Hey all,
welcome to this first article of my project diary. If you're wondering
what this is, please check the
prologue, in which I explain the idea and goals of the diary. At the bottom of that
post, you will find a link to all parts of this series (constantly updated as
soon as new parts are published).
In this post, I will kick off the actual project diary, trying to accomplish
two goals:
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I'll present a concise historical primer on the battle and its
context.
-
I will outline on how I envision the miniature project to unfold.
1. Historical Primer
The Battle of Bornhöved in 1227 was a highly consequential battle that took
place near the town of Bornhöved, situated in what is now Schleswig-Holstein
in northern Germany. In this historical primer, I will briefly outline
the events leading up the battle, summarize what we know about how the battle
itself, and sketch out the implications of that encounter. There are not too
many primary sources available, and since I am not a trained historian (and
have a dayjob...), I will rely exclusively on secondary accounts and summaries
that I could find.
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Map of the Danish Kingdom under King Valdemar II
Source:
Wikimedia
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1.1 Prelude
In the mid-12th century, the Jutland peninsula was partitioned along the
Eider river between the Kingdom of Denmark to the North and the
Duchy of Saxony - as part as the German Holy Roman Empire (HRE) - to
the South. When Heinrich (Henry) "the Lion", Duke of Saxony, was deposed by
the German Emperor Friedrich I "Barbarossa" in 1180,
Adolf III, Count of Schauenburg, took control over the Holstein region.
However, Adolf's position was weak and, in 1201/2, the Danish Duke, and later
King, Valdemar II conquered the whole area between the
Eider and Elbe rivers, and gave it as a fiefdom to his nephew,
Count Albrecht II of Orlamünde, who continued to rule Holstein for the
next two decades.
In May 1223, Count Heinrich (Henry) "The Black" I of Schwerin,
kidnapped King Valdemar and his eldest son, Prince Valdemar, during a hunting
trip. For their release, Heinrich demanded Denmark to give up the conquered
lands and pledge loyalty to the Holy Roman Emperor. Count Albrecht of
Orlamünde, who acted as regent in the Danish king's absence, rejected these
terms and declared war on Heinrich. The war concluded in a defeat for the
Danish forces in the
Battle of Mölln in 1225. Consequently, to secure his release, King Valdemar had to acknowledge the
loss of his German territories, pay an astronomical ransom, and promise not to
seek retribution against Count Heinrich. Shortly after Valdemar's release,
however, Pope Honorius III exempted the king from his coerced pledge, and
Valdemar wasted no time in preparing to reclaim what he believed were
rightfully his lands and to enact revenge against Count Heinrich. Supported by
the troops of Valdemar's nephew, Otto I, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg,
called "the Child", in 1226 a Danish army marched south.
After conquering the "free peasants" of Dithmarschen and pressing them
into military service, Valdemar turned his attention to Holstein and Schwerin.
To counter that threat, Count Adolf IV, who had inherited Holstein from
his father in 1225, and Heinrich built an alliance with powerful Northern
German nobles, including Duke Albert of Saxony, who pledged his support
in exchange for recognition as their liege lord. Additional reinforcements
came from the princes of Mecklenburg,
Archbishop Gerhard II of Bremen, the cities of Hamburg and
Lübeck as well as the smaller hosts of a number of
Low German nobles. According to some sources,
HR Emperor Friedrich II might also have sent a small contingent to
assist in the confrontation with the Danes - even though this is rather unlikely. In
any case, the various German factions assembled in and around Lübeck,
preparing to face the Danish army.
At first, both sides were cautious, hesitant to engage in a decisive battle.
For several months, the conflict primarily saw skirmishes and minor battles
between different segments of the armies - until, in the summer of 1227, they
finlly met for a large battle on the plains of Bornhöved.
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Count Adolf IV at the Battle of Bornhöved
Source:
Wikimedia
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1.2 The Battle
The battle took place on July 22, 1227, a day marked by the feast of
St. Mary Magdalene. We know relatively little for certain on how the battle
was fought, how large the armies were, and what exactly happened on that day.
Pretty much the only knowledge that is certain is that the battle took
place on that day - and that the Danish lost, with Duke Otto being captured. A
15th-century, Lübeck-based chronicler, Hermann Korner († 1438), provides the
most elaborate, colorful - and in many parts probably ficticious - account of
the battle. However, as it delivers so much nice detail - which of course, is
particularly relevant for my miniature rendition of the battle - I will
include his descriptions in the following summary.
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The Battlefield of Bornhöved 1227, painted by Julius Fürst (1895)
Source:
Wikimedia
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The exact location where the armies clashed is not known. The area
around Bornhöved was probably - as it is today - dominated by large open
fields broken up by small groves of trees and small rivers. As such, it was
very much suitable for a battlefield, especially for cavalry armies. According
to some local traditions the battle was fought close to a Stone Age burial
mound called
Königsbarg, which
is said to have served as a commander's hill for King Valdemar.
Korner, writing for his Lübeck audience, claims that the German coalition was
led by the city's mayor,
Alexander von Soltwedel. However, this is most certainly legend, not least since Alexander was
probably only born in the 1230s and became member of the Lübeck City Council
only around 1256. Consequently, it is most likely that the
coalition forces were led by Count Adolf IV, and that his troops stood
at the center of the German army. Facing them were, most likely, King
Valdemar's II core Danish forces. Both leaders' respective allies stood
to the left and right of the commanders' main troops, with the Slavic princes
of Mecklenburg securing the rear of the German host, and the Dithmarscher levy
being positioned behind the Danish lines. We do not know how many and which
kinds of troops were present that day, but likely an assortment of some heavy
knights - mainly the princes and a number of local knights and lesser nobles
-, some lighter cavalry, and numerous contingents of infantry, including
spearman, archers and crossbowmen.
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The Battle of Bornhöved, 13th century painting
Source:
Wikimedia
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The battle is reported to have been bloody and exhaustingly long with
neither armies making much success, and the men must have suffered greatly on
that hot, summer day. The tide only turned when the Dithmarscher levy defected
from King Valdemar and attacked the Danish rear. Now attacked from two sides,
the Danes suffered a heavy defeat, losing thousands of men as casualties and
prisoners. Among those taken hostage were Bishop Tuve of Ribe and Duke
Otto of Lüneburg. Valdemar himself only barely managed to escape the carnage,
having had his eye gouged out in combat.
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Illustration of the Battle of Bornhöved from Heinrich Rehbein's
Lübecker Chronik (1619).
Source:
Wikimedia
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1.3 Aftermath
Following the German coalition's victory, Count Adolf IV successfully
reclaimed the County of Holstein, while Duke Albert I reaffirmed his position
as the liege-lord of the Counts of Schwerin and Holstein. Dithmarschen
remained an independent peasant republic formally under the
Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Lübeck was recognized with all rights as a
Free Imperial City, while Hamburg returned under the rule of the Counts of
Holstein. Duke Otto remained in captivity until January 1229, when he was
released for a hefty ransom. In Denmark, King Valdemar II focused on domestic
politics and made peace with his former enemies, marrying his third son Abel
to Adolf IV's daughter Mechthild.
Beyond these personal and immediate effects on the warring parties, the Battle
of Bornhöved had a
lasting impact on the political and territorial landscape of the Baltic
Sea region. It solidified the loss of Denmark's northern German territories
and meant the end of Danish hegemony in the north. The border between Denmark
and the HRE was firmly established at the Eider River, aligning with the
southern border of the Danish Duchy of Schleswig. This border configuration
remained in place until 1806, when the HRE was dissolved. On the other hand,
the victory enabled the North German princes and cities to expand their sphere
of influence, trade, and power: it created the conditions for the rise of
Lübeck as the leading Hanseatic city, the formation of the German Order State,
and later the unification of Schleswig and Holstein under state law (1460).
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The borders after the Battle of Bornhöved 1227
Source:
Pinterest
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2. The Miniature Project
Over the coming months, my goal is to learn more about the history of Northern
Germany in the 13th century, and especially the people who participated in the
political and military events around the Battle of Bornhöved - and to
visualize that history through vignettes and small dioramas. These
scenes will include miniature versions of the main commanders and political
and military leaders such as Count Adolf, Archbishop Gerhard of Bremen, King
Valdemar II of Denmark, and Duke Otto of Braunschweig - but also attempts at
portraying less prominent participants such as local nobles and rural levies.
In that, I will try my best to be true to the historical sources as much as
possible, but will need to make educated guesses from time to time. When in
doubt, I will invoke the principle of artistic license :-)
2.1 Upcoming posts
I do not know yet how many individual miniatures or vignettes this
project will entail, nor how long it will go, or how often I will post on it.
My current guess is: as long as I remain interested in the topic, feel
motivated to do a bit of research on the characters, and feel challenged by
painting chainmail NMM and more or less elaborate coats of arms, I will
continue on. There might be weeks or months in which I do not do anything
related to the Bornhöved project, and there definitely will be other projects
in between that will keep me distracted... But for now, I am super-excited to
embark on that multi-media deep-dive into a fascinating period of
Northern European medieval history.
Thanks for being a part of this. Talk to you soon!
Best, D.
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