Arild Huitfeldt (Arvid) (11 September 1546 – 16 December 1609) was a Danish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and state official, known for his vernacular Chronicle of Denmark.

Life

Huitfeldt was born into an aristocratic family from

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

, part of the Kingdom of Denmark at the time. He was partly educated in Germany and France, made his career as a state official and was, from 1573 to 1580, First Secretary to the Danish Chancellery, the King's central administrative organ. From 1583 to his death he was also superintendent at

Herlufsholm School Herlufsholm School ( da, Herlufsholm Skole og Gods) is a private day and boarding school by the River Suså in Næstved, about south of Copenhagen. Herlufsholm was founded in 1565 as a boarding school for "sons of noble and other honest men" o ...

, the first Danish boarding school. In 1586 he achieved his highest appointment, becoming ''Rigskansler'' ( Chancellor of the Realm, the very approximate equivalent to a modern Minister of Justice), until shortly before his death. Huitfeldt also owned several manor estates and handled a number of diplomatic assignments. As a politician and as an official he appears to have been studious, conservative, and sociable, avoiding overt clashes with his colleagues. In September 1597 Huitfeldt and Christian Barnekow were ambassadors in London and lodged in

Fenchurch Street Fenchurch Street is a street in London linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many corporate office ...

in the house of Alderman Houghton or the Customer Master Smith. Their mission concerned the Sound tolls. They returned the insignia of the Order of Garter that had belonged to Frederick II of Denmark. Queen Elizabeth made a joke at their expense on her birthday. After their audiences in London they came to Scotland.William Acres, ''Letters of Lord Burleigh to his son Robert Cecil'' (Cambridge, 2017), p. 272: Nichols, John, ''Progresses and Public Processions of Elizabeth'', vol. 3 (London, 1823), pp. 419-420: Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, ''John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596-1603'', vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), p. 57.

Historical works

What has made Huitfeldt famous, however, is his contribution as a historian. He wrote the first great History of Denmark in vernacular Danish – ''Danmarks Riges Krønike'' (''Chronicle of the Kingdom of Denmark'', 8 vols, 1595-1603), thus taking up the weighty legacy of

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...

. Huitfeldt was no official Danish

historiographer Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...

, but at his time several official attempts at writing a comprehensive History of Denmark in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

had come to little. Huitfeldt created a work that supplanted all earlier Latin attempts and more or less became ''the'' referential history work on Denmark until the time of

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano-Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, ...

. The Chronicle deals with Denmark from what was then a time of legend until 1559. It is mostly structured around the reigns of the various kings and was published in non-chronological order, beginning with the time of

Christian III Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...

. Through published rather quickly, his work seems to have been prepared across several years. Being a state official with access to documents and with the possibility of using help from scribes, Huitfeldt did have many writing advantages. The form of his Chronicle is

annalist Annalists (from Latin ''annus'', year; hence ''annales'', sc. ''libri'', annual records), were a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote th ...

but not narrowly limited to each single year. What makes it still more important is that Huitfeldt reproduces many documents and sources the originals of which are now lost. In that way his book is also a significant

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

collection. In the Chronicle Huitfeldt reveals himself as a pragmatic aristocrat. A central view of his is that history repeats itself, but in aspects such as his emphasis on judicial and constitutional factors, he shows himself rather in advance of his time. At bottom, he remains subjective: his own ideal is that of the aristocratic state, in which the King respects the role and power of the nobility. Thus he may be held responsible for the extremely negative picture of

Christian II Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke ...

, and the corresponding idealized version of Christian III, which for many years dominated Danish historical thinking. Yet as a whole, Huitfeldt is sober and calm, using plain and relatively unaffected language. While transmitting the ancient legends and myths he often shows scepticism as to their reliability, an attitude he also partly displays toward later sources. His prefaces to the separate volumes of his history are themselves worth noting, as an additional testimonial to his political ideals.

References

Bibliography

*''Dansk Biografisk Leksikon'', vol. 6. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1979-84. *''Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie'', vol. 7. Copenhagen: Gyldendal and Politiken, 1988-93. * Arrild Huitfeldt
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* Arrild Huitfeldt
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Huitfeldt, Arild 1546 births 1609 deaths 16th-century Danish historians 17th-century Danish historians Huitfeldt family Ambassadors of Denmark to Scotland Ambassadors of Denmark to England