"Handbinding", plural Haandfæstninger) was a document issued by the kings of Denmark from 13th to the 17th century, preceding and during the realm's personal union with the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway.
Unlike in England there was no permanent charter to sign; every new king had to accept a new one that applied to his own reign.
The king had to promise that he would rule as a just king; that he would co-operate with the nobility; that he would never imprison any free man; that all leading offices (what one would today call "cabinet minister posts") and all local administration would be filled only by noblemen; and that questions of war and peace depended on the acceptance of the nobility.
The charters did not necessarily transform the kings into puppets; most of them were able to create a solid base of power during their reign.
Absolutism was underpinned by a written constitution for the first time in Europe in 1665 Kongeloven ("King's Law") of Denmark–Norway, which ordered that the Monarch "shall from this day forth be revered and considered the most perfect and supreme person on the Earth by all his subjects, standing above all human laws and having no judge above his person, neither in spiritual nor temporal matters, except God alone".