ABSTRACT
Canute VI in Pomerania and Wendland After the death of the great Valdemar in 1182 and of Afonso in 1185, the crusades continued in both countries, and the conquests of the two kings were followed up by their sons and later generations. New land came under the Cross, the victorious kings took new titles, local military expeditions were perceived in connection with the great crusades to the Middle East and probably coordinated with them and both Danish and Portuguese religious wars received reinforcements by crusaders from elsewhere. Charters for the new churches were negotiated or forced through with or without agreement of the Popes. During the second quarter of the 13th century, both the Danish and the Portuguese expansion reached their greatest extents, and then halted abruptly. Initially, this was probably down to purely political bad luck, both in Denmark and Portugal, where in one place the king was imprisoned and in the other deposed. Political accidents cannot explain it all, and religious warfare was typically resumed at a later point. However, that is outside the scope of this book, which ends in the middle of the 13th century, and the intention of the following chapter is only to try to show how the successors of the two great kings continued to wage crusades along the general lines.
