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
Funen Painters artists including Olaf Rude, Harald Leth and Sven Havsteen-Mikkelsen who came to Møllebakken for inspiration. Another artist associated with the group was Poul S. Christiansen who came from the north of Funen and became a close friend of Zahrtmann after he joined his school in 1885. It was there that he met Johannes Larsen. As a result of their paintings of everyday country life, the Funen Painters were sometimes disparagingly called "bondemalerne" or the peasant painters. In 1907, there was a heated debate in the Danish press between Gudmund Hentze and Harald Slott-Møller and his wife, who stood up for