The History of Herlufsholm

It all started with a dream of creating a school which was more in line with a humanist education than the general education in Denmark was at the time. Herluf Trolle had studied in Wittenberg where he became acquainted with Professor Philipp Melanchthon who was one of the intellectual leaders in the Protestant reformation.

However, the history of the place began long before the school was founded. Back in the 1100s a group of Benedictine monks settled on the banks of the Suså River, surrounded by beautiful nature and within walking distance of the city of Næstved. They built Skovkloster (the Monastery in the Woods) on the spot where we find Klosterbygningen (the Monastery) today. When the reformation came to Denmark in 1536, King Christian III seized all church lands, including Skovkloster, and the existing orders of monks were gradually phased out. The last Benedictine Monks left Skovkloster in 1559.

Soon after these events, Herluf Trolle and Birgitte Gøye became aware of the beautiful landscape of South Zealand. The king at the time, Frederik II, offered Herluf Trolle the former monastery in 1560 as part of a land exchange in which the King received Hillerødsholm, which later became Frederiksborg Castle. Herluf Trolle and Birgitte Gøye took over Skovkloster and its lands and named their new home Herlufsholm.

Herlufsholm School was founded on May 23, 1565, as a school for children of nobles and other honest people who had the ability and desire for learning and education.

Herluf Trolle, however, did not live to see his dream materialize. In the summer of 1565 he was once again called to war as the head of the Danish Navy during the Nordic Seven Years’ War. He set sail against the Swedish fleet near Femern, but was mortally wounded in the battle of June 4, 1565, and died later in the same month. When the students today commemorate Herluf Trolle and Birgitte Gøye on Herluf Trolle’s birthday on January 14, they can look at Herluf Trolle’s armor with the fatal bullet hole, which located next to the sarcophagus in Herlufsholm Church.

After the death of Herluf Trolle, Birgitte Gøye became the first governor of the school. This cannot have been an easy role for a woman of that time, and it is admirable that Birgitte Gøye succeeded in securing the school against inheritance demands from relatives by creating a charter and donating her home - estate and lands - to the charter.