What you need to know for the test
- Harald Bluetooth (Harald Blåtand) is regarded as the first king to rule all of Denmark, and he was baptised around 965 – the Jelling Stones stand in Jelling in Jutland.
- With the Reformation in 1536, Denmark became Protestant under Christian III, and the church came under the king instead of the pope.
- Absolutism (enevælden) was introduced in 1660-61 under Frederik III, and Kongeloven of 1665 established the king's almost unlimited power.
- The stavnsbånd of 1733 tied peasants to the estate where they were born – it was abolished from 1788.
- Denmark had to cede Norway to Sweden in the peace treaty of 1814 after the Napoleonic Wars.
- The first half of the 1800s is called the Golden Age, with names such as H.C. Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and H.C. Ørsted.
- On 5 June 1849 Frederik VII signed Danmarks Riges Grundlov (the Constitutional Act of the Kingdom of Denmark), and absolutism was abolished.
The Viking Age (ca. 750-1050)
During the Viking Age, Denmark was united under one king. Most people were farmers or traders, but the Vikings also sailed on expeditions out into Europe, where they traded, plundered and settled – among other places in England and Normandy. Sweyn Forkbeard (Svend Tveskæg) conquered England, and his son Cnut the Great (Knud den Store) ruled over England, Denmark and Norway when the Viking realm was at its largest.
The name Danmark (Denmark) is first seen used within the country's borders on a runestone from around the year 955, raised by King Gorm the Old (Gorm den Gamle) in memory of his wife Thyra. Their son Harald Bluetooth is regarded as the first king to rule all of Denmark. He raised a runestone himself around the year 965, and today the stones stand in Jelling in Jutland – they are called the Jelling Stones (Jellingstenene). To secure the realm, Harald Bluetooth built a series of ring fortresses around the year 980, including Trelleborg.
During the Viking Age, Christianity came to Denmark and slowly replaced the Norse religion, asatro (belief in the old Norse gods). The missionary Ansgar built churches in Hedeby and Ribe in the 800s, and around 965 Harald Bluetooth was baptised. His Jelling Stone says that King Harald won all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian. The stone is therefore often called Denmark's baptism certificate.
The Middle Ages in brief (ca. 1050-1500)
In the Middle Ages, king, church and nobility fought over power. The kings had to enter into agreements with the magnates, so-called håndfæstninger (coronation charters) – the first was signed by Erik Klipping in 1282. From this period also comes Jyske Lov (the Law of Jutland) from 1241, with the famous sentence "With law shall the land be built". Around 1350 the plague struck – the Black Death – killing up to half of the population. In 1397 Margrete I united Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the Kalmar Union, with Denmark as the dominant power. The union was finally dissolved in 1523, when Sweden broke away – but Norway remained in union with Denmark until 1814.
The Reformation of 1536
Around the year 1500, the power of the Catholic Church was challenged by Protestant movements, especially the teachings of the German monk Martin Luther. In Denmark the priest Hans Tausen spread the ideas, and in 1534 civil war broke out between Catholics and Protestants. Under Christian III the Protestants won in 1536, and in the same year the Reformation was formally carried through: Denmark became a Protestant country, the king dismissed the Catholic bishops, and the church now came under the king instead of the pope. The king took over the church's property, the Bible was translated into Danish, and church services were now held in Danish. Protestant (Evangelical Lutheran) Christianity is still the foundation of folkekirken (the Danish national church) today – read more under culture and traditions.
Absolutism and Kongeloven of 1665
After lost wars against Sweden – in which Denmark, at the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, had to cede Skåne, Halland and Blekinge for good – the country was in crisis. In 1660-61 Frederik III introduced a new form of government: absolutism. Royal power now passed automatically by inheritance, and the king ruled entirely alone; he could introduce laws and collect taxes without asking anyone. In 1665 Denmark, as the only absolute monarchy in Europe, was given a written constitutional law, Kongeloven, which established that the king had almost unlimited power. Kongeloven remained the basis of absolutism right up until the first democratic constitution in 1849.
The stavnsbånd and the agricultural reforms
To secure a stable workforce for the estates, the king introduced the stavnsbånd in 1733: all peasants had to stay on the estate where they were born until they were 40 years old. Most peasants were copyhold peasants (fæstebønder), who paid dues to the estate owner and worked his land without pay. With the ideas of the Enlightenment came the agricultural reforms, and from 1788 the stavnsbånd was abolished. The peasants could now choose where they wanted to live and were given the opportunity to own their own land. Frihedsstøtten (the Liberty Memorial) in Copenhagen commemorates the abolition of the stavnsbånd.
The loss of Norway in 1814 and the Golden Age
During the Napoleonic Wars, the British navy attacked Denmark – first at the Battle of Copenhagen (Slaget på Reden) in 1801 and again in 1807, when the British bombarded Copenhagen and captured the Danish fleet. Denmark then chose the side of France, and when France lost the war, Denmark had to cede Norway to Sweden in the peace treaty of 1814. That was the end of more than 400 years of Danish-Norwegian union.
Despite the crisis, Danish culture, art and science flourished in the first half of the 1800s – the period is called the Golden Age (guldalderen). The physicist H.C. Ørsted discovered electromagnetism in 1820 and coined Danish words such as ilt (oxygen) and brint (hydrogen). The author H.C. Andersen became world-famous for his fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, and the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is regarded as the founder of existentialist philosophy.
The road to Grundloven of 1849
In 1848 revolution broke out in many European capitals. There was no revolution in Denmark, but in March 1848 the citizens of Copenhagen demanded that King Frederik VII introduce a free constitution. The king complied, abolished the absolutist form of government and declared himself a constitutional king. On 5 June 1849 he signed Danmarks Riges Grundlov. Denmark got a parliament, Rigsdagen, with two chambers: Folketinget and Landstinget. Men over 30 gained the right to vote, while women and the poor could not yet vote. Read on about the period that followed in Danish history 1849-1945, about the constitution itself under the constitution and rights – and look up difficult words in the glossary.