Abstract

Although the Danish king, Valdemar II, suffered a major defeat at the battle of Bornhoved in 1227, which weakened his authority and the economic well-being of the local church, the traditional good relations between the papacy and Denmark were generally maintained throughout Gregory's pontificate because of the pope's desire to establish control over the Baltic crusade and the need for northern support in his struggle with Frederick II. The traditional problems of the Danish Church regarding clerical incontinence and violence against clerics still posed problems for the papacy, alongside more unusual questions concerning liturgical practice and cheating on exams.

Keywords: Denmark, Baltic Crusades, Frederick II, Teutonic Knights, Lateran IV

On 22 July 1227, approximately four months after Hugo dei Conti's elevation to the papacy as Gregory IX, the Danish king Valdemar II (c.1170–1241; r. 1202–1241) lost the battle of Bornhoved to a conglomerate army of north German petty princes. The defeat at Bornhoved severely diminished Danish dominance, which had been established from c.1201, over a number of North German duchies and counties, the princes of which would now renounce their vassal status to the Danish king.

The defeat at Bornhoved posed both strategic and practical difficulties for the papacy in its relationship with its northernmost ally. Since the establishment of the Danish archiepiscopal See in Lund in 1103, and the carving out of the Nordic church province from the province of Hamburg-Bremen, the Danish Church and king had more or less acted as loyal allies to the papacy, often playing a significant role in papal politics, because of the important geo-political position of the Danish realm immediately to the north of the mighty German Empire.

Historians have almost unanimously argued that, following the defeat at Bornhoved, King Valdemar radically changed his political focus. In fact, in Danish historiography, the battle, lost to German adversaries in the German-Danish borderland, has been interpreted as the beginning of the end of the Danish rule over the Baltic Sea. Following his defeat, Valdemar II would shy away from his hitherto expansionist foreign policy. The Danish king would turn his focus and his efforts inwards with the aim of securing control over the remains of his realm, while striving to reconcile himself with his German adversaries.