622 



DENMAR K. 



History, was paid to the maritime strength of the country, the 



v — -\.-"»' whole of which was divided into small districts ; each 

 of these was to build and equip one ship in time of war, 

 and furnish it with provisions as long as the king 

 should require its service. The progress of the feudal 

 tenure is distinctly marked by several of the enact- 

 ments of this code. In the maritime districts were 

 many free farms : but the number of these was much 

 reduced by the permission that Valdemar gave to his 

 favourites to purchase them, and to form them into 

 hereditary manors : hence arose those nobles, who af- 

 terwards, in conjunction with the clergy, oppressed 

 the people so cruelly and unmercifully, and limited and 

 rendered insecure the power of the sovereign himself. 

 The principal new regulations, which Valdemar intro- 

 duced into the Jutland code, respected the abolition of 

 the trial by ordeal, and the substitution of the canonical 

 purgation, on the oath of one of the parties, substan- 

 tiated by the oaths of eleven of his relations. The 

 trial by jury, exactly as it is practised in England, was 

 also established by him ; but it is doubtful whether 

 this mode of trial was followed for any length of time, 

 and it certainly cannot now be traced in the present 

 practice or laws of Denmark. 



Eric. By the Avill of Valdemar, the crown of Denmark was 



left to his oldest son Eric, and the duchy of Sleswick 

 to his second son Abel. The former entered into a war 

 with the princes of Holstein, in which he solicited the 

 assistance of his brother Abel, but Abel hired assassins, 



Abet who murdered him. After this, Abel succeeded to the 



crown, which, however, he did not long possess, as his 

 subjects rebelled against him, and he was slain in battle, 



A. D. 1252. in the year 1252. Although the private character of 

 this sovereign was very bad, yet when he came to the 

 throne, he discovered great wisdom and regard for the 

 happiness of his subjects, in several of his regulations 

 and laws : he re-established the custom of holding a ge- 

 neral assembly of the states every year, which had been 

 long neglected; and in many respects he improved 

 upon the Jutland code. 



Christo. Christopher the First succeeded Abel : his whole reign 



pher I. was a scene of confusion and civil war between him 

 and the clergy ; the disturbances continued with little 

 or no' intermission during the reign of his son, Eric 

 the Fifth, who succeeded to the throne, when lie was 

 only ten years old, and reigned twenty-seven years. 



Eric V. He compiled the code called Birkerelt from, Birketten, 

 the name of the new tribunals, which were instituted 

 by it. At this period the clergy and nobles treated the 

 judges and governors whom the king sent into their 

 provinces as greatly their inferiors ; nor would they 

 suffer them to exercise any jurisdiction over their lands, 

 or even to hear or settle the complaints of their far- 

 mers, whom they considered and treated, rather as their 

 own proper subjects than as the subjects of the king. 

 As Eric found it would be impracticable to destroy the 

 powers and assumed privileges of the clergy and the 

 nobles, he endeavoured to regulate them by his new code, 

 by which he granted to the lords of fiefs their proper ju- 

 risdiction, and laid down rules for the guidance and in- 

 formation of the judges in the administration of justice. 

 But his views were frustrated; the nobility regarded more 

 that part of the code which acknowledged and legalized 

 their power, than that part which taught them their 

 duty towards their vassals, and the code of birkerett, 

 especially after the changes it underwent, in the time of 

 Christopher of Bavaria, may be considered as having 

 consummated and sealed the slavery of the people of 

 Denmark. Eric the Fifth was succeeded by his son 



Eric the Sixth, whose reign also exhibits a continued History, 

 scene of confusion and civil wars. During the short ~-"~v"«" 

 intervals of peace and tranquillity which he enjoyed, 

 he applied himself to the formation of a code of feudal 

 laws for Livonia, at that time a fief of the crown of 

 Denmark ; and he confirmed and extended the privileges 

 which his predecessors had granted to the inhabitants 

 of Lubeck and Rostock. He also directed his attention 

 to the laws of his own country, collecting and publish- 

 ing the laws of Zealand in six books ; and depositing, in 

 a place of safety, all the public acts, documents, and 

 other papers, which might be of use in forming a com- 

 plete history of Denmark. 



Christopher the Second succeeded to the throne, on christo; 

 the death of his brother Eric. In order to engage the pher II.. 

 states to confirm him in his power, he agreed to grant 

 them great privileges : when he received the crown, he 

 bound himself by an oath, to confirm and extend the 

 privileges of the clergy ; not to permit them to be ac- 

 cused before lay judges, on any pretext, or for any 

 cause whatever ; not to tax them ; nor to arrest, ba- 

 nish, or deprive them of then - property, except by the 

 express order of the pope: to the nobility he promised, 

 that he would grant them the power of condemning 

 their vassals; and exemption from carrying arms out of 

 the kingdom : he also bound himself to destroy all the 

 fortresses in Jutland except three, and to grant per- 

 mission for all those to return, who, in the preceding 

 reigns, had taken up arms against their legitimate sove- 

 reigns. This extension of the powers and privileges 

 of the clergy and nobility was resisted by the towns, 

 which now began to feel their importance ; they sent 

 deputies to the diets ; and even the peasants or farmers, 

 who possessed small estates, now began to form a sepa- 

 rate class. The aim and efforts of the towns and com- 

 munes, were directed not only against the encroach- 

 ments of the clergy and nobility, but also towards com- 

 pelling the king to extend their own immunities and 

 privileges. He was obliged to promise them, that com- 

 merce should be free, and that no tax should be laid 

 upon it, except in cases of the greatest necessity, and 

 then, only by the consent of the senate ; that an assem- 

 bly of the states should be held every year at Nybourgh; 

 that the laws of Valdemar should be recognized as the 

 laws of the whole kingdom ; that whenever any person 

 considered himself as unjustly dealt with by the infe- 

 rior tribunals, an appeal should lie to the general as- 

 sembly of the states ; and that no new law should be 

 made, but in the general assembly, and by their con- 

 sent. Christopher had thus stripped himself of all real 

 authority, and soon became sensible that he was in fact 

 the slave of the clergy and nobility : his situation was 

 rendered still worse by his profligacy and extravagance, 

 so that after having mortgaged several of his provinces 

 to his own vassals, he resolved, notwithstanding his 

 oath, to attempt to raise taxes, without the consent of 

 the states. He accordingly suddenly laid on a general 

 tax on all his subjects : the nobility were to have a tenth 

 of all their revenues, and the clergy and commons were 

 equally charged, in proportion to their funds. The 

 whole kingdom was immediately in a state of open and 

 violent rebellion : the clergy expressly told him, that 

 as he had disregarded his oaths, they should no longer 

 consider themselves bound to obey him as their sove- 

 reign. Christopher, intimidated by this menace, and 

 alarmed at the rebellion of his subjects, desisted from 

 his project, but only to adopt another, equally unjust 

 and hurtful to his real interests : he employed force to 

 recover the lands which he had mortgaged, and cefused 



