Kurt Villads Jensen :
Denmark as a crusading state

A shift of focus has taken place among Danish historians in recent years, away from a nationally confined history to an attempt to see the medieval history of Denmark in a European context. On this basis, it is suggested in this article to understand Denmark in the twelfth and thirteenth century as a crusading state in the sense that policy and institutions were shaped in order to continue crusading, especially in the Baltic region. This policy was given ideological expression by the historian Saxo who wrote around 1200; rather than being understood as a national historian, Saxo should be seen as a typical example of history writing in a crusading frontier society.