Chapter 4: Return of the King and war in Schleswig
Chapter 4: Return of the King and war in Schleswig
On a cold and rainy October evening, in a small chamber of Akershus castle, softly illuminated by candlelight and the ember of a fireplace sits a young woman by a desk, carefully scribbling on a piece of paper. She is dark of hair, fair of skin and her limbs are slender, worryingly so for a woman so far ahead in her pregnancy. Though scarcity of food is no uncommon hardship for the people of Norway in these times, it is one rarely felt at the very top of society, and one cannot get higher than this woman, for she is no other than Margaret Valdemarsdatter, Queen of Norway. Wed at ten, she has now at the age of seventeen begun living as a married woman with her husband Haakon Magnusson, but it is hardly a happy marriage. Margaret was never a bride of Haakon’s choosing, as little as he was a husband of her choice, and the King has neglected her and her court in most things. That is why Margaret now, pushed to the limit, writes to her husband. She is not requesting jewelry or silk, but provisions for such necessities as food, drink, and clothing to last her and her servants the winter.
Haakon’s neglect stems not from hatred of his wife, and he is hardly living a royally lavish lifestyle himself. Rather, he is putting every moment of time and each penny he can get his hands on to use for a single goal; his year-long struggle with Albert of Mecklenburg, who not only holds Haakon’s father Magnus as a prisoner in Stockholm, but also occupies a throne that Haakon believes rightfully his. In these struggles, Margaret supports her husband in every way she can. Already skilled in the art of negotiations, she toured Norway this summer, propagating Haakon’s cause and collecting what funds she could for it, until her condition forced her into a few months of sedentary life. Early December came her time, and Margaret gave birth to a healthy boy, an heir to the hereditary Kingdom of Norway. The King wished to name the boy after himself, but even in the small things like these, Margaret had her goals set on the larger picture. Surely, once her husband was successful in his struggle, this child would be set to inherit Sweden too. Should he not be given a name to make the Swedes love him then? So it was that the boy was christened as Eric on Christmas day, after the patron saint of Sweden.
As if empowered by the birth of an heir, Haakon saw newfound success in the spring of 1371. Throughout the summer she pushed through the Mälar valley, until in early August, Stockholm could be seen in the distance. But even as the King could watch his promised land, he knew that he too would never enter it. His army was pushed to the limit and Stockholm was much too strong a fortress for him to conquer, especially without ships in the water. Most damning of all was that both the Swedish nobility supporting Haakon and those supporting Albert had reached an agreement of their own, now it was only a matter of making their lieges accept it. The peace outside Stockholm ended seven years of war but left neither Kings truly satisfied. Haakon’s father Magnus was released from captivity and would receive the western Swedish provinces of Dal, Värmland and northern Västergötland to support himself. These were currently under Norwegian control and would in practice remain so. In return for this, Haakon however had to swear off the crown of Sweden on both his and Magnus’ behalf. With few better options for now, Haakon accepted and returned to Norway alongside his father, technically victorious, though certainly not feeling that way.
The rough situation in western Sweden following the Peace of Stockholm in 1371, the red border shows the Danish zone of control and the blue the Norwegian zone.
As Haakon returned to Norway, another King was returning to his own realm further south. Having been on a nearly four year long diplomatic journey, Valdemar was surely proud of his son after seeing how well he had kept the Kingdom together, even when faced by the mighty coalition from Cologne. Proud, yes, but perhaps also a bit worried. The sons of Kings are often impatient when it comes to waiting for their crowns and Junker Christopher had ruled as de-facto King of Denmark in his father’s absence. Would he simply accept stepping down from this authority once his father returned? True, there was a great deal of trust and respect between father and son, and had been for over a decade, but the prospect of power tends to put even the strongest of friendships to the test. Valdemar was usually not a man who enjoyed sharing power, later sources would describe him as a proto-machiavellianist ruler. Thus, it was a surprise to many that as the King returned to Denmark, he started asking for approval from several Bishops to have Junker Christopher crowned as junior King.
The concept of junior Kings was an old one in Denmark, though not a very formalized one, in fact the latest one had been Valdemar’s older brother Eric. Sometimes they were an expression of royal power, as having your heir crowned in your own lifetime was a significant demonstration of authority in an elective monarchy like Denmark. Other times, they were an expression of weakness, as ambitious sons seized power, often with the support of disgruntled nobility. In the case of Christopher, it was perhaps a bit of both. Valdemar was aging, and though he did not see his death as nearing by any means, he did know that he wished his son to succeed him, and electing Christopher in his own lifetime would hopefully guarantee this. In addition to this, Christopher had during his de-facto regency ruled with the close help of an advisory council, and there was the possibility that they would feel like they lost influence with the return of King Valdemar. In short, Christopher needed a certain level of authority to ease the process of Valdemar’s return. Finally, it’s possible that Valdemar simply felt that his son had once and for all proved himself worthy, and as such was deserved of sharing the crown with him. With his near complete grip over his Kingdom, Valdemar pushed through his will, and Christopher was hailed as junior King at the landsting of Viborg and subsequently crowned in the cathedral of Ribe. It was no coincidence that a church in Sønderjylland had been chosen for the coronation, indeed Ribe was Valdemar’s most secure holding in that province. It sent a strong signal that father and son were united in their goal of reclaiming the rest of the province for their shared Kingdom.
Junior Kings who never got to rule alone occupy a limbo-like position in the Danish royal line and are generally not numbered.
In Ribe, Valdemar could look out over the western sea. There, far beyond the horizon, he knew England lay. It was for the King a land of dreams, though one he had never visited. As a young King, as active and ambitious as he remained after 30 years on the throne, Valdemar had dreamed of reliving the feats of his ancestors. There was no King that Valdemar admired as much as Canute the Great, who three hundred years earlier had set sail to the west and taken the English throne for himself. Perhaps his story reminded Valdemar of his own life, none of them had started with much, he with a small piece of Jutland, Canute with some ships gifted to him by his brother. Both had come farther than anyone could’ve ever expected. Valdemar wished to be like Canute, great, but more than that he directly tried to impersonate the old King. Though the old skaldic art was all but lost, Valdemar had sent ships as far as Iceland with the hope of finding someone who could sing the same songs as Canute had heard in his own court. More than anything though, Valdemar also wished to sail west, and to one day sit on the throne of England himself. Occasionally he had been in contact with the archenemy of England, the King of France, about forming an alliance. For no reason but personal desire he had wished to cast his Kingdom into the already decades-long conflict between France and England, but reality always got in the way. There was always a rebellion to put down, a Duke to talk to, a Bishop to bribe. It left little room for great adventures of plunder and conquest like in the olden days. As Valdemar saw the crown being placed on his son’s head he wondered if there would ever be an opportunity, in his lifetime or his descendants. Certainly, that time was not now.
The Estridsens are descendants of Canute the Great’s sister, and while some tried to claim the throne of England once held by him, none came close to succeeding.
With Christopher officially sharing the crown with his father, the royal duo concentrated their efforts to the southernmost part of Denmark, that so long had been dominated by Holsatians. As always both sides fought with steel, words, gold, and crosses. Knights and lords switched allegiance after being convinced by either side, whether that be through force of arms, silvered tongues, or the clinking of coin. Churchmen propagated the cause of whomever they supported and excommunicated those who dared to oppose them. It was all out war, on battlefields and in the courts, in the churches and the marketplaces. Valdemar’s German allies quickly found other matters that needed tending when they couldn’t enrich themselves by plundering Hanseatic merchants, Magnus of Brunswick got into a dispute with the Duke of Saxony and Eric of Saxe-Lauenburg got entangled with the Bishop of Bremen. As the Hansa had ceased hostilities with Denmark following the peace of Stralsund, the conflict between the Schauenburgers of Holstein and the Estridsens of Denmark was for once relatively free of foreign interference. Little by little, the tide turned to favor the Kings of Denmark.
The opposition to Valdemar and Christopher had never been tightly knit, rather it was a loose coalition of various noblemen who generally relied on the Counts of Holstein-Rendsburg for leadership. This is fully natural, what they opposed was after all royal authority, and it was in this matter that they could find unity, but the premise of it was never very stable. As Nicholas was pushed out of more and more holdings in Schleswig, some key players defected to the Danish side. Theoretically, the Duchy of Schleswig was the domain of Duke Henry Valdemarsøn, brother-in-law of King Valdemar and belonging to the Abel branch of the Estridsen dynasty. Henry’s ancestors had been the ones to first try to separate the Duchy from the rest of Denmark after failing to gain the throne, and for this they relied on Holsatian support from the very beginning. It wasn’t long though before the Dukes were superseded in power by their supporters, and soon they were little more than figure pieces for the Holsatian agenda, holding less than one fourth of the Duchy for themselves.
Henry was not an incompetent ruler, and he did try to assert himself against both Denmark and Holstein when he had the chance, but those moments were rare and for the most part he was merely a piece in either’s game. Instead, it was Henry’s mother, Rixa of Schwerin, who took the first decisive action without consulting her son. In 1373 she asked for her, and the fiefs she’d been given on her husband’s death, to be placed under the protection of Valdemar and Christopher. These included the island of Als, with the strategically important castle of Sønderborg. The Kings of Denmark graciously accepted, strengthening their position further in the southern Duchy. Later the same year, Duke Henry signed a peace with Denmark and the year after he too handed over his fiefs to the Kings, placing himself under their protection. By this point the 32-year-old childless Duke’s health was already beginning to fail, and he would pass from this world the next year, ending the Abel line with him. Duke Henry did not only hand over his fiefs to King Valdemar, with it he also gave him the right to redeem land he had pledged to the Counts of Holstein. Most important of these were the castle of Gottorp – the “lock and lever of Denmark” which for over a century had served as the main point of strength for the Holsatian counts in Schleswig. As more and more of the Duchy came under Danish control, Count Nicholas had in fact been pushed all the way back to Gottorp, from which he could only exert control over the southernmost part of the Duchy. When offered the money to redeem the castle, the Count flatly refused. If the Danes wanted Gottorp, the last piece needed to take control over Schleswig, they would have to fight for it.
From its strategic location in the fjord of Slien, Gottorp castle is a prime obstacle for any force entering or leaving Schleswig.
On a cold and rainy October evening, in a small chamber of Akershus castle, softly illuminated by candlelight and the ember of a fireplace sits a young woman by a desk, carefully scribbling on a piece of paper. She is dark of hair, fair of skin and her limbs are slender, worryingly so for a woman so far ahead in her pregnancy. Though scarcity of food is no uncommon hardship for the people of Norway in these times, it is one rarely felt at the very top of society, and one cannot get higher than this woman, for she is no other than Margaret Valdemarsdatter, Queen of Norway. Wed at ten, she has now at the age of seventeen begun living as a married woman with her husband Haakon Magnusson, but it is hardly a happy marriage. Margaret was never a bride of Haakon’s choosing, as little as he was a husband of her choice, and the King has neglected her and her court in most things. That is why Margaret now, pushed to the limit, writes to her husband. She is not requesting jewelry or silk, but provisions for such necessities as food, drink, and clothing to last her and her servants the winter.
Haakon’s neglect stems not from hatred of his wife, and he is hardly living a royally lavish lifestyle himself. Rather, he is putting every moment of time and each penny he can get his hands on to use for a single goal; his year-long struggle with Albert of Mecklenburg, who not only holds Haakon’s father Magnus as a prisoner in Stockholm, but also occupies a throne that Haakon believes rightfully his. In these struggles, Margaret supports her husband in every way she can. Already skilled in the art of negotiations, she toured Norway this summer, propagating Haakon’s cause and collecting what funds she could for it, until her condition forced her into a few months of sedentary life. Early December came her time, and Margaret gave birth to a healthy boy, an heir to the hereditary Kingdom of Norway. The King wished to name the boy after himself, but even in the small things like these, Margaret had her goals set on the larger picture. Surely, once her husband was successful in his struggle, this child would be set to inherit Sweden too. Should he not be given a name to make the Swedes love him then? So it was that the boy was christened as Eric on Christmas day, after the patron saint of Sweden.
As if empowered by the birth of an heir, Haakon saw newfound success in the spring of 1371. Throughout the summer she pushed through the Mälar valley, until in early August, Stockholm could be seen in the distance. But even as the King could watch his promised land, he knew that he too would never enter it. His army was pushed to the limit and Stockholm was much too strong a fortress for him to conquer, especially without ships in the water. Most damning of all was that both the Swedish nobility supporting Haakon and those supporting Albert had reached an agreement of their own, now it was only a matter of making their lieges accept it. The peace outside Stockholm ended seven years of war but left neither Kings truly satisfied. Haakon’s father Magnus was released from captivity and would receive the western Swedish provinces of Dal, Värmland and northern Västergötland to support himself. These were currently under Norwegian control and would in practice remain so. In return for this, Haakon however had to swear off the crown of Sweden on both his and Magnus’ behalf. With few better options for now, Haakon accepted and returned to Norway alongside his father, technically victorious, though certainly not feeling that way.
The rough situation in western Sweden following the Peace of Stockholm in 1371, the red border shows the Danish zone of control and the blue the Norwegian zone.
As Haakon returned to Norway, another King was returning to his own realm further south. Having been on a nearly four year long diplomatic journey, Valdemar was surely proud of his son after seeing how well he had kept the Kingdom together, even when faced by the mighty coalition from Cologne. Proud, yes, but perhaps also a bit worried. The sons of Kings are often impatient when it comes to waiting for their crowns and Junker Christopher had ruled as de-facto King of Denmark in his father’s absence. Would he simply accept stepping down from this authority once his father returned? True, there was a great deal of trust and respect between father and son, and had been for over a decade, but the prospect of power tends to put even the strongest of friendships to the test. Valdemar was usually not a man who enjoyed sharing power, later sources would describe him as a proto-machiavellianist ruler. Thus, it was a surprise to many that as the King returned to Denmark, he started asking for approval from several Bishops to have Junker Christopher crowned as junior King.
The concept of junior Kings was an old one in Denmark, though not a very formalized one, in fact the latest one had been Valdemar’s older brother Eric. Sometimes they were an expression of royal power, as having your heir crowned in your own lifetime was a significant demonstration of authority in an elective monarchy like Denmark. Other times, they were an expression of weakness, as ambitious sons seized power, often with the support of disgruntled nobility. In the case of Christopher, it was perhaps a bit of both. Valdemar was aging, and though he did not see his death as nearing by any means, he did know that he wished his son to succeed him, and electing Christopher in his own lifetime would hopefully guarantee this. In addition to this, Christopher had during his de-facto regency ruled with the close help of an advisory council, and there was the possibility that they would feel like they lost influence with the return of King Valdemar. In short, Christopher needed a certain level of authority to ease the process of Valdemar’s return. Finally, it’s possible that Valdemar simply felt that his son had once and for all proved himself worthy, and as such was deserved of sharing the crown with him. With his near complete grip over his Kingdom, Valdemar pushed through his will, and Christopher was hailed as junior King at the landsting of Viborg and subsequently crowned in the cathedral of Ribe. It was no coincidence that a church in Sønderjylland had been chosen for the coronation, indeed Ribe was Valdemar’s most secure holding in that province. It sent a strong signal that father and son were united in their goal of reclaiming the rest of the province for their shared Kingdom.
Junior Kings who never got to rule alone occupy a limbo-like position in the Danish royal line and are generally not numbered.
In Ribe, Valdemar could look out over the western sea. There, far beyond the horizon, he knew England lay. It was for the King a land of dreams, though one he had never visited. As a young King, as active and ambitious as he remained after 30 years on the throne, Valdemar had dreamed of reliving the feats of his ancestors. There was no King that Valdemar admired as much as Canute the Great, who three hundred years earlier had set sail to the west and taken the English throne for himself. Perhaps his story reminded Valdemar of his own life, none of them had started with much, he with a small piece of Jutland, Canute with some ships gifted to him by his brother. Both had come farther than anyone could’ve ever expected. Valdemar wished to be like Canute, great, but more than that he directly tried to impersonate the old King. Though the old skaldic art was all but lost, Valdemar had sent ships as far as Iceland with the hope of finding someone who could sing the same songs as Canute had heard in his own court. More than anything though, Valdemar also wished to sail west, and to one day sit on the throne of England himself. Occasionally he had been in contact with the archenemy of England, the King of France, about forming an alliance. For no reason but personal desire he had wished to cast his Kingdom into the already decades-long conflict between France and England, but reality always got in the way. There was always a rebellion to put down, a Duke to talk to, a Bishop to bribe. It left little room for great adventures of plunder and conquest like in the olden days. As Valdemar saw the crown being placed on his son’s head he wondered if there would ever be an opportunity, in his lifetime or his descendants. Certainly, that time was not now.
The Estridsens are descendants of Canute the Great’s sister, and while some tried to claim the throne of England once held by him, none came close to succeeding.
With Christopher officially sharing the crown with his father, the royal duo concentrated their efforts to the southernmost part of Denmark, that so long had been dominated by Holsatians. As always both sides fought with steel, words, gold, and crosses. Knights and lords switched allegiance after being convinced by either side, whether that be through force of arms, silvered tongues, or the clinking of coin. Churchmen propagated the cause of whomever they supported and excommunicated those who dared to oppose them. It was all out war, on battlefields and in the courts, in the churches and the marketplaces. Valdemar’s German allies quickly found other matters that needed tending when they couldn’t enrich themselves by plundering Hanseatic merchants, Magnus of Brunswick got into a dispute with the Duke of Saxony and Eric of Saxe-Lauenburg got entangled with the Bishop of Bremen. As the Hansa had ceased hostilities with Denmark following the peace of Stralsund, the conflict between the Schauenburgers of Holstein and the Estridsens of Denmark was for once relatively free of foreign interference. Little by little, the tide turned to favor the Kings of Denmark.
The opposition to Valdemar and Christopher had never been tightly knit, rather it was a loose coalition of various noblemen who generally relied on the Counts of Holstein-Rendsburg for leadership. This is fully natural, what they opposed was after all royal authority, and it was in this matter that they could find unity, but the premise of it was never very stable. As Nicholas was pushed out of more and more holdings in Schleswig, some key players defected to the Danish side. Theoretically, the Duchy of Schleswig was the domain of Duke Henry Valdemarsøn, brother-in-law of King Valdemar and belonging to the Abel branch of the Estridsen dynasty. Henry’s ancestors had been the ones to first try to separate the Duchy from the rest of Denmark after failing to gain the throne, and for this they relied on Holsatian support from the very beginning. It wasn’t long though before the Dukes were superseded in power by their supporters, and soon they were little more than figure pieces for the Holsatian agenda, holding less than one fourth of the Duchy for themselves.
Henry was not an incompetent ruler, and he did try to assert himself against both Denmark and Holstein when he had the chance, but those moments were rare and for the most part he was merely a piece in either’s game. Instead, it was Henry’s mother, Rixa of Schwerin, who took the first decisive action without consulting her son. In 1373 she asked for her, and the fiefs she’d been given on her husband’s death, to be placed under the protection of Valdemar and Christopher. These included the island of Als, with the strategically important castle of Sønderborg. The Kings of Denmark graciously accepted, strengthening their position further in the southern Duchy. Later the same year, Duke Henry signed a peace with Denmark and the year after he too handed over his fiefs to the Kings, placing himself under their protection. By this point the 32-year-old childless Duke’s health was already beginning to fail, and he would pass from this world the next year, ending the Abel line with him. Duke Henry did not only hand over his fiefs to King Valdemar, with it he also gave him the right to redeem land he had pledged to the Counts of Holstein. Most important of these were the castle of Gottorp – the “lock and lever of Denmark” which for over a century had served as the main point of strength for the Holsatian counts in Schleswig. As more and more of the Duchy came under Danish control, Count Nicholas had in fact been pushed all the way back to Gottorp, from which he could only exert control over the southernmost part of the Duchy. When offered the money to redeem the castle, the Count flatly refused. If the Danes wanted Gottorp, the last piece needed to take control over Schleswig, they would have to fight for it.
From its strategic location in the fjord of Slien, Gottorp castle is a prime obstacle for any force entering or leaving Schleswig.
Not all kings can rule for decades on end, as for living up to his legacy, well let's just say things will move quickly in the next couple of updates.