ancient division of the bishop’s manors for administrative and judicial purposes. In the same century the upper part of the valley was colonized by Germans from Hasli (Bern), who thoroughly Teutonized it, though many Romance local names still remain. In 1354 the liberties of several of the, seven “tithings” (Sion, Sierre, Leuk, Raron, Visp, Brieg and Conches) were confirmed by the Emperor Charles IV. A little later the influence of Savoy became predominant, and the count secured to his family the bishopric of Sion, of which he was already the suzerain. His progress was resisted by the tithings, which in 1375–76 crushed the power of the house of La Tour-Châtillon, and in 1388 utterly defeated the forces of the bishop, the count and the nobles at Visp, this being a victory of the Teutonic over the Romance element in the land. From 1384 the Morge stream (a little below Sion) was recognized as the boundary between Savoyard or Lower Valais and episcopal or Upper Valais. In 1416–17 the Zehnten of the upper bit of the valley made an alliance with Lucerne, Uri and Unterwalden, with a view partly to the conquest of the Val d’Ossola, which was finally lost in 1422, and partly to the successful crushing of the power of the lords of Raron (1420). By the election of Walther von Supersax of Conches as bishop in 1457 the Teutonic element finally won the supremacy. On the outbreak of the Burgundian War the bishop of Sion and the tithings made a treaty with Bern. In November of the same year (1475) they seized all Lower or Savoyard Valais up to Martigny, and in 1476 (March), after the victory of Grandson, won St Maurice, Evian, Thonon and Monthey. The last three districts were given up in 1477, but won again in 1536, though finally by the treaty of Thonon in 1569 Monthey, Val d’Illiez and Bouveret alone were permanently annexed to the Valais, these conquests being maintained with the help of their old allies, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. These conquered districts (or Lower Valais) were always ruled as subject lands by the bishop and tithings of Upper Valais. The Valais took part in the Milanese war of 1512–16, and henceforth was reckoned as an “ally” of the Swiss Confederation. In 1533 a close alliance was made with the Romanist cantons; but by 1551 the Protestants had won so much ground that toleration was proclaimed by the local assembly. In 1586 Upper Valais became a member of the Golden League, and finally in 1603–04 the four tithings of Conches, Brieg, Visp and Raron carried the day in favour of the old faith against those of Leuk, Sierre and Sion. In 1790–91 Lower Valais rose in revolt; but it was not finally freed till 1798, when the whole of Valais became one of the cantons of the Helvetic Republic. Such prolonged and fierce resistance was, however, offered to French rule by the inhabitants that in 1802 Bonaparte declared Valais an independent state under the name of the “Rhodanic Republic,” yet in 1810, for strategic reasons, he incorporated it with France as the “department of the Simplon,” and it was not freed till the Austrians came in 1813. In 1815 a local assembly was created, in which each of the seven tithings of Upper and each of the six of Lower Valais (though the latter had nearly double the population of the former) elected four members, the bishop being given four votes. This constitution was approved by the Federal Swiss Diet, which thereupon (1815) received the Valais as a full member of the Swiss Confederation. In 1832 the Valais joined the League of Sarnen to maintain the Federal Pact of 1815. In 1839–40 it was convulsed by a struggle between the Conservative and Radical parties, the split into two half cantons being only prevented by the arrival of Federal troops. The constitution was revised in 1839, the local assembly was to be elected according to population (1 member for every 1000 inhabitants), and the bishop was given a seat instead of his four votes, while the clergy elected one deputy. In 1844 civil war raged, many Liberals being slain at the bridge of Trient (May 1844), and the Valais becoming a member of the Sonderbund. By the 1844 constitution the clergy elected a second deputy. The introduction of the Jesuits embittered matters, and the Valais was the last canton to submit in the Sonderbund War (1847); it contented itself, however, with voting steadily against the acceptance of the Federal constitutions of 1848 and 1874. By the constitution of 1848 all ecclesiastical exemptions from taxation were swept away, and the bishop lost his seat in the assembly. New constitutions were framed in 1852, in 1875 and in 1907.
Authorities.–F. Barbey, La Route du Simplon (Geneva, 1906); J. Bernard de Montmélian, St Maurice et la légion Thébéenne (2 vols., Paris, ,1888); M. Besson, Recherches sur les arigines des évêchés de Genève, Lausanne, Sion (Fribourg, 1906); Blätter aus der Walliser-Geschichte (Sion, from 1889); L. Courthion, Le Peuple du Valais (Geneva, 1903); S. Furrer, Geschichte, Statistik und Urkunden-Sammlung über Wallis (3 vols., Sion, 1850–52); H. Gay, Histoire du Vallais (2nd ed., Geneva, 1903), and Mélanges d’histoire vallaisanne (Geneva, 1891); F. de Gingins-la-Sarraz, Développement de l’indépendance du Haut-Valais, &c. (Zürich, 1844); J. Gremaud, Documents relatifs à l’histoire du Vallais (8 vols. (to 1457), Lausanne, 1875–1898); P. A. Grenat, Histoire moderne du Valais de 1536 à 1815 (Geneva, 1894); J. Heierli and W. Oechsli, Urgeschichte des Wallis (Zürich, 1896); A. Heusler, Rechtsquellen des Cant. Wallis (Basel, 1890); R. Hoppeler, Beiträge z. Geschichte des Wallis im Mittelalter (Zürich, 1897); K. Pressel, Bauarbeiten am Simplon-Tunnel (Zürich, 1906); B. Rameau, Le Vallais historique (Sion, 1886); M. Schiner, Description du département du Simplon (Sion, 1812); J. Schott, Die deutschen Colonien in Piemont (Stuttgart, 1842); J. Simler, Descriptio Vallesiae (Zürich, 1574); A. Strüby, Die Alpwirthschaft im Ober-Wallis (Soleure, 1900), and L’économie alpestre du Bas-Valais (Soleure, 1902); Walliser-Sagen (Sion, 1872); Walliser Sagen (2 vols., Brieg, 1907); F. O. Wolf, The Valais, forming several numbers of the series “Illustrated Europe” (published at Zürich); J. Zimmerli, Die Sprachgrenze im Wallis (vol. iii. of his larger work, Die deutsch-französische Sprachgrenze in der Schweiz), Basel and Geneva, 1899. (W. A. B. C)
VALDEMAR I., king of Denmark (1131–1182), the son of the
chivalrous and popular Canute Lavard and the, Russian princess
Ingeborg, was born a week after his father’s murder, and was
carefully brought up in the religious and relatively enlightened
household of Asser Rig, whose sons Absalon and Esbjörn Snare,
or “the Swift,” were his playmates. On the death of King Eric
Lam in 1147 Valdemar came forward as one of the three pretenders
to the Danish crown, Jutland falling to his portion
(compact of Roskilde, 9th of August 1157). Narrowly escaping
assassination, at a banquet a few days later, at the hands of his
rival, King Sweyn III., he succeeded only with the utmost difficulty
in escaping to Jutland, but on the 23rd of October utterly
routed Sweyn at the great battle of Grathe Heath, near Viborg,
Sweyn perishing in his flight from the field. Valdemar had no
longer a competitor. He was the sole male survivor of the
ancient royal line; his valour and ability were universally recognized,
and in Absalon, elected bishop of Roskilde in 1158, he
possessed a minister of equal genius and patriotism. The first
efforts of the new monarch were directed against the Wendish
pirates who infested the Baltic and made not merely the political
but even the commercial development of the Danish state impossible.
What the Northmen were to the Western powers in
the 8th and 9th the Wends were to the Scandinavian lands in
the 11th and 12th centuries. But the Wendish pirates were
more mischievous because less amenable to civilization than the
Vikings. They lived simply for plunder, and had neither the
ambition nor the ability to found colonies like Normandy or
Northumbria. We may form some idea of the extent and the
severity of their incursions from the fact that at the beginning
of the reign of Valdemar the whole of the Danish eastern coast
lay wasted and depopulated. Indeed, according to Saxo, one-third
of the realm was a wilderness. The stronghold of the
Wends was the isle of Rügen. Here lay Arkona their chief
sanctuary and Garz their political capital. Both places were
captured in 1169 by a great expedition under the command of
Valdemar and Absalon; the hideous colossal idol of Rügievit
was chopped into firewood for the Danish caldrons, and the
Wends were christened at the point of the sword and placed
beneath the jurisdiction of the see of Roskilde. This triumph
was only obtained, however, after a fierce struggle of ten years,
in which the Danes were much hampered by the uncertain and
selfish co-operation of their German allies, chief among whom was
Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, who appropriated
the lion’s share of the spoil. For at the beginning of his reign
Valdemar leaned largely upon the Germans and even went the
