Valdemar (III) the Young, 1209-31, ~ Eleonore of Portugal, --1231

Valdemar (III), 1209-31, King, son of Valdemar
II og Dagmar , was born 1209. At a meeting of
the Danish magnates, which king Valdemar
arranged at Samsø in 1215, everyone agreed to
swear an oath to V., and shortly after he was
elected king (co-king) at Viborg landsting.
During a great feast in Schleswig on
Midsummer's day in 1218, with 15 bishops and
3 dukes present,V. was anointed and crowned.
He took part with his father in the unlucky
hunt at the island Lyø in the month of May
in 1223, where both kings were taken prisoner
by grev Henrik; and he was imprisoned until
Easter 1226, when he was released on the
condition that his brother Erik went to prison
instead. V., who was in the government together
with his father, was on Midsummer's day 1229
married in Ribe  with princess Eleonore of
Portugal; bishop Gunner in Viborg, had fetched
the princess to Denmark, and in his "Levned"
(biography)is told, how the young queen and V.
loved Gunner as if he had been their father.
V. was praised for his mildness and kindness
towards everyone and was very popular; the Latin
elegi, which a cleric authored, when the kings
were captured,mentions him in the best words of
praise. It was a tremendous grief to the country,
when V. was killed during a hunt at Refsnæs 28.
November 1231. He was buried in Ringsted kirke
besides Eleonore, who had died three months
before in childbirth; their only child died
only six months old.  

Johannes C. H. R. Steenstrup.
 
Eleonore (Alienor), –1231, queen, was a
daughter of Alphons II of Portugal and Urraca
of Castile. King Valdemar II Sejr, who had
been married to Alphon's sister Berengaria
(+1221), let by his delegate bishop Gunner
fetch her 18year old brother's daughter to
Denmark as a bride for his and Dagmar's son
Valdemar , who had been crowned king already
in 1218. The wedding took place in Ribe on
Midsummer's day 1229, and the next day E. got
as her morning gift the southern half of the
island Funen.  Only 2 years later E. died in
childbirth, 28 August 1231, and three months
later her husband was killed by an accidental
shot. When examining E.'s grave in Ringsted
kirke, it was found that her skeleton showed
traces of a very endemic benedder (cancer of
the bones),which probably was contributory to
her death. At the foot piece of E.'s grave was
a leaden coffin, which contained the bones of a
child about 6 months old, already sickly and
scrofulous from birth. So E. gave probably birth
to a child, who survived her for only 6 months.

Johannes C. H. R. Steenstrup.

Dansk Biografisk Lexicon

Project Runeberg

1887-1905 

translation grethe bachmann  ©​ copyright