Gerhard III of Holstein-Rendsburg

Gerhard III (c. 1292–1340), called the Great or the Bald Count, inherited Holstein-Rendsburg young and built it into a strong north German principality. In 1326 he helped depose King Christopher II of Denmark and set his nephew Valdemar on the throne, ruling Denmark as regent and detaching Schleswig through the Constitutio Valdemariana.

From 1332 he was the effective ruler of Jutland and Funen, his regime weighed down by debt and peasant revolts. On 1 April 1340 he was slain in his bedroom at Randers by the Danish squire Niels Ebbesen, ending Holstein rule in Denmark.