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44-613: Canute Lavard ( Knut Levard in Swedish) was a Danish duke who was assassinated by his cousin and rival Magnus Nilsson on 7   January 1131 so that Nilsson could usurp the Danish throne. In the aftermath of his death there was a civil war, which led to Knut being later declared a saint , and 7   January became Knut's Day, a name day . As his name day roughly coincided with Epiphany (the "thirteenth day of Christmas"), Knut's Day and Epiphany were conflated to some degree. In 1680, Knut's Day

88-683: A descendant of the Saxon margrave Dietrich of Haldensleben who secondly married the Billung duke Ordulf of Saxony upon Count Frederick's death. Little is known of Lothair's youth. His name first appears in the contemporary records in 1088. His father Gebhard of Supplinburg joined the Saxon rebellion against the ruling Salian dynasty and died on 9 June 1075 in the Battle of Langensalza , fighting troops loyal to emperor Henry IV . Shortly after Gebhard's death Lothair

132-467: A first collision Anacletus prevailed. Innocent had to leave Rome and fled to France. Nonetheless, Anacletus could only secure the support of Roger II of Sicily, Innocent was, with the help of Bernard of Clairvaux , able to secure the support of King Louis VI of France and King Henry I of England. Both popes offered Lothair the imperial crown. The king was occupied with the Staufer resistance and once again it

176-451: A hostage, terms which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent II. The imperial troops, however, were adamant against campaigning during the hot summer and revolted. The emperor, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, instead captured Capua and Apulia from Roger and bestowed them on Roger's enemies. Innocent, however, protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal reign. Emperor and Pope eventually jointly bequeathed

220-520: A popular man and a possible successor of his uncle, but he also acquired mighty enemies among the Danish princes and magnates, who apparently questioned his loyalty and feared his bond with Emperor Lothair III , who had recognized him as sovereign over the western Wends . Both Niels and his son, Magnus the Strong , seem to have been alarmed at Canute's being recognized by the Emperor. On 7 January 1131, Canute

264-530: A suitable candidate. Although the most powerful territorial prince in Saxony, he was of advanced age (slightly over fifty years of age) and had no male heir, not the ideal prerequisites for a long dynastic line of kings. He was elected King of Germany and asserted himself against Leopold III of Austria and Charles the Good . His election was notable in that it marked a departure from the concept of hereditary succession as

308-771: A week later in Sweden, Finland, and (parts of) Norway in the late 17th century, the feast day moved with it, and is now celebrated on 13 January. The Canute Guild in Tallinn , Estonia was named in commemoration of Canute Lavard. The guild later gave its name to the "Canute Street" ( Kanuti tänav ) and to the "Canute Garden" ( Kanuti aed ) in the town. Canute Lavard married Ingeborg of Kiev , daughter of Mstislav I of Kiev and his wife Christina Ingesdotter of Sweden . They had four children: Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III , sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 – 4 December 1137),

352-567: The Nuuttipukki tradition is still kept alive in areas of Satakunta , Southwest Finland , Ostrobothnia and very much so on the Åland Islands . However, nowadays the character is usually played by children and now involves a happy encounter. In Sweden St. Knut's Day marks the end of the Christmas and holiday season . It is celebrated by taking out the Christmas tree and dancing around it. Nowadays,

396-765: The Margraviate of Meissen , Lothair enforced the appointment of Conrad of Wettin and ceded the March of Lusatia to Count Albert the Bear . Upon Emperor Henry V's death in 1125, Archchancellor Adalbert summoned the royal electoral assembly in Mainz . On August 24 the electors declined the candidacy of the primary contender Duke Frederick of Hohenstaufen, who destroyed his chances due to his appalling overconfidence ( ambicone cecatus ) and his refusal to accept free princely elections ( libera electio ). Adalbert of Mainz considered Lothair to be

440-554: The Norman Kingdom of Sicily . In 1013, a certain Saxon nobleman named Liutger was mentioned as a count in or of the Harzgau subdivision of Eastphalia . His grandson Count Gebhard , father of Emperor Lothair, possibly acquired the castle of Süpplingenburg about 1060 via his marriage with Hedwig , a daughter of the Bavarian count Frederick of Formbach and his wife Gertrud, herself

484-608: The Reformation . The ruins were rediscovered in 1883. In 1902 a memorial in the form of a 4-metre crucifix was erected near the site of the death of Canute Lavard. After the death of Canute Lavard, the Obotrite lands were partitioned between Pribislav and Niklot (1090–1160), both chiefs of the Obotrites. Some sources consider the death of Canute to be a murder committed by Magnus, while others attribute it to Niels himself. In any case.

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528-538: The comital office was a failure, as he allegedly was deposed a year later on charges of breach of the peace . The sources, however provide conflicting dates. The 1131 investiture of Louis marked the beginning of smooth Ludowingian rule for more than a century. In 1134 Lothar appointed the Ascanian Albert the Bear as Margrave of Brandenburg and in 1136 Conrad the Great of Wettin , already margrave of Meissen, for

572-454: The Bear and Louis I of Thuringia . However, Soběslav immediately went to meet Lothair at his camp and formally requested and received the fief of Bohemia. Peace was restored, prisoners set free and although the winner of the battle had submitted himself to the losing side, he secured full legitimacy and lasting prestige. Having both Saxon and Bavarian ancestry, the Supplinburg dynasty

616-400: The Emperor's second Italian campaign, before a ten-year constitutio pacis was declared. Lothair, now uncontested ruler, set out in 1136 with a sizeable army. The campaign proved to be successful and indeed, Roger II of Sicily soon sought peace. In 1136 the campaign against Roger began at the insistence of Innocent II and Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus . Two columns, one led by Lothair,

660-650: The Landgraviate of Thuringia, that encompassed the remaining and predominantly non-contiguous estates of the ill-fated former Merovingian Duchy of Thuringia . The brutal conquest of the old Thuringii kingdom under king Chlothar I had left the area devastated. Subsequently the Franks desired to rule the acquisition, which proved to be only partly successful, as a long process of depopulation and recurring population replacement by Franconians, Bavarians and Christianized Slavs followed. The 1129 appointment of Herman of Winzenburg to

704-555: The Polish Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth for the 1121 established Duchy of Pomerania , which in addition to the island of Rügen was eventually secured as a fief of the Empire. The 1130 papal election had resulted in another schism. A minority of the cardinals elected Innocent II before a majority of the cardinals appointed Anacletus II in a tumultuous process. Both popes claimed to have been legally elected and in

748-834: The Romans again on 29 March 1131. Lothair was accompanied by a modest troop contingent as most men were garrisoned in Germany to counter Staufer aggression. He carefully avoided hostilities but attempted to besiege Milan, which, however, failed. Eventually he arrived in Rome. As Anacletus controlled St. Peter , Lothair's imperial coronation took place in the Lateran Basilica on 4 June 1133. Emperor Lothair continued to avoid explicit resistance against papal impediments on his royal office. He ignored Innocent's bull, in which he advocated imperial authority derived from him and Lothair recognized papal claims to

792-612: The attacks of the Slavic Obotrites . During the next fifteen years, he fulfilled his duty of establishing peace in the border area so well that he was titled Duke of Holstein ( Hertug af Holsten ) and became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire . He seems to have been the first member of the Danish royal family who was attracted by the knightly ideals and habits of medieval Germany, indicated by his changing his title to Duke of Schleswig ( Hertug af Slesvig ). His appearance made him

836-657: The crown lands, which provoked a Staufer reaction. Lothair then isolated Frederick II as he placed him under Imperial ban and withdrew the Franconian ducal fief from Conrad. After Lothair's 1127 campaign against the Staufers had collapsed at the gates of Nuremberg, the Swabians and the Franconians declared Frederick's younger brother Conrad anti-king Conrad III. Looking for support of his kingship, in 1128 Conrad went to Italy, where he

880-411: The death of duke Magnus of Billung , who had died without an heir in 1106. Emboldened by the promotion and incensed over the king's increasingly autocratic rule, such as the wanton imposition of a new tax on ducal lords, Duke Lothair joined the growing opposition party to Henry. He acted autonomously by vesting Count Adolf of Schauenburg with the newly established County of Holstein in 1111. Lothair

924-408: The death provoked a civil war that continued intermittently until 1157, ending only with the triumph of Canute's posthumous son Valdemar I . The fate of Canute and his son's victory formed the background for his canonisation in 1170, at the request of King Valdemar. His feast day ( Knutsdagen ) was originally celebrated on the day of his death, 7 January, but when the end of Christmas was moved to

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968-581: The duchy to Rainulf of Alife . Lothair resided in Salerno from August to October 1137 and had copper coins ( follari ) minted in his name. On the return trip, he gave his son-in-law Henry of Bavaria the Margraviate of Tuscany and the Duchy of Saxony. He also gave him the imperial insignia, which depending on the point of view was interpreted as designation for the new king or not. On December 3, 1137, Lothair died on

1012-516: The electors preferred a sovereign with moderate powers after the Salian era of oppressio . Somewhat naive concerning the complex power struggle between the papacy and the empire, Lothair also consented to several symbolic acts that were subsequently interpreted by the Roman Curia as signaling acceptance of papal confirmation of his position. Duke Vladislaus I of Bohemia died in 1125. The succession

1056-417: The feast is mainly for children. Canute Lavard Saint Knud , also known as Canute Lavard ( Danish : Knud Lavard ; cognate with English Lord ; 12 March 1096 – 7 January 1131) was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leading towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland . He

1100-537: The imperial cathedral Lothar has created an outstanding architectural monument. His reign was more than just an episode between Salians and Staufer and considered an era of self-confident rule over the empire, even if his political vision of the establishment of a Welf kingdom on March 7, 1138, in Koblenz was destroyed by the “coup d'état” of the Staufers. The Süpplingenburg dynasty was only short-lived. By his wife, Richenza of Northeim , Lothair had only one surviving child,

1144-730: The loss of Burgundy to a power hostile to the empire, appointed his loyal ally Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen as Rector of the Principatus Burgundiaey . Emperor Lothar's policies and actions in the northern and eastern estates of the kingdom would have the longest-lasting impacts. As a Saxon by birth, he was certainly more focused on that region than previous and future monarchs. He already pursued active territorial policies before his royal tenure as early as 1111, when he installed count Adolf of Schauenburg in Holstein and Stormarn . In an act of royal consolidation policy Lothair established

1188-559: The office of the Margraviate of Lusatia, thereby uniting the two marches . In addition, he petitioned the pope to grant more executive rights for the Archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg . King Eric II of Denmark was made an imperial prince of the emperor in 1135, and member of the Reichstag. Lothair's diplomatic missions to the warring parties of Poland and Bohemia / Hungary were successful and resulted in overdue tribute payment by

1232-497: The other by his son-in-law Henry the Proud arrived in Italy. On the river Tronto , Count William of Loritello did homage to Lothair and opened the gates of Termoli to him. Advancing deep into the southern part of the peninsula, the two armies met at Bari , and continued further south in 1137. Roger offered to give Apulia as a fief of the Empire to one of his sons and give another son as

1276-502: The return journey at Breitenwang . His body was boiled to prevent putrefaction, and his bones were transferred to the Collegiate Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Königslutter , which he had chosen as his burial site and for which he had laid the cornerstone in 1135. A month later, pope Anaclet II's death also ended the papal schism. When his grave was opened in 1620, a sword and an imperial orb were found among other things. With

1320-750: The vast Matildine estates in Northern Italy (formerly owned by Margravine Matilda of Tuscany ), although he was able to secure the territorial fiefs. In the northern empire Lothair finally succeeded and defeated the Staufers in 1135 thanks to the help of Henry the Proud, who had been the Duke of Bavaria since the death of his father, Henry the Black. At the Reichstag in Bamberg in 1135 the brothers were pardoned and restored to their office and estates. Anti-king Conrad renounced his royal title, The Staufers promised to take part in

1364-448: The wealthiest nobleman among his fellow Saxons . He supported future emperor Henry V during his 1104 rebellion against his father Henry IV, and the ensuing disempowerment campaign, that culminated in the abdication of the emperor on December 31, 1105, and his son's coronation a few days later. For his loyalty Lothair was rewarded with the fief of title and estate of the Duchy of Saxony upon

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1408-472: Was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before being crowned emperor in Rome. The son of the Saxon count Gebhard of Supplinburg , his reign was troubled by the constant intriguing of the Hohenstaufens , Duke Frederick II of Swabia and Duke Conrad of Franconia . He died while returning from a successful campaign against

1452-565: Was Bernard of Clairvaux who convinced the sovereign to favor pope Innocent II. In March 1131 these three met in Liège , where Lothair performed the ceremonial strator service (stirrup holder) for the pope and promised help in the conflict against Anacletus and Roger II of Sicily . His request for investiture restoration was rejected, but all rights and privileges as laid out in the Concordat of Worms were confirmed. Innocent II crowned Lothair King of

1496-499: Was a political opponent of the Salian dynasty and the House of Hohenstaufen . Disputes arose with Duke Frederick II when he refused to hand over property to Lothair, which the king considered to be royal property, the Staufer on the other hand argued, that it belonged to the Salian heritage. The contentious assets had long been administered together with other Salian domestic estates, their origin

1540-466: Was a scary character (cf. Krampus ). The men dressed as nuuttipukki wandered from house to house, came in, and typically demanded food from the household and especially leftover alcoholic beverages. Unless Nuuttipukki received a salary from the host, he committed evil deeds. A dialectical proverb from Noormarkku says: Hyvä Tuomas joulun tua, paha Knuuti poijes viä or 'Good [St.] Thomas brings Christmas, evil Knut takes [it] away.' In Finland

1584-558: Was born at Unterlüß . In 1107 he married Richenza , daughter of Count Henry of Northeim and Gertrude of Brunswick , heiress of the Brunonids . Lothair's land purchases, inheritance and marriage alliances among the Saxon nobles, resulted in the acquisition of the domains of the House of Billung and the Counts of Northeim . The marriage with Richenza of the Brunonids in particular, made him

1628-461: Was crowned King of Italy by Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan . Lothair took advantage of Conrad's absence and weak position and resumed his attacks on the Staufers and in 1129 conquered the Staufer cities Nuremberg and Speyer . Conrad, on the other hand failed to acquire the desired assistance in Italy, and having made no political progress, returned in 1130, which assured at least a partial victory for Lothair. Lastly Lothair, in order to prevent

1672-554: Was disputed among his surviving brother Soběslav I and his Moravian cousin Otto the Black , who was supported by Vladislaus' widow Richeza of Berg . In late 1125 Lothair joined Otto's side, who had advanced large sums of money. A military campaign against Soběslav was launched and in February 1126 Lothair's force entered Bohemian territory and was promptly defeated at the Battle of Chlumec . Soběslav captured high-ranking nobles, like Albert

1716-476: Was hard to determine and difficult to separate. Lothair advocated the principle that all of the assets in question had now become imperial properties due to the extinction of the Salian dynasty. The first armed engagements between Lothair and the Staufer took place as early as 1125 and increased in the years that followed. Lothair, with the approval obtained at a meeting of the princes in Regensburg, attempted to seize

1760-534: Was killed by his cousin Magnus the Strong ( c.  1106  – 1134), who saw him as a rival to the Danish throne. Canute Lavard was canonized in 1170. He was an ancestor of the Valdemarian kings ( Valdemarerne ) and of their subsequent royal line. Canute Lavard was the father of King Valdemar I of Denmark ( Valdemar den Store ) and grandfather of King Valdemar II of Denmark ( Valdemar Sejr ). Canute

1804-443: Was moved to 13 January and became known as tjugondag Knut or tjugondedag jul (the 'twentieth day of Knut/Christmas'). On nuutinpäivä , a tradition has been observed which is somewhat analogous to the modern Santa Claus, where young men dressed as goats (Finnish: nuuttipukki ) would visit houses. Usually the dress was an inverted fur jacket, a leather or birch bark mask, and horns. Unlike Santa Claus, Nuuttipukki

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1848-468: Was temporarily deposed in 1112, when Henry transferred the ducal title to Otto of Ballenstedt . He was soon reinstated when count Otto fell into disgrace and he tactically submitted himself to Henry V. In 1115 however, he took command of the rebellious Saxon forces and defeated the emperor in the Battle of Welfesholz . Henry completely lost control over the administration and the revenue of Saxony. When in 1123 Henry V vested Count Wiprecht of Groitzsch with

1892-417: Was the only legitimate son of King Eric I of Denmark (died 1103) and Boedil Thurgotsdatter , but as a minor he was bypassed in the election of 1104. He grew up in close contact with the noble family of Hvide , who were later on to be among his most eager supporters. In 1115, his uncle, King Niels of Denmark , placed him in charge of the Duchy of Schleswig ( jarl af Sønderjylland ) in order to put an end to

1936-636: Was trapped in the Haraldsted Forest ( Haraldsted Skov ) near Ringsted in Zealand and murdered by Magnus. Ringsted Abbey , one of the earliest Benedictine houses in Denmark, became the initial resting place of Canute Lavard, which in 1157 were moved to a new chapel at St. Bendt's Church in Ringsted. During medieval times a chapel ( Knut Lavards Kapel ) was erected on the site where he died but it disappeared after

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