|1048 to 1070.|
Scarcely was Sweyn invested with the dignity, when he found an enemy as powerful as Magnus, and less generous, in Harald Hardrade, who claimed the Danish crown. The assertion of this claim led to many years of warfare, ruinous to both kingdoms, but especially to Denmark, the coasts of which were often ravaged. In general the advantage rested with the Norwegian monarch, who, in 1064, obtained a great victory over the Danish fleet at the mouth of the Nissa. With great difficulty Sweyn escaped into Zealand, and began to collect a new armament. Fortunately the mind of Harald was now disposed to peace. Sixteen years of hostilities had brought him little advantage; the fortune of war was dubious; and the Danes, like their king, were averse from a foreign yoke. The two monarchs met, and entered into a treaty, which left affairs just as they had been at the death of Magnus. These were not the only hostilities in which they were engaged. Both undertook predatory expeditions to the English coast; but they could obtain no advantage over the vigilant and intrepid monarch (William I.), who now swayed the sceptre of that kingdom.[[145]] Sweyn too had the mortification to see his own coasts ravaged (those of Holstein) by the Vandalic pirates, who had renounced Christianity, and who laid both Sleswic and Hamburg in ashes. Before he could reach them they retired. Subsequently he was persuaded to march against the Saxons, then at war with the emperor; but his troops having no inclination to exasperate a people with whom they had long been on terms of amity, he desisted from the undertaking.
|1066 to 1070.|
Sweyn showed much favour to the church. He built many places of worship, which he endowed with liberality; and he founded four new bishoprics: of these two were in Scania, viz. Lund and Dalby, which were subsequently united; and two in Jutland, viz., Wiburg and Borglum. Yet this liberality did not preserve him from quarrelling with it. His chief vice was incontinence. Numerous were his mistresses, and numerous his offspring: thirteen sons are mentioned, of whom five succeeded him[[146]]; but the number of his daughters was much inferior; two only appear by history. For this vice he could not hope to escape the censure of holy mother, and he married. He did not, however, marry with that mother’s consent; but chose for his queen a Swedish princess within the prohibited degrees of kindred. When Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, heard of the union, he angrily condemned it, and by his messengers threatened the king with excommunication if he did not separate from the princess. The king resisted, and even threatened to lay Bremen (the legate’s residence) in ashes; but the power of the church was too great even for him to resist, and in the end he dismissed his wife, who had the misfortune to be his cousin. There is no reason to infer, with a recent historian of Denmark[[147]], that he dismissed her to recal his mistresses; for he was now arrived at an age when the empire of the passions could not be omnipotent. But he was probably taught to believe that a real was less sinful than an imaginary crime—fornication than marriage within the fourth degree.[[148]]
|1070.|
In another transaction we must admire, as much as we may here condemn, the conduct of the church. Sweyn was a man of strong passions, and of irritable temperament. In a festival which he gave to his chief nobles in the city of Roskild, some of the guests, heated by wine, indulged themselves in imprudent, though perhaps true, remarks on his conduct. The following morning, some officious tale-bearers acquainted him with the circumstance; and in the rage of the moment he ordered them to be put to death, though they were then at mass in the cathedral—that very cathedral which had been the scene of his own father’s murder.[[149]] When, on the day following this tragical event, he proceeded to the church, he was met by the bishop, who, elevating the crosier, commanded him to retire, and not to pollute by his presence the house of God—that house which he had already desecrated by blood. His attendants drew their swords, but he forbade them to exercise any degree of violence towards a man who in the discharge of his duty defied even kings. Retiring mournfully to his palace, he assumed the garb of penance, wept and prayed, and lamented his crime during three days. He then presented himself, in the same mean apparel, before the gates of the cathedral. The bishop was in the midst of the service; the Kyrie Eleison had been chaunted, and the Gloria about to commence, when he was informed that the royal penitent was outside the gates. Leaving the altar, he repaired to the spot, raised the suppliant monarch, and greeted him with the kiss of peace. Bringing him into the church, he heard his confession, removed the excommunication, and allowed him to join in the service. Soon afterwards, in the same cathedral, the king made a public confession of his crime, asked pardon alike of God and man, was allowed to resume his royal apparel, and solemnly absolved. But he had yet to make satisfaction to the kindred of the deceased in conformity with the law; and to mitigate the canonical penance, he presented one of his domains to the church. The name of this prelate (no unworthy rival of St. Ambrose) should be embalmed in history. He was an Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastic, William, whom the archbishop of Bremen had nominated to that dignity, and who had previously been the secretary of Canute the Great. During the long period that he had governed the diocese of Roskild, he had won the esteem of all men alike by his talents and his virtues. For the latter he had the reputation of a saint (and he deserved the distinction better than nine-tenths of the semi-deities whose names disgrace the calendar), and for the former, that of a wizard. It is no disparagement to the honour of this apostolic churchman, that he had previously been the intimate friend of the monarch; nor any to that of Sweyn, that after this event he honoured this bishop more than he had done before.
|1070 to 1076.|
From this time to his death, Sweyn practised with much zeal the observances of the Roman catholic church. By his excessive liberalities he injured his revenues; and by his austerities, perhaps, his health. A faithful portrait is given of him and of his people by one who knew them well, Adam of Bremen. This ecclesiastic, hearing so much in favour of the royal Dane, proceeded to his court, and, like all other strangers, was graciously received. “Sweyn,” says the canon, “is not only liberal towards foreigners, but well versed in literature; and he directs with much ability the missions which he has established in Sweden, Norway, and the isles; from his own mouth have I received most of the facts contained in this history.” In his reign the pagans of Bornholm were first converted to Christianity, by bishop Egin. The image of Frigga, which they had been so long accustomed to venerate, they demolished with contempt. Another proof of their sincerity appeared from their offer of their most valuable effects to the bishop. This, unlike most churchmen of the age, he refused to accept; and advised them to expend it in two noble ways—in the foundation of churches, and the redemption of Christian captives. “The king,” proceeds Adam, “has no vice but incontinence.” The canon speaks of Denmark as consisting almost wholly of islands. “Of them Zealand is the largest and richest, and its inhabitants are the most warlike. Ledra had been, but Roskild was then, the capital. Next to Zealand in importance was Fionia, which was very fertile, but its coasts were exposed to the ravages of the pirates. The capital, Odinsey, was a large city. To cross from one island was perilous, not only from the stormy sea that rolled between them, but from the pirates. Jutland had a barren soil except on the banks of the rivers, the only parts cultivated: the rest of the country consisted of forests, marshes, and wastes, and was hardly passable. The chief towns lay near the narrow bays on the coast. Scania, always geographically, now politically included in Sweden, is represented as fertile, as very populous, and full of churches. No where, indeed, had Denmark much lack of these structures; Fionia, Adam assures us, had 100; Zealand, 150. “Scania is almost an island, and separated from Gothland by large forests and rugged mountains. Here is the city of Lund, where the robbers of the deep laid their treasures. These robbers paid tribute to the Danish king, on the condition of being allowed to exercise their vocation against the barbarians.” Among the Danes, Adam perceives many other things contrary to justice: he sees little indeed to praise beyond the custom of selling into slavery such women as dishonoured themselves. So proud were the men, that they preferred death to stripes; and they marched to the place of execution, not only with an undaunted, but with a triumphant air. Tears and groans they held to be unmanly; and they mourned neither for their wives, nor for their dearest connections.
HARALD III.
SURNAMED HEIN, OR THE GENTLE.