Siege of Arkona

During the Danish civil war, the king Sweyn III is said to have allied with the pagan Wends against his rivals for the throne, whereupon the Wends were sent to harry the lands of those who did not recognize his claim to the Danish throne.[1] Sweyn was however defeated by King Valdemar, and so a hostile king sat on the Danish throne. After reunifying Denmark Valdemar I, began reorganizing his military very much akin to that of the Vikings, focusing heavily on amphibious assault and raiding.[2] These raids culminated in the late 1160s where King Valdemar and Bishop Absalon, set out to conquer Rügen.

In Gesta Danorum the chronicler Saxo Grammaticus writes, that the siege only lasted for 8 days. This is due to a fire breaking out beneath one of the towers, the Wends are forced to divert a significant portion of their forces to put out the fire before it spreads. Here the bishop Absalon urges the King to assault the fortress and so the king orders a full assault, the Danish forces capitalize on the distracted Wends, who disorganized as they were can't prevent the Danes from taking the gate and the fortress with it.[3] The Danes plunder the city, destroy the temple of Svandavitz and chop to pieces the great four headed statue of Svandavitz who they proceed to burn.

With the fort taken the island submitted to Danish rule, and the principality of Rügen was established, with Jaromar I becoming prince of the isle and Valdemar its king. The entirety of the isles population was christened and baptized, and islanders were forced to build churches to the Christian god. The absolute success of this crusade revitalized the idea of the northern crusades, as after the Wendish they were looked upon as foolish, this also confirmed to the Christian world that only through subjugation can you Christianise the northern pagans.

• Pratt, Fletcher (1950). The Third King. New York: Sloane. OCLC 947721635.