by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025

Abel, King of Denmark reigned from 1250 to 1252. Born circa 1218, he was the second of the three sons and the second of the four children of Valdemar II, King of Denmark and his second wife, Berengaria of Portugal. Eric IV’s paternal grandparents were Valdemar I the Great, King of Denmark and Sophia of Minsk. His maternal grandparents were Sancho I, King of Portugal and Dulce of Aragon. In 1221, Abel’s mother, Berengaria, died in childbirth, delivering a stillborn child.

Abel had three full siblings:

• Eric IV, King of Denmark (2016 – 1250), married Jutta of Saxony, had two sons who died young, and four daughters
• Sophie of Denmark (1217 – 1247), married Johann I, Margrave of Brandenburg, had five sons and one daughter
• Christopher I, King of Denmark (1219 – 1259), married Margaret Sambiria, had three sons (two died young), and two daughters

Abel had one half-brother from his father’s first marriage to Dagmar of Bohemia, who died in childbirth in 1212, giving birth to a stillborn son:

In 1218, Abel’s older half-brother Valdemar the Young was crowned Junior King as their father’s co-ruler and heir. On November 28, 1231, Valdemar the Young was accidentally shot by an arrow while hunting and died the same day. After Valdemar the Young died, Abel’s brother Eric was crowned Junior King of Denmark, his father’s co-ruler and heir, at Lund Cathedral on May 30, 1232. At that time, Eric ceded the Duchy of Schleswig to his younger brother Abel.

On April 25, 1237, Abel married Mechtilde of Holstein, daughter of Adolf IV, Count of Holstein and Heilwig of Lippe.

Abel and Mechtilde had five children:

• Valdemar III, Duke of Schleswig (1238–1257), unmarried
• Sophie (circa 1240 – circa 1284), married Bernhard I, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, had five sons and one daughter
• Eric I, Duke of Schleswig (circa 1241 – 1272), married Margaret of Rugia, had two sons and one daughter
• Abel, Lord of Langeland (1252–1279), born after his father’s death, married Matilda of Schwerin, had one daughter
• Unnamed daughter, died young

Abel’s father, Valdemar II, King of Denmark, aged seventy, died on March 28, 1241, at Vordingborg Castle in Vordingborg, Denmark, and Abel’s brother Eric IV became the sole King of Denmark. However, Eric’s reign was marked by conflicts with his brothers, especially with Abel.

Abel, as Duke of Schleswig, demanded independence for his duchy, leading to seemingly never-ending conflicts over many years. The two brothers of Abel’s wife, Johann I, Count of Holstein-Kiel and Gerhard I, Count of Holstein-Itzehoe, were strong supporters of their brother-in-law Abel. Abel raided as far north as Randers, Denmark, defeating Eric’s supporters, and then moved into Funen, Denmark. King Eric IV eventually struck back, surprising Abel’s army at Schleswig and forcing Abel’s daughter Sophie to flee “without so much as a pair of shoes for her feet.” Through the mediation of their sister Sophia, a treaty was concluded between Eric and Abel in 1247, which restored Eric’s sole rule of Denmark and assured the other brothers of their duchies.

However, the treaty lasted only three years. In 1250, King Eric IV conquered most of Abel’s duchy, and the two brothers met at Abel’s home in Schleswig to make a settlement on August 10, 1250. During the visit, Eric was beheaded by Lave Gudmundsen, a knight and one of Abel’s trusted courtiers, who then sunk Eric’s body in the Schlei, an inlet in south Schleswig at the western end of the Baltic Sea. Although Abel was considered by most to be responsible for Eric’s murder, 24 knights swore to his innocence at the Landsting in Viborg, and Abel was proclaimed King of Denmark on November 1, 1250.

King Abel’s reign was short. After hearing that the peasants in Friesland, led by Sicko Sjaerdema, Governor of Friesland, refused to pay their taxes, Abel raised an army to punish them. On June 29, 1252, 33-year-old King Abel was killed by a wheelwright named Henner on Husum Bridge near Eiderstedt, then in Friesland, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Abel’s death was viewed by many as God’s judgment against him for the murder of his brother Eric. He was supposed to be buried at Schlewwig Cathedral. As Abel’s body lay in state in the cathedral, the monks heard strange sounds at night. They were afraid to go into the cathedral because the monks believed Abel’s ghost walked at night. Abel’s body was taken out of the cathedral and buried in a soggy grave near Gottorp Castle. A wooden stake was hammered through Abel’s chest to make sure he remained in his grave. There were local legends about “Abel’s wild hunt,” where a black-faced man on a white horse and glowing hounds hunted the moors and forest of Schleswig. In the forest, there is a memorial stone with the inscription Abel’s Grab 1252 (Abel’s Grave 1252), but it is most likely not the site of Abel’s burial.

Abel’s fourteen-year-old son Valdemar was in France when his father died. He intended to claim the Danish throne, but on his way back to Denmark, he was arrested by Konrad von Hochstaden, Archbishop of Cologne. Valdemar was held prisoner until 1253, when the Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein paid his ransom. In the meantime, Abel’s younger brother, Christopher, was elected King of Denmark in the summer of 1252 and was crowned at Lund Cathedral on Christmas Day 1252. King Christopher granted his nephew Valdemar the Duchy of Schleswig, but uncle and nephew were in recurring disputes over their claims to the Danish throne. These disputes between the older and younger lines of the Danish royal family lasted for several decades.

After Abel died, his widow Mechtilde entered a convent, but she broke her vows to marry Swedish statesman Birger Jarl in 1261 as his second wife. Birger had been one of Abel’s major enemies and started a military vendetta against him, which only stopped when Abel died. After Birger died in 1266, Mechtilde moved to Kiel in the Duchy of Holstein, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. When she died in 1288, Mechtilde was buried with her second husband, Birger Jarl, at Varnhem Abbey in Varnhem, Sweden.

Works Cited

• Abel. (2022). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel
• Autoren der Wikimedia-Projekte. (2004). Herzog von Schleswig und König von Dänemark. Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_(D%C3%A4nemark)
• Bidragsydere til Wikimedia-projekter. (2003). Konge af Danmark og hertug af Slesvig (1218-1252). Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_af_Danmark
• Flantzer, Susan. (2025). Valdemar II, King of Denmark [Review of Valdemar II, King of Denmark]. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/valdemar-ii-king-of-denmark/