Harald Klak

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Harald "Klak" Halfdansson , also Heriold and Hariold , (* around 785 , † around 846 ) was from 812 to 814 and from 819 to 827 king in Jutland ( Haithabu ) and possibly also from other parts of the then not yet unified Denmark . He belonged to a branch of the same sex that was competing for supremacy in Denmark with the descendants of the Danish Viking king Gudfred (Gudrød), who was murdered in 810 . After the death of Gudfreds nephew and successor Hemming in 812, he and his brothers initially succeeded in usurping power in Jutland. After that, however, he was involved in devastating hereditary wars against the sons of Gudfred until he was finally expelled from Denmark in 826 or 827.

Civil war and seizure of power

After the death of Hemming, who had driven the five sons of Gudfreds out of the country, a bitter succession dispute broke out. The two competitors were Sigifrid II, a nephew of Gudfreds and grandson of Siegfried I, and Anulo (Ole / Olaf), a son of Halfdan and nephew or grandson of "former King Harald " or "Harald and the king himself". Anulos partisans emerged victorious from the fight, but since both opponents had fallen (Sigifrid 811 and Anulo 812), Anulos brothers Harald Klak and Ragnfrid (Reginfrid) were installed as common kings of Jutland. In 813 the two renewed the peace that Hemming had made with Charlemagne in 811 , in which the Eider was established as the border between the Franconian and Danish empires, and their brother Hemming , who had lived as a hostage in the Franconian Empire , returned to Denmark . As early as 814, however, after heavy fighting, Harald and his brothers were chased away by the sons of Gudfred who had returned from Swedish exile with a Swedish-Danish army. Although they returned with an army, they could not recapture the throne. Both Harald's brother Ragnfrid and Gudfreds son Gottfried were killed in the fighting. Harald and his brother Rörik fled to the Franconian Empire.

Vassal of Louis the Pious

In order to gain the support of Emperor Ludwig the Pious , Harald became his liege in 814 . An army of Saxons and Abodrites sent by Ludwig under the legatus imperatoris Balderich , later Margrave of Friuli , invaded Jutland in 815, plundered and pillaged, and at short notice helped Harald to regain a part of southern Jutland around Haithabu. In 817 he was expelled again. A second invasion in 819, again with the support of the Abodrites, led to an agreement according to which Harald and two of Gudfred's surviving sons, Olaf and Horik I , shared power from 821 - with Harald apparently a kind of sub-king Horik in Jutland was while Olaf ruled in Westerfold (southwestern Jutland, today's North Frisia).

Hostilities soon broke out again between Harald and Horik, which Ludwig the Pious and the religiously charged Reich Unity Party around Archbishop Ebo of Reims sought to exploit. The consideration that baptized Harald and thus promoted the conversion of the Danes to Christianity was believed to strengthen the influence of the Franconian Empire beyond its northern border as well as Harald's vassal relationship to Ludwig. Harald had again sought refuge in the Frankish Empire. Ebo von Reims went to Denmark in 823 as imperial and papal legate and mission bishop and tried to mediate a new agreement between Harald and Horik. This succeeded in 825, but was short-lived in view of the deep-seated hostility of the antagonists; the obvious partisanship of the Franks for their vassal Harald was not done to appease the suspicions of Horik and the people who oppose Christianity.

Baptism and Franconian enfeoffment

Since the Frisian coastal area was a weak point in the border defense of the Franconian Empire and a popular and frequent target of Viking raids, Emperor Ludwig Harald, whose position in Denmark was now very weakened, invited 826 to negotiations about the security of Friesland. At an imperial assembly and synod in Ingelheim , Harald ( Herioldus ) was received by Ludwig with great pomp in the imperial palace there . On June 24, 826, he was baptized together with his wife, son Gottfried and his entourage of around 400 people in the St. Alban Abbey near Mainz . Ludwig became Harald's godfather and enfeoffed him with the Frisian county of Rüstringen . Harald was probably the first Dane to be given a fiefdom for Franconian territory. In return, he undertook to defend the Frisian coast against future Viking raids.

Return to Denmark

On his return trip in 827 he was accompanied by the previous head of the Corvey monastery school and later Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, Ansgar , and a group of monks who were supposed to continue the Nordic mission in Denmark. Harald now called himself King of Rüstringen and Jutland and became co-regent in Stormarn . However, it is not certain whether he actually set foot on Danish soil again. If so, Horik I finally expelled him from Denmark in the same year. The border war with his rival lasted until 829. Harald's baptism had neither secured the spread of Christianity nor strengthened his claim to power; it may even have sealed his failure in Denmark.

Count in Friesland

He had to be content with his rights in Friesland, from where he took part in several looting campaigns in the North Sea region . (His brother Hemming, who was also baptized, received Walcheren as a fief and fell there in June 837 in the fight against invading Danish looters, who then attacked Dorestad and collected tribute there .) After the death of Louis the Pious, Harald supported his son Lothar , who helped him 840 the island of Walcheren and his brother Rörik gave the Gau Kimmen (Kinnin) in Friesland as a fief. However, when he was supposed to cover the crossing over the Moselle for the emperor at Koblenz , he fled when the enemy approached.

The End

When Harald Klak's life came to an end is not certain. Some sources say that he fell near Walcheren around 846. It is more likely that he was killed by Frankish knights in 852 on suspicion of treason, albeit unproven. He seems to have been a man of influence in the northern border area of ​​the empire from 829 to 852, but without making another serious attempt to gain control in Denmark. Even the Frankish monarchs, caught up in their own power struggles, were no longer interested in militarily supporting his claims there.

family

Harald was married to Sigrid Helgesdotter (800–854). Their children together were probably:

  • Gottfried Haraldsson (* around 820, † around 856)
  • Guthorm von Haithabu (* 825, X 854 in Friesland)
  • Gisela (Gisla) (* around 830, † around 870), married Erik (Horik) III. from Haithabu

Harald's son Gottfried stayed in the wake of his godfather Lothar I from 826 to the 840s. Then he went into strife and, together with his cousin Rörik von Dorestad († soon after 873), spread fear and terror in Friesland through numerous raids from 845 to 855 , Flanders and Northern France. In 855 they tried in vain to regain control of Denmark after Horik I died. They then conquered Dorestad and large parts of what is now the Netherlands instead . Gottfried died or fell during this time, because he then disappears from history.

Gottfried Haraldsson is often confused with the Count or Duke Gottfried von Friesland , who was involved in the conquest of Northern England by the Vikings, visited Flanders in 880 and the Rhineland in 882, was baptized in 882 when Charles the Fat became Duke of Friesland, and 885 was murdered.

Harald Klak was the uncle of Rörik von Dorestad and Harald von Dorestad , who ruled Dorestad and large parts of Friesland in the 840s and 850s. The two were probably, but not necessarily, sons of his brother Hemming Halfdansson, who fell to Walcheren in 837. The younger Harald had been baptized in Mainz in 826 and had been educated at the imperial court with his cousin Gottfried Haraldsson for several years. He probably fell in the service of Lothar I during the civil wars in the early 840s and was the father of the Viking prince Rodulf , who came to an end in 873 during a raid in Friesland.

Snorri's assumption that Harald Klak was the father of Thyra Danebod , the wife of Gorm and mother of Harald Blauzahn , is probably not tenable; More likely is the statement of the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus that she was a daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Ethelred of Wessex .

Harald Klak's family tree looks like this:

  • Halfdan II. Haraldsson († around 810), 804–810 ruler of Haithabu

Remarks

  1. ↑ Holger Grewe: Ingelheim , in: Heinrich Beck , Dieter Geuenich , Heiko Steuer (ed.): RGA , 2000, vol. 15, pp. 420–423, here p. 421
  2. ↑ Olaf († 827), Gottfried († 814), Erik I. († 854), Rodulf († 836) and Ragnar († 836)

See also

swell

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Harald Klak
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harald Halfdansson; Heriold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish King
DATE OF BIRTH around 800
PLACE OF BIRTH Jutland , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH around 854
Place of death Walcheren , Netherlands