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
Political status of the Cook Islands and Niue to act as a sovereign entity, while others have argued that the participation of the Cook Islands in international organisations (such as the Pacific Islands Forum) shows that Cook Islands sovereignty is not limited by the free association arrangement. Some states, based on the close relationship the Cook Islands and Niue have with New Zealand, have declared that they do not consider them to be sovereign entities. These states are listed below. Formerly dependencies of New Zealand, the Cook Islands became a state in free association with New Zealand on August 4, 1965; Niue became a state in free association