"Valdemar the Victorious" redirects here. For the novel by Bernhard Severin Ingemann, see Valdemar the Victorious (novel).

Seal of Valdemar the Victorious

Valdemar II (May 9, 1170—March 28, 1241, Vordingborg), called Valdemar the Conqueror or Valdemar the Victorious (Valdemar Sejr), was the King of Denmark from November 12, 1202 until his death in 1241. The nickname Sejr is a later invention and was not used during the King's own lifetime.

Life

He was the second son of King Valdemar I and Sophia of Polotsk, a Varangian princess. In 1202, the then Duke Valdemar succeeded his childless elder brother Canute VI after serving him for years. He is counted among the greatest of medieval Danish kings. In 1204 he secured the recognition of Norway as a kingdom. In the 1210s he began to expand Danish influence in the crusade against the last remaining pagan tribes on the opposite shores of the Baltic Sea. His greatest achievement was the subjugation of the northern Estonians after the decisive Battle of Lyndanisse which took place near Lyndanisse (Tallinn) on June 15, 1219. According to legend a red cloth with a white cross fell from the sky during the battle, and from this day on that symbol, called the Dannebrog, has been the flag of Denmark.

Denmark was at the height of its power but in 1223 Valdemar was captured by his vassal, the Count of Schwerin, who released him in 1226 only on the condition that Valdemar gave up most of his conquests in north Germany.

In 1227 Valdemar concluded the treaty with his nephew Otto I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and invaded northern Germany in an attempt to regain his lost territories but was disastrously defeated in the Battle of Bornhöved on (July 22, 1227). This defeat marked the end of Danish domination of the southern Baltic sea, but Estonia was preserved.

Valdemar spent the remainder of his life codifying the law which was completed shortly before his death - Code of Jutland (Jyske Lov, see also Codex Holmiensis).

Family and children

By his brief first marriage to Margarethe of Bohemia, also known as Queen Dagmar, he had a son, Valdemar, whom he elevated as co-king, but who predeceased him.

After Margaret's death, in order to build good relations with Flanders (a commercially important principality in western borders of Denmark's rival neighboring country), Valdemar married Berengária of Portugal, daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and sister of Ferdinand, Count of Flanders in whose court the orphan Berengaria sojourned until her marriage. They had three sons, Eric IV of Denmark, Abel of Denmark, and Christopher I of Denmark, and a daughter, Sophie.

Valdemar's two queens play an outstanding role in Danish ballads and myths - Dagmar as the soft, pious and popular ideal wife and Berengária (Bengjerd) as the beautiful and haughty woman – but both versions are incapable of proof.

Before his first marriage Valdemar had been engaged to Rixa of Bavaria, daughter of the Duke of Saxony.

King Valdemar also had at least two bastard sons, Canute (Knud) whom he elevated as Duke of Reval (Estonia), Lolland, and Blekinge, born of a noblewoman, Helena Guttormsdotter, of Swedish birth and wife of an important Danish nobleman, and Nicolas (Niels) whom he elevated as Count of Halland.

In memoriam

Because of his position as ”the king of Dannebrog” and as a legislator, Valdemar enjoys a central position in Danish history. To posterity the civil wars and dissolution that followed his death made him appear to be the last king of a golden age.

Since 1912, June 15 has officially been called Valdemarsdag (Valdemar's Day). The date now belongs to the group of 33 Danish annual Flag Days where Dannebrog is raised in celebration.

In the upcoming film Arn: The Knight Templar he's going to be played by Mads Mikkelsen.

External links

• Article "Valdemar II" from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• thePeerage.com

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