Struggling for ecclesiastical independence in the North¹

The civil war broke out only shortly after Innocent II’s election, when in January 1131 Magnus, the son of the reigning King Niels, killed his cousin, the Danish earl of Schleswig, Knud Lavard. The Danish anonymous so-called Roskilde Chronicle states that ‘the old enemy, always hiding under cover and always envious of the deeds of the righteous, sowed such a grave discord among the Danes that people and clergy have seen no greater tribulation since Christianity was implanted in Denmark’. On the eve of the papal schism of 1130, Knud Lavard was still alive and the Danish civil war was not yet a reality, even if tensions were felt. While we should perhaps presume only a slight awareness on the part of the two papal contenders concerning the political situation in Denmark, it is fair to assume a rather deeper knowledge of the issues regarding the relationship between the churches of Hamburg-Bremen and Lund.