Qualla: Battle of Grathe Heath

Battle of Grathe Heath: Introduction

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Frølich, Public domain. Valdemar of Denmark owed his throne to a set of candlesticks. On the evening of 9 August 1157 he was at a reconciliation feast in Roskilde with the two other men who claimed to be king of Denmark, and according to Saxo Grammaticus his host Sweyn had given orders to have both of his rivals killed at the table. Canute died there. Valdemar, wounded, tipped over the great standing candlesticks, and in the fire and confusion that followed he got out of the hall, into the dark, and eventually across the water to Jutland. Ten weeks later the argument finished on a heath south of what is now Silkeborg.

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Image: Lorenz Frølich | Public domain

Battle of Grathe Heath: Three Kings, One Country

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Frølich, Public domain. Denmark had been coming apart since Eric III abdicated in 1146. Sweyn, son of Eric Emune, was proclaimed king in Zealand and Scania; Canute, son of King Magnus, was proclaimed king in Jutland. Canute tried twice to take Zealand, in 1147 and again in 1150, was beaten off both time...

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Image: Lorenz Frølich | Public domain

Battle of Grathe Heath: The Feast at Roskilde

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Frølich, Public domain. The settlement, when it finally came, was a partition: Valdemar would hold Jutland, Canute the islands of Zealand and Funen, Sweyn Scania. To seal it the three met at Roskilde on 9 August 1157. What happened there is known chiefly through Saxo Grammaticus, writing decades afterwa...

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Image: Lorenz Frølich | Public domain

Battle of Grathe Heath: The Road to the Heath

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kim Konnerup, CC BY-SA 3.0. Treachery is expensive. When word of the feast spread, men came to Valdemar in numbers, and he raised a substantial army in Jutland while Sweyn crossed to meet him. Sweyn put ashore at Grena, at the mouth of the Djursa, and lost his fleet there to a combination of force and trick...

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Image: Kim Konnerup | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Grathe Heath: A Short and Vicious Fight

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Frølich, Public domain. The battle did not last long. Sweyn could not find Valdemar's main body, and when it hit him it hit hard enough that he broke away from his own army and rode. He went the wrong way, into the marshy ground at one end of Hauge Lake, where he shed his weapons and armour to get clear...

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Image: Lorenz Frølich | Public domain

Battle of Grathe Heath: The Cross on the Heath

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Frølich, Public domain. Valdemar had outlived every rival and was now sole king of a wrecked country. He purged Sweyn's supporters, then spent the rest of his reign rebuilding, and history gave him the name Valdemar the Great. The heath itself is mostly farmland and plantation now, unremarkable to look ...

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Image: Lorenz Frølich | Public domain