Prin­ce Knud Lavard was mur­de­red in 1131, which spar­ked civil war. Was the mur­der an occult regi­ci­de? Read about the bloo­dy legend and memo­ri­als to Knud here.

GPS Link: The Cha­pel: 55.494266, 11.781422, The Memo­ri­al Cross: 55.495110, 11.784221

Par­king: It is pos­sib­le to pull up to the roadsi­de for both loca­tions

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Knud Lavard was a Danish prin­ce of the Val­de­ma­ri­an line­a­ge, who­se increa­sing­ly clo­se ties with Ger­ma­ny even­tu­al­ly ear­ned him the tit­le of Duke of Sch­leswig (later of Holste­in). Knud Lavard was pivo­tal in cre­at­ing pea­ce and sta­bi­li­ty in the Danish-Ger­man bor­der region, and in advan­cing the rela­tions­hip with the Holy Roman Empi­re.

Knud’s suc­cess in the­se endea­vours made him popu­lar, but also ear­ned him many ene­mies among Danish roy­alty, who questio­ned his loy­al­ties and saw him as a thre­at to the thro­ne. He was ambus­hed, trap­ped, and kil­led in Harald­sted Forest north of Ring­s­ted, on this very date, Janu­ary 7th, 1131, by his own cou­sin, Magnus (later king of Swe­den). This event would igni­te a deva­stat­ing civil war lasting for 26 years.

Fresco from Viger­sted Church near Ring­s­ted, depi­cting Knud Lavard

Knud’s suc­cess in the­se endea­vours made him popu­lar, but also ear­ned him many ene­mies among Danish roy­alty, who questio­ned his loy­al­ties and saw him as a thre­at to the thro­ne. He was ambus­hed, trap­ped, and kil­led in Harald­sted Forest north of Ring­s­ted, on this very date, Janu­ary 7th, 1131, by his own cou­sin, Magnus (later king of Swe­den). This event would igni­te a deva­stat­ing civil war lasting for 26 years.

The popu­lar aut­hor Pal­le Lauring put forward in his book “Dan­mark’s Håb og Horn” (Denmark’s Hope and Horn) a more con­tro­ver­si­al the­ory about the mur­der of Knud Lavard. In this he argu­ed that it could be viewed as part of a lon­ger occult tra­di­tion of the “King Kill”, a kind of roy­al sacri­fi­ci­al ritu­al that is said to mani­fest eve­ry 7 years throug­hout history.

The memory of Knud Lavard lives on in the Harald­sted area, whe­re one can make pil­gri­ma­ge to the ruins of a cha­pel and a memo­ri­al cross dedi­ca­ted to him. The lat­ter is one of the few Cat­ho­lic roadsi­de cros­ses remai­ning in Den­mark. The­re once exi­sted a holy spring aro­und here as well, said to have mani­fe­sted at the very spot whe­re Knud died, but it dri­ed up many years ago. Other mira­c­les are also attri­bu­ted to the area fol­lowing Knud’s death, all which even­tu­al­ly led to his cano­niza­tion by the Pope in 1169, mar­king his entry into the line­a­ge of the now all but for­got­ten Danish saints.

 

Select sour­ces

  • Pal­le Lauring — Dan­marks Håb og Horn
  • Pal­le Lauring — Her ske­te Det
  • Sieg­fred Sva­ne — Dan­ske Hel­lig­kil­der og Lægedom­skil­der
  • Svend C. Dahl — Sagn og Gode For­tæl­lin­ger fra Syds­sjæl­land