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VALDEMAR IV

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 843 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALDEMAR IV ., See also:

king of See also:Denmark (c. 1320-1375), was the youngest son of See also:Christopher II. of Denmark. Valdemar was brought up at the See also:court of the See also:German See also:emperor, See also:Louis of See also:Bavaria, during those miserable years when the See also:realm of Denmark was partitioned among See also:Holstein See also:counts and German See also:Ritter, while Scania, " the See also:bread-See also:basket " of the See also:monarchy, sought deliverance from anarchy under the See also:protection of See also:Magnus of See also:Sweden. Even the Hanse Towns, the hereditary enemies of Denmark, regarded the situation with disquietude. " One would gladly have seen a single king in Denmark if only for See also:peace See also:sake," says the contemporary See also:Lubeck See also:chronicle, " for peace was not to be had either at See also:sea or on See also:land." The assassination at See also:Randers of the detested Holstein See also:tyrant See also:Count See also:Gerhard III. (1340), who for nine years had held See also:Jutland and Funen and dominated the See also:rest of Denmark, first opened Valdemar's way to the See also:throne, and on midsummer See also:day 1340 he was elected king at a Landsting held at See also:Viborg, after consenting to espouse Helveg, the See also:sister of his most important confederate, Valdemar, See also:duke of See also:Schleswig. Neither the See also:time nor the See also:place of Valdemar's See also:birth is known, but he could not have been more than twenty when he became the nominal king of Denmark, though, as a See also:matter of fact, his territory was limited to the northernmost See also:county of Jutland. His precocious maturity is strikingly evident from the first. An See also:energy which never slackened, a doggedness which no adversity could crush, a fiery ambition coupled with the coolest calculation, and a See also:diplomatic unscrupulousness which looked always to the end and never to the means, these were the salient qualities of the reconstructor of the dismembered Danish See also:state. First Valdemar aimed at the recovery of See also:Zealand, which was actually partitioned among a See also:score of Holstein mortgagees who ruled their portions despotically from their strong castles, and sucked the See also:people dry. The oppressed See also:clergy and peasantry regarded Valdemar as their natural deliverer; but so poor and friendless was he that the See also:work of redemption proved painfully slow. In See also:November 1343 he obtained the See also:town and See also:castle of See also:Copenhagen from King Magnus Smek of Sweden, by reconfirming in still more stringent terms the previous surrender of the See also:rich Scanian provinces, and by the end of the following See also:year he had recovered the whole of See also:North Zealand.

In 1347 the See also:

remainder of Zealand was redeemed, and the See also:southern isles, Laaland, Falster and Mon, also See also:fell into the king's strenuous hands. By this time, too, the whole of Jutland (except the See also:province of Ribe) had fallen to him, county by county, as their respective holders were paid off. In 1349, at the Landsting of Ringsted, Valdemar proudly rendered an See also:account of his stewardship to the Estates of Zealand, and the See also:bishop of See also:Roskilde congratulated him on having so miraculously delivered his people from See also:foreign thraldom. In See also:August 1346, he prudently rid himself of the distant and useless province of See also:Esthonia by selling it very advantageously to the Livonian See also:Order. Valdemar now gave full See also:play to his endless energy. In north German politics he interfered vigorously to protect his See also:brother-in-See also:law the See also:Margrave Louis of See also:Brandenburg against the lords of See also:Mecklenburg and the See also:dukes of See also:Pomerania, with such success that the emperor, See also:Charles IV., at the See also:conference of See also:Bautzen, was reconciled to the Brandenburger and allowed Valdemar an See also:annual See also:charge of 16,000 See also:silver marks on the See also:city of Lubeck (1349). Some years later Valdemar seriously thought of reviving the See also:ancient claims of Denmark upon See also:England, and entered into negotiations with the See also:French king, See also:John, who in his See also:distress looked to this descendant of the ancient Vikings for help. A matrimonial See also:alliance between the two crowns was even discussed, and Valdemar offered, for the huge sum of 600,000 gulden, to transport 12,000 men to England. But the chronic state of See also:rebellion in western Denmark, which, fomented by the discontented Jutish magnates, lasted with See also:short intervals from1350 to 1360, compelled Valdemar to renounce these far-reaching and fantastic designs. On the other See also:hand, he proved more than a match for his domestic rebels, especially after his See also:great victory at Brobjaerg in Funen (1357). Finally, the compact of Kalundborg restored peace to the See also:kingdom. Valdemar now turned his eyes from the See also:west to the See also:east, where See also:lay the " kingdom of Scania." Valdemar had indeed pledged it solemnly and irrevocably to King Magnus of Sweden, who had held it for twenty years; but profiting by the difficulties of Magnus with his See also:Norwegian subjects, after skilfully securing his own position by negotiations with See also:Albert of Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic See also:League, Valdemar suddenly and irresistibly invaded Scania, and by the end of 1361 all the old Danish lands, except North See also:Holland, were recovered.

By the recovery of Scania Valdemar had become the See also:

lord of the great See also:herring-See also:fishery See also:market held every autumn from St See also:Bartholomew's day (24th of August) to St See also:Denis's day (9th of See also:October) on the See also:hammer-shaped See also:peninsula projecting from the S.W. corner of Scania containing the towns of Skanor and Falsterbo. This flourishing See also:industry, which fully occupied 40,000 boats and 300,000 fishers assembled from all parts of See also:Europe to catch and See also:salt the favourite Lenten fare of the whole See also:continent, was the See also:property of the Danish See also:crown, and the in-numerable tolls and taxes imposed by the king on the frequenters of the market was one of his most certain and lucrative See also:sources of See also:revenue. Foreign chapmen eagerly competed for See also:special privileges of Skan6r and Falsterbo, and the Hanseatic merchants in particular aimed at obtaining a See also:monopoly there. But Valdemar was by no means disposed to submit to their dictation, and See also:political conjunctures now brought about actual hostilities between Valdemar and the Hansa, or at least that portion of it known as the Wendish Towns,' whose commercial interests lay principally in the Baltic. From time immemorial the isle of See also:Gotland' had been the See also:staple of the Baltic See also:trade, and its See also:capital, See also:Visby, whose burgesses were more than See also:half German, the commercial intermediary between east and west, was the wealthiest city in See also:northern Europe. In See also:July 1361 Valdemar set See also:sail from Denmark at the See also:bead of a great See also:fleet, defeated a See also:peasant See also:army before Visby, and a few days later the burgesses of Visby made a See also:breach in their walls through which the Danish monarch passed in See also:triumph. The See also:conquest of Gotland at once led to a See also:war between Valdemar and Sweden allied with the Hanseatic towns; but in the See also:spring of 1362 Valdemar repulsed from the fortress of See also:Helsingborg a large Hanseatic fleet provided with " See also:shooting engines " (See also:cannon) and commanded by Johan Wittenburg, the burgomaster of Lubeck. In Sweden proper he was equally successful, and the See also:general pacification which ensued in See also:April 1365, very greatly in his favour, was cemented by the See also:marriage of his daughter See also:Margaret with Hakon VI. of See also:Norway, the son of King Magnus. Valdemar was now at the height of his See also:power. Every political See also:rival had been quelled. With the papal see, since his visit to See also:Avignon in 1364, he had been on the best of terms. His ecclesiastic patronage was immense, and throughout the land he had planted strong castles surely held by the royal bailiffs.

But in the See also:

winter of 1367-68 a hostile league against him of all his neighbours threatened to destroy the fruits of a See also:long and strenuous lifetime. The impulse came from the Hansa. At a Hansetag held at See also:Cologne on the 11th of November 1367, three See also:groups of the towns, seventy in number, concerted to attack Denmark, and in See also:January 1368 Valdemar's numerous domestic enemies, especially the Jutlanders and the Holstein counts, acceded to the league, with the See also:object of partitioning the realm among them. And now an astounding and still inexplicable thing happened. At See also:Easter-See also:tide 1368, on the very See also:eve of this general attack, Valdemar departed for three years to See also:Germany, leaving his realm in the capable hands of the See also:earl-See also:marshal Henning Podbusk. Valdemar's skilful See also:diplomacy, reinforced by See also:golden arguments, did indeed induce the dukes of See also:Brunswick, Brandenburg and Pomerania to attack the confederates in the See also:rear; but See also:fortune was persistently unfriendly to the Danish king, See also:Rostock, Greifswald, See also:Wismar and See also:Stralsund. and peace was finally concluded with the towns by Podbusk and the Danish See also:Council of State at the See also:congress of Stralsund, 1370. The conditions of peace were naturally humiliating for Valdemar,' though, ultimately, he contrived to render illusory many of the inordinate privileges he was obliged to concede. He was also able, shortly before his See also:death on the 24th of October 1375, to recover the greater See also:part of Holstein from the rebels. We know astonishingly little of him personally. A few caustically witty sayings of his, and St See also:Bridget's famous comparison of him to a See also:fowler who could entice the shyest birds with his fluting, are almost all his personalia. It would be a See also:mistake to regard him as a patriot.

He was too unscrupulous and self-centred to play for anything but his own hand. Yet no other Danish king did so much for his See also:

country. His statesmanship, as judged from his acts, was all but flawless, and he was certainly one of the greatest of the See also:medieval diplomatists. His See also:character peeps forth most clearly perhaps in the saying which has become his epithet, Atterdag (" There will be a to-morrow "), which is an indication of that invincible doggedness to which he owed most of his successes. See Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. ii. pp. 275—356 (Copenhagen, 1897—1905)• (R. N. B.) VALDEPEcIAS, a town of See also:Spain, in the province of See also:Ciudad Real; near the right See also:bank of the See also:river Jabalon, a tributary of the See also:Guadiana, and on the See also:Madrid-See also:Cordova and Valdepenas-La Calzada See also:railways. Pop. (1900) 21,015. Valdepenas is the largest town in the Campo de Calatrava, an extensive See also:plain notth of the Sierra Morena. Its See also:commerce See also:developed rapidly in the last See also:quarter of the 19th See also:century, largely as a result of improvements in its communications by road and See also:rail; the See also:population in the same See also:period increased by more than one-third.

Valdepenas contains large distilleries, tanneries, See also:

flour See also:mills, cooperages, and other factories; but its trade is chiefly in the red wines for which the See also:district is famous throughout Spain. There are hot See also:mineral springs near the town.

End of Article: VALDEMAR IV

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