Essenbæk Abbey

Essenbæk Abbey (Essenbæk Kloster) was a Benedictine abbey located north of Assentoft, Denmark.

History

The abbey

The abbey was established by Stig Hvide in 1141, and a modification in 1180 was possibly that the monks moved to the parish of Essenbæk Church - specifically the site of an annual pilgrimage on Saint John’s Eve, a front dedicated to Saint Lawrence, then about one km west of Assentoft. If so the abbey was until then perhaps identical to Our Lady Abbey (Vor Frue Kloster), a Benedictine nunnery attested from ca. 1170 about six km further northwest at what is today Rådhustorvet in Randers and which was hence a double house.

Enabled by generous donations Essenbæk Abbey - except the cemetery and mortuary - was eventually moved about one km further north within the parish to an island in the River Guden. There it stood as an about 19 m long main building, probably with an open colonnade about 1.6 m wide, and from each end a side building stretching about 19 m south. In the middle of the yard between these buildings was a well, and at the southern end of the yard a stone-lined well with steps. A church stretched about 19 m east at the southern end of the eastern side building, and north of these buildings was a watermill.

In 1328 a chronicle was written at Essenbæk Abbey, in which were descriptions of events ranging from 1020 to 1323 such as the conquest of Jerusalem, the establishment of monastic orders and monasteries, church councils, deaths of prominent ecclesiastics, and political and meteorological events in Denmark.

Possibly in the 13th century the peasants of the parish became tenants of Essenbæk Abbey to enjoy its protection, and at least from 1475 the birk of Essenbæk was a separate jurisdiction - subject to the thing of Essenbæk Abbey which convened at Syvveje about 12 km further southeast - until it was incorporated into the birk of Gammel Estrup in 1687. In 1516 the abbey redeemed itself from its obligation to accommodate courtiers, but in 1529 deposed its feeble abbot in favour of a secular manager - Hans Emiksen - whom the king made sheriff of Essenbæk Abbey on 5 September that year.

The estate

The monks had probably all left the abbey when by 1546 its estate had been mortgaged to Axel Juul, the sheriff of Aalborghus. Two years later the mortgage was redeemed and the shire of Essenbæk Abbey incorporated into the shire of Dronningborg. The abbey's modest archives - barely 100 letters - were registered at the castle of Silkeborg in 1558, and the following year Essenbæk Abbey was given as alimony to dowager queen Dorothea until reverting to the king when she died in 1571.

Two granite pillars brought to the manor of Stenalt in 1589 were allegedly from the abbey, indicating that the destruction of the latter began or had begun at that time. They were originally quarried in Egypt, probably in the fourth century, and equipped with capitals at Essenbæk Abbey. In 1872 they were moved to Tøjhushaven in Randers where they stand to this day.

Essenbæk Abbey was eventually bought by Sheriff Eske Brok of Dronningborg who in 1608 also bought the estate of Hevringholm. When he died on 15 December 1625 his son-in-law Frands Lykke inherited Hevringholm, and when he died in 1655 it was inherited by his son Kai Lykke. On 2 September 1661 the Supreme Court ruled that he should be deprived of life, honour and possessions for the crime of lèse-majesté, and his maternal aunt's son-in-law Oluf Daa then inherited Hevringholm. However, in 1667 the Supreme Court ruled that it was the maternal inheritance of his sons, and the following year one of the sons Claus Daa sold Hevringholm on their behalf to Hans Friis. The sale was confirmed on 16 August 1669 by the royally appointed legal guardian of the two other sons Brok Daa - whose whereabouts were unknown - and Henrik Daa - who was yet a minor child.

On 18 March 1695 Hevringholm and Essenbæk Abbey became the entailed estate of Hevringholm, so they were probably jointly owned at least since the time of Sheriff Brok. When the childless Hans Friis died on 14 December 1697 his brother's son Christen Friis inherited Hevringholm, and when he died childless on 2 July 1727 his sister's son Christian Rantzau inherited it. On 15 May 1731 he too died childless, and eventually the Supreme Court named Lieutenant Colonel Joachim Beck - the son of Hans Friis' sister's son - the heir to Hevringholm. The Becks were a Scanian family, and so since 1660 subjects of Sweden.

Lieutenant Colonel Beck changed his surname to Beck-Friis in 1733, and when he died without a son in 1741 Hevringholm and the surname Beck-Friis were inherited by his brother Major Corfitz Ludvig Beck. When he died in 1781 his son Count Joachim Beck-Friis inherited Hevringholm, and on 30 October 1782 was permitted to dissolve and sell it by the king of Denmark. Essenbæk Abbey was sold in 1785 to Auditor General Christian Kallager, who in 1787 sold it to Mayor Johan Frederik Carøe of Randers and Counselor Peter Severin Fønns. They then sold it in parcels - some of it to its tenants, such as Essenbækgaard in 1789 and Assentoft in 1790, and the rest to Niels Christensen Kutsch who sold that in parcels too.

In 1899 the abbey was surveyed by the National Museum.