileges were predominant every where else?

[Sidenote: 1376 to 1380.]

The election of Olaf could not fail to exasperate the party of Albert. The head of the house of Mecklenburg called in the emperor Charles IV. to interfere in behalf of his grandson: he flew to arms, and persuaded his son Albert, king of Sweden, to join him; and he brought the courts of Holstein into the same league. These counts, in the event of Albert’s succession, were to have Sleswic, Alfen, and Langeland. On her part, Margaret was not idle. She too obtained allies, among whom were the dukes of Pomerania, the hereditary enemies of the Mecklenburg family. The result justified her policy. A formidable armament sailed against the coasts, and she was prepared to meet it. The elements, however, fought for her: the armament was dispersed or destroyed; and the enemy consented that the great subjects of dispute should be laid before arbitrators. This was to acknowledge Olaf _de facto_ sovereign of Denmark, whatever the concessions expected from him in return. Whether this arbitration ever took place is not very clear: there are no records of it; yet there is some reason to suspect that it did, and that from the period in question the house of Mecklenburg was excepted from all homage for the lordship of Rostock. What confirms the inference is, that for some years the realm was undisturbed by foreign enemies, and the regent left at liberty to pursue her course of policy. That course was a judicious one. She drew closer the connection between Denmark and the Hanseatic Towns; she courted the clergy; she was gracious to the barons; she endeavoured to remove all subjects of discord, and to bind all orders of the people to her government.

[Sidenote: 1380 to 1386.]

In 1380, Hako, the husband of Margaret, who was greatly her senior, paid the debt of nature. Olaf therefore, still a child, became king of Norway. But Hako was also the rightful heir to the Swedish throne, and these rights Margaret determined to secure in favour of their legitimate heir, her son. This indeed was the great, the constant, object of her policy: she had united two kingdoms, and she would now add a third. The mortification of the Swedish king was great. He feared lest the strength of the two hostile kingdoms should be consolidated, and become fatal to himself. To avert this result, he had recourse to hostilities, during the absence of Olaf and his mother in Norway (1381). Though he effected some mischief, he made little impression on that country. Two years afterwards, he made a second attempt, but was compelled to retreat. In 1385, both Olaf and his mother repaired thither to confirm the people in their fidelity, and to gain their attachment by such marks of favour as sovereigns can bestow.

[Sidenote: 1386.]

In regard to the counts of Holstein, Margaret had more trouble than with Albert of Sweden, or the prince of Mecklenburg. These counts, as we have often intimated, looked to Sleswic as their lawful inheritance; nor had they relinquished their hope of succession after the reversion of the fief to the crown through the default of issue in Henry the late duke. To the surprise of many, count Gerard, grandson of the celebrated prince of that name, was formally invested by Olaf with that important fief. In dismembering (for the act was no better) so important a limb of the Danish body, there was certainly much impolicy; but the act is neither so surprising nor so censurable as some historians assert. In fact there are strong reasons for it. Gerard, the representative of his house, had, according to feudal law, a good claim to the succession. Its justice, therefore, would have weight, not merely with the allies of his house, but with all Germany. Policy, however, more than justice, influenced the queen-mother in this important step. Was it nothing to separate the interests of the Holstein count from those of the Mecklenburg dukes? She well knew the efforts which Albert of Sweden had made, and was making, to secure the active assistance of the former. Besides, most of her subjects, and all her noble subjects, looked upon the count as hardly used by his exclusion from his birthright; and they were not without apprehension that, if left as a precedent, it might operate to their own disadvantage. But the strongest of all reason is, that the count was already _de facto_ duke of Sleswic. Soon after the death of Valdemar III., he had, with the aid of his allies, occupied it by force; and as the people were attached to his government, who was to dispossess him? Certainly to do so was not in the power of the queen-mother, or of her son. But though the standard—the ordinary symbol of infeudation—was delivered by Olaf to the count, and homage done in return, no letters-patent were expedited on the occasion. Why? Because there was a dispute as to the conditions of the tenure by which the fief was to be held. Gerard wished to hold it on the same footing as his celebrated ancestor, viz. without the obligation of military service; but from that wish Margaret dissented. The subject, therefore, was left undecided, and it gave rise, as we shall perceive in the ensuing volume, to much effusion of blood. Connected with this count Gerard is one circumstance worthy of notice: his sister Hedwige married Theodric count of Oldenburg; and from that union sprung Christian I., king of Denmark, founder of the illustrious family which now sits on the throne.

[Sidenote: 1387.]

One year after this important investiture, Olaf, whose constitution had always been feeble, paid the debt of nature. As he was only in his seventeenth year, he left no issue, and indeed was never married. Again, therefore, was the male line extinct; and Margaret only could rule, unless (what nobody contemplated) a foreign house should be called to the succession. The queen-mother had so obvious an interest in the event, that by some people she was suspected of having quietly removed her son to reign in his place. The suspicion, indeed, was an absurd one: there was not the shadow of a foundation for it; but it suited popular credulity; and it enabled, as we shall hereafter show, a false Olaf to deceive a considerable portion of the multitude. The Franciscans contend that the king, influenced by piety alone, relinquished his worldly grandeur, and retired to a house of their order in Italy, where he died in all the odour of sanctity.

By this monarch’s decease Margaret became sovereign of both Denmark and Norway; and from this period down to the nineteenth century, both crowns were united on the same brow. Henceforth the fortunes of both are inseparable. Our next care must be to give a summary of Norwegian events prior to this union.