Valdemar II of Denmark mother Sophia of Minsk
Background
He was the second son of King Valdemar I of Denmark and Sophia of Polotsk. When his father died, young Valdemar was only twelve years old.  He was named duke of Southern Jutland (Latin: dux slesvicensis.) His regent was Bishop Valdemar Knudsen, the illegitimate son of King Canute V of Denmark. Bishop Valdemar was an ambitious man and disguised his own ambitions as young Valdemar's. When Bishop Valdemar was named archbishop of Bremen in 1192, his plot to overthrow King Canute VI of Denmark (elder brother of Duke Valdemar) with the help of the German nobility and place himself on Denmark's throne, was revealed.
Duke Valdemar realized the threat Bishop Valdemar represented.  He thus invited him to Aabenraa in 1192.  The bishop then fled to Norway to avoid arrest. The following year, Bishop Valdemar organised – supported by the Hohenstaufens – a fleet of 35 ships and harried the coasts of Denmark, claiming the Danish throne for himself based on the fact that he was the son of King Canute V. In 1193, King Canute VI captured him. Bishop Valdemar stayed in captivity in Nordborg (1193–1198) and then in the tower at Søborg Castle on Zealand until 1206. He was later released upon the initiative of Dagmar of Bohemia (the wife of Duke Valdemar) and Pope Innocent III, after swearing to never interfere again in Danish affairs.Young Valdemar faced another threat from Count Adolf III of Holstein. Adolf tried to stir up other German counts to take southern Jutland from Denmark, and to assist Bishop Valdemar's plot to take the Danish throne.  With the bishop again in prison, Duke Valdemar went after Count Adolph, and with his own troop levies, he marched south and captured Adolph's new fortress at Rendsburg. He defeated and captured the count at the Battle of Stellau in 1201, and imprisoned him in a cell next to Bishop Valdemar.  Two years later, due to an illness, Count Adolph was able to buy his way out of prison by ceding all of Schleswig, north of the Elbe, to Duke Valdemar. In November 1202, Duke Valdemar's elder brother, King Canute VI, unexpectedly died childless.
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