SR
Chapter 26ChrP.5.26

De morte Henrici regis Dacie.

The Fratricide of King Henry

In 1250, King Henry of Denmark is murdered by his brother Abel so that Abel may seize the throne, but divine justice swiftly strikes Abel down at the hands of the Frisians within two years.

In the year 1250, Henry, king of Denmark, was killed by his younger brother Abel, so that Abel might reign in his place — but by the just judgment of God, lest he gain advantage for his malice, in the second year he was killed by the Frisians.

Citation of the Source

A brief citation referencing Mart. P. 404 as the source for the preceding account.

(Mart. P. 404.) .

The Prophetic Warning of Saint Wenceslaus

Saint Wenceslaus, who suffered the same fratricide three centuries earlier, foretold Henry's fate and requested that Henry found a Cistercian monastery in Reval in his honor.

Holy Wenceslaus, duke of the Bohemians, foretold this deed to the king — he who three hundred years before had been killed by his own brother in the same way — and he asked the aforesaid King Henry that he have a church built in honor of his name, just as he did, namely a monastery of the Cistercian order in Reval, which is situated in the land of Livonia.

Read the original Latin

Anno MCCL Henricus rex Dacie a fratre suo juniore Abel occiditur, ut pro eo regnaret, sed justo dei judicio, ne pro malicia commodum reportaret, secundo anno est a Frisonibus occisus. (Mart. P. 404.) . Hoc factum predixit regi sanctus Wenceslaus dux Bohemorum, qui ante ccc annos eodem modo a fratre suo fuerat interemptus, et rogavit dictum regem Henricum, ut in honorem sui nominis ecclesiam faceret fabricari, sicut fecit, scilicet monasterium ordinis Cisterciensisb in Revalia, que est sita in terra Livonie.

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