Family Hvide, Skjalm & 3 x Stig

Skjalm Hvide & 3 x Stig Hvide
Dansk Biografisk Lexicon

Skjalm Hvide, -1102-, Høvding, belonged to a mighty
Sjælland magnate-family. A late tradition mentions, that
his father was Toke Trylle; the allegation of the family's
descent from the legendary hero Palnatoke is against
Saxo's words and is in itself worthless. Skjalm Hvide had
properties widely upon Sjælland, mostly in the Sorø-area.
He early got the office to be the Jarl of his native island,
and he was Jarl when he followed Svend Estridsen in the
fight against Harald Hardrada at Niså (1062), where he
fought bravely ; but when the victory were on the side
of the Norwegians, he was wounded  and taken prisoner;
at Gedesø he succeeded in escaping his jailers.

He's not heard of until in Oluf Hunger's ruling period. During
the turbulent conditions in the country his brother Aute
was attacked and killed by Wendic pirates on his way from
Sjælland to Falster. Without asking the king for help -
which else was a rule - Skjalm Hvide gathered a Sjælland
army, went to Julin and forced the inhabitants to hand over
the guys, who were guilty in his brother's death, and they
were killed under the most terrible torments. When Erik
Ejegod began his victorious expeditions against the Wends,
Skjalm Hvide was at his side, and after the conquering
Rügen he was appointed høvding of the island.

When king Erik and queen Bodil went on their great
pilgrimage in 1102, they left their little son Knud in Skjalm
Hvide's care; he thus became the fosterfather of one of
Denmark's most famous men. Some years later he sent
the young kongesøn (prince) to hertug Lothar of Sachsen,
and it is not certain that he ever saw his fosterson again.
Skjalm Hvide must have died ab. 1113, old of age. He was
buried in Fjenneslev kirke, which belonged to his hovedgård
(main farm/manor). Later his body was transferred to Sorø
by his son's son Absalon.

Skjalm Hvide had been the mightiest høvding in Denmark,
and he also became the ancestor of the migthiest stor-
mandsslægt (magnate-family), which ever lived among
the Danes. His four sons, Toke, Sune, Ebbe and Asser Rig
were all respected høvdinge, and from the two last
mentioned descend many of Denmark's most outstanding
men, most of all Absalon, Esbern Snare and Anders
Sunesen. Skjalm Hvide's descendants raised Denmark more
than any other family, as long as they worked together
with the kings; but when the friendship turned into enmity,
the "Hvide-ætten" (Hvide-family) caused the worst disaster
on folk and country.

Besides the four sons Skjalm Hvide had two daughters:
Cæcilia married Peder Thorstensen of Borg at Sorø;
Margrethe also got married, husband not known, but she
spent her widowhood at Roskilde Nunnery.

From Hans Olriks text: grethe bachmann. 
Dansk Biografisk Lexicon,
Carl Frederik Bricka
Project Runeberg.


v. Essenbæk nedlagte kirke

Hvide, Stig - 1151 -Høvding, is known as the founder of
the impressive Benedictine-kloster Essenbæk at Randers
and as a follower of Svend Grathe and Valdemar. In the
battle at Viborg in 1151, where the two frænder won over
Knud Magnussen, Stig Hvide was killed.

He must be the "Stig Hvidelæder" (White Skin), who in the
Knytlinga-Saga is said to be married to Valdemar's eldest
sister, Margrethe. In this marriage was born Christine
(Kirsten), who married the Swedish king Carl Sverkersen
(1163) and became the mother of Sverker II. Stig Hvide
and Margrethe also had the sons Niels and Aage, who
distinguished themselves in the violent fight against the
Estonian and Kuriske pirates (1170). It is also told about
Aage, that he was the leader of the magnates, who
followed the pope's proclamation and went out to contribute
to conquer Jerusalem, but had to restrict to a peaceful
pilrimage (1191-93).

It is doubtful if the kæmpevise (giant folksong) "Ridder Stigs
Fald" as the kings brave standard bearer had Stig Hvide's
fall at Viborg as the starting-point, and the song about
Ridder Stig's attempt to win "Liden Kirsten's" love with
the help of magic runes - which work on the king's sister
Regitze instead - lack historical character.

Grundtvig, Danmarks gl. folkeviser II, 303. III,9.
Hans Olrik; Knud Lavard.
(Svensk) Hist.Tidsskrift 1891, S. 290.

From Hans Olriks texst:grethe bachmann 
Dansk Biografisk Lexicon,
Carl Frederik Bricka
Projekt Runeberg.


Hjelm

Hvide, Stig Andersen - 1293 - Marsk, belonged to the
mighty Hvide-family, which in the 1300s had such a radical
influence on Denmark's fate. We know nothing about Stig's
father; it is probable that the family properties especially
were placed in Aabo Syssel.

Stig was marsk and army chief, when Erik Glipping in 1275
sent an army of horsemen and infantry to Sweden in order
to help Birger Jarl's sons Magnus and Erik in their fight
against their brother Valdemar; after the allies had won
over the peasant-army at Hofva in Vester Gøtland,
Valdemar had to flee and was soon taken prisoner.

The following year Stig showed his first defiant step
against king Erik, when he at Danehoffet at Nyborg refused
to make oath of tribute to the young kongesøn, (prince)
Erik, which the other Danish magnates had consented to.
Stig kept his office as marsk, even though he undoubtedly
was one of the leaders of the politic party, which in the
following years tried to force constitutional decisions from
the king, which could secure a more statutory regime
in Denmark. When the tension was at its highest in spring
1282, the king gave in and issued the important obligation
letters of 19 March and 29 July, to which came some
regulations 2 years later. Stig was elected this year
(1284)to be one of the 11 arbitrators, who had to decide
the disputes about the sharing of the inheritance after
Erik Plovpenning.

Then king Erik was murdered at St. Cæcilia night
(22 Nov.) 1286 by a flock disguised men in Finderup Lade.
The rumor had no doubt that Stig was one of the
perpetrators. At the Danehof in Nyborg 1287 a tribunal
judged - only a few did not make an oath together with
the others - that grev Jacob of Halland, Marsk Stig,
Niels Hallandsfar, Peder Porse, Rane Jonsen and 4 others
were guilty of the murder; they were declared outlaws
and their property taken from them. This judgment was
confirmed by the archbishop and all bishops, and later
by king Rudolf of Habsburg. When the judgment was
taken up for a new trial in 1305, it was acknowledged
that there was no proof that Stig personally had been
at Finderup Lade, but nothing was changed in the
judgment, since Stig obviously had been one of the
leaders of the regicide.

The outlaws,however, had taken flight to Norway,
where king Erik Præstehader took them under his
protection. (1287). With Norwegian assistance and
supported by a few party colleagues in Denmark Stig
started the war against his own country. Middelfart
and Hindsholm were the first places to blaze up, and
soon after the expedition went to Jutland.(1288).
Erik Præstehader sailed in 1289 a fleet down to Øresund,
burnt down Helsingør (Elsinore) and placed the fleet
in front of Copenhagen; with a part of the army Stig
went from there to Samsø and captured the castle ,
then to Storebælt, where he burnt down Taarnborg
and Skælskør. Nykøbing Falster was haunted too, and
together with the Norwegian king Stig plundered the
southern islands. (Falster, Møn, Lolland, Langeland).

The fear had paralysed the Danish people, and Stig
could unhindered build himself a permanent "robber's
den" at Hjelm (1290), and grev Jacob built a similar
castle at Hunehals in Nørrehalland;both estates were
declared Norwegian property. From these permanent
places the outlaws conducted a war against Denmark
for some years. But Stig died already in 1293;
according to a later tradition his body was secretly
brought to a church at Hindsholm.

The historic sources are scarce and with a strange
silence around the many circumstances, even though
these events were so important in Denmark's history,
and although Stig adopted a principal part in the
movement against the dynasty. In return has the folk
-tradition described a living figure of the proud marsk.
No better songs have been written than the folksongs,
which in imaginative picttures tell about Stig's bloody
deed and the state of the country in the lawless times,
when " there were so many involved in this in
Denmark, and they all wanted to be king" - and "Hjelm
had grown horn" (Stig's castle) and an old expression
that "Landet stander i våde", strictly meaning that
Denmark was in a terrible mess.

The folksongs tell that while the marsk was at war,
his beautiful wife was raped by the king ; at Stigs
homecoming she dared not to go meet him, but she
confessed that she had "become queen of Denmark".
She urged him to revenge, and Stig confronts the king.
The murder in Finderup Lade is described in moving
scenes; the marsk then rides to the king's castle
openly declaring his deed, which resulted in his
banishment. In the historical documents and other
contemporary sources are only mentioned political
reasons for the conspiracy, and nothing is said about
a personal motive for revenge.

Some folksongs describe that Stig's young daughters
sadly went from land to land in order to seek protection;
this is not confirmed by other sources. A papal
permission says that a man named Johannes Esre had
betrothed a daughter of Stig in order to smooth out
a family feud between his and Stig's family; she died,
only 12 years of age, and Johannes got permission
to marry a sister's daughter of Stig, named Inge. The
Norwegian Hakon Thoresen was probably married to a
daughter of Stig.

In 1309 king Erik gave back the property of the outlaws
to their wives and children; in return they had to sell it,
and they had to live outside the kingdom.

Suhm, Hist. af Danmark X, XI.
Munch, Det norske Folks Hist. IV, 2.
Grundtvig, Danmarks gl Folkeviser III.
Jørgensen, Bidrag til Nordens Hist. i Middelald. S. 113. f.
J. Steenstrup, Vore Folkeviser S. 262 f.
Hist. Tidsskr. VI, 452 f.; 4. R. IV, 90 f.
Ny kirkehist. Saml. III, 390.
Archiv f. nord. Filologi IX, 219 f.

From Johannes C.H.R. Steenstrups tekst: grethe bachmann  
Dansk Biografisk Lexicon,
Carl Frederik Bricka
Projekt Runeberg


Bjørnholm(nu Høgholm)

Hvide, Stig Andersen - 1369 - of Bjørnholm (now
Høgholm) and Tygestrup, a son of Anders Stigsen and
Margrethe Nielsdatter Lendi; he was named after his
paternal grandfather, the famous marsk Stig.  At
Christoffer II's accession to the throne (1320) the
marsk's family returned to Denmark, and Stig
Andersen got back a great part of the family's old
property at Sjælland; Fyn and in Jutland. He let build
his permanent castle Bjørnholm (now Høgholm) by
the main road between Grenå and Århus, and from
here he lead until his death the oppositon of the Jutland
nobility against the royal power. He was already in 1325
in the king's council, and from 1331, when he after the
battle at Lohede supported grev Gert and became his
marsk, he shared the leadership in Jutland with Niels
Bugge of Hald. Grev Gert gave  him estate in Jutland,
and among others Niels Ebbesen had to witdraw from
Stig in a feud about some estate.

After grev Gert got killed, he became king Valdemar's
man, and Valdemar understood to appreciate his brilliant
qualities, when he appointed him statholder (viceregent)
of Estonia after the Estonian rebellion in 1343. He lead
negotiations with the German Order about the sale of
Estonia and returned to Denmark in 1347, enriched with
the castle Linde as a vasalry of the German Order.
It seems that he had the king's trust, for in 1352 he
was one of the men, whom the king entrusted with the
rule of the kingdom during his absence. But the mood
changed, when the king started his large reduction of
the estate, which once belonged to the Crown. Stig
Andersen lost the estate which grev Gert had given
him, and he became the leader of the dissatisfied
Jutland nobility. The rebellion broke out in 1357, and
it was his son and brother, who together with Niels
Bugge were killed in Middelfart at New Year's Eve 1359.

But while the Bugge-family quickly reconciled to the king,
Stig Andersen continued the war. His estates at
Sjælland and Fyn were confiscated, but he himself
stayed unshakably at his permanent castle  Bjørnholm,
until the agreement in 1360 brought and end to the fight
between the king and the Jutes. Stig Andersen sealed
it as the first of the secular councellors, and from that
time he was again used frequently in the service of
the kingdom. His close relations to drost Claus Limbæk
and the mighty Iver Rosenkrantz were sealed in 1362 by
marriage between his son's son Jens Ovesen and
Claus Limbæk's daughter Elisabeth, while his son's daughter
Tove married Iver Rosenkrantz.

Its political importance was obvious when Stig Andersen
and Claus Limbæk in 1367 again were the leaders of
the Jutland nobility, fighting king Valdemar. During this
war Stig Andersen died in 1369 after having given
considerable estate to churches and klostre, especially
to Antvorskov kloster. He and his wife Tove were buried
in Essenbæk kloster, from where his body later was
transferred to Ørsted kirke in Rougsø herred.

Estrup, Saml. skrifter II, 274 ff.
Danske Herregårde IV: Kongsdal og V: Høgholm.

From Mollerups text: grethe bachmann
Dansk Biografisk Lexicon,
Carl Frederik Bricka
Projekt Runeberg