Matilda of Holstein

Mechtilde of Holstein ( – 1288) was a Danish queen consort, married to King Abel of Denmark and later to Birger Jarl, Regent of Sweden.

Life Mechtilde was born around 1218, likely in Schauenburg Castle. Her grandfather Adolf III had lost the County of Holstein to Danish King Valdemar Sejr in 1203, but her father regained it during her childhood after the German nobles defeated Valdemar in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227. On 25 April 1237 she was married to Duke Abel of Schleswig, King Valdemar's second eldest son, as part of a settlement between the two houses.

She successfully secured Valdemar's release from Cologne and fought for her children's inheritance in the Duchy of Schleswig. In 1253, she secured Schleswig for Valdemar. After his death in 1257, she arranged for her next son, Eric, to take over the Duchy in 1260. After Birger's death in 1266, Mechtilde moved to Kiel, yet her own grave is with Birger's in Varnhem, Sweden.

In 1260, she had pawned the land between Eider and Schlei in southern Denmark to her brothers. After the deaths of her sons in 1272 and 1279, she inherited the land. Shortly before her death in 1288, she transferred the land to her brother, Count Gerhard of Holstein.

Issue

Queen Mechtilde bore her first husband three sons and one daughter who reached adulthood:

Valdemar III (1238–1257); Duke of Schleswig from 1254 to 1257 Sophie , married Bernhard I, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg Eric I (c. 1241 – 27 May 1272); Duke of Schleswig from 1260 to 1272 Abel (1252–1279); born after his father's death, held several fiefs in Southern Denmark Unnamed daughter, died young