Valdemar II of Denmark in the context of "Reval"

Tallinn is the capital and most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of 456,518 as of 2025 and administratively lies in Harju County. Tallinn is the main governmental, financial, industrial, and cultural centre of Estonia. It is located 187 km (116 mi) northwest of the country's second largest city, Tartu, however, only 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, Finland; it is also 320 km (200 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, 300 km (190 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, and 380 km (240 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century, Tallinn was known in most of the world by variants of its other historical name Reval.

Tallinn received Lübeck city rights in 1248; however, the earliest evidence of human settlement in the area dates back nearly 5,000 years. The medieval indigenous population of what is now Tallinn and north Estonia was one of the last "pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 13th century. The first recorded claim over the place was laid by Denmark after a successful raid in 1219 led by King Valdemar II, followed by a period of alternating Scandinavian and Teutonic rulers. Due to the strategic location by the sea, its port became a significant trade hub, especially in the 14–16th centuries, when Tallinn grew in importance as the northernmost member city of the Hanseatic League. Tallinn Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Battle of Lyndanisse or Lindanise was fought on 15 June 1219 during the Northern Crusades, between the forces of the invading Kingdom of Denmark and the local non-Christian Estonians. The Danish victory in the battle, at the site of the later Hanseatic city of Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia) helped King Valdemar II of Denmark to subsequently claim the territory of northern Estonia as his participation in the crusade into Estonia had been undertaken in response to calls from the Pope.

The 1219 Battle of Lyndanisse is still well known to this day, especially amongst Danes and Estonians, because of a popular legend about the first ever Danish flag, the Dannebrog, which allegedly fell from the sky, as an apparently helpful divine intervention, just when the Danish Crusaders were about to lose the battle to the local pagans.

Berengaria of Portugal (Portuguese: Berengária, Danish: Bengjerd; c. 1198 – 27 March 1221) was a Portuguese infanta (princess), who became Queen of Denmark, as the second wife of Valdemar II, from 1214 until her death.

Born into the Portuguese House of Burgundy, she was the daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and Dulce of Aragon. Likely the youngest of her siblings, she may have been the twin of Branca, and their mother died shortly after their birth. Following the death of her father in 1211, Berengaria became an orphan, and her brother, now King Afonso II, soon sought to curtail his siblings' bequeathed estates. In the ensuing conflicts, Berengaria was initially entrusted to the care of her elder sister Theresa, formerly Queen of León, then a nun at the convent of Lorvão in Penacova. Another brother Ferdinand fled to France, becoming Count of Flanders in 1212, and Berengaria seems to have followed him there or to the court of his overlord, Philip II of France, a cousin of theirs. Seeking to consolidate an anti-French North Sea alliance with King John of England, Emperor Otto IV and others, Ferdinand arranged her marriage to Valdemar II of Denmark, likely facilitated through Valdemar’s sister Ingeborg, the estranged queen of Philip II. The later marriage of Berengaria’s niece Eleanor of Portugal to Valdemar’s eldest son, Valdemar the Young, in 1229 further tightened the dynastic links between the Portuguese and Danish royal houses.

Óláfr Þórðarson (Old Norse: [ˈoːˌlɑːvz̠ ˈθoːrðɑz̠ˌson]; Modern Icelandic: Ólafur Þórðarson [ˈouːˌlaːvʏr ˈθourðarˌsɔːn]; c. 1205/1210 – 1259) was an Icelandic skald and scholar. He is usually called Óláfr hvítaskáld (O.N.: [ˈxwiːtɑˌskɑːld]; M.I.: [ˈkʰviːtaˌskault]; "Olaf the white skald") in contrast to a contemporary skald called Óláfr svartaskáld ("Olaf the black skald"). Óláfr was the paternal nephew of Snorri Sturluson and spent his youth in Snorri's home where he had an important part of his scholarly education. Particular important is his Grammatical Treatise. His father was Þórður Sturluson (c. 1165-April 10, 1237), his mother was Þóra “Yngri” Bjarnadóttir (c. 1165-1224) and he was the brother of Guttormur Thordarson (c. 1200-October 17, 1255), Böðvar Þórðarson (c. 1200-c. 1263), Halla Þórðardóttir (c. 1205-?), Thordur Thordarson (c. 1210-?), Valgerdur Thordardottir (1210-?), Gudrun Thordardottir (1210-?), Sturla Thordarson (July 29, 1214-July 30, 1284) and Ogmundur Thordurson (born btwn.1175-1235).

After his father Þórður Sturluson died on April 10, 1237, he travelled to Norway, where he stayed with king Haakon IV of Norway and Jarl Skule, before he went to Denmark and its king Valdemar II of Denmark. He probably also visited king Eric XI of Sweden. In 1240, he served as king Haakon's housecarl in the Battle of Oslo.