Olaf Haraldsen was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 anti-king who ruled Scania

Scania

Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...

 for a few years from 1139. He never won control over the rest of Denmark, and he is not included in the list of Danish monarchs used by the Danish monarchy or Den Store Danske Encyklopædi

Den Store Danske Encyklopædi

Den Store Danske Encyklopædi is the most comprehensive contemporary Danish language encyclopedia. The 20 volumes of the encyclopedia were published successively between 1994 and 2001; a one-volume supplement was published in 2002 and two index volumes in 2003...

. He is sometimes called "Olaf II" even though there was a later Olaf II of Denmark

Olaf II of Denmark

Olaf Haraldsen was a Danish anti-king who ruled Scania for a few years from 1139. He never won control over the rest of Denmark, and he is not included in the list of Danish monarchs used by the Danish monarchy or Den Store Danske Encyklopædi...

.

He was the son of Harald Kesja

Harald Kesja

Harald Kesja, Harald the Spear, was the son of Eric I of Denmark and anti-king of Denmark.He acted as regent 1103-1104 for his father while he was on pilgrimage to Jerusalem alongside Archbishop Asser of Lund. As regent, he was courageous, but violent, cruel and debauched. Harald plundered far and...

 and thus nephew of King Eric II of Denmark

Eric II of Denmark

Eric II the Memorable was king of Denmark between 1134 and 1137. Eric was an illegitimate son of Eric I of Denmark, who ruled Denmark from 1095 to 1103. Eric the Memorable rebelled against his uncle Niels of Denmark, and was declared king in 1134. He punished his adversaries severely, and...

. He seems to have been the only who escaped Eric II's murder of Harald and his sons in 1135. After trying in vain to regain his heritage, Olaf proclaimed himself king in Scania in 1139, fighting his cousin King Eric III of Denmark

Eric III of Denmark

Eric III Lamb was the King of Denmark from 1137 until 1146. He was the grandson of Eric I of Denmark and the nephew of Eric II of Denmark, whom he succeeded on the throne. He abdicated in 1146, as the first and only Danish monarch to do so. His succession led to a period of civil war between...

. The civil war mostly consisted of alternating raids, during which Olaf killed Bishop Rike of Roskilde

Roskilde

Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....

, an act that saw him excommunicated by the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

. He was at last defeated by Eric III and was killed in a battle in Middle Scania around 1143.

Harald Skrænk, the leader of a peasant rebellion in Scania about 1182, is said to have been Olaf's illegitimate son, but their connection is unsure.

Ancestry