History of Schleswig-Holstein - 14th Century

14th Century

The connection between Schleswig and Holstein became closer during the 14th century as the ruling class and accompanying colonists intensely populated the Duchy Schleswig. Local lords of Schleswig had already early paid attention to keep Schleswig independent from the Kingdom of Denmark and to strengthen ties to Holstein within the Holy Roman Empire. This tradition of autonomy showed itself in future politics for centuries to come.

The rivalry, sometimes leading into war between the kings of Denmark and the Abelian dukes of Schleswig was expensive, and Denmark had to finance it through extensive loans. The Dukes of Schleswig were allied with the Counts of Holstein, who happened to become the main creditors of the Danish Crown, too, in the reign of the utterly incompetent king Christopher II of Denmark.

On the death of King Valdemar's descendant Eric VI of Denmark in 1319, Christopher II of Denmark attempted to seize the Duchy of Schleswig, the heir of which Duke Valdemar V (as of 1325) was a minor; but Valdemar's guardian and uncle, Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1304–1340), surnamed the Great and a notable warrior, drove back the Danes and, Christopher having been expelled, succeeded in procuring the election of Duke Valdemar to the Danish throne (as Valdemar III as of 1326), while Gerhard himself obtained the Duchy of Schleswig. King Valdemar III was regarded as a usurper by most Danish nobles as he had been forced by the Schleswig-Holstein nobility to sign the Constitutio Valdemaria (June 7, 1326) promising that The Duchy of Schleswig and the Kingdom of Denmark must never be united under the same ruler. Schleswig was consequently granted to Count Gerhard, being the leader of one of the three lines of the Schauenburg dynasty. The constitution can be seen as a first precursor to the Treaty of Ribe and similarly laying down the principle of separation between the Duchy of Schleswig and the Kingdom of Denmark and indeed uniting Schleswig and Holstein for the first time, though in personal union.

In 1330, Christopher II was restored to his throne and Valdemar III of Denmark abdicated his untenable kingship and returned to his former position as Duke of Schleswig which he held as Valdemar V of Schleswig. As compensation, Gerhard was awarded the island of Funen as a fief instead. In 1331 war broke out between Gerhard and King Christopher II, ending in Danish defeat. The peace terms were extremely harsh. King Christopher was only left in effective control of the small island of Langeland and faced the impossible task of raising 100,000 silver marks to redeem his country. Denmark had effectively been dissolved and was left without a king between 1332 and 1340. Gerhard, however, was assassinated in 1340 by a Dane.

In 1340, King Valdemar IV of Denmark began his more than twenty year long quest to reclaim his kingdom. While succeeding in regaining control of Zealand, Funen, Jutland, and Scania he, however, failed to obtain control of Schleswig, and its ducal line managed to continue its virtual independence.

This was the time when almost all of Denmark came under the supremacy of the Counts of Holstein, who possessed different parts of Denmark as pawns for their credits. King Valdemar IV (Atterdag) started to regain the kingdom part by part, and married his rival's sister Hedvig of Schleswig, the only daughter of Eric II, Duke of Schleswig. Duke Valdemar V of Slesvig's son, Henry, was in 1364 nominally entfeoffed with the Duchy, although he never reached to regain more than the northernmost parts as he couldn't raise the necessary funds to repay the loans. With him, the Abelian line went extinct. The true holder of the lands was the count of Holstein-Rendsburg, but Henry's feudal heirs were his first cousin Margaret of Denmark, queen of several Scandinavian realms, and Albert of Mecklenburg, son of Margaret's elder sister Ingeborg of Denmark.

In 1372, Valdemar Atterdag turned his attention to Schleswig and conquered Gram in 1372 and Flensburg in 1373. Southern parts of Schleswig had been mortgaged to several German nobles by Duke Henry I, Duke of Schleswig (d. 1375, a son of the former king Valdemar III of Denmark), the last duke of that line. The childless, elderly Henry transferred his rights to his kinsman and brother-in-law King Valdemar IV in 1373. The ethnically German nobles, however, refused to allow the king to repay the mortgage and redeem the area in question.

In 1374, Valdemar bought large tracts of land in the province and was on the verge of starting a campaign to conquer the rest when he died on October 24, 1374 and shortly hereon Duke Henry I died in 1375. It was then when the male lines both in the kingdom and the duchy became extinct, that the counts of Holstein-Rendsburg seized on Schleswig, assuming at the same time the style of lords of Jutland. The nobles quickly took action and managed to regain more control of the Duchy which they emphasised to be independent of the Danish Crown.

In 1386, Queen Margaret I of Denmark, younger daughter of Valdemar IV of Denmark and Helvig of Schleswig, granted Schleswig as a hereditary fief under the Danish crown to Count Gerhard VI of Holstein-Rendsburg, grandson of Gerhard III, provided that he swore allegiance to her son King Oluf, although Schleswig actually still was held autonomously by the Count of Holstein-Rendsburg. Gerhard - after the extinction of the lines of Plön (1350) and Kiel (1390) – finally obtained also Holstein-Segeberg in 1403, ruling thus all of Holstein except of Holstein-Pinneberg with the small Schauenburg territories in Lower Saxony. With this merging of power begins the history of the union of Schleswig and Holstein.