Treaty of Ribe an impossible task of raising 100,000 silver marks to redeem his country. Denmark had effectively been dissolved and the country was left without a king between 1332 and 1340. In 1340, King Valdemar IV of Denmark began a more-than-twenty-year-long struggle to reclaim his father's kingdom. Although eventually succeeding in regaining control of Zealand, Funen, Jutland, and the Scanian lands, he failed to obtain control of Schleswig, whose ducal House of Estridsen managed to continue its virtual independence. To gain influence over the province, Valdemar married Helvig of Schleswig, the only daughter of Duke Eric II of Schleswig. In 1372, he
Jutland a breaching North Sea flood in 1825 created a coast to coast connection. This area is called the North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy (after its districts) or simply "Jutland north of the Limfjord"; it is only partly co-terminous with the North Jutland region. The islands of Læsø, Anholt and Samsø in Kattegat and Als at the rim of the Baltic Sea South are administratively and historically tied to Jutland although the latter two are also regarded as traditional districts of their own. Inhabitants of Als would agree to be South Jutlanders, but not necessarily Jutlanders. The Danish Wadden Sea Islands and