Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

3 Conclusion
Abbot Étienne must have believed that his letters to the rich
Danes would be well received. Perhaps the king and Peder
Sunesen also contributed to the roof. Th e application to bishop
Valdemar, whose relationship with the ruling dynasty was
somewhat strained, may have been intended to add some element
of competition in relation to the other donors. Th e whole
fundraising project may well have been discretely planned
between abbot Étienne and archbishop Absalon, and Absalon,
who was well versed in Danish history, may well have agreed
(or suggested) that the Vikings’ destruction in ancient times
could be used as a good argument in appeals for Danish funding
of a new lead roof.
It is not known whether the fund-raising was successful. But it
probably was, for good relations between Abbot Étienne on
one side, and Absalon, Peder Sunesen, Abbot William and king
Knut on the other, continued in later years. When the king’s
sister, Ingeborg, in 1193 was repudiated by King Philippe
Auguste of France on the morning aft er the wedding night,
8 Ribe was a good starting point for travel to
England, where the lead was to be purchased.
Danish sponsors, English lead, Vikings, and a new roof for the church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris 287
Étienne worked hard on the side of the Danes – with Abbot
William and Peder Sunesen’s brother, Andreas, and others – to
have her re-instated. Meanwhile Étienne had become bishop of
Tournai, in the southern part of present-day Belgium9. He was
a key fi gure in the fl ourishing Franco-Danish relationship of
the second half of the twelft h and the early thirteenth centuries,
a relationship which also had an important impact on
Danish art and architecture – one of the fi nest examples of
which being Roskilde Cathedral, the fi rst seat of Absalon, who
was succeeded by Peder Sunesen10.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Hans Krongaard Kristensen and Michael
Gelting for discussions about architectural features and Latin
terminology; to Patrick Périn for the reference to Vieillard-
Troïkouroff et al. 1960; and to David M. Wilson for comments
on this manuscript and adjustments to my English.
—
9 He is widely known as Étienne de Tournai.
10 Heliot 1964; Nyborg 2003, with refs.