Chapter I: Denmark.130 (3)

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.]