VALDEMAR II., king of Denmark (117o-1241), was the second son of Valdemar I. and brother of Canute VI., whom he succeeded on Nov. 12, 1202. Already during his brother s life time, as duke of Schleswig, Valdemar had successfully defended Denmark against German aggression. In 1201 he assumed the offensive, conquered Holstein, together with Hamburg, and com pelled Count Henry of Schwerin to acknowledge the over-lordship of the Danish crown. Immediately after his coronation, he has tened to his newly won territories, and was acknowledged lord of Northalbingia (the district lying between the Eider and the Elbe) at Liibeck, Otto IV., then in difficulties, voluntarily re linquishing all German territory north of the Elbe to Valdemar, who in return recognized Otto as German emperor. Thus the three bishoprics of Lilbeck, Ratzeburg and Schwerin, which hitherto had been fief of the Reich, now passed under Danish suzerainty. In 1208, when the Emperor Otto felt more secure upon his unstable throne, he would have attempted the recovery of the lost German territory but for the interposition of Pope Innocent III., who threatened to excommunicate any German prince who should attack Valdemar, the equally pious and astute Danish king having undertaken, at the bidding of the holy see, to lead a crusade against the heathen Estonians. Valdemar's posi tion was further strengthened by the accession of Frederick II., who formally renounced all the German lands north of the Elbe and Elde, as well as the Wendish lands on the Baltic, in favour of Valdemar.
Valdemar henceforth turned to the extension of the Danish empire over the eastern Baltic shores. Here, however, he had already been forestalled by German colonists established in Got land and at Riga. In 1206 Valdemar, urged by Archbishop Anders Suneson, had occupied the isle of Oesel on the Estonian coast. In 1210 Valdemar led a second expedition eastwards, this time directed against heathen Prussia and Samland, the chief result of which was the subjection of Mestwin, duke of Pomerania, the leading chieftain in those parts.
In 1218 the German Bishop Albert of Riga was driven to appeal fur assistance to King Valdemar. Valdemar cheerfully undertook a new crusade "for the honour of the Blessed Virgin and the remission of my own sins." In 1218 he set sail for Estonia with one of the largest fleets ever seen in northern waters, in cluding a Wendish contingent led by Prince Vitslay. Landing at Lyndantse (the modern Reval) in north Estonia, Valdemar at once received the submission of the inhabitants, but three days later was treacherously attacked in his camp and only saved from utter destruction by his own personal valour and the descent from heaven, at the critical moment, of a red banner with a white cross on it, the Dannebrog (Danes' Cloth), of which we now hear for the first time, and which henceforth was to precede the Danish armies to victory till its capture by the Ditmarshers, three hundred -years later. This victory was followed by the founda
tion of Reval and the occupation of Harrien and Wirland, the northern districts of Estonia, by the Danes.
King Valdemar II. was now, after the king of England, the most powerful potentate in the north of Europe. The south western Baltic was a Danish sea, and Danish territory extended from the Elbe to lake Peipus. But this scattered and hetero geneous empire required a large standing army and a strong cen tral government to hold it together. It is doubtful whether even the genius of Valdemar would have proved equal to such a stupendous task. He never had the opportunity of attempting it. In May 1223 he was seized at midnight in his tent on the isle of Lyii, whither he had come to hunt, by his vassal and guest Count Henry of Schwerin, and conveyed with his son and many other valuable hostages to the inaccessible castle of Dannenberg-on Elbe. In this dungeon he languished for two and a half years, and, despite all the efforts of Pope Honorius III. on his behalf, was ultimately forced to pay a heavy ransom, and surrender North albingia and all his Wendish conquests except Riigen.
On his release he tried to retrieve his position by force, but was defeated at Bornhoved (July 22, 1227), which deserves a place among the decisive battles of history, for it destroyed at once and for ever the Danish dominion of the Baltic, and estab lished the independence of Liibeck, to the immense detriment in the future of all the Scandinavian states. On the other hand Valdemar, by prudent diplomacy, contrived to retain the greater portion of Danish Estonia (compact of Stensby, 1238). With rare resignation Valdemar devoted the remainder of his life to the great work of domestic reform. His noblest achievement in this respect is the codification of the Danish laws known as the Jydske Lov (Jutland Code), which he lived to see completed a few days before his death at Vordingborg on March 21, 1241. Valdemar was twice married, his first consort being Dragomir (Dagmar) of Bohemia, his second Berengaria of Portugal. • All his four sons, Valdemar, Eric, Abel and Christopher became kings of Denmark.