King Valdemar’s Charter of Privileges

The Danish king’s charter of privileges from July 29th to the conquered Visby. Originally translated to Swedish from Low German:

We Valdemar, by God’s grace King of the Danes and Wends, and Christopher, our son, by the same grace Duke of Lolland, recognise and attest publicly with this letter, that we establish all the rights and freedoms for the wise and honourable men, the mayor, councillors and all the townspeople in our city Visby, our beloved and loyal people, which they have had since long ago.

Furthermore we acknowledge their special privilege, that they shall have such freedom on the beaches in our kingdom, and we ratify their coin, which they have had since long ago.

Bearing witness to these agreements: those who are present here, they are the highborn Eric, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, Mr Claus Limbeck, Mr Henning Podebusk, and Mr Valdemar Sappi, knight.

Bearing witness to all these written items, which we permanently and firmly shall comply with, we, the above mentioned Valdemar, King of Denmark and Christopher, Duke of Lolland, have affixed our seals under this letter, which is given and written in the year of Our Lord 1361 on the day of St. Olaf.

(Translated from the Swedish version in Gun Westholm’s book “Visby 1361 Invasionen”.)