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
Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein for a year due to the disagreement. In the mean time, the Council of the Realm governed the country, allowing the bishops to decide what could be preached in their respective dioceses. Moreover, Hans Tausen was accused of heresy and banished from Zealand but the bishop of Roskilde called him back after only one month. Discontent with the nobility taking over control of the country through the Council made citizens from Malmö and Copenhagen along with peasants, especially from northern Jutland, rally around exiled King Christian II. The Council had furthermore decided to join a Netherlandic–Slesvigian–Holsatian alliance instead of Lübeck