(1) Denmark: Political History and Notable Figures

936 - 958 - Gorm the Old (All Facts)

• First Historical King and Founder of the Kingdom of Denmark

  • His son’s real last name lends itself to his own name

• He was the last Danish King that practiced Norse Paganism

• He commissioned the first of the “Jelling Stones” in the town of Jelling in Denmark, which commemorated the memory of his wife Thyra

958 - 986 - Harald Bluetooth (All Facts)

• 2nd King of Denmark

  • He was also King of Norway

• He converted to Christianity, having accepted baptism, and thus made Denmark a Christian Kingdom by the start of his reign, having forsaken the old gods of Norse paganism

  • Some said he was converted as the result of an argument with a missionary, Bishop Poppo, during which the namesake challenged Poppo to prove his faith by ordeal

    • When the missionary agreed, he thrust his hand into a white-hot iron glove and when he withdrew his hand, it was unharmed

    • Witness to such a miracle, the namesake king conceded that Christ was the one true God and that Christ alone should be worshipped in Denmark

  • Others said he was converted as a result of his defeat to Otto the Great and was forced to convert as part of the price of defeat

    • While there was much grumbling among those who feared the revenge of the old Norse Gods during his reign, he was eager to be on good terms with Otto the Great and Germany and the Holy Roman Empire while he simultaneously expanded his influence in northern Europe

• He commissioned the second of the two “Jelling Stones” in the town of Jelling in Denmark, which commemorated

  • His parents, his predecessor father and his wife, the namesake’s mother, Thyra

  • His conversion of the Danes to Christianity

  • His unification of Denmark and conquest of Norway

• He embraced Christianity and promoted its spread, helping establish an organized church structure in Denmark

• He spread his influence north by supporting his widowed sister Gunnhild and her five sons in their fight for the throne of the Kingdom of Norway

  • He also designed to expand his territory into modern-day Sweden

986 - 1014 - Sweyn Forkbeard (All Facts)

• 3rd King of Denmark

  • He was also King of Norway and King of England

  • He consolidated his rule by revolting and overthrowing his predecessor and father

• He and Olaf the Norsemen of the Vikings attacked England under the reign of their King Aethelred II “The Unready,” even after Aethelred II had paid the Vikings off, ravaging throughout southern England and collecting massive tribute payments from Aethelred II

  • They failed to take London initially

• He and his Danish forces eventually took control of all of England following the English surrender of London to them

  • Their King Aethelred II “The Unready” was deposed and was reported to have fled to France to join Queen Emma and their children, who have taken refuge with her brother, the Duke of Normandy

  • He and his forces subjugated the English forces and were not prepared or willing to take bribes from them

  • He planned to consolidate his hold on England as an act of revenge against Aethelred II “The Unready”

    • This was because he wished to avenge his sister Gunnhild and the Danes killed by Aethelred II “The Unready” in the secret St. Brice’s Day Massacre of Danes living in England which he ordered

    • He retaliated by burning homestead throughout southern England before accepting a substantial bribe to withdraw

    • However, when Aethelred II “The Unready” persuaded one of his top commanders, Thorkell the Tall, to defect, he felt he had no choice but to invade England, and he landed on Humberside and marched south

• He thus became King of England for a short time, usurping the throne, overthrowing the House of Wessex and replacing it with the House of Denmark

1018 - 1035 - Canute the Great (All Facts)

• 4th King of Denmark

  • He was also King of England and King of Norway

  • He thus built a unified Danish Empire

• He was the son of Sweyn Forkbeard and was offered the English throne after defeating his predecessor Edmund Ironside

  • The death of Harald II of Denmark enabled him to unite England and Denmark

  • He defeated Edmund Ironside and his English forces in the Battle of Ashingdon, and they agreed to split England in half

  • When Edmund Ironside was murdered soon afterwards, the namesake took the other half of England

  • He further consolidated his rule by eliminating potential rivals

  • He married Aethelred II’s widow, Emma of Normandy

• He oversaw a reign distinguished by skillful statecraft and utter ruthlessness

  • He espoused Christianity

  • He established equal rights for both Danes and Englishmen

  • He sent most of his army back to Denmark, confident in his position as ruler

1154 - 1182 - Valdemar the Great (All Facts)

• 17th King of Denmark

• He cooperated with the Saxons against the Wends (a group of Baltic Slavs)

1332 - 1340 - Gerhard (All Facts)

• Governor of Denmark

• Count of Holstein

• He was the leader of the Danish aristocracy

• He was murdered

1340 - 1375 - Waldemar IV (All Facts)

• 29th King of Denmark

1387 - 1412 - Margaret (All Facts)

• 31st Queen of Denmark

  • She was an ambitious and skillful politician and gifted diplomat

  • She became regent of Denmark after the death of her predecessor there and father

  • She became regent of Norway on the death of her predecessor there and husband

  • She deposed King Alfred of Sweden and gained possession of that territory thereafter

• During her reign, she

  • Had the Kalmar Union signed; uniting Norway, Sweden, and Denmark as one sovereign state and in which the three entities agreed to

    • be united under one monarch

    • have a common foreign policy

    • settle matters of royal succession by consensus

  • Had her 15-year-old great-nephew Duke Erik of Pomerania crowned King of Scandinavia as per the terms of the Kalmar Union

    • This solidified her intention from the beginning to provide the Kalmar Union with a suitable male leader

1396 - 1439 - Erik of Pomerania (All Facts)

• 31st King of Denmark

  • He co-ruled with his predecessor and great-aunt until she died

• He made peace with the Hanseatic League and restored their privileged position after the Hanse had been drawn into a war between the namesake and the count of Holstein over possession of Schleswig

• During his reign,

  • He instituted the “Sound Dues”

• Under his reign,

  • Peasant rebellions and nationalist tensions, prompting the namesake to flee from Denmark

• He thus took refuge on the Swedish island of Gotland, where he turned pirate in order to prey on Baltic shipping

1101 / 1448 - 1863 - House of Oldenburg (All Facts)

1448 - 1481 - Christian (All Facts)

• 33rd King of Denmark and First King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

• He was installed via the Treaty of Bergen

• He ceded Orkney and Shetland to King James III of Scotland in pledge for the dowry of his daughter Margaret, who was to marry King James III

1482 - 1513 - Hans (All Facts)

• 34th King of Denmark and 2nd King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

  • He was the son of his predecessor

• He invaded Sweden and was crowned king thereafter, thus reuniting Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under his rule

1513 - 1523 - Christian II (All Facts)

• 35th King of Denmark and 3rd King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

• He fled Denmark in the face of the rebellion he provoked against him by Gustav Vasa and his rebel forces

• He was imprisoned after his failed attempt to conquer Norway

1523 - 1533 - Frederick (All Facts)

• 36th King of Denmark and 4th King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

  • He was initially the Duke of Schleswig (in Jutland) and Duke of Holstein (in the Holy Roman Empire)

  • He was “elected” king

1534 - 1559 - Christian III (All Facts)

• 37th King of Denmark and 5th King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

• He was the First Protestant (and First Lutheran) King of Denmark

  • His reign thus marked the beginning of the Danish Reformation

• He and his Protestant forces defeated Christian II and Christopher of Oldenburg and their Catholic forces, after Christian II had tried to take power again after his imprisonment with the help of Christopher of Oldenburg

  • He and his Protestant forces thus defeated the Catholic supporters of his brother John in a civil war which broke out after the death of their father Ferdinand

• He had (the Catholic) Bishop Arason of Iceland condemned and executed

• Under his reign,

  • The Treaty of Speyer was signed

1559 - 1588 - Frederick II (All Facts)

• 38th King of Denmark and 6th King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

• He conquered the peasants’ republic of Ditmarsh (located between the Elbe and Eider Rivers) in alliance with his uncles, the dukes of Holstein

• He died and was succeeded by his son

1588 - 1648 - Christian IV (All Facts)

• 39th King of Denmark and 7th King of Denmark from the House of Oldenburg

  • He also became the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein

• He and his Danish and Norwegian forces

  • defeated King Charles IX and Gustavus Adolphus and their Swedish forces in the Kalmar War

  • were defeated by Johann Tserclaes and his Holy Roman forces and Catholic League in the Battle of Lutter during the Thirty Years’ War

  • were defeated by Axel Oxenstierna and his Swedish forces in the Torstenson War

    • He had long covered the German lands which, after their defeat, Denmark-Norway conceded to Sweden and its mercenary armies which had then occupied them

• During his reign,

  • He made the considerable mistake of increasing the Sound Dues (tolls for non-Danish ships passing through the Danish Sound)

    • Even though Sweden was exempt from such payments, the namesake made life difficult for Sweden’s ships by increasing the toll for ships from any of Sweden’s newly-acquired territories

• Under his reign,

  • Danish-Norwegian forces were defeated in the Battle of Dessau Bridge during the Thirty Years’ War