Till-: STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



. arose from the Atlantic and Hosp..: taaalfl combined to rob Valdemar II. of 



.11. those brilliant family conquests. His death, in 



The deluge of Deucalion in ThessaL I l-ll. was followed by a century of anarchy ami 



It was often inglorious decadence of the authority of the 



:-d by th, tfl with the general crown, during which tlie kingdom was brought 



flood but red to be merd V a local mun- to the brink of annihilation under the vicious 



>n OCC41M -".owing of the rule of his sons and grandsons. I'nder his 



ped by an great-grandson, Valdemar III., the last of the 



iquake between the Mounts Olympus' and KMrid-en line. Denmark made a quick but 



.ho then reigned in Thessaly. transient recovery of the conquests of the older 



with his wife Pyrri 'heir subject-. Yaldemars. and the national laws were collected 



are stated to have saved the:: climbing into a well-digested, comprehensive code. From 



his death, in i:{7.~>. till Mil', his daughter, the 



Denmark. ..rlie-t great Margaret, first as regent for her only and 



imavia and made early lost son, Olaf, and later as sole monarch, 



Unmans loo years ruled, not only Denmark, but, in course of time, 



ded the Cloths 'who. al-o Sweden and Norway, with such consummate 



\thical leader. Odin, established tact . and with so light yet firm a hand, t hat, for 



then 3 iinavian lands. Odin's once in the course of their history, the three 



son, Skjold. is been the first rival Scandinavian kingdoms were content to 



irk: but the little that is known act in harmony. Margaret's successor, Erick, 



M the.se remote ages seems to the son of her niece, for whose sake she had 



indicate that TV was split up into blended the three sovereignties into one, undid 



ill territo 1 B inhabitants lived her glorious work with fatal rapidity, and after 



people were divided into an inglorious war of twenty-five years with his 



'Bonder " and " Tra-lle." freemen and bondmen, vassals, the Counts-dukes of Schleswick-Holstein, 



rmer busied them>elves with war and 



" Vikingetog," or piracy, and the government 



land: while to the latter were left the 



.1 pursuits of hunting, fishing, and tilling 



the soil. The mis-ion of Ansgurius the Apostle 



S bh Jutland, in Xi>(i. when he 



k. one of the Smaa Kongar, 



little kings of Denmark, was the means 



opening the Danish territories to" the 



lire <>f the more civilized nations. The 



he lost the allegiance and the crowns of his triple 

 kingdom, and ended his disastrous existence in 

 misery and obscurity. After the short reign of 

 his nephew, Christopher of Bavaria, the Danes, 

 on the death of the latter in 1-1 IN, again exer- 

 cised their long-dormant right of election to the 

 throne, and chose for their king Christian of 

 Oldenburg, a descendant of the old royal family 

 through his maternal ancestress, Rikissa, the 

 greafcgranddaughter of Valdemar II. Christian 



country was soon torn by civil dissensions be- 1 1., the father of the Oldenburg line, which con- 



<>f the ancient and modern 



faith, (lorrn the Old, the first authentic King 



mark, the bitter enemy of Christianity, 



having subjugated the several 



. : and, although his death 



tinued unbroken till the death of the late King 

 of Denmark, Frederick VII., in 1863, laid the 

 foundation of the Schleswick-Holstein troubles, 

 which, after maturing for centuries, have ended 

 in our own day in dismembering the Danish 



gave fresh vigor to the diffusion of the new j monarchy. The insane tyranny of the other- 

 _"inism kept its ground for 200 years wise able and enlightened_Christian II. cx>st him 



and numbered among its adherents many 

 It-mythical heroes, whose deeds are 

 celebrated in the Kddas and the Ka-mpe\ "i-er of 

 idle Age-. Th- ' hat attended the 



>i\s of the Northmen drew them 

 and. while dorm's 

 rid and Knud, were reigning in 



anarchy. 

 in 1042, 



nd. Denmark was left a prey to a 

 Lion of Km id's dynasty, i 



his throne. Christian III., in whose reign the 

 Reformation was established, united the Schles- 

 wipk-Holstein. duchies in perpetuity to the 

 Crown in 1533. Frederick II., who increased 

 the embarrassments connected with the crown 

 appanages, by making additional partitions in 

 favor of his brother (the founder of the Holstein- 

 Sonderburg family), was succeeded by Christian 

 IV., 1588, who was the ablest of Danish rulers. 



rid-en, ascended the His liberal policy was, however, cramped by the 



throne. Internal di--en-ion- and external wars 



::! the country, and the int roduct ion of a 



ip a jiowerful nobility and 



nobles, by whose supineness Denmark lost all 

 the possessions she had hitherto retained in 

 Sweden. The national abasement which fol- 



'"1 down t ree people to a condition lowed led, in 1660, under Christian's son, Fred- 



of oppressed serfage. Valdemar I., by the help crick III., to the rising of the people against the 



Axel Hvide. known in nobles, and their surrender into the hands of 



>ry as Bishop Abflalon, subjugated the the king of the supreme power. For the next 



mil I'omerania. and forced 100 years the peasantry were kept in serfage 



in IKiS, to renounce the faith of their and the middle classes depressed. The abolition 



and accept Christianity. During of serfage was begun by Christian VII. in 1767; 



'"id VI.. and in the early part of it was extended to the duchies in 1804. The 



the reign of Valdcmar II. sons of Valdemar I. reign of Christian's son, Frederick VI., brought 



>n<|iiest of Denmark extended so tar t he country to the verge of ruin. On the acces- 



nd Wen. lie lands that the Haltic M,II of Frederick VII. half his subjects were in 



was little more than an inland Danish sea. The open rebellion against him. The liberal const i- 



jealousyof the German princes and the treachery tution granted by the king fully satisfied his 



