Kingdom · Scandinavia · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Kingdom of Denmark

On 1 January 1200 Denmark is the strongest power in the Baltic.

It runs from the Eider to the northern end of Halland and from the Skaw to Bornholm: Jutland with the duchy of Schleswig, Funen and the islands, Zealand, Lolland, Falster and Møn, and across the Sound Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm, which share one law and one archbishop at Lund. The king, Canute VI, about 37, has reigned alone since 1182. He is a childless widower, so the realm rests on his brother Duke Valdemar of South Jutland, who leads the army in the south.

Beside the king stands old Archbishop Absalon of Lund, the maker of Danish policy for forty years, and round both of them the Hvide kindred of Zealand, who hold the chancery (Anders Sunesen), the see of Roskilde (Peder Sunesen), the castle of Kalundborg (Esbern Snare) and wide estates. The Wendish princes of Rügen, Mecklenburg and Pomerania are the king's vassals, which is why he calls himself king of the Wends, but Brandenburg has been prising Pomerania loose since 1198. In the south the crown is at war with Count Adolf III of Holstein, Philip of Swabia's man, with no truce: the Danes attacked Rendsburg and stood on the Eider in 1199.

Abroad, Canute's sister Ingeborg, the repudiated queen of France, is the cause on which Innocent III is about to lay an interdict on Philip Augustus's lands. Denmark shelters Sverre's enemies: the exiled archbishop of Nidaros lives at Lund, the Bagler were founded on Scanian ground, and their bishop Nicholas of Oslo fled to Denmark after his defeat in June 1199. Sweden's King Sverker II is a Danish-raised kinsman of the Hvide.

Who rules

Name
Canute VI (Knud VI)
Title
king of the Danes and of the Wends (the Wendish title since the Pomeranian duke became his vassal in 1185)
Since
crowned co-king at Ringsted on 25 June 1170, the first known Danish coronation; sole king since his father died on 12 May 1182
Born
1162 (the Valdemar annals, as DBL gives it) or about 1163 (en.wikipedia), so about 37 on 1 January 1200
Family
Elder son of Valdemar I the Great and Sophia of Minsk (died 1198). A widower: his queen Gertrude, Henry the Lion's daughter, died on 1 July 1197, and they had no children. His heir is his brother Valdemar, duke of South Jutland, aged 29 and unmarried.
Confidence
high

Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (Knud 6.); en.wikipedia Canute VI, Valdemar I, Valdemar II

Overlord

None. The Danish king owes homage to no one: Canute refused Barbarossa's demand for homage in 1184 (en.wikipedia).

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 Canute VI rules the whole kingdom without a rival in it. His brother holds South Jutland; Absalon holds Lund, the archbishop's Bornholm herreder and Havn; the Hvide hold the chancery, Roskilde, Kalundborg and great estates; everything else is ruled through the king's officers and assemblies. The Scanian lands, Zealand and the islands are at peace; the war is on the Eider, and the herring market is shut for the winter.

Wealth

Grain and cattle of the Danish islands and Scania, the Scanian herring (the largest fishery of the Baltic), the tolls of the Sound, Schleswig and the markets, the Wendish princes' tribute, the crown estates, the fines of the king's courts. No figures.

Military

The levy fleet, the provincial land levies, the king's household men; castles at Vordingborg, Søborg, Helsingborg, Lilleborg and on the Danevirke. Record: Wendish wars 1159-85 won; Estonia 1197; Rendsburg and the Eider 1199 without a decision.

Threats

  • A childless king: the succession rests on Duke Valdemar alone
  • Adolf III, Hartwig of Bremen, Otto II of Brandenburg and Bernhard of Saxony on the southern frontier, with Lübeck and Hamburg in Adolf's hands
  • Brandenburg's push into Pomerania, the weakest link in the Wendish overlordship
  • Rome's resentment of Bishop Valdemar's imprisonment
  • Absalon's age (about 72): he dies on 21 March 1201
  • Philip Augustus's hostility over Ingeborg
  • Sverre's enmity for the shelter Denmark gives his bishops and the Bagler

Consort

None. Queen Gertrude (born about 1154), daughter of Henry the Lion and widow of Duke Frederick IV of Swabia, married Canute in 1177 and died on 1 July 1197 (DBL). They had no children. No new marriage is known to be in hand.

Heirs

His brother Valdemar (born 28 June 1170 at Ribe, so 29), duke of South Jutland, who took over his duchy in 1187 (DBL; dkj record). Valdemar is unmarried: his marriage to Dagmar of Bohemia is 1205. No formal designation as heir is recorded: when Canute dies he is crowned at Lund on Christmas Day 1202 without having been designated beforehand (DBL, as cited in the dkj record), but no rival heir exists inside the royal house except the imprisoned Bishop Valdemar.

Valdemar's illegitimate son Niels by an unknown mother, count of Halland from 1216 (died 1218), has no birth date in the sources read: whether he is born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Kin

Sisters (children of Valdemar I): Sophia (born 1159), wife of Count Siegfried III of Orlamünde (marriage date not pinned in the sources read), whose sons Albert and Hermann will serve Denmark; Maria and Margaret, nuns at Roskilde since 1188; Ingeborg (born 1174 or 1175), queen of France, married to Philip Augustus on 14 August 1193 and put away the next day, held in confinement in France; Helena (born about 1176-80), unmarried in 1200, who marries William of Lüneburg, Otto IV's brother, at Hamburg in the summer of 1202 (en.wikipedia); Rikissa (born about 1178), unmarried in 1200, who marries Erik Knutsson of Sweden only in 1210. Their mother Queen Sophia died in 1198. Cousins: Bishop Valdemar of Schleswig (son of Canute V), the crown's prisoner at Søborg (Søborg); his sister Hildegard, wife of Prince Jaromar I of Rügen.

Officers

Chancellor: Anders Sunesen (born before 1170), provost of Roskilde and royal chancellor since the early 1190s; DBL gives no exact year. He built up the chancery and probably drafted the homicide ordinance of December 1200. Chief counsellor: Archbishop Absalon of Lund (about 72), who advises the king in secular affairs (DBL; Church map record). Steward (drost): the office is known from about 1200 as the officer who runs the king's household (Den Store Danske), but no holder is named for 1 January 1200: not pinned.

Marshal (marsk): not pinned; Ebbe Sunesen's son Johannes is marshal later (died 1232, DBL), and en.wikipedia's 'Lord High Constable' for Ebbe himself is not supported by DBL. Stallare: not pinned. The king's governor (ombudsmand) of Scania: Sune Ebbesen held the office and rule of Scania after Absalon became archbishop until his death in 1186, and Esbern Snare was ombudsman there in 1181 (DBL); the holder on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

The castellans of Vordingborg, Søborg, Helsingborg and Lilleborg and the king's bailiffs (bryder) on his estates are not named in the sources read.

Court in 1200

The king has no fixed capital. He travels between his estates and castles: Vordingborg, Ringsted, Roskilde and Søborg on Zealand, Lund and Helsingborg in Scania, and his Jutland estates. Where he keeps Christmas 1199 is not pinned. The court is the king's sworn household (hird), the chancellor's clerks, and the great men of the Hvide kin; the Valdemar Census Book's list of the king's 'brothers' (62 groups of three magnates, DBL) shows the same household brotherhood a generation later.

Kindreds

The Hvide, descendants of Skjalm Hvide, dominate the court and the eastern lands. Archbishop Absalon and his brother Esbern Snare are sons of Asser Rig of Fjenneslev; their cousin Sune Ebbesen (died 1186) left sons who now hold the chancery (Anders), the see of Roskilde (Peder, since 1191) and broad estates (Ebbe of Knardrup, Jakob, Lars, Johannes, Torbern): see The Sunesens and Esbern Snare. Ebbe's daughter Benedikta is Sverker II's queen or lately was (the Swedish record has her dates), and Sverker's mother Kristina Stigsdotter was of the Hvide.

No other eastern kindred holding office on 1 January 1200 is named in the sources read: the Scanian leaders who rose against the Hvide officers in 1180-82 lost and are not pinned here.

Royal estates

The king's land is of two kinds: the crown estates that go with the kingship (kongelev) and his own inherited and bought land. Both are known mainly from King Valdemar's Census Book, whose main part dates from 1231 (Den Store Danske), a generation later, so any list for 1200 is inference. The bailiffs (bryder) run them and feed the travelling court. The eastern centres on 1 January 1200: Vordingborg (castle of 1175), Ringsted (the royal burial church and the Zealand assembly), Søborg (castle taken by Valdemar I in 1161, now the state prison), Roskilde (the old royal town), the island of Møn, Lund and Helsingborg in Scania, the whole of Halland (Canute's own since his wedding in 1177; the Census Book names seven kongelev there: Laholm, Halmstad, Faurås, Sjönevad, Vare, Grimeton and Tölö), Blekinge, the king's herred on Bornholm with the castle of Lilleborg, Lolland and Falster (Eastern Germany map), and the estates of Jutland and Funen (dkj).

See the lord records Crown of Zealand, Crown of Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm (the king's quarter).

Castles and towns

Royal castles: Vordingborg, Søborg, Helsingborg (a stronghold before the present tower, which is of the 1310s), Lilleborg on Bornholm, and in the south the Danevirke and the duke's Schleswig (dkj). Private and Church castles: Esbern Snare's Kalundborg, Absalon's Havn, the archbishop's Åhus. Towns: Lund (the largest in the realm), Roskilde, Ringsted, Slagelse, Næstved, Helsingborg, and the seasonal herring market at Skanör and Falsterbo; in the west Ribe, Schleswig, Viborg, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg (dkj).

Most are royal or episcopal market towns with no charter or council in 1200.

Levy fleet

The levy (leding): the land is divided into ship districts, each fitting out and manning a warship with food and gear for the king's summer expeditions. It won the Wendish wars of Valdemar I and Absalon (Arkona, 1168) and the Pomeranian war of 1184-85. Recent service: the crusade against the Estonians that Canute led in person in 1197 (en.wikipedia), the army that came to the Holstein border in 1198, the fighting in Pomerania in 1198 in which Bishop Peder Sunesen was taken prisoner by Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg (DBL), and Duke Valdemar's attack on Rendsburg and the stand on the Eider in 1199.

Vordingborg on the Masnedsund is the fleet's base for the south Baltic. No numbers: Saxo's ship counts for earlier fleets are chronicle numbers.

Mints tolls fairs

Royal mints at Lund for the Scanian lands and at Roskilde for Zealand (Roskilde struck coin from the 11th to the 14th century, en.wikipedia), with the Jutland mints in the west (dkj). The archbishop's share in the Lund mint is not pinned (Church map). The greatest single source of royal dues is the Scanian herring market on the Skanör and Falsterbo peninsula, held each autumn (in later practice from 24 August to 9 October), with the Øresund crossing at Helsingborg, the herring landings along the Sound, and in the south the Schleswig portage (dkj).

The salt that cures the herring comes largely through Lübeck, Adolf III's town and an enemy port that winter.

Coinage

Silver pennies in the king's name struck at the regional mints and renewed often; the Scanian, Zealand and Jutland coinages differ. Details for 1200 not pinned in the sources read.

The host

The levy fleet and the land levy of each province, the king's household men, and the followings of the great men (the Hvide above all). No figures.

Treaties

Overlordship of the Wendish princes: Jaromar I of Rügen (since 1168, loyal, married into the royal house), the dukes of Pomerania (vassals since 1185, the tie in suspense since Brandenburg overran the Demmin lands in 1198-99: Eastern Germany map), Henry Borwin I of Mecklenburg and Nicholas I of Rostock, and the counts of Schwerin (Danish vassals by 1200: Rhineland map). Marriage ties to the Welfs (Gertrude, died 1197; Helena to marry William of Lüneburg in 1202). No truce with Holstein is known.

Feuds

War with Count Adolf III of Holstein and his allies, Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen, Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg and Duke Bernhard of Saxony: live, no truce known (see wars_1200). The Ingeborg quarrel with Philip Augustus, fought at Rome. A cold enmity with Sverre of Norway, whose fugitive archbishop and the Bagler bishop Nicholas Denmark shelters.

Wars in 1200

Holstein: since 1197-98 Adolf III has tried to stir up South Jutland against the duke; in 1198 Canute's army came to the border without crossing it, and in Pomerania Otto II of Brandenburg overran the Demmin lands and captured Bishop Peder Sunesen (DBL); in 1199 Duke Valdemar attacked Adolf's newly rebuilt castle at Rendsburg, and a Danish army faced Adolf and Hartwig across the Eider until it went home without a battle (Rhineland map). On 1 January 1200 Rendsburg is still Adolf's and no truce is known: the war is open but quiet for the winter. Confidence: medium.

Throne war

For Otto IV, the Welf king, by kinship and enmity rather than by any known act: Canute was Otto's brother-in-law through Gertrude, and his enemies on the Eider and in Pomerania are Philip of Swabia's princes. No Danish troops are known to fight for Otto in 1199.

Relations with rome

Good. Absalon is the pope's man on the Ingeborg case, which Denmark has pressed at Rome since 1193 (Anders Sunesen and Abbot William of Æbelholt went to the curia in 1194, DBL). The legate Peter of Capua decreed the interdict on Philip's lands at Dijon in December 1199, to be proclaimed from Vienne in mid-January (campaign notes, Part 8). Against that, the crown holds Bishop Valdemar of Schleswig, an elected archbishop of Bremen, in prison: Absalon and Abbot William kept that from becoming a break with Rome (DBL).

Lund's primacy over Uppsala is a standing suit at Rome (campaign notes, Part 8).

Relations with neighbours

Germany
Otto IV's side by kinship; at war with Philip's men in Holstein, Bremen, Brandenburg and Saxony. Sophia's husband, Count Siegfried III of Orlamünde, is a Thuringian count.
France
Hostile to Philip Augustus over Ingeborg; the dowry Canute agreed to pay (en.wikipedia) is part of the quarrel.
Norway
Archbishop Eirik Ivarsson of Nidaros, blind and excommunicating Sverre, has lived at Lund under Absalon's protection since 1190 (campaign notes). The Bagler party of Bishop Nicholas of Oslo and King Inge Magnusson was founded on Scanian ground, at the Halør market, in 1196 (en.wikipedia Bagler) or 1197 (en.wikipedia Inge Magnusson). After Sverre's victory at Strindsjøen (18 June 1199) Bishop Nicholas Arnesson of Oslo, the Bagler founder, fled to Denmark, joined Archbishop Eirik at Lund and seems to have stayed until 1202 (en.wikipedia Nicholas Arnesson): on 1 January 1200 the Bagler's chief churchman is very probably a guest on Danish ground (not pinned to the day). No open Danish help to the Bagler and no fighting between Canute and Sverre is recorded for 1199; Valdemar I's old claim to Viken (from Erling Skakke, 1160s) lies dormant.
Sweden
Friendly. Sverker II, raised in Denmark, is a Hvide kinsman by his mother and by his marriage to Ebbe Sunesen's daughter Benedikta (the Swedish record settles her dates and his marriage to Birger Brosa's daughter Ingegerd). Jarl Birger Brosa backed the Scanian rebels of 1180-82 (DBL), but now stands beside Sverker. Canute's sister Rikissa will marry Erik Knutsson in 1210, after the Knutssons' rising. The frontier in Halland, Scania and Blekinge is quiet.
Wends
Rügen loyal; Pomerania slipping toward Brandenburg; Mecklenburg and Schwerin loyal (see treaties).
Baltic
Canute's Estonian crusade of 1197 shows a Danish reach into the eastern Baltic; nothing is held there in 1200.

As seen from the France and Iberia sheet

Only the southern end of the Danish duchy of Schleswig lies inside this sheet: the town of Schleswig on the Schlei, the Danevirke, the Danish forest march between the Eider, the Levensau and the Schlei (the Danish Wold and Schwansen), Stapelholm, and the Frisian Uthlande of Eiderstedt and the islands, which pay the king. Duke Valdemar rules the duchy for his brother Canute VI. In 1192 the duke lured the rebel Bishop Valdemar of Schleswig, the elect of Bremen, to a meeting and took him; the bishop is still in prison.

In 1199, after Count Adolf III tried to stir up opposition to the duke in South Jutland, Valdemar attacked Adolf's new castle at Rendsburg, and a Danish army stood on the Eider against Adolf and Archbishop Hartwig until it went home without a battle. Canute is Otto IV's brother-in-law and backs him; his vassals in Mecklenburg, Schwerin and Rügen ring Holstein on the east.

Name
Canute VI (King); Duke Valdemar of Schleswig
Title
king of the Danes and the Wends; the duchy of Schleswig (South Jutland) is held by his brother
Since
Canute sole king since 1182; Valdemar duke of South Jutland since boyhood (made duke at 12 after his father's death, en.wikipedia)
Born
Canute about 1163; Valdemar 1170
Family
sons of Valdemar I. Canute's queen Gertrude, Henry the Lion's daughter and Otto IV's sister, died in 1197; no children. Valdemar is unmarried. Their sister Ingeborg is the repudiated queen of France.
Confidence
high

en.wikipedia Canute VI, Valdemar II

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

  1. mid-January 1200The interdict on Philip Augustus's lands over Ingeborg is proclaimed from Vienne (campaign notes): Denmark's case at Rome has won its first round.Depends on: the legate Peter of Capua's sentence of December 1199 Stopped by: Philip sending Agnes away before the proclamation
  2. 1200, month not pinnedCount Adolf III hands Rendsburg on the Eider to Canute (NDB, ADB; Rhineland map).Depends on: continued Danish pressure on the Eider and no relief from Bremen Stopped by: a joint Holstein-Bremen stand or a truce
  3. 25 May 1200 (some sources 1201)Battle of Waschow: the king's Mecklenburg and Schwerin vassals beat Count Adolf of Dassel, Adolf III's ally; Nicholas of Rostock falls, and Ratzeburg comes under Danish lordship (Rhineland map).Depends on: the king ordering his vassals against Dassel's raids Stopped by: Adolf III and Bernhard of Saxony bringing help to Dassel in time
  4. late August to early October 1200The Scanian herring market on the Skanör and Falsterbo peninsula, the crown's richest season; whether the German merchants come in strength while Lübeck is Adolf's is not pinned.Depends on: the herring shoals and peace at sea Stopped by: war at sea with Holstein and Lübeck
  5. 7 September 1200Philip Augustus promises to take Ingeborg back and the interdict on France is lifted (campaign notes: September); he does not keep the promise and she stays confined.Depends on: Philip's submission to the legate Stopped by: Philip holding out
  6. 1200-1201The Dithmarschers turn to Denmark (NDB; Rhineland map).Depends on: Danish success on the Eider Stopped by: Bremen and Holstein together holding the land
  7. 28 December 1200Canute and Archbishop Absalon issue the royal ordinance on homicide for Scania, probably drafted by the chancellor Anders Sunesen (DBL).Depends on: Absalon alive and at work, the king in the east at Christmas Stopped by: Absalon's death or illness, or war calling the king away

Later, on the likely course

  1. after this year: 21 March 1201Absalon dies at Sorø; Anders Sunesen succeeds him at Lund; Havn passes to the see of Roskilde; Peder Sunesen becomes chancellor in 1202 (DBL).Depends on: Absalon's natural death Stopped by: nothing likely
  2. after this year: 1201-1203Duke Valdemar beats Adolf III at Stellau (1201); Adolf is held at Søborg; Lübeck accepts Danish lordship (1201-02, DBL Knud 6) and Holstein north of the Elbe passes to Denmark (1203).Depends on: the Danish gains of 1200 Stopped by: Philip sending real help north
  3. after this year: 12 November 1202Canute VI dies suddenly, aged about 39, and is buried at Ringsted; Valdemar II succeeds (DBL).Depends on: natural death Stopped by: nothing in the sources

Places of note

  • Vordingborg castle: royal castle built 1175, base of the fleet on the Masnedsund
  • St Bendt's church, Ringsted: royal burial church (Valdemar I, and Canute VI in 1202), Canute Lavard's shrine, the Zealand assembly
  • Søborg castle: royal castle and state prison where Bishop Valdemar is held
  • Lund: royal town, the archbishop's see and the Scanian assembly
  • Skanör and Falsterbo: the Scanian herring market, shut for the winter

Where the sources disagree

  • The brief's trap list speaks of Canute as 'married to Gertrude'; she died on 1 July 1197 (DBL Knud 6; en.wikipedia), so on 1 January 1200 he is a childless widower. The Rhineland map (Denmark) agrees.
  • Bishop Valdemar's prison: en.wikipedia (Canute VI) has him arrested at Aabenraa in 1192 and held at Søborg for 13 years; en.wikipedia (Valdemar II) has him taken in 1193, held at Nordborg from 1193 to 1198 and at Søborg from 1198 to 1206; DBL (Knud 6) gives 1192-1206 without the place, and en.wikipedia (Søborg Castle) has him at Søborg from 1198 to 1206. All put him at Søborg on 1 January 1200. The campaign notes say only 'the crown's prisoner since 1192-93'.
  • Peder Sunesen becomes chancellor in 1202, succeeding his brother Anders (DBL); the Church map record Havn says 'about 1201'.
  • The Bagler founding is 1196 in en.wikipedia (Bagler) and in the brief, 1197 in en.wikipedia (Inge Magnusson); both put it on Scanian ground.
  • Halland: the 'count of Halland' is later, as the brief says. DBL (Knud 6) shows Canute himself was given Halland for his upkeep at his wedding in 1177 and ruled Scania and Halland as co-king in his father's last year; no other lord of Halland is known for 1 January 1200.
  • Duke Valdemar's start as duke: DBL (Knud 6) has him take over the duchy in 1187; en.wikipedia (Valdemar II) gives 1183 in its infobox; the Rhineland map says 'made duke at 12 after his father's death'. The dkj record owns this.
  • Ingeborg's place of confinement on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: en.wikipedia puts her in the tower of Étampes 'around 1200'; most accounts date Étampes from 1201.
  • campaign notes (Part 6 J, Part 9) list Bishop Nicholas Arnesson of Oslo as a Bagler leader without a place: en.wikipedia (Nicholas Arnesson) has him flee to Denmark after Strindsjøen (June 1199) and stay there, probably with Archbishop Eirik at Lund, until 1202. Worth the campaign's attention: both Bagler prelates are probably Absalon's guests on 1 January 1200.
  • Lilleborg on Bornholm: Den Store Danske dates the royal castle to the middle of the 12th century; the Church map (Bornholm) says Canute VI 'seems to have finished building' it.

Evidence: The king, his family, his wars and his diplomacy are well documented (DBL, Saxo and Arnold of Lübeck behind the modern accounts). The holders of the household offices other than the chancellor, the royal estates in 1200 (known mainly from the Census Book of 1231) and the castellans are thin or not pinned.

On the map: The realm record carries no outline: the ground is drawn by the lord records (Crown of Zealand, Crown of Scania, Halland, Blekinge, Bornholm (the king's quarter), the Hvide records), the dkj records for Jutland and Funen, the Eastern Germany map for Lolland and Falster, and the anchors.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

7 more in the sources library for Scandinavia.

Sources and studies

  1. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Knud 6.
  2. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Anders Sunesen
  3. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Peder Sunesen
  4. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Ebbe Sunesen
  5. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon: Esbern Snare
  6. Wikipedia: Canute VI of Denmark
  7. Wikipedia: Valdemar I of Denmark
  8. Wikipedia: Valdemar II of Denmark
  9. Wikipedia: Ingeborg of Denmark, Queen of France
  10. Wikipedia: Helena of Denmark; Niels, Count of Halland
  11. Wikipedia: Bagler; Inge Magnusson
  12. Wikipedia: Nicholas Arnesson
  13. Den Store Danske: Kong Valdemars Jordebog; drost
  14. Wikipedia (sv): Halland

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.