Erik I. (Denmark)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erik I's grave in Cyprus

Erik I. Ejegod (* around 1056 in Slangerup ; † July 10, 1103 in Paphos , Cyprus ) was King of Denmark (1095-1103).

genealogy

Erik I - an illegitimate son of King Sven Estridsen - was married to Bodil Thrugotsdatter (1065–1103). The marriage came from Knud Lavard , from 1115 Jarl in the Schleswig area and the first elder of the Knudsgilde sworn brotherhood . With other women he had the other sons Harald Kesje, Benedikt and Erik as well as the daughter Ragnhild. Erik I was the grandfather of Waldemar the Great .

Life

In 1080 Erik I became Jarl of Zealand . He escaped an assassination attempt in 1086, to which his half-brothers Knut the Holy and Benedict fell victim. During the reign of his half-brother Olaf I. Hunger (1086-1095) he lived in exile in Sweden because he feared Olaf I's revenge for his support of Knuts. In 1095 he succeeded Olaf I on the throne. During his reign he placed great emphasis on working with the Church. He was very attached to the English Church. Shortly before 1100 he brought English Benedictine monks from the monastery in Evesham to the monastery in Odense . He also ensured that the English canon Hubald from the cathedral chapter in Lund became bishop in Odense. He had five stone churches built. He also carried out the canonization of his half-brother Knut IV, which he succeeded in 1100 or 1101. This meant a strengthening of his royal power and that of his successors. In addition, the prerequisites for his ecclesiastical plan to receive an archbishop's chair in Denmark were created.

When the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen imposed the ban on Erik on the basis of dubious allegations, Erik traveled to Rome to justify himself, which he succeeded in doing. In his bitterness at his adversary in Hamburg, he traveled a second time to Rome and asked Pope Paschal II for an archbishopric of his own separate from Hamburg. Since Pope Paschal II was skeptical of German dominance in Northern Europe, he granted this request. The Scandinavian area was separated from the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen with the foundation of the Archdiocese of Lund in 1104 under the first Archbishop Asser . In return, the Pope asked for the tithe to be introduced and for the St. Peter's penny to be delivered directly to him. The tithe can only be documented from 1135.

In 1101 Erik took part in a meeting of the three kings in what is now Kungälv . King Magnus of Norway, King Inge of Sweden and Erik I signed a peace treaty there.

Around 1101 Erik and his wife Bodil set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land . He was the first Danish king to undertake such a pilgrimage after the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem in 1099 . He is also the first documented Danish pilgrim to Jerusalem. He traveled with a large entourage via Russia to Constantinople , where he was received by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos . There he fell ill, but continued his journey by sea and died in July 1103 in Paphos, Cyprus, where his wife had him buried. Bodil continued the journey without her husband and reached Jerusalem, where she died and was buried on the Mount of Olives . Erik I's successor was his younger brother Niels .

Aftermath

Erik I. is known by the nickname Ejegod = Immergut, which is probably due to the fact that the supply situation and living conditions improved during his reign compared to that of his predecessor. The advancement of the Church also contributed to this assessment. In the Icelandic Skalden Poem Eiriksdrápa of 1104 it is positively shown as an example of a good king. Also Saxo Grammaticus rated him positively. In contrast, the Roskilde Chronicle from around 1140 judges Eirik rather critically and accuses him of having passed many unjustified and unjust laws. But even this chronicle considers him a good king.

In the course of the romantic rediscovery of the national heritage in Denmark, Friedrich Ludwig Æmilius Kunzen composed the opera Erik Ejegod in 1798 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Danske store: Erik 1. Ejegod
  2. ↑ Damsholt / Steestrup p. 210.
  3. ↑ Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum , chap. 12, 5, 2. Damsholt / Steestrup p. 210 claim that he was in Rome on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem and that he was granted the chair of the archbishop. But that cannot be because the journey to the Holy Land led through Russia and he died on the way there in Cyprus.
  4. ↑ Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum , chap. 12, 7, 1.
  5. ↑ See Eiriksdrápa on Norrøn

literature

  • Nanna Damsholt, Johannes Steenstrup: Erik I. Ejegod . In: Dansk biografisk leksikon . 3. Edition. tape 4 . Copenhagen 1980, p. 209-210 .
  • Thelma Jexlev: Erich I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 3, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7608-8903-4 , Sp. 2139 f.

Web links

Commons : Erik I of Denmark  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Olaf I. King of Denmark
1095–1103 		Niels
personal data
SURNAME Erik I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erik I. Ejegod
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Denmark (1095–1103)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1056
PLACE OF BIRTH Slangerup
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1103
Place of death Paphos in Cyprus