Treaty of Ripen
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Treaty of Ripen was a 15th-century agreement providing (among other things) that the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein would never be separated. It was concluded in 1460, and also confirmed the King of Denmark as duke of both provinces. This treaty was to play an important role in the 19th-century history of both Germany and Denmark. German nationalists, citing the Treaty of Ripen, pushed to annex Danish-dominated Schleswig as well as German-dominated Holstein, leading to the First War of Schleswig (1848) and the Second War of Schleswig (1864).
The Danish king of the time, Christopher III, was forced on April 30, 1440 to transfer the entire Duchy of Schleswig to Adolf VIII, Count of Holstein, as a hereditary fiefdom. This action united Schleswig and Holstein as one state under one ruler. When Duke Adolf died in 1459 without an heir, no other Count could put forth a claim for both duchies. Nobles of the duchies met to elect a new Duke but failed despite several rounds of voting. Adolf's nephew, King Christian I of Denmark, intervened by calling the nobility to Ribe (Ripen), where he was elected as Duke Adolf’s successor on March 2, 1460. On March 5, 1460, the assembled nobles agreed to the terms of a Freiheitsbrief, a “Charter of Liberty” containing numerous laws and regulations. It also contained the statement that Schleswig and Holstein "dat se bliven ewich tosamende ungedelt" -- that is, that the two provinces were to remain forever undivided, that they were never to be separated. King Christian’s objective for this arrangement was to ensure the retention of Holstein in Danish hands, but it caused the Danish province of Schleswig becomes irrevocably linked to the German province of Holstein. This was a consequence King Christian had not envisioned and would have been unable to foresee, yet this proved to be a pivotal event in Balto-Germanic history and was to become the basis for significant territorial and nationalistic disputes in the future.
