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Centralised Power Structure
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Centralised Power Structure
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Centralised Power Structure
The huge Jelling Stone is sometimes referred to as Denmark's birth certificate. Harald Bluetooth (d. 987) had a runic inscription carved into this side of the stone in memory of the fact that he ’made the Danes Christians’
Domestic affairs are obscure until some time around 900, when a dynasty which is thought to have returned from Sweden seized power.
Then followed the Jelling dynasty who had also returned from abroad and came to power at the beginning of the 10th century. Harald Bluetooth (Harald I) claims on his runic stone in Jelling to have conquered all of Denmark.
Possibly the word Denmark – which first appears at the end of the 9th century but is probably much older – only covered the Danish territory east of the Great Belt, and Harald must therefore have added these to the Jutland kingdom he inherited from his father, Gorm the Old.
There was a great deal of building activity throughout the Viking Age around Denmark, pointing to a royal power capable of organising the resources of the country for a common purpose. Many examples are from Harald Bluetooth’s time: New additions to the Dannevirke ramparts, the fortresses of the Trelleborg type, the Ravning Enge bridge and the Jelling complex, and it is possible that Hedeby, Ribe and Århus were all fortified during his reign.
The Viking fort at Trelleborg, dated to around 980, lies near Slagelse on a promontory between to rivers. The fort has a diameter of 156 m.
In order to complete these projects, the population must have been put under an obligation to work, but there is very little evidence concerning the organisation of society. There is not likely to have been any strict military organisation of the type which emerged during the subsequent wars.
The most important basis for the royal power has probably been its control over the chieftains who held the real power on a local level. The royal housecarls would have been the real instrument of power.
Knud (Canute) the Holy (Knud IV) attempted to extend the royal powers considerably by instituting new royal rights, and by suggesting that public administration of justice should replace the private one. His demands for fixed contributions towards the military seem to have cost him his life.
Niels Lund, Gyldendal Leksikon
The King's Income & the Size of the Kingdom
At a very early stage, the king received an income from trade and probably also from mintage.
Trelleborg Museum
