CANUTE VI. (CNVT) (1163-1202), king of Denmark, eldest son of Valdemar I., was crowned in his seventh year (117o) as his father's co-regent, and in 1182 succeeded to the throne. During his reign Denmark consolidated and extended her domin ion over the North Baltic coast and adopted a more independent attitude towards Germany. The emperor Frederick I's claim of overlordship was rejected, and his attempt to stir up Duke Bogis lav of Pomerania against Denmark's vassal, Jaromir of Riigen, was defeated by Archbishop Absalon, who destroyed 465 of Bogislav's 500 ships in a naval action off Strela (Stralsund) in 1184. In the following year Bogislav did homage to Canute, who, henceforth, styled himself king of the Danes and Wends. This victory led two years later to the voluntary submission of the two Abodrite princes, Niklot and Borwin, to the Danish crown, whereupon the bulk of the Abodrite dominions, which extended from the Trave to the Warnow, including modern Meck lenburg, were divided between them. In 1197 Otto, Margrave of Brandenburg, invaded Pomerania, while in the following year, in conjunction with Duke Adolf of Holstein, he wasted the dominions of the Danophil Abodrites. The war continued inter mittently till 1201, when Duke Valdemar, Canute's younger brother, conquered the whole of Holstein and Duke Adolf was subsequently captured at Hamburg and sent in chains to Den mark. North Albingia, as the district between the Eider and the Elbe was then called, became Danish territory. Canute died on Nov. I2, I202.
See Danmarks Riges Historie. Oldtiden og den aeldre Middelalder, pp. (1897-1905).