Book contents
- Frontamtter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Tables
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Remembering the Vikings in Thirteenth-Century England and Denmark
- Henry III and the Native Saints
- ‘A Vineyard Without a Wall’: The Savoyards, John de Warenne and the Failure of Henry III’s Kingship
- ‘Ad Partes Transmarinas’: The Reconfiguration of Plantagenet Power in Gascony, 1242–1243
- Similarities and Differences: The Lord Edward’s Lordship of Gascony, 1254–1272
- The Letters of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French Relations
- The Use of Friars as Envoys: Diplomatic Relations between King Henry III and Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261)
- The Italian Connection Reconsidered: Papal Provisions in Thirteenth-Century England
- Confession in England and the Fourth Lateran Council
- Writing Civic History in London, Cologne and Genoa
Remembering the Vikings in Thirteenth-Century England and Denmark
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontamtter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Tables
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Remembering the Vikings in Thirteenth-Century England and Denmark
- Henry III and the Native Saints
- ‘A Vineyard Without a Wall’: The Savoyards, John de Warenne and the Failure of Henry III’s Kingship
- ‘Ad Partes Transmarinas’: The Reconfiguration of Plantagenet Power in Gascony, 1242–1243
- Similarities and Differences: The Lord Edward’s Lordship of Gascony, 1254–1272
- The Letters of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French Relations
- The Use of Friars as Envoys: Diplomatic Relations between King Henry III and Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261)
- The Italian Connection Reconsidered: Papal Provisions in Thirteenth-Century England
- Confession in England and the Fourth Lateran Council
- Writing Civic History in London, Cologne and Genoa
Summary
In 1240, Matthew Paris recorded in the Chronica Majora that:
rumour abounded in England that the Danes were preparing to invade the kingdom. This did not, however, happen, for the ships loaded with men and women were sent elsewhere in order to repopulate, cultivate and occupy the lands that the Mongols had devastated.
In the entry for 1241, Matthew returned to the subject of the Danes and their ambitions against England. Matthew had learned that the powerful king of Denmark, the elderly Valdemar II (r. 1202–41), had passed away that year:
Valdemar, the king of the Danes, he who had been bold enough to threaten to invade England, while indulging in arrogant threats of this sort, passed away after having ruled for forty years. In order that he should experience the power of the prayers of St Edward, which that saint had poured out before God for the defence of the English against the tyranny of the Danes, the same king's only son and heir had gone the way of all flesh and the realm of Denmark was left defenceless.
Later, probably sometime before 1251, Matthew returned to this story and added further information at the bottom of the folio, concerning Valdemar's victories over the pagans in the eastern Baltic. He also corrected the claim that the son who had predeceased Valdemar II, the young Valdemar III, was his father's only heir. In fact, Valdemar had three other sons, the two oldest of whom, Erik IV ‘Ploughpenny’ (r. 1241–50) and Abel (r. 1250–2), were now at war with each other.
Although Valdemar II was dead and the rumoured invasion never took place, Matthew remained interested in the subject. He returned to it in the Historia Anglorum (c. 1250–5), an abbreviated version of the Chronica Majora, offering more details about the Danish claims and their preparations for the invasion of England. Allegedly, Valdemar II had, ‘in his last days gathered a fleet and an army for the invasion of England, which he claimed belonged to him by ancient right’. That Matthew retained the invasion story here is interesting, given that the Historia Anglorum otherwise significantly reduced the number of anecdotes relating to developments outside England.
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- Thirteenth Century England XVIIProceedings of the Cambridge Conference, 2017, pp. 1 - 22Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021