At the request of Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde in Denmark, who when a student at Ste-Geneviève's had known him, William was sent to that country to reform Eskilsø Abbey, a monastery of canons in the Isle of Eskil.
Absalon's last military exploit came in 1184, off Stralsund at Whitsun, when he soundly defeated a Pomeranian fleet that had attacked Denmark's vassal, Jaromar of Rügen.
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But he continued to keep a watchful eye over the Baltic, and in 1170 destroyed another pirate stronghold, farther eastward, at Dziwnów on the isle of Wolin.
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The whole population of Garz was then baptized, and Absalon laid the foundations of twelve churches in the isle of Rügen.
The ships were named after two brothers, Esbern Snare and archbishop Absalon who led the naval campaigns in the 12th century against the Wends, a group of pagan Slavs in northern Germany.
According to the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built a castle in 1167 on a small island outside Copenhagen Harbour.
He is mainly known for a number of statues around Copenhagen, including the equestrian statue of Absalon on Højbro Plads and the Stork Fountain on the adjoining Amagertorv.
In 1161 Absalon, bishop of Roskilde (and later archbishop of Lund) in Denmark, sent to Paris the provost of his cathedral (almost surely the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus) to obtain canons regular for the reform of the canonry of St. Thomas at Eskilsø.
Absalon |
A nephew of Absalon and a member of the religious and political elite, Sunesen was well-traveled, having received his education in theology and philosophy in Paris, France, and his legal education in Bologna, Italy and at Oxford, England.
The monks became "unruly" and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, determined to obtain a new Augustinian superior, sent for his friend, William, abbot of the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris.
The first mention of the village Brønshøj (Brunshoga), is in a letter dated October 21, 1186 from Pope Urban III to Archbishop Absalon.
Since this book is so large and Absalon has greater importance than King Valdemar I, this book may have been written first and comprised a work on its own.
Works that were performed at the Concert Spirituel and described as hiérodrames include Le sacrifice d'Abraham (1780, words by Voltaire, music by Cambini); Samson (1783, words by Voltaire, music by Valentin), and Absalon (1786, words by Moline, music by Henri Montan Berton).
It is first recorded in a letter from 1186 where Pope Urban III thinks Bishop Absalon for gifting it to Roskilde bishopric.
After a series of attacks, ambushes and partial victories, he landed at Arkona with his fleet on 19 May 1168, accompanied by his army commander and close friend, Bishop Absalon.
It has been suggested that the first person to convert some Livonians to Christianity was the Danish archbishop Absalon, who supposedly built a church in the Livonian village today known as Kolka.
With the equestrian statue of Absalon he turned to Neo-romanticism.