Valdemar I (redirected from Valdemar the Great)

Valdemar I

 known as Valdemar the Great

(born Jan. 14, 1131, Denmark—died May 12, 1182, Denmark) King of Denmark (1157–82). On ascending the throne, he ended more than 25 years of civil wars, and he defeated the Wends (Slavs) by 1169, freeing Danish ships from piracy. He acknowledged the overlordship of Frederick I Barbarossa and accepted his antipope Victor IV; he later acknowledged Pope Alexander III (c. 1165) and rejected Frederick. He gained church approval for hereditary rule by his dynasty, the Valdemars, and in 1181 he allied with Frederick as an equal, aided by the marriage of their children.