biography
pronunciation:
[absalon]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1128–1201)
|
| biography:
| Danish clergyman and statesman, the founder of the city of Copenhagen. The foster-brother of Valdemar I (1131–82), he was appointed Bishop of Roskilde (1158), and elected Archbishop of Lund (1177). As chief minister to Valdemar he led an army against the Wends in 1169, and extended Danish territories in the Baltic. In 1169 he built a fortress at Havn which became the nucleus of Copenhagen. |
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