Danish (Civ3)/The Middle Ages/Civilopedia

After the Iron Age revolutionized warfare and craft in northern Europe (thousands of years after it had swept the Near East), trade began to flourish there. One center of this new trade was at Hedeby, in northern Germany, and it was the beginning of the distinctly Danish nation. Tribe leaders united and supported a single king to defend the area against incursions from the Franks and the Germanic tribes. The first acknowledged King of Denmark, Harald I Bluetooth, was a superb politician and military leader, playing his opponents off against one another and successfully protecting his new domain from invasion and economic domination. His equally aggressive and dynamic sons, Sweyn Forkbeard and Canute the Great, mercilessly invaded England and indeed they were able to win the English crown for themselves.
The Danish relationship with Norway, their northern neighbor, alternated between violent clashes and national unification. Sometimes Norway had a Danish king; other times, vice versa. The Anglo-Dutch kingdom forged by Sweyn dissolved when Sweyn had to return to Denmark to defend against Norwegian intrusion (Norway was understandably concerned about the level of military and political success Sweyn was having across the North Sea).
Denmark was Christianized in word very early in its development, around 970 C.E., but two hundred years later it was almost entirely Christian. Cathedrals had sprung up and power struggles between the Church and the king were common. One such struggle erupted into civil war in 1131, when the Danish king had a powerful and popular duke assassinated. Twenty-five years later, with many dead on both sides, the duke's son Valdemar was crowned king of Denmark, and his rivals acquiesced. Valdemar's line proved successful, as the Danes invaded and annexed many small German principalities, substantially influencing their power and prestige. This violent and turbulent history continued for two centuries, as Denmark survived several dynastic struggles, civil wars, and other internal and external conflicts. This came mostly to an end in 1397, when the Union of Kalmar united the crowns of all three Viking powers; this would last until well past the Enlightenment in Europe.