Valdemar I of Denmark

Valdemar the Great
Statue of Valdemar the Great in the town square of Ringsted.
King of Denmark
Reign	1146– 17 November 1182
Predecessor	Sweyn III
Successor	Canute VI
Duke of Schleswig
Reign	1152–1154
Predecessor	Magnus
Successor	Christopher
Born	14 January 1131
Died	12 May 1182 (aged 51) Vordingborg
Burial	St. Bendt's Church, Ringsted
Consort	Sophia of Minsk
Issue among others...	Sophia, Countess of Orlamünde Canute VI Valdemar II Ingeborg, Queen of France Helena, Duchess of Lüneburg Richeza, Queen of Sweden Christopher of Jutland (illegitimate)
Full name Valdemar Knudsen
House	Estridsen
Father	Canute Lavard
Mother	Ingeborg of Kiev
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Valdemar I of Denmark (14 January 1131 – 12 May 1182), also known as Valdemar the Great (Danish: Valdemar den Store), was King of Denmark from 1146 until his death in 1182.

Biography

He was the son of Canute Lavard, a chivalrous and popular Danish prince, who was the eldest son of Eric I of Denmark. Valdemar's father was murdered by Magnus the Strong days before the birth of Valdemar; his mother, Ingeborg of Kiev, daughter of Mstislav I of Kiev and Christina Ingesdotter of Sweden, named him after her grandfather, Vladimir Monomakh of Kiev.

As an heir to the throne, and with his rivals quickly gaining power, he was raised in the court of Asser Rig of Fjenneslev, together with Asser's sons, Absalon and Esbern Snare, who would become his trusted friends and ministers.

In 1146, when Valdemar was fifteen years old, King Erik III Lamb abdicated and a civil war erupted. The pretenders to the throne were: Sweyn III Grathe, son of Eric II Emune, son of Eric I. Canute V, son of Magnus the Strong who was the son of King Niels, who was the brother of Erik I. Valdemar himself held Jutland, at least Schleswig, as his possession. The civil war lasted the better part of ten years.

In 1157, the three agreed to part the country in three among themselves. Sweyn hosted a great banquet for Canute, Absalon, and Valdemar during which he planned to dispose of all of them. Canute was killed, but Absalon and Valdemar escaped. Valdemar returned to Jutland. Sweyn quickly launched an invasion, only to be defeated by Valdemar in the Battle of Grathe Heath. He was killed during flight, supposedly by a group of peasants who stumbled upon him as he was fleeing from the battlefield. Valdemar, having outlived all his rival pretenders, became the sole King of Denmark.

Bishop Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Arkona

In 1158 Absalon was elected Bishop of Roskilde, and Valdemar made him his chief friend and advisor. He reorganized and rebuilt war-torn Denmark. At Absalon's instigation he declared war upon the Wends who were raiding the Danish coasts. They inhabited Pomerania and the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. In 1168 the Wendish capital, Arkona, was taken, and the Wends became Christians and subject to Danish suzerainty. Danish influence reached into Pomerania.

Valdemar's reign saw the rise of Denmark, which reached its zenith under his second son Valdemar II.

Issue

Valdemar married Sophia of Minsk (c. 1141–1198), half-sister of Canute V of Denmark and daughter of Richeza of Poland, dowager queen of Sweden, from her marriage with Volodar of Minsk (Vladimir or Volodar Glebovich of the Rurikids, died 1167), ruling Prince of Minsk, and they had the following children:

• Sophia (1159–1208), married Siegfried III, Count of Weimar-Orlamünde
• King Canute VI of Denmark (1163–1202)
• Maria (born c. 1165), nun at Roskilde (1188).
• Margaret (born c. 1167), nun at Roskilde (1188).
• King Valdemar II of Denmark (1170–1241).
• Ingeborg (1175–1236), married King Philip II of France.
• Helena (c.1177–1233), married William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
• Richeza (c. 1180–1220), married King Eric X of Sweden.
• Walburgis (d. 1177), married Bogusław I, Duke of Pomerania.

His widow Sophia married then Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia.

Illegitimate with Tove:

• Christopher (1150–1173), Valdemar's eldest son, Duke of Jutland (dux Iuciae^[1]) ca. 1170–1173

Ancestry

Ancestors of Valdemar I of Denmark

16. Ulf Thorgilsson               8. Sweyn II of Denmark                       17. Estrid Svendsdatter               4. Eric I of Denmark                             9. frille (name unknown)                       2. Canute Lavard                                   20. Ulv Galiciefarer, Jarl in Denmark               10. Thrugot Ulfsson Fagerskind                       21. Bodil Hakonsdotter               5. Boedil Thurgotsdatter                             22. Vagn Ageson               11. Thorgunna Vagnsdatter                       23. Ingeborg Thorkilsdatter               1. Valdemar I of Denmark                                         24. Vsevolod I of Kiev               12. Vladimir II Monomakh                       25. Anastasia Monomachina               6. Mstislav I of Kiev                             26. Harold Godwinson               13. Gytha of Wessex                       27. Edith Swanneck               3. Ingeborg of Kiev                                   28. Stenkil               14. Inge I of Sweden                       29. Saint Ingamoder Emundsdotter of Sweden               7. Christina Ingesdotter of Sweden                             30. Sigtorn or Prince Ingvar of Sweden               15. Helena

Notes

1. Esben Albrectsen, "Das Abel-Geschlecht und die Schauenburger als Herzöge von Schleswig", Marion Hartwig and Frauke Witte (trls.), in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 52–71, here p. 52. ISBN 978-3-529-02606-5

External links

• Media related to Valdemar I of Denmark at Wikimedia Commons
• Find-A-Grave profile for Valdemar I the Great
• http://www.kingsofdenmark.dk/king19.htm