Dagmar of Bohemia
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Dagmar of Bohemia (also known as Margaret of Bohemia; c. 1186 – 1212/1213, Ribe) was Queen consort of Denmark as the first spouse of King Valdemar II of Denmark. She was the daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia and his first wife, Adelheid of Meissen.
Family
Margaret had one brother, Vratislaus, and two sisters, Božislava and Hedwig. Her father became Duke of Bohemia in 1192, but in 1193 was deposed. He left Bohemia together with his family then.
Adelheid came to her brother and Přemysl Ottokar became mercenery of german dukes. In the end of 1197 Ottokar became duke for the second time. He repudiated his wife and divorced Adelheid in 1199, on grounds of consanguinity. He married Constance of Hungary later in the same year.[1]
Adelheid did not waive her rights. In 1205 she returned to Prague for a while. Ottokar decided to marry his daughter with Adelheid, Margaret, to Valdemar II of Denmark in this time. However, Constance gave birth to a son, later king Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, in 1205. Then Adelheid and her daughters once for all left Bohemia.
Queen Dagmar
Before his first marriage Valdemar had been betrothed to Richeza of Bavaria, daughter of the Duke of Saxony. When that arrangement fell through, he married Margaret in Lübeck. She quickly won over the hearts of the Danes. In 1209, the new queen, now named Dagmar, gave birth to son Valdemar.
Queen Dagmar died in 1212/13 while giving a birth to her second son. Old folk ballads says that on her deathbed she begged Valdemar to marry Kirsten, the daughter of Karl von Rise and not the "beautiful flower" Berengaria of Portugal (Danish: Bengerd). In other words she predicted Berengaria's sons' fight over the throne would bring trouble to Denmark.
After Dagmar's death, in order to build good relations with Flanders, (a commercially important territory to the west of Denmark's hostile southern neighbours), Valdemar married Berengária of Portugal in 1214.
Queen Dagmar is buried in Saint Bendt's Church in Ringsted, Denmark, on one side of Valdemar II, with Queen Berengaria buried on the other side of the King.
Valdemar II elevated his son with Dagmar as co-king at Schleswig in 1218. Unfortunately, Prince Valdemar was accidentally shot while hunting at Refsnæs in 1231.
Gallery
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Monument in Ribe. -
Death of the Queen, monument in Ribe. -
Tomb of Dagmar and Valdemar.
