Danish Estonia

Duchy of Estonia
Hertugdømmet Estland (da) Ducatus Estoniae (la)
Dominum directum of Denmark
1219–1346 (Danish Øsel 1559–1645)
Seal of Valdemar IV of Denmark
Territories a part of the Kingdom of Denmark during 1219-1645
Capital		Reval (Tallinn)
Languages		Danish, Estonian, Low German
Religion		Roman Catholicism
Political structure		Dominum directum of Denmark
King of Denmark
•	1219–1241	Valdemar II
•	1340–1346	Valdemar IV
•	1559–1588	Frederick II
•	1588–1648	Christian IV
Viceroy
•	1344–1346	Stigot Andersson
Governor of Øsel
•	1562–1567	Heinrich Wulf
•	1643–1645	Ebbe Ulfeld
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Established	1219
•	Battle of Lyndanisse	June 15, 1219
•	Tallinn joins Hanseatic League¹	1248
•	Disestablished	1346
•	Danish Ösel	1559–1645
Preceded by Succeeded by Revala Harjumaa (ancient county) Virumaa State of the Teutonic Order
Today part of		Estonia
¹ Wesenberg (Rakvere) was granted Lübeck city rights in 1302 by King Erik Menved. Narva received these rights in 1345.

Seal of Valdemar IV of Denmark

Danish Estonia is the name given to the territories in present-day Estonia that were ruled by Denmark during the 13th–14th centuries and again in the 16th–17th centuries.

Denmark rose as a great military and mercantile power in the 12th century. It had an interest to end the frequent Estonian Viking attacks that threatened its Baltic trade. Danish fleets attacked Estonia in 1170, 1194, and 1197. In 1206, King Valdemar II and archbishop Andreas Sunonis led a raid on Ösel island (Saaremaa). The Kings of Denmark laid a claim on Estonia as their possession, which was recognised by the pope. In 1219 the Danish fleet landed in the major harbor of Estonia and defeated the Estonians in the Battle of Lyndanisse that brought Northern Estonia under Danish reign until the Estonian uprising in 1343, when the territories were taken over by the Teutonic Order and sold by Denmark in 1346.

In 1559 during the Livonian war the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek in Old Livonia sold his lands to King Frederick II of Denmark for 30,000 thalers. The Danish king gave the territory to his younger brother Magnus who landed on Saaremaa with an army in 1560. The whole of Saaremaa became a Danish possession in 1573, and remained so until it was transferred to Sweden in 1645.