page_title: Valdemar II of Denmark
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Valdemar II of Denmark / Background
caption_attribution_description: Seal of Danish King Valdemar the Victorious (Valdemar 2. Sejr). This seal is known from documents dating 1204-1241.
context_page_description: Valdemar II, called Valdemar the Victorious or Valdemar the Conqueror, was the King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241. The nickname Sejr is a later invention and was not used during the King's own lifetime. Sejr means victory in Danish.
context_section_description: He was the second son of King Valdemar I of Denmark and Sophia of Minsk, the daughter of Richeza of Poland, Queen Dowager of Sweden and Volodar Giebovich, Prince of Minsk. When his father died, young Valdemar was only twelve years old.  He was named Duke of Southern Jutland (Latin: dux slesvicensis, literally Duchy of Schleswig duke), represented by the regent 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 Prince-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 the Archbishop to meet him in Aabenraa in 1192.  The Bishop then fled to Swedish 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 Adolph III, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein. The Count 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, died unexpectedly at the age of 40, leaving no heirs.
caption: The Seal of Valdemar II.
exif: {}