Cistercian Origins in Denmark and Sweden: the Twelfth Century Founders

The arrival of Cistercian monks in Denmark and Sweden from the 1140s to the 1180s is an event in the history of Scandinavia that could only have taken place with the active cooperation of two groups: the Cistercian abbots themselves and the spiritual and secular magnates of these areas of Europe. In what follows here, I will concentrate on the magnates, whether they were lay or ecclesiastical, who for one reason or another decided that they wanted to bring the monks to their part of the world..