The long reign of this monarch was one of calamities, occasioned chiefly by his jealousy of his nephew Canute, second son of the late king. Henry king of the Obotrites, a Slavonic people who dwelt on the Baltic coast from Mecklenburg to Pomerania, was nearly connected with the royal house of Denmark, his mother being Sigritha, daughter of Sweyn II. As the Obotrites had been subdued by at least two Danish kings, and forced to embrace Christianity, they were regarded in the light of vassals. But Henry, more powerful than any of his predecessors, since he had reduced other Slavonic tribes to his yoke, would be no vassal to Denmark, though he was certainly one to Germany. He first demanded his mother’s dowry, which he asserted had never been paid; and when it was refused, invaded the southern part of Jutland. Nicholas marched against him, and was defeated. To arrest the career of the invader was reserved for Canute, who had been invested by his father with the ducal fief of Sleswic. This prince not only cleared the duchy of its invaders, but carried the war into the country of the Obotrites. Henry now sued for peace, and was thenceforth the friend of his nephew. Canute had saved Denmark from many evils; and his conduct now showed that he was no less excellent a governor than he had been a general. He exterminated the banditti, restored the empire of the laws, and caused the arts of life to flourish. His reputation gave much umbrage to the king; nor was that feeling diminished when, after the death of Henry, he was presented by the emperor Lothair with the vacant regal fief. With this augmented power he maintained tranquillity the more easily, not in his ducal fief only, but in the whole of Denmark. His eldest brother Harald, whose vices had excluded him from the throne, made many hostile irruptions into Jutland; but Eric, his next brother, was no less ready than he to protect that kingdom. [Sidenote: 1126 to 1132.]