Battle of the Grathe Hede

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sven Grathe-Cros

The battle on the Grathe Hede was born on October 23, 1157 between the Danish armies of Waldemar I . and his rival for the Danish throne , Sven III. , held at Silkeborg . Waldemar's troops won the battle, while Sven III. was killed by peasants while trying to escape. The battle on the Grathe Hede marked the end of a civil war between the rivals for the Danish throne Sven III, Knut V and Waldemar I. As with almost all events in the Middle Ages , the sources of the battle of Grathe Hede are extremely poor In addition to annalistic entries, which due to their structure mostly do not reflect more than a mere fact, it is primarily chronicles from which the knowledge about what happened comes.

prehistory

After King Erik III. Lam had died in 1146 without a physical heir, Sven and his cousin, Prince Canute, disputed the throne . In view of the imminent crusade against the Wends , they first made peace and raised a joint army against the Slavs . Two years later, the throne disputes flared up again. With the help of Adolf II von Schauenburg and Holstein , Sven managed to repel Knut's attacks on Zealand in 1146/1147 and 1150 . Knut was expelled and fled to Germany , where he was able to raise a new army.

At the Merseburg Reichstag in 1152, an arbitration decision by King Friedrich Barbarossa was able to achieve a balance between the adversaries. Sven, who had come with Bremen's Archbishop Hartwig , Erik Lam's brother-in-law, became the sole king of Denmark. Knut, under the escort of Henry the Lion , was persuaded to renounce the throne and as Sven's vassal made Duke of Zealand. Waldemar , as Knud Lavard's son, a relative of both competitors and also with claims to the throne, received the Duchy of Schleswig .

Due to his controversial government policy, Sven was unable to consolidate his position of power. In 1153 Sven fell out with the Hvide family, whereupon Waldemar, who was very close to the family, separated from him and joined Knut Magnusson. Waldemar then got engaged to his half-sister, whom he married in 1157. Waldemar's change of party led to Sven's expulsion in 1153. In 1154, Knut and Waldemar from the Viborg Landesthing were honored as king. Sven III. prepared his return from exile at the court of his father-in-law, the Meissen Margrave Conrad I , with the help of Henry the Lion. He finally managed to do this in 1156 with the support of the Wendish fleet of the Abodritian prince Niklot . However, none of the three adversaries was able to establish a supremacy afterwards, and Denmark then split into three parts. In August 1157, under pressure from the nobility, a peace treaty was reached between the three aspirants to the throne in Roskilde , in which Waldemar Jutland , Knut Fyn , Zealand and the surrounding islands and Sven Schonen were awarded. At the festival on August 9, 1157, with which this contract was to be celebrated, Knut fell victim to an assassination attempt commissioned by Sven.

The battle

After this murder, Waldemar managed to recruit many supporters and he was prepared for the war. Sven landed in Grenå (at the mouth of the Djurså River ), but his fleet was destroyed by a combination of violence and cunning. Sven marched on Randers and Waldemar withdrew to the other side of the Gudenå river and destroyed the bridge and was able to escape.

At the end of September Waldemar felt that he was powerful enough to face Sven's army. On October 23, the two armies met on the Grathe Hede . The fight was short but very bloody. Sven could not find Waldemar's main power at first and was then attacked with such violence that he fled with his army. He fled to the swampy areas on the banks of Hauge Sø and lost his weapons and armor in the process. Shortly afterwards he was caught and killed with an ax by angry farmers.

After his death, Sven was nicknamed Grathe, after the place where he lost both his crown and his life.

aftermath

Waldemar became the sole King of Denmark after outliving all of his rivals for the Danish Thorn. He reorganized and rebuilt Denmark, which had been shattered by the civil war.

The Sven Grathe-Cros , a stone cross by Thor Lange , was erected on the battlefield.

Web links

Coordinates: 56 ° 15 ′ 30.8 ″  N , 9 ° 20 ′ 15.9 ″  E