Abel (Denmark)

Abel

Abel on a tapestry in Kronborg Castle in Helsingør . The headline gives a short résumé.

Abel (* 1218 ; † June 29, 1252 ) was Duke of Schleswig (1232–1252) and King of Denmark (1250–1252).

Life

Abel - son of King Waldemar II of Denmark and his second wife Berengaria of Portugal - succeeded his brother Erik as Duke of Schleswig in 1232 , while Erik IV became co-king of their father. When his brother became sole king after his father's death on March 28, 1241, Abel fought with him for the Danish throne.

In this fratricidal war, the king's troops destroyed several Schleswig trading centers in 1248, including Flensburg . In 1250, Abel asked King Erik IV, ostensibly for reconciliation talks, to his residence city of Schleswig . In the ferry town of Missunde , he had the king murdered, allegedly on a boat, and sunk the body in the Schlei . There are numerous legends about this bloody event. Abel himself ascended the royal throne on November 1, 1250 after he had found 24 knights who swore his innocence on the thing in Viborg (double oath of twelve). But he fell on June 29, 1252 in the battle of Oldenswort against the Frisians, from whom he demanded higher taxes. According to a legend, he was haunted in the cathedral church of Schleswig , which is why he was exhumed and thrown into a swamp hole near Gottorf. To be on the safe side, a stake was driven through his chest beforehand.

Memorial stone indicating the year of Abel's death in the Schleswig zoo

His brother Christoph I succeeded him as king , while his son Waldemar became Duke of Schleswig. Abel's descendants ruled the Duchy of Schleswig until the male line died out in 1375. Abel's tombstone is located in the Tiergarten forest area near the baroque garden of Gottorf Castle .

genealogy

In 1237, Abel and Mechthild von Holstein , daughter of Count Adolf IV. Von Schauenburg and Holstein, married . There were four children from the marriage:

• Waldemar III. (* 1238; † 1257), Duke of Schleswig 1252–1257
• Sophie (* 1240; † after 1284) ∞ Bernhard I (Anhalt-Bernburg) († 1286/87), Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg
• Erich I († 1272), Duke of Schleswig 1260–1272 ∞ Margarethe von Rügen
• Abel (* 1252; † 1279), Lord of Langeland 1261–79 ∞ Mechthilde von Schwerin.

In her second marriage, Mechthild von Holstein was married to Birger Jarl von Sweden.

See also

• Family table of the Danish kings

literature

• Ernst Willkomm: The Möwenberg near Schleswig . In: The Gazebo . Issue 45–46, 1853, pp. 485–488, 497–500 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - historical narrative).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Horst-Dieter Landeck: Flensburg. A travel companion . Verlag Boyens, Heide 2006, ISBN 3-8042-1193-3 , p. 9.
2. ↑ Horst Windmann: family table dept. II (1200-1375) . In: Ders .: Schleswig as territory. Basic features of the constitutional development in the Duchy of Schleswig . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1954 (also dissertation, University of Kiel 1952).

predecessor	Office	successor
Erik IV.	King of Denmark 1250–1252	Christoph I.
Erik IV.	Duke of Schleswig 1232–1252	Waldemar III.