Valdemar II
Valdemar II, often referred to as Valdemar the Victorious, was a significant medieval king of Denmark whose reign spanned from 1202 to 1241. As a member of the Valdemar dynasty, he built on the foundational work of his predecessors, particularly in consolidating power in Northern Europe during a time of political turmoil within the Holy Roman Empire. Valdemar's military campaigns extended Danish influence into the Baltic region, particularly in areas that were still pagan, such as Prussia and Estonia, while he also played a crucial role in supporting the Church and its crusading efforts.
His reign is characterized by ambitious territorial expansion, administrative reforms, and the promotion of international trade across the Baltic Sea, notably benefiting merchant communities. However, his rule was not without challenges; notably, he faced conflicts with local nobles and setbacks such as his kidnapping in 1223, which weakened his control over mainland territories. Despite these difficulties, he is credited with establishing a hereditary monarchy and fostering an era of relative peace and stability in Denmark.
Valdemar II's legacy is marked by his dual successes in warfare and governance, though his inability to unify his successors and the nobility ultimately led to internal strife following his death. His accomplishments had lasting impacts on the political landscape of Denmark and the Baltic region, as well as the development of emerging trade networks that would later contribute to the formation of the Hanseatic League.
Valdemar II
King of Denmark (r. 1202-1241)
- Born: May 9, 1170
- Birthplace: Denmark
- Died: March 28, 1241
- Place of death: Vordingborg, Denmark
Valdemar II was a warrior, lawgiver, builder, and Crusader. He extended Danish control over North Germany, Scandia, and Estonia, leaving to his successors the dream of an empire extending over the Baltic Sea.
Early Life
Valdemar II’s father, Valdemar I (1157-1182), had brought to an end the long struggles between the Church and Crown for dominance in the north of Europe. Working with Absalon, the archbishop of Lund, he began a crusading program that secured internal peace through external expansion, occupying the military talents of potentially rebellious nobles in defeating Wendish (Slavic peoples of eastern Germany) pagans on the Mecklenburg coast and islands and seizing Scandia (the southern part of modern Sweden), while establishing royal authority inside the kingdom. His defeat of the Wendish pirates made possible the rapid expansion of agriculture, the foundation of towns, and the growth of international trade. He secured his mainland conquests by wedding his sons, Canute (Knut) and Valdemar, to daughters of the Welf prince, Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony.
Canute VI (1182-1202) continued this program, with his brother Valdemar’s help, by occupying Mecklenburg, Holstein, and the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. Canute was not a modern nationalist. He paid little attention to the ethnic origin of his subjects, and since his Danish-speaking subjects were hardly numerous enough to settle on the underpopulated mainland coast, the principal beneficiaries of his policies were German fishermen, peasants, burghers, and petty nobles. With Canute’s encouragement, they founded towns, exploited the herring grounds, and traded in Gotland, Livonia (modern Latvia), and Russia. Canute’s Wendish vassals introduced Germans into their lands in such numbers as to change the ethnic composition of Mecklenburg. Canute relied greatly on his vigorous younger brother, Valdemar, because he himself was too weak to lead armies in the field. Consequently, when Canute died childless at a relatively young age, Valdemar came to the throne well prepared for his duties and confident of his ability to continue the dynasty’s program.
Life’s Work
The political situation in 1202 was extremely favorable for Valdemar. The Holy Roman Empire was in political turmoil: Pope Innocent III was playing the Welf and Hohenstaufen factions against each other, encouraging the weaker of the two parties to continue its efforts to secure the throne. Valdemar intervened in the North, replacing some local rulers and rewarding others, thus consolidating his empire in Germany while winning papal thanks for his contributions to the Church’s cause. Afterward, neither the Welf emperor, Otto IV , nor the Hohenstaufen, Frederick II, dared attack him. Frederick even confirmed his rights to the lands north of the Elbe in a Golden Bull.
Valdemar’s policies on the mainland were not uniformly successful. His decision to send his sister, Ingeborg, to marry Philip II of France was an embarrassing debacle. His decision to release Valdemar of Schleswig from prison cost him years of conflict in Hamburg-Bremen. He seemed, however, to have the golden touch in the Baltic.
Valdemar envisioned extending his rule over all the still-pagan shores of the eastern sea over Pomerania, Prussia, Kurland (Courland), Livonia, and Estonia. His first step came in 1202, in his approval of the crusading mission of Bishop Albert to Riga in Livonia in return for recognition of Valdemar’s overlordship. In 1206, Valdemar himself led a force to Oesel, the largest of the Estonian islands, to intimidate the fierce pirates there. In 1210, he raided Samland in Prussia. Still, he had to secure peace in North Germany before he could take a major force to the east. Peace came in 1215, followed quickly by the news that Bishop Albert’s Crusaders were making such rapid headway in Livonia that they would soon overstep the agreed northern boundary of their conquests; moreover, they were refusing to recognize Valdemar as overlord.
In 1219, Valdemar sailed with a great army to Estonia. The overawed tribesmen surrendered so quickly that Valdemar became careless about his personal safety. When attacking natives penetrated right into the royal tent, they killed Valdemar’s newly appointed bishop of Estonia and missed the king only because his modest clothing gave little clue as to his status. Valdemar, fighting courageously at the head of his Danish, German, and Wendish vassals, crushed the uprising, built a castle at Reval (Tallinn) and went home determined to humble Bishop Albert’s unruly Crusaders. He brought home the Dannebrog, the distinctive red banner with a white cross, which, as legend tells it, had fallen from heaven to encourage his Crusaders at a critical moment and which became the Danish standard.
A similar lapse of attention in May of 1223 cost Valdemar greatly. He invited Count Henry (Heinrich) of Schwerin to accompany him hunting on the island of Ly . A few years earlier, Henry’s brother had given a daughter as wife to Valdemar’s eldest son. Though the couple died soon after their wedding, Valdemar was claiming half of Schwerin as the dowry. Henry, desperate to avoid this debt, kidnapped Valdemar and his eldest son who had been made joint king in 1218 and imprisoned them in Dannenberg.
Papal threats failed to move Count Henry, who understandably feared Valdemar’s revenge. Henry organized a coalition of local nobles and prelates that defeated Valdemar’s allies in 1225, then expelled the Danish appointees to office and divided the spoils. Meanwhile, the news of Valdemar’s fall had precipitated a rebellion in Estonia that was crushed by Livonian Crusaders, who henceforth occupied that land. Henry was then in a position to ransom the king for a large sum and his promise to surrender all territorial claims in North Germany. Valdemar retained control of Rügen and Estonia.
Valdemar sought to recover his losses by force of arms but was defeated on July 22, 1227, at Bornhöved, after which he abandoned his hopes of a mainland empire. He retained Estonia by diplomacy, through the Treaty of Stenby, in 1238.
The king contented himself with domestic affairs, particularly law reform. His codification of Jutland law was completed only a few days before his death in 1241. His children by Richza of Saxony and Margarete of Bohemia died before him. His sons by Berengaria of Portugal each, in turn, became king; Eric from 1241 to 1250, Abel from 1250 to 1252, and Christopher from 1252 to 1259. Their mutual hatred disrupted the kingdom and brought an end to the hard-won unity and internal peace of the Valdemar era.
Significance
The age of the Valdemars, from 1157 to 1241, was the most glorious era of Danish medieval history. For a short period, brilliant churchmen and monarchs ended the endemic civil wars, expanded trade, created a great empire, built churches and cathedrals, and established the kingdom on a hereditary basis.
Denmark profited greatly from the long era of internal peace and stability. The population grew steadily and more land was brought under cultivation. This provided the taxes and tithes that built palaces, cathedrals, and churches.
The king abandoned the common levy for raising troops, relying instead on prominent warriors and rich farmers, who were freed from taxation in return for serving as royal officials and mounted troops. These knights soon became a new nobility. Though bound to the king by an oath, in time they tended to work more for their own interests than those of the monarchy.
Another enduring accomplishment of the period was securing the safety of international trade across the Baltic Sea. Merchants from the Holy Roman Empire sailed east under Danish protection. Although Lübeck owed its rise to prominence to Valdemar II’s policy of supporting merchants against local nobles, the merchants naturally chafed against any tax or interference in their affairs. Consequently, Lübeck joined Count Henry’s coalition and made a significant contribution at the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227. The citizens’ subsequent alliances with other growing mercantile communities were forerunners of the Hanseatic League. Valdemar’s successors were to wage long wars against Lübeck and the League in an effort to re-create his Baltic empire, but with equal lack of ultimate success.
Valdemar II was a great warrior and an effective administrator, especially when he had the services of gifted vassals and churchmen. His self-confidence led him to be somewhat careless about his personal safety and less than thoughtful about the long-term results of his policies. His failure to instill brotherly love among his sons serves well to illustrate his shortcomings as man and ruler. Similarly, he failed to make the nobles more concerned for their country than for themselves or to reconcile his mainland subjects to Danish rule. These shortcomings were not made good by successors who modeled themselves on him.
Valdemar Kings of Denmark, 1157-1241
Reign
- Ruler
1157-1182
- Valdemar I the Great
1182-1202
- Canute IV (VI) the Pious
1202-1241
- Valdemar II the Victorious
Bibliography
Birch, J. H. S. Denmark in History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. This standard survey summarizes adequately the insights of the many historians who publish in Danish and German.
Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. New ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Good background to the Wendish and Estonian Crusades, the origins of the Hanseatic League, and the long contest for hegemony over the Baltic Sea.
Jones, Prudence, and Nigel Pennick. A History of Pagan Europe. New York: Routledge, 1997. A survey of the history of pagans and paganism in Europe, against which Valdemar struggled in his realm of the Baltics. Includes a bibliography and index.
King, Wilson. Chronicles of Three Free Cities: Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1914. A dated romantic history, but timeless good reading. Includes some color illustrations and a map.
Lauring, Palle. A History of Denmark. Translated by David Hohnen. Copenhagen: Host and Son, 1986. This is the seventh edition of a highly respected general survey.
Lewis, Archibald Ross, and Timothy J. Runyan. European Naval and Maritime History, 300-1500. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. A survey written for the general reader on the rich maritime and shipping history of the European Middle Ages, including the Baltic region during the time of Valdemar. Includes maps and a bibliography.
Urban, William L. The Baltic Crusade. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 1994. This volume describes the situation in the Holy Roman Empire before and after 1200, which made Valdemar’s empire possible. There are detailed descriptions of Valdemar’s policies, his Crusades to Estonia, and his kidnapping and fall.