The union kings
No two nations have fought as many wars against each other as Denmark and Sweden.
Ironically, many of these wars stemmed from the Kalmar Union, which was motivated by a "loving bond."
On one hand, the Danish kings could not let go of the dream of ruling three kingdoms, on the other, hatred of the "Jutes" became deeply rooted among the Swedish people, thereby becoming a tool for political power.
Yet, despite the bloody wars of history, most Danes consider the Swedes - along with the Norwegians - to be a brother people. Although we may tease one another like siblings, these are the only peoples in the world who can understand our language, and we theirs. We share a similar ethnic background, just as we share history and culture.
For example in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, Denmark Radio reported that there were "Swedes and several foreigners" among the dead. They are not Danes, but neither they are truly foreigners.
16. The Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union was a union of the three kingdoms of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, established in Kalmar in 1397 at the same time that Margrete 1.'s adopted son, Erik of Pomerania, was crowned king of these realms, having already been elected king of each individual kingdom.
The motive for creating such a union was "peace between the kingdoms."
A union treaty stipulated that:
- A single king shall rule over all three kingdoms.
- The union shall be an elective monarchy.
- The king shall govern each kingdom in accordance with its own laws.
- If one of the kingdoms is threatened by war, the others shall come to its aid.
- Anyone declared an outlaw in one kingdom shall be considered an outlaw in all of them.
- The king and council members from each kingdom may negotiate with other countries.
There was widespread support for a union across all three kingdoms. For more than a century, many nobles and bishops, including those in Sweden remained proponents of the union and whole heartedly supported the idea of their country being ruled by a union king.
However, both Margrete and Erik appointed Danish and German bailiffs to castles in both Norway and Sweden and named Danes as bishops in Sweden and Norway; in Sweden, this policy was criticized for violating "Magnus Eriksson's National Law," which specified that only native-born men could hold office in Sweden.
However, the majority of the army that defeated King Albert at the Battle of Åsle were Danish, and Margrete presumably had to reward her men with suitable positions following the victory.
Erik countered the criticism by stating that Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes were all domestic subjects within the union.
Both Margrete and Erik left the offices of marsk and drost vacant across all three kingdoms. Margrete was reluctant to convene the Councils of State.
After Margrete’s death on October 28, 1412, aboard her ship in Flensburg Fjord, the centralized royal administration was somewhat relaxed.
Erik appears to have harbored an ambition to integrate the Councils of State from the three countries into joint council meetings in Copenhagen, a sort of Scandinavian parliament.
The deposition of Erik of Pomerania as Union King (1439–1441) marked a shift in the nature of the union. Under Margrete and Erik, it had functioned in practice as a centralized administration based on a strong royal authority, one that was effectively able to ensure the hereditary succession of the monarchy. Christopher of Bavaria, however, settled for a personal union between the three kingdoms, in which the Councils of State held ultimate authority, including the power to elect the king.
Christian 2.’s Stockholm Bloodbath and the subsequent election of Gustav Vasa in 1523 as King of Sweden - rather than acting regent - brought the Kalmar Union to a definitive end.
17. Queen Margrete 1.
Following the death of Valdemar Atterdag in 1375, Oluf, then five years old, was elected King of Denmark in 1376 as Oluf 2,, with his parents serving as guardians. Oluf was a minor for the greater part of his reign, and his mother ruled on his behalf.
Oluf was the son of King Haakon 6, of Norway and his queen, Margrete was Valdemar Atterdag’s youngest daughter.
The young Oluf possessed the perfect lineage for a king of a united Nordic realm. He descended from the royal houses of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The Scanian Annals state that he was "of nobler birth than any living king, owing to the ancient blood of his lineage and its royal origins on both the paternal and maternal sides."
When Oluf was ten years old on June 29, 1381, St. Olav’s Day he was acclaimed as King of Norway in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. This marked the beginning of the royal union between Denmark and Norway, which would last for 484 years, until the Treaty of Kiel on January 14. 1814.
However, in Denmark, Oluf was never crowned in a cathedral by the archbishop, as other young heirs to the throne had been since the time of Valdemar the Great. Nor is there any record of Margrete seeking a suitable royal bride for him.
The Norwegian tributary lands in the North Atlantic were populated during the early Viking Age by peasants from western Norway, who were fleeing the rule of Harald Fairhair. These lands comprise the Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland, and Iceland. Greenland was settled in 986 by Erik the Red, who arrived from Iceland with a small fleet. While these lands were not part of Norway itself, during the reigns of Olaf 2. and Margrete, they acknowledged the King of Norway as their overlord and paid him tribute. This arrangement can be seen as a Norwegian commonwealth.
Under the Treaty of Stralsund 1370 between Denmark and the Hanseatic League, the League got the castles of Helsingborg, Malmö, Skanör, and Falsterbo, along with the right to two-thirds of the customs revenues from the Scania Market for 15 years until 1385 and the right to approve a Danish royal candidate following King Valdemar's death.
The League's motive for gaining control over Scania during these 15 years was to generate an economic profit that could pay the costs incurred in waging the war against Denmark. However, the expenses associated with operating the Scanian castles proved far higher than anticipated, and revenues from the Scania Market were disappointing.
Furthermore, immediately following the Treaty of Stralsund, pirates appeared in Danish waters; they seized the League's ships, took crews captive, and sold off the cargo, inflicting further heavy losses on the League's merchants. Consequently, the merchants began gathering their ships to sail in convoys through Danish waters.
The merchants held the Danish government responsible for the piracy plaguing Danish waters and submitted a stream of complaints and demands for compensation. However, Margrete rejected them all with the pious reply: "The innocent should not be made to suffer for the guilty."
It must have been common knowledge that Margrete and the Danish government were, in reality, fully capable of combating the pirates. The kingdom did not lack the military forces needed to establish law and order. For example, at the Danehof in 1377, 132 noblemen swore allegiance to the king and pledged to "stake their lives and property" on "upholding the laws of the land."
The Queen made it clear to the towns that she could not effectively combat the pirates as long as she did not control the Scanian castles, a move intended to motivate the towns to return the castles, preferably ahead of schedule. Indeed, it turned out that as soon as Denmark regained Scania, the pirates vanished from Danish waters as if by magic.
The Great Hall at Nyborg Castle, where we may assume the Counts of Holsten swore loyalty to Margrete and Oluf. - 1960 Nationalmuseets samlinger.
However, King Haakon of Norway died in 1380, and Margrete assumed the government of Norway on behalf of the underage Oluf. When the towns asked to have their privileges in Norway renewed following the king's death, Margrete replied that the King of Norway was dead, and their agreement regarding privileges had died with him. The towns must have understood that there could be no question of renewing their privileges in Norway until the Scanian castles had been returned to the Danish king.
Yet in 1381, the merchants themselves captured the pirate Rambow at sea off Helsingborg. He had a wife and children in Wismar. Rambow himself and five of his closest associates were beheaded on the spot, and the rest of his crew were thrown overboard. The severed heads were placed on stakes in Helsingør as a grim warning.
The handover of the castles to the Danish king was scheduled for Ascension Day 1385, but it was an open secret that the towns would refuse to surrender the castles until Denmark agreed to pay compensation for the merchants' losses due to pirate attacks in Danish waters.
Nevertheless, Queen Dowager Margrete, High Steward Henning Podebusk, and the young King Oluf arrived ceremoniously in Helsingborg on the appointed day to take possession of the castle. When the castle's commander refused to open the gate for them, they feigned great surprise.
The young King Oluf subsequently wrote a furious letter to the towns, surely with his hand guided by another, in which he threatened war. Margrete sent a more conciliatory letter, expressing that her son was so agitated she did not think it possible to calm him unless her "dear friends" kept their promises. Henning Podebusk also sent a letter urging reconciliation.
The towns would likely have won such a war, just as they had won fifteen years earlier, but at a similarly high cost and with damage to the trade that generated their wealth for the duration of the conflict. Consequently, they yielded, and later that autumn, the Scanian castles and dominion over Scania, including the important Scanian Market, were handed over to the Danish king.
Soon after, the Prussian towns’ confidence in the peace within Danish waters was restored. They wrote: "We deem it wise not to outfit peace ships or levy any pound dues this year, but rather to place our trust in the king, given that he and his men have sworn and pledged to protect the seas to the best of their ability."
We recall that Valdemar Atterdag earned eternal fame by restoring Denmark through the redemption of numerous mortgaged fiefs or simply by reconquering the territories. However, at the time of his death in 1375, he had still not redeemed or reconquered the southernmost parts of the Duchy of Jutland, known today as Southern Jutland or Slesvig, which were held as pledges by the Counts of Holsten.
Yet Margrete took no action regarding this issue; on the contrary, she gave the Counts of Holsten what they wanted, perhaps because she wished to have her hands free to deal with Sweden, which she prioritized.
Detmar’s Chronicle of Lübeck for the year 1386 states: "The Queen of Norway then got the entire Kingdom of Denmark, to the same extent that her father, King Valdemar, had once held it. She recovered the province of Scania, which had been held by the towns for fifteen years as compensation for damages they had suffered at the hands of the kingdom, immediately thereafter, she traveled to Jutland and reconciled with her enemies, the Holstenians, granting them the Duchy of Slesvig as a hereditary fief, all of which was accomplished with great wisdom."
It was the Counts of Holsten who established the name "Slesvig" for the duchy, all previous dukes had been Dukes of "Jutland".
King Oluf 2’s tombstone in Sorø Abbey Church is set into the eastern wall of the choir. The Latin inscription reads: "Hic iacet Olavs filius Margretee regine que ex Haqvinno rege Norvegie genvit", meaning: "Here rests Oluf, Queen Margrete’s son, whom she bore with King Håkon of Norway" (source: Arslonga). It depicts the Norwegian lion but nothing representing Denmark. There is no mention of Oluf having been king of two realms, nor any reference to "of the Wends, of the Goths" or any Danish lions. Historian Vivian Etting believes this tombstone was erected in 1525, more than a century after Oluf’s death. There is no record of any other funerary monuments ever having existed. Photo Orf3us Wikipedia.
In June, Margrete and Oluf were together in Ystad. After confirming Rønneby’s privileges, Oluf and his men rode to Falsterbo, while the queen remained in Ystad.
But no sooner had the traveling party arrived at Falsterbohus Castle than Oluf suddenly fell ill; on August 3. 1387, he died, literally in the arms of his chamberlain, Folmer Jacobsen. Besides the chamberlain, several members of the king’s court were present, including the steward Bent Byg, the master of the kitchen Mikkel Rud, two chaplains, Jens Due and Jens Rud, and the king’s cupbearer, known as Stokfish.
King Oluf was only 17 years old and unmarried when he died, and he left no heirs.
Immediately after news of King Oluf’s death at Falsterbo in August 1387 reached Mecklenburg, his cousin and rival, the young Duke Albrecht, assumed the title "Heir to Denmark," while his new seal, featuring the Danish lions, bore the inscription "King of Denmark." Albrecht was the son of Valdemar Atterdag’s eldest daughter, Margrete, and thus, like Oluf, a grandson of Valdemar.
But once again, he was passed over.
Margrete acted with furious speed.
By sheer coincidence, several members of the Councils of State and other magnates happened to be in Scania, when Oluf died. The group included the High Steward Henning Podebusk, Margrete’s advisor Bishop Peder Jensen of Aarhus, the newly appointed Archbishop Vinald Henriksson of Nidaros, who was returning from Rome, the Mecklenburg nobleman Henrik Parow, who had entered the Queen’s service a few years earlier; the officials Folmer Jacobsen, Reimar Breide, and Bent Byg, the commander of Lindholm Castle, Jacob Mus, the Scanian nobleman Stig Pedersen Krognos, and the knights Otto Jensen Markmand, Henning Olufsen, Albert Vind, and the young Kurt Moltke.
Together with the Queen, these men agreed to postpone the election of a new king and to appoint Margrete as regent. It is likely that the Queen’s staunch supporters, High Steward Henning Podebusk and Bishop Peder Jensen, initiated this decision.
Just one week after Oluf’s death, namely August 10, she was acclaimed at the Scanian Landsting as "plenipotentiary and guardian of the entire kingdom" by "many men of the kingdom and of Denmark, prelates, townsmen, peasants, and other good men and the community from several of Denmark’s provinces."
Due to the speed at which events unfolded, the other Danish magnates were presumably unable to gather in time to draft a royal handbinding contract or stipulate other conditions. With lightning speed, Margrete and her men appealed directly to the people.
Some ten days later, she was acclaimed at the Ringsted Landsting, where, in addition to members of the Council of the Realm and other magnates, were present "peasants, farmhands, and townsmen, as well as the common people of Møn, Lolland, and other regions." "farmhands" referred to rural men, who neither owned nor held land on a lease, a kind of countryside laborer.
Subsequently, she was also acclaimed at the Viborg Landsting and, finally, on Funen.
Title page of the Revelations of Sancta Birgitta, Revelationes Celestes, dating from around 1500.
Denmark’s history has seen formidable queens before. One need only think of Thyra Danebod, Margrete Sambiria, and Agnes of Brandenburg, but none quite like Margrete Valdemarsdatter, as she preferred to call herself.
During her critical teenage years, a time so vital for the shaping of one’s attitudes Margrete was raised by Saint Birgitta’s daughter, Merete Ulfsdatter, a devout Christian, who followed her mother’s teachings. Margrete, too, became a staunch supporter of Saint Birgitta. She did everything in her power to establish Birgitta’s new monastic order as a cornerstone of religious life in the Nordic region. Her faith in Birgitta of Vadstena undoubtedly played a significant role in the remarkable self-confidence she possessed as a woman.
Birgitta worked to elevate the status of the Virgin Mary as a role model for Christians, writing: "I wish to found this order in honor of my dearly beloved mother, and primarily for women." With few exceptions, Birgitta remains within the Christian tradition in which God and Jesus are male. Yet, rather than attempting to feminize these masculine powers, Bridget turns to the feminine figure of the Virgin Mary, exalting her to a position of equality with them.
Photo: Wikitrans.
For all the events, letters of tribute were drawn up, almost identical in wording:
"Let it be known to all, who see this letter or hear it read that we" (here follow a number of witnesses - e.g., from Lund, the names mentioned above) "witness and acknowledge with this our open letter" - "together with many more of the men of the Kingdom of Denmark, such as archbishops, other bishops, knights, squires, and yet more of the Kingdom's men and common folk from all the lands of Denmark - chose, accepted, and appointed the honorable princess and lady, Lady Margrete, Queen of Norway and Sweden, as sovereign lady, as master, and as guardian of all Denmark."
Margrete must have been immensely popular and held in high regard, given the ease, with which she was chosen as the kingdoms's regent across all its provinces. Yet her success must also have been facilitated by the fact that Saint Birgitta’s visions regarding a more prominent role for women in Christendom had already permeated every stratum of society.
In Norway, her cause initially appeared somewhat more difficult, as Norway was a hereditary kingdom, the person with the strongest claim to the succession was King Albrecht of Sweden, being the cousin of the late King Håkon. Nevertheless, everything quickly fell into place without complications.
The Norwegian Archbishop, Vinald Henriksson, who had already paid homage to Margrete in Lund some months earlier, had convened an assembly in Oslo during the first days of February 1388, comprising Norway’s most distinguished ecclesiastical and secular magnates. Present were the bishops of Oslo and Stavanger, as well as the newly appointed Bishop of Greenland. In addition, there was the archbishop’s brother, Chancellor Henrik Henriksson, who had been in the service of the King of Norway since the time of King Håkon, as well as about fifteen secular members of the Council of state.
At the meeting in Oslo, the assembly swore an oath of loyality to Margrete on their own behalf and on behalf of the common people, and issued an open letter to all men throughout Norway and its tributary lands:
"Whereas the high-born princess, our dear lady, Lady Margrete by the grace of God Queen of Norway and Sweden, rightful heir and princess to the Kingdom of Denmark, wife of our dear Lord King Håkon and mother of our dear Lord King Oluf, who has recently died, may God have mercy on both their souls, has always shown us favor and goodwill, and we continue to hope for the same from Her Grace; therefore, we, the aforementioned archbishop, bishops, provost, knights, and squires, and the entire Kingdom of Norway, have willingly accepted, chosen, and acknowledged the high-born Princess, Lady Margrete (the aforementioned Queen), as the mighty Lady and rightful sovereign of us all and of the entire Kingdom of Norway. Furthermore, the aforementioned Queen Margrete shall have full authority to administer and govern the Kingdom of Norway, exercising full power and dominion in all matters throughout the kingdom, including lands, castles, strongholds, and subjects, both south and north, everywhere in Norway and its tributary lands, for the duration of her life, with God’s help."
In return, Margrete swore the royal oath.
After the ceremony, Margrete reportedly asked the assembly, who now might be the next in line to the Norwegian throne. Both King Albrecht of Sweden and the young Duke Albrecht were mentioned, but the Norwegians would have none of them. Instead, they proposed the five-year-old son of Duke Wartislaw of Pomerania, the son of Margrete’s niece.
Thus, the succession to the Norwegian throne was settled long before the matter was resolved in Sweden and Denmark.
The young Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg died around the same time the meeting in Oslo took place, effectively removing him from the picture. However, the assembly was unaware of this.
The following summer, 1388, Margrete adopted her grand-nephew, Bugislaw of Pomerania, under the name Erik of Pomerania. Born in 1382, he was five or six years old when he arrived in the Nordic region.
A historical map of the estates held by the High Steward Bo Jonsson Grip in 1386. In 1386, strong anti-German sentiment prevailed in Sweden. The Vadstena Annals state that Mecklenburg nobles "sat like birds of prey on the crags" in the many castles King Albrecht had sold to them as Pawn fiefs. The situation in Sweden closely resembled that of Denmark under Christopher 2. vast areas had been pawned as security for loans and sold on to Mecklenburger nobles.
High Steward Bo Jonsson had worked to redeem as many German-held pledged fiefs as possible in order to keep Sweden in Swedish hands.
By the time of his death, he had redeemed approximately half of the Swedish kingdom. He controlled the entire Mälaren Valley, the southern part of Norrland, all of Finland, large parts of östergötland and Västergötland, and the Småland coast. His castles included åbo, Tavastehus, and Viborg in Finland.
However, to achieve this ambitious goal, Bo Jonsson had taken out enormous loans from other nobles who trusted him. Consequently, he must have felt that he could not simply leave his vast estates to be inherited by his wife and minor children.
In his will, he therefore stipulated that the inheritance was to be administered by a group of magnates comprising two bishops, five knights, including Saint Birgittas’s son, Birger Ulfsson, and three squires. Photo: Wikitrans.
She was then able to turn her attention to Sweden.
The situation there was that the High Steward Bo Jonsson had died, bequeathing his vast fortune to a group of magnates comprising two bishops, five knights, including Saint Birgitta’s son, Birger Ulfsson, and three squires. Bo Jonsson’s estate encompassed roughly half of Sweden, including Finland.
However, King Albrecht could not let such a fortune slip through his fingers. Bo Jonsson’s widow and children, feeling bypassed, authorized the king to act on their behalf. Subsequently, he refused to recognize the executors and demanded that they come forward to present proof of their right to administer the estate. Yet, valuing their lives and property, they did not go to the king.
Instead, they turned to the young King Oluf, King Håkon’s son, who was staying in Scania at the time, likely in early August 1387. But just a few days later, also in August 1387, the seventeen-year-old Oluf died quite suddenly at Falsterbo Castle.
In their desperation, the executors then chose to approach Oluf’s mother and King Håkon’s widow, Margrete, who had meanwhile been appointed “authorized guardian of the Kingdom of Denmark” and “Norway’s mighty Lady and rightful Master.”
They met in late March 1388 at Dalaborg Castle on Lake Vänern. There, on behalf of the kingdom, they appointed Margrete as "Sweden's plenipotentiary lady and rightful master". They pledged that, sword in hand, they would assist the Queen in capturing all strongholds and fortresses that had belonged to "the royal crown of Sweden".
Those present promised not to conclude peace with King Albert without Margrete's consent. As executors of Bo Jonsson Grip's will, they transferred a number of fiefs and castles to Sweden's new "plenipotentiary lady". These included Åbo, Tavastehus, Raseborg Castle with Nyland, and Korsholm, all in Finland, as well as Kastellholm on Åland, Hälsingeland, half of Dalarna (including its iron mines), half of Kopparberg with its iron and copper mines, and Östergötland, including all its market towns and castles.
She was granted the authority to negotiate on Sweden's behalf with the Holstenians regarding their share of the copper mines, with the Hanseatic League concerning their privileges and rights in Sweden, and with the commander of Kalmar Castle, Vicke von Vitzen.
In May, a large number of additional Swedish knights and squires declared their approval of the terms of the agreement and pledged their loyalty to the Queen.
Margrete assured the Swedes, who held estates in Denmark and Norway that they could keep them without restriction. She solemnly promised that the Swedish estates would enjoy "all the liberties and privileges granted to them and their ancestors before King Albert came to Sweden". She pledged to govern the country in accordance with Swedish laws.
King Albrecht tried in vain to levy extraordinary taxes to finance an army, but this only served to make the mood in Sweden increasingly hostile toward the king and his Mecklenburgers.
However, the citizens of Stockholm, most of whom were German, swore allegiance to him. He appointed his son, Erik, as regent in his place and set off for Mecklenburg to raise an army. His father and brother had both died, and he was himself the Duke of Mecklenburg.
After a five-month stay in Mecklenburg, Albrecht embarked his army at Warnemünde and landed at Kalmar around the New Year of 1388–1389. The army consisted of battle-hardened, armored cavalry, possibly numbering between 1,000 and 1,500 men, including the Count of Holsten, whose relatives had sworn eternal loyalty to Denmark just three years earlier, when the Counts of Holsten were granted the Duchy of Jutland as a hereditary fief.
One of Margrete’s generals, known as Niels Svarteskåning, was already besieging the formidable fortress of Axevalla in Västergötland, near Skara. Albrecht hastened westward to relieve the fortress.
Margrete’s army was commanded by the knight Henrik Parow, a skilled military leader, who originally came from Mecklenburg but had defected to Margrete’s side due to unresolved disagreements with the elder Duke Albrecht. According to Detmar's chronicle, it numbered 1,500 men, likely, to a large extent, armored horsemen.
Henrik Parow marched north to join forces with Niels Svarteskåning at Axevalla. However, when Albrecht arrived in Jönköping and learned of this, he turned back and marched directly toward Parow's army to prevent it from linking up with Niels Svarteskåning's forces.
View of the battlefield at Ådle. In the background lies the Ådle marsh, now surrounded by trees. As can be seen, the landscape is flat and well-suited for cavalry charges. Photo: "The Battle of Falköping 1389 – An Unexpected Victory in a Woman's Hands" by Nick B. Svendsen.
On February 24, 1389, Parow’s army took up positions at Ådle Kirkeby, about 10 km east of Falköping. It is said to have occupied a strong defensive position, with its flanks protected on one side by a marsh and on the other by another impassable area. However, this is difficult to see today.
The chronicler Detmar of Lübeck believes that Margrete’s army triumphed due to the cowardice of certain German knights. He describes the battle as follows:
"In the year of our Lord 1389, on St. Matthias' Day" (February 24) "a great battle took place at Axevalla in Sweden. The Queen of Norway had sent about fifteen hundred armed men. Their commander was a knight named Sir Henrik Parow. When they arrived at Jönköping, King Albrecht received word of this while he was on his way to capture Axevalla. He then turned aside and marched against his enemies, who were Danesand also some Swedes. He had with him his son, his cousins, the son of Duke Johan of Stargard, who was the Bishop of Skara, a young nobleman, the Count of Holstein, and the Count of Ruppin. The King was so eager for battle and in such a rush that not all his men had time to fully prepare. When the actual fighting began, the King led the initial charge and broke through two enemy banners. However, the engagement was short-lived, and the King lost the battle. He was captured, along with the aforementioned noblemen and all those, who had been with him on the battlefield, except for those who fled. Among the latter was one man in particular named Gert Snakenburg. He fled on his very first day as a knight. He took sixty knights with him in his flight, and this was the primary reason the battle was lost."
The Scanian Annals recount: "On the day of the Holy Apostle Matthias, through the providence and aid of God, in whose hands all victory lies, a great battle took place between King Albrecht of Sweden and the Danes, namely Sir Parow, commander for Norway, and Fikke, commander in Kalmar, as well as many others on both sides. The captives included King Albrecht of Sweden, his son Erik, Count Gerhard of Holstein, and the Count of Reppin, along with twenty knights and quite a few other nobles, all were sent into captivity in Denmark by the high-born Queen Margrete, the kings in leg irons and the nobles in handcuffs. Glory be to God forever, who granted an unexpected victory at the hands of a woman."
During the battle, the Queen was staying at Varberg Castle. Upon receiving news of the victory, she ordered the prisoners taken to Bohus, which presumably had larger and better dungeons. She rode out to meet the prisoner transport herself and continued on to Bohus.
Most of the prisoners were quickly released, presumably upon payment of a ransom. However, King Albrecht and his son were by far the most important captives. Three days later, they were taken to Lindholm Castle in Scania, located between Malmö and Ystad, and confined in a "lofty and deep tower."
The sons of the Mecklenburger Vicke von Vitzen were holding Kalmar. Their father had granted a loan to the Swedish Crown and consequently held Kalmar Castle as security. Margrete succeeded in redeeming the castle during 1390. It is said that one of Vicke von Vitzen’s sons, Claus von Vitzen, undertook to mediate between the Queen and the city council. The city pledged allegiance to Margrete and promised to serve her and her descendants, much to the dismay of Kalmar’s many German inhabitants. Claus von Vitzen reportedly left the city "spurned by God and man."
Stockholm, however, presented a greater problem. The city was virtually impregnable, situated solely on the islands of Stadsholmen, Riddarholmen, and Helgeandsholmen, and protected by high walls and water on all sides.
Stockholm was a city of great importance to the Hanseatic League. The majority of the city's inhabitants were Germans, who had recently sworn allegiance to King Albrecht and his son, Erik.
The German faction of the citizenry seized complete control of the city. They formed a group known as die Kapuzenbrüder, meaning "the Hooded Brothers", who would dress as soldiers and roam the streets at night, harassing and humiliating any Swedes they encountered. These incidents often escalated into bloody brawls.
Map of medieval Stockholm. Käpplingeholmen seen to the northeast. Photo Hedniska Tankar.
The Hooded Brothers and the city council conspired together, and on the night following Trinity Sunday June 13, 1390 they took action. Leading Swedish citizens were seized in their homes by armed men and taken to the castle, where they were accused of treason and imprisoned. Those, who had sought refuge in churches and monasteries, were dragged out and taken to the castle, where they were tortured with saws to force a confession of treason.
The following day, the Germans burned three of the prisoners at the stake. The Hooded Brothers offered the castle bailiff, the Mecklenburger Herbert Konigsmark, half of the prisoners' property in exchange for his disposing of the rest of them. On the night of June 16–17. 1390, they were taken to Käpplingeholmen now known as Blasieholmen and burned to death inside a wooden house. A fairly reliable source states that the Germans: "there tied them to an old house, set fire to the house, and thus burned them without due process of law at night while people slept."
Another 300 Swedes were expulsed from the city.
The Queen's troops besieged the city in 1391 but found it very difficult to capture. It also proved very difficult to completely cut off the supply of food to the city from the sea.
The towns of Rostock and Wismar announced that their ports would be open to anyone "who, on their own risk, wished to wage war against the Kingdom of Denmark".
The privateers or pirates, as they soon became, called themselves the Vitalie, Viktualie, or Fetalje Brothers, which terms all signifying food or provisions, because their brotherhood had originally been formed to supply Stockholm with food.
In a very short time, they turned into bloodthirsty, brutal pirates, who made no distinction between Danish, German, or any other nation's ships. Detmar writes that "an unruly mob of noblemen, artisans, and peasants gathered from all quarters, eager to try their luck."
All manner of adventurers and unsavory characters flocked to Rostock and Wismar. The pirates attacked and plundered Danish and Norwegian ships, vessels from Lübeck, and even ships from their own Mecklenburg. They ravaged Gotland and Bornholm, and the Hanseatic League's Baltic trade was so severely disrupted that, for three years, they were forced to abandon their trade with Scania. Detmar writes that they very quickly ravaged "the entire sea and all the merchants, robbing both friend and foe alike, such that traffic to the Scanian market was halted for three years, consequently, herring became very expensive during those years."
The towns of Mecklenburg called for a boycott of Denmark and Norway. However, the other Hanseatic towns had no intention whatsoever of halting this trade. In June 1391, they wrote to the towns of Mecklenburg: "You have informed us that you have opened your ports to anyone wishing to wage war against the Kingdom of Denmark at their own risk, yet this strikes us as highly unfair and detrimental to all those merchants who, in these matters, are friends to both sides and have no involvement in your war."
In August 1391, the son of Johan of Stargard from Mecklenburg succeeded in breaking the blockade of Stockholm with a large fleet laden with supplies. They captured one of the Queen's fortifications, but the Danes very quickly recaptured it.
Peace negotiations held in both 1391 and 1392 proved fruitless.
Old woodcut showing the beheading of captured pirates. Photo Hamburger Staatsarchiv.
Meanwhile, the Vitalie Brothers continued their plundering. Their ships were commanded by Mecklenburger nobles, while their crews were a motley assortment of men from all over. They fought under the motto: Friends of God, enemies of the whole world." During the herring market off Skanør, they attacked a large merchant fleet, plundering it without regard for the ships' home ports. Goods from Lübeck were openly unloaded onto the quays of Wismar and Rostock. TheVitalie Brothers took entire ship crews prisoner, often throwing them overboard or stuffing them into herring barrels and sealing the lids.
The struggle against the pirates evolved into a kind of civil war within the Hanseatic League. The city of Stralsund waged an uncompromising war against the pirates. Merchants from the city managed to capture around a hundred Vitalie Brothers in the waters off the coast. Adopting the pirates' own methods, they stuffed them all into herring barrels and sealed the lids after cutting holes for their heads. The prisoners were subsequently hauled out of the barrels in Stralsund’s market square and immediately beheaded, one by one.
In 1393, the pirates went so far as to sail all the way to Bergen, where they looted and burned the city and forced the inhabitants to pledge allegiance to King Albrecht. However, once the majority of the pirates had sailed away, the Norwegians reclaimed control of their city.
In the winter of 1394, eight of the Vitalie Brothers' ships became trapped in the ice off Dalarö in the Swedish archipelago while en route to Stockholm with supplies. Fearing an attack from the shore, they crossed the ice at night and felled a large number of trees, stacking them to form a defensive ring around the ships. They then poured water over the wood, in the bitter cold, it instantly froze, turning the wooden barrier into a hard, slippy, and unclimbable wall of ice. They also cut holes in the ice just outside this icy rampart.
When the Danes launched an attack using large siege engines known as "cats," the heavy machines broke through the ice, and the Danes drowned in the freezing water while the Vitalie Brothers taunted them, shouting "kitty, kitty, kitty".
Some time later, the weather turned, allowing the ships to sail into Stockholm with their eagerly awaited cargo.
In early May 1395, peace negotiations resumed, this time in Skanør and Falsterbo. The agreement stipulated that Albrecht would be granted his freedom for three years, until Michaelmas (September 29) 1398. He was required to pay the Hanseatic League 60,000 marks for his release. Should he fail to pay, he would have to return to prison, and the Queen would take possession of Stockholm. In the interim, the city was to be administered by the Hanseatic towns of Lübeck, Stralsund, Greifswald, Danzig, Thorn, Elbing, and Reval. The towns of Mecklenburg were to contribute 1,000 Lübeck marks annually. Margrete was to contribute 2,000 Lübeck marks, and Albrecht 1,000 marks per year.
It was also decided that Gotland would be divided between the parties, such that the Queen received the rural areas while the Mecklenburgers took possession of Visby.
As expected, Albrecht was unable to pay the enormous ransom, and on Michaelmas 1398, Margrete made her formal entry into Stockholm: "She was received there with great ceremony by a vast crowd of people, who came out to meet and accompany her."
18. Erik of Pommern
The Scandinavian Kalmar Union – ruled by Margaret 1. and later Erik of Pomerania.
The son of Margrete's sister's daughter, Bugislav of Pomerania, was elected King of Norway in 1389 and of Denmark and Sweden in 1396, at the age of 14, under the name Erik of Pomerania. Erik was thus a descendant of Valdemar Atterdag, he was the son of Duke Wartislaw of Pomerania.
On Trinity Sunday, 1397, which fell on June 17 that year, the young Erik of Pomerania was crowned King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The event took place in Kalmar, and the united Scandinavian kingdom was therefore named the Kalmar Union.
He was crowned with the title: "Erik, by the grace of God King of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Wends, and the Goths, Duke of Pomerania."
The phrase "by the grace of God" was introduced by Valdemar the Great as a mean of tempering the elective monarchy system, which in his view had caused decades of devastating civil war. "Of the Wends" dates back to the reign of Knud 6. after Bugislav of Wendland swore allegiance to the Danish king on a ship off Rügen in 1185, while "of the Goths" stems from Valdemar Atterdag's conquest of Gotland in 1361.
The young King Erik had now come of age, but he continued to respect his adoptive mother, Margrete, and consulted her on important decisions throughout her life.
The future Pope Pius II described Erik of Pomerania as follows: "Erik of Pomerania possessed a fine physique, reddish-blond hair, a ruddy complexion, and a long, slender neck. He would mount his horse unaided, without assistance or touching the stirrups, and he stirred a longing for love in all women, especially the Empress."
Erik of Pomerania was a highly active and serious monarch. He introduced the Sound Due and established a number of new market towns: Kerteminde, Skagen, Landskrona, Maribo, Korsør, and Helsingør. He made significant efforts to boost commerce in Denmark's market towns.
The Prussian historian Johann von Posilges recounts that "in this year,"1402, "something strange occurred in the land of Prussia."
"There was a poor, frail man who had settled in a village near Graudenz. He had arrived in the country from abroad. Some merchants found him there and asked if he was known in Denmark, for he bore a striking resemblance to King Oluf. He declared that he was not King Oluf."
"Now, sixteen years earlier, it happened that Queen Margrete, queen of the aforementioned kingdoms, had a son, whom she had caused to be poisoned, and this event gave rise to a rumor, that this man was King Oluf, and that he had fled, and someone else had been poisoned in his place, and that he had thus escaped."
Margrete 1. and Erik of Pomerania at Erik’s coronation as king of the united Nordic region on June 17, 1397, in Kalmar. The image is a so-called educational wall chart used in teaching from the early 1900-hundreds and onwards. Date: 1898. Wikipedia
"A number of merchants from the lands of Denmark and Norway came there and took him to Danzig so that the entire populace could acclaim him as king; they showed him great honor and placed whatever he desired at his disposal, in the hope that he would reciprocate."
"Thereupon, the queen sent esteemed envoys to Prussia to request, that he should be sent to her, for if he were indeed her son, she wished to acknowledge him as such."
In Denmark, "he was exposed as a fraud in every respect, for he had not been born in the country, nor could he speak the language; and he publicly confessed that he had been born in a village near Eger, and that his father was named Wolf and his mother Margrete."
"Then a massive pyre was prepared; the letters that he had sent to the queen, claiming to be her son, were hung upon him, and a crown was placed on his head. He was then displayed before the assembled crowd, cast onto the pyre, and burned; and all the valuables he had carried were given to a monastery."
The Hanseatic merchants and the Teutonic Order, which ruled Prussia at the time, did not look favorably upon a united Scandinavian kingdom. We must assume they invented the false Oluf to sow discord and cause trouble.
As we recall, in 1386 Queen Margrete 1. had granted the Duchy of Jutland as a hereditary fief to Count Gerhard of Holsten, a duchy the counts thereafter always referred to as Slesvig.
However, Gerhard fell during a military campaign against rebellious peasants in Ditmarsken in 1403 or 1404.
Following this, the duchy was governed by Count Gerhard’s widow, Elisabeth. A brother of Count Gerhard named Heinrich stepped forward, demanding to become guardian of Elisabeth’s five children. Heinrich succeeded in seizing control of almost all of Holsten.
However, Heinrich did not obtain guardianship of Elisabeth’s children. King Erik, now 22 years old, claimed the guardianship in his capacity as King of Denmark, in accordance with long-standing custom, given that the Duchy of Slesvig was a Danish fief. One of the boys, also named Heinrich, was sent to the Danish court at the age of seven to be raised there. The eldest girl was sent to Vadstena Abbey, where she later became abbess.
Yet, through the purchase of estates and loans secured by mortgages, Margaret gradually gained control over most of the Duchy of Slesvig.
Dowager Duchess Elisabeth was heavily in debt. Margrete granted her a substantial loan secured against Tønder Castle, its associated districts, and the greater part of North Frisia. At the same time, the Queen took over Haderslevhus from Henrik Ahlefeldt, who had fallen in Ditmarsken in 1404 alongside the Count.
The Dowager Duchess was now left with only Gottorp Castle, the towns of Sønderborg and Flensborg, and the islands of Als and Ærø.
A drawing of Erik of Pomerania from 1424, made during his lifetime. It aligns very well with Pope Pius II's description of King Erik: "Erik of Pomerania had a fine physique, reddish-yellow hair, a ruddy face, and a long, slender neck." Photographer unknown. Wikipedia
The royal acquisitions in the duchy created a highly tense atmosphere between the Holstenian and Danish commanders, who were mutually hostile.
King Erik conquered Ærø and Als in the summer of 1410. However, near the village of Eggebæk, south of Flensburg, a Danish force suffered a decisive defeat on August 12. 1410, at least according to the Holstenian priest known as Presbyter Bremensis:
"But at that time, Count Adolf of Schauenburg, who was at Gottorp acting as guardian for his underage nephews, marched out against the Danes with the Holstenians and some men from Bremen upon hearing this news. Together, they fell upon the Danes in the open field near the village of Eggebæk and killed many of them. Of the survivors, they took so many prisoner that the captives paid 60,000 marks to ransom their lives. One man, wealthier than the rest, Mogens Munk, was killed, while Skarpenberg was taken prisoner and paid 10,000 marks for his own release. When the spoils were divided, there were some 1,800 of the Danes' finest horses, along with a great quantity of weapons. Their numbers were so vast that the aforementioned Bishop Johan of Slesvig, who sided with the King and was present in Flensburg, remarked to those standing beside him as he watched them march out to plunder: 'God bless those who march out to plunder! For they are so numerous, so well-equipped, and so warlike that they could march all the way to the Rhine undefeated!" The next day, God sent them back unarmed, without horses, and with their hands bound together. And this victory gave the Holstenians the courage to fight against the Danes ever after. For in battle, one Holstenian was a match for five Danes."
Mogens Munk and Skarpenberg were both members of the Danish Council of the State.
Holstenian nobles captured the pro-Danish Bishop Johannes Skindelev and took him, wounded and half-naked, southward from Flensburg. Holstenian nobles ambushed and robbed Danish merchants traveling to Flensburg. The Dowager Duchess was held responsible for a series of acts of plunder and legal violations amounting to 11,400 mark. To cover this sum, Margrete took possession of Flensburg and the castle of Nyhus.
Peace negotiations were held at Koldinghus in 1411. It was agreed to restore the situation to what it had been before the outbreak of war. It was stipulated that the Holstenians were to return the city of Slesvig and its two castles, Svabsted and Stubbe. King Erik was to evacuate the islands of Ærø and Als. Flensburg and Tønder were to remain under Danish rule.
One night in 1412, the Holstenians succeeded in capturing parts of Flensburg, but it was subsequently decided that they must evacuate the city. Sympathizers with the Holstenian counts were arrested, and many were sentenced to death, including two priests. One of them denounced Queen Margaret and prophesied that she would die within two days.
Portrait bust of Queen Margaret from c. 1420. Presumably a preliminary study for her sarcophagus in Roskilde Cathedral. One can discern her father's overbite; the bust is likely a better likeness than the sarcophagus in Roskilde. Photo Sebastian Sonntag, ursprünglicher Künstler ist mir unbekannt - eigene Grafik von Ausstellungsstück: Museen für Kulturgeschichte. Margrete I. von Dänemark (Original-Büste im Schloss Kalmar oder im St. Annen-Museum, Lübeck) (Alabaster, c. 1420, Künstler: Johannes Junge) Wikiwand.
But on October 24. 1412, the citizens of Flensburg swore a solemn oath of allegiance to King Erik and his mother: "We, the citizens, councilors, and the entire community of Flensburg, hereby declare" – "that, having now returned to the service of our gracious lord, King Erik, and our gracious lady, Queen Margrete, and the Kingdom of Denmark" – "and having received their grace and kindness after having previously transgressed against them, we now pledge, through this open letter and in good faith, to always remain loyal and well-intentioned in our service to our dear, gracious lord King Erik and Queen Margrete of the Kingdom of Denmark" – "Should anyone hereafter, whoever they may be, attempt to betray or seize the city of Flensburg from our rulers or the Kingdom of Denmark, or otherwise encroach upon us (God forbid), then we shall all unite and stand together to offer fierce resistance" – "and whoever among us fails to do so" – "shall be judged as a traitor."
The oath sworn by the citizens of Flensburg marked Margaret’s final triumph. She had regained Flensburg, a city her father, King Valdemar, had also held after taking it by storm in January 1373.
Three days later, on the night of October 28, 1412, Queen Margrete I died aboard her ship in Flensburg Fjord.
It was not long after Margaret’s death before King Erik returned to the Slesvig issue with full force.
The 26–29 of July 1413, the last Danehof in history was held in Nyborg. On that occasion, King Erik pushed through a verdict delivered by Peder Jensen Lodehat, the Bishop of Roskilde, which upheld the King's claim to the Duchy of Slesvig.
The immediate cause of the legal proceedings was that Duke Heinrich of Lüneburg, brother of the Dowager Duchess Elisabeth, had succeeded in becoming guardian to the sons of the late Count Gerhard. He had asked King Erik to grant his three fatherless nephews the Duchy of Slesvig as a fief of Denmark, just as their father had held it.
However, King Erik presented a long list of charges, accusing the Dowager Duchess and her men of felony, which is the crime wherein a vassal acts treasonously toward their royal lord, thereby forfeiting their right to the fief, causing it to revert to the King.
The verdict was entirely in King Erik’s favor. Bishop Peder declared that Slesvig was King Erik’s rightful maternal inheritance and that the Holstenians had disregarded all law and reason through their unlawful occupation of the Duchy. Consequently, they were stripped of any right to it.
The Holstenians did not accept the ruling and continued to style themselves Dukes of Slesvig, an act that was, in principle, a declaration of war.
The Holstenians did not stand alone. At times, they were supported by the Hanseatic League, other German princes, and, to some extent, the German Emperor and Erik had little success in the war, he launched against them.
In 1415, Erik introduced a war tax across all his kingdoms. He then marched his army into the Duchy of Slesvig and ordered the repair and construction of several castles along the fjord Slien and at the Dannevirke.
The Duchy of Slesvig and the County of Holsten. In 1474, Holsten was elevated to a duchy. Photo: Ministry of Culture.
In 1416, Erik of Pomerania assembled his fleet from all his realms and sailed to Fehmern, which belonged to Holsten. In June, his troops landed and captured Glambæk Castle.
Erik subsequently laid siege to the city of Slesvig, but autumn arrived, and the Scandinavian leding peasant sailed home to their respective countries, causing the siege to be abandoned. During the winter, the Holstenians retook Fehmern.
The Holstenians continually received reinforcements from the North German princes. Thus, in mid 1417, the son of the former King of Sweden, Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, arrived with 400 mounted troops.
Erik captured the city of Slesvig in 1417 but failed to take Gottorp Castle. Some years of fruitless negotiations followed. The Scandinavian fleet recaptured Fehmern, and because the inhabitants had put up resistance, Erik allowed his troops to plunder freely. In 1421, the Jutland landowner Claus Lembek defected to the Holstenians. Erik besieged Lembek's castle at Tørning, near Haderslev, but was attacked by Count Henry of Holsten, and the siege failed.
In 1425, the Hanseatic League sided with the Holstenians.
Thus, the conflict dragged on for several years, interupted by long pauses, until Flensburg, King Erik’s last stronghold in the duchy, fell to the Holstenians on September 7. 1431.
Under pressure from the Swedish Engelbrekt Rebellion, Erik concluded a peace treaty with the Hanseatic League and Duke Adolf of Slesvig at Vordingborg in 1435. Adolf was guaranteed his rights to Slesvig, and the Hanseatic League had its trading rights in Bergen confirmed. By then, 23 years had passed since the famous Danehof assembly, where Erik had successfully asserted his claim to the Duchy of Slesvig. The ensuing war was a clear defeat for Erik of Pomerania.
One might wonder how a king of three kingdoms could fail to overcome a few minor counts from Holsten.
However, since the days of Erik Menved, the Holstenians had made a fortune fighting as mercenaries in the wars of other princes. They were far more professional, and likely better equipped, than Erik’s Scandinavian leding peasant. Moreover, Erik’s leding army fought only during the summer.
In winter, Erik had far fewer soldiers at his disposal, allowing the Holstenians to reclaim lost ground. Furthermore, the cities of Lübeck, Wismar, Stralsund, Rostock, and Hamburg commanded far greater financial resources than King Erik.
Yet, another defeat awaited Erik on the political front.
The monument to Engelbrekt in Borganäs, Borlänge. Statues of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson exist, but in reality, no one knows what he looked like, only that he had difficulty walking and could not ride a horse.
Engelbrekt launched a rebellion in 1434 with the support of miners and peasants from his home region. The cause was dissatisfaction with the king's bailiff in Västerås, the Dane Jens Eriksen. Following formal complaints from Engelbrekt, King Erik of Pomerania conducted an investigation which revealed that Eriksen's conduct in office was unlawful. Despite this, he was not replaced, prompting a large group of peasants to travel to Västerås to protest. The Council of the State intervened to resolve the issues peacefully, but no action was taken against Jens Eriksen. In the spring of 1433, the protests escalated into violence, and the men of Dalarna besieged his castle. The Council of the State dismissed Eriksen and replaced him with Hans von Eberstein. However, Engelbrekt was not satisfied, as Eriksen had not been prosecuted for his admitted misdeeds. An army of peasants and miners destroyed the castles of Borganäs and Köpingshus. At this point, many noblemen joined the rebels. The rebellion, which came to symbolize resistance against Danes in King Erik's service, spread across most of the country. Both Jens Eriksen and Engelbrekt were killed, and the rebellion eventually subsided. The new Swedish Marsk, Karl Knutsson, found a platform to position himself as a candidate for the Swedish throne. Photo Edaen Wikipedia.
1434, certain Swedish councillors of the State accused King Erik of making the monarchy hereditary, thereby depriving them of their right to free election. Upon King Erik’s deposition in Denmark in 1439, a similar accusation was raised: that he had introduced hereditary succession with the aim of positioning his nephew, Bugislav, as his successor.
In 1434, a rebellion broke out among Swedish miners in Dalarna and Bergslagen, led by the nobleman Engelbrekt. Although the uprising was suppressed, King Erik was forced to fill the offices of drot, High Steward, and marsk, Marshal positions that Margrete had previously canceled. Furthermore, he was required to govern in consultation with the Swedish Council of the State, and Swedish fiefs had to be held by Swedish noblemen.
King Erik issued the famous declaration: "I will not be your yes-king" and subsequently withdrew to Gotland, taking his treasures with him.
Both the Swedish and Danish Councils of the State renounced their allegiance and loyalty to King Erik in 1439, though the Norwegian Council of the State did not follow suit until 1442.
Ships waiting to pay the Sound Dues off Kronborg Castle at Helsingør. Erik of Pomerania introduced the Sound Due in 1429. It had to be paid by all ships passing through the Danish straits en route to or from the Baltic Sea. His motives remain unknown. Perhaps he wished to fund the fight against pirates in the Baltic, which he regarded as a Danish inland sea. Alternatively, it was simply common practice at the time for rulers to levy tolls at strategic checkpoints.
The Sound Dues remained in effect for over 400 years, until 1857. Throughout this period, they were a significant source of revenue for the Danish kings. The amount of the fee varied over time, but a typical payment was 1–2% of the cargo's value. At times, the revenue could account for up to two-thirds of the Crown's income. Fredensborg, Rosenborg, and all the other castles and beautiful buildings built by Christian 4. were financed by the Sound Due.
Photo: Old copperplate engraving.
19. Christoffer of Bayern
After Erik was deposed as king in 1439, his nephew, Christopher of Bavaria, was appointed regent, and the following year, on April 9. 1440, he was elected King of Denmark at the Viborg
Ting.
Christopher was the only son of Count Johan of Pfalz-Neumarkt and Erik of Pomerania’s sister, Catherine and thus a descendant of Valdemar Atterdag through his mother. In his youth, he served under the German Emperor. The Duchy of Pfalz-Neumarkt was located between Nuremberg and Regensburg in southern Germany.
When King Erik departed for Gotland and was subsequently deposed, the peasants came to miss their royal protector, who had protected them from the arbitrary actions of the magnates.
In 1441, the Danish peasants rose in rebellion.
In the invitation sent to Duke Christopher in October 1438, the Danish Councillors of State described how "the common people," immediately after King Erik’s departure for Gotland, "rose up, first in Zealand and later across all of Denmark, against the entire clergy and the whole of the knighthood, such that we daily live in peril of our lives because of them and can obtain no justice from them."
In the letter of renunciation sent to King Erik in 1439, the Council of State expressed itself even more clearly: "In certain regions, the common people have now risen up, with violence and injustice, against all the kingdom's noblesand, in particular, against their own lords and masters, in defiance of honor and law, to the ruinous detriment of them and us all." The nobles attributed this to King Erik and his nephew Bugislav: "and they openly declare that they are doing so at the instigation of Your Majesty and Duke Bogislaw." They lamented the division of the realm: "since a large portion of the common people have pledged allegiance to the Lord of Holsten, whereby the kingdom has lost Haderslev and Ærø."
King Erik replied from Gotland, stating that they themselves were to blame for these problems due to their "great oppression" and "unjust rule."
In 1441, a Jutland peasant army defeated the local nobles, who were led by the commander of Ålborghus, Eske Brock, who himself fell in the battle. The rebel army was led by the landowner Henrik Tagesen Reventlow.
Christopher of Bavaria. Drawing in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris, reproduced in *Danmarks Riges Historie* (1896–1907). A drawing on parchment depicting a series of Bavarian princes, including Christopher of Bavaria, is housed in Paris. The artist apparently intended to showcase various styles of men's fashion, which easily gives the viewer the impression that the king was a silly fashion enthusiast lacking political ability. Photo: Wikipedia.
Christoffer, who had experience in warfare against peasant rebels from his service under the German Emperor, marched against the peasants with an army; the forces met on June 6. or 8. 1441, at the St. Jørgensbjerg ridge near the village of Husby in Han Herred, north of the Limfjord.
Legend says that the king persuaded the men from Mors and Thy to lay down their arms in exchange for a promise of forgiveness. However, the men from Vendsyssel remained in the wagon fort atop the hill. A folk song recounts:
"First the men from Mors fled, and then the traitors from Thy.
The men from Vendsyssel stood alone; they would not flee."
Subsequently, on June 8, 1441, Christoffer breached the steadfast peasants' wagon fort on the hilltop and slaughtered many of the rebels.
The leader of the uprising, Henrik Tagesen Reventlow, was captured; a few days later, he and 14 other rebels were executed and their bodies displayed on the breaking wheel and gallows in Aalborg.
Later in 1441, Archbishop Hans Laxmand negotiated an agreement for Christoffer to ascend the Swedish throne, though the Swedish Regent, Karl Knutsson Bonde, was granted Finland and Öland as fiefs.
In June 1442, a year after the battle at St. Jørgensbjerg, Christoffer issued a document called "Landefred" for Denmark. This was not a handbinding contract, but rather a form of constitution, as it established both duties and rights for everyone in the kingdom.
It stated, among other things: "We have heard of many disputes, complaints, and lawsuits arising in our time concerning the bailiffs and officials serving us and other men of standing. Likewise, we have heard of many grievances and complaints regarding the common people of this realm, stemming from their gross disobedience and insolence."
"Should any of our bailiffs or officials inflict violence or injustice upon any man, rich or poor, particularly through unlawful demands for hospitality or illegal taxation contrary to the law and the circumstances of the case, let him be certain that we shall dismiss him from his office for such conduct."
In July 1442, Christoffer was crowned King of Norway in Oslo Cathedral by Archbishop Aslak Bolt. He never visited Norway again.
He abandoned the concept of the Kalmar Union as a unified Scandinavian state, as was the ambition held by Margrete and Erik of Pomerania, and settled instead for a personal union, allowing the respective Councils of State to govern the countries in practice.
Upon his accession, Christoffer had promised the Swedes he would secure Gotland for them, as the island was occupied by the deposed Eric of Pomerania where he ruled from his castle, Visborg. Christoffer attempted to remove him through negotiations, but to no avail. When complaints were subsequently made about the piracy Erik was engaged in, he replied resignedly: "After all, my uncle has to make a living too.".
Queen Dorothea of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. A copy of a 16th-century contemporary portrait of Christian and Dorothea. Queen Dorothea was a gifted and capable queen. She took an interest in her husband's affairs of state and was skilled at managing her lands. Thanks to her, King Christian was able to use the revenues from the duchies to redeem the many previous pledges. Following Dorothea's visit to Rome in 1475, Pope Sixtus IV issued a papal bull to Christian 1. granting permission to establish a Danish university.
The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg. Photographer unknown. Wikipedia.
Copenhagen was King Christopher’s preferred residence. It was here that he celebrated his wedding in 1445 to 15-year-old Dorothea, daughter of Margrave Johan of Brandenburg. A few days later, she was crowned Queen of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, wearing the magnificent gold crown that Queen Philippa, consort of Eric of Pomerania, had worn at her own coronation and subsequently bequeathed to Vadstena Abbey.
However, Christopher died childless at Helsingborg Castle in January 1448"of a fever," at the age of only 32. At the time of his death, Queen Dorothea was 18 years old.
In the wake of Christopher’s death in 1448, the Swedish Marsk and regent Karl Knutsson Bonde had himself elected King of Sweden in June 1448 and King of Norway in 1449, in the vain hope that a Swedish monarch could become king of the entire union.
20. Christian 1.
However, the Danish Council of the State offered the Danish throne to the Duke of Slesvig, Adolf 8. who was also Count of Holsten and Stormarn. Adolf declined on the grounds that he was too old, pointing instead to his nephew, Count Christian Dietrichsson of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.
Neither Count Adolf nor his two brothers left any children, but Adolf succeeded in having Christian recognized as his heir to the titles of Count of Holsten and Duke of Slesvig. The Danish Council of the State subsequently decided to follow Adolf's proposal and elect Count Christian as King of Denmark as well. Thus, the Danish king finally became the sovereign of Holsten and Slesvig too.
Christian 1. was a descendant of Erik Klipping's daughter Richiza, which qualified him for the Danish crown.
Beforehand, however, Christian had to promise his maternal uncle that he would abide by the provision, signed in August 1326 at a Danehof assembly by the puppet king Valdemar 3. and known as the "Constitutio Valdemariana", stating that the "Duchy of Jutland" (Slesvig) "must not be united or linked with the Danish kingdom or its crown in such a way that one lord rules over both." This was understood to mean that the territories could not be united into a single nation state with shared laws and a common administration.
As a condition for Christian becoming king, the Danes demanded that he marry Dorothea, the 18-year-old widow of Christopher of Bavaria. He accepted this.
In September 1448, Christian was acclaimed King of Denmark at the Viborg Ting, and in 1450, the Norwegian Council of the kingdom accepted him as King of Norway in stead of Karl Knutsson. Christian was subsequently crowned in Nidaros Cathedral in August 1450.
The Swedes considered Gotland to be a Swedish island, and when Karl Knutsson Bonde became king, during his first reign, he immediately initiated a siege of Erik of Pomerania’s fortress, Visborg, in 1449. However, to the Swedes' dismay, Eric secretly summoned Danish forces and handed over the fortress and the island to them. He then took his treasures and sailed to his native land, Pomerania, where he spent the rest of his days.
At a meeting in Halmstad in May 1450, Swedish and Danish councilors acknowledged Karl Knutsson’s election as King of Sweden and Christian 1.’s election as King of Norway, and a peace treaty was concluded between the kingdoms. However, negotiations broke down, when King Christian, who had recently married the widow Dorothea, demanded control over the Swedish estates that constituted her Swedish "morning gift" from her previous marriage to Christopher of Bavaria.
Disappointed at having been passed over as King of the Union, Karl Knutsson marched an army into Scania in early 1452. As drifting ice prevented Christian from crossing the Sound, the Swedes had a free hand. They burned Helsingborg, Lund, and Landskrona and slaughtered a peasant army near Dalby. Malmö held out, but the Swedes instead burned the towns of Væ and Åhus. The Danes captured the fortress of Älvsborg at the mouth of the Göta River, but when they attempted to advance further into Sweden, they were repelled in bloody battles.
However, the Swedes grew weary of Karl Knutsson’s harsh rule; led by Archbishop Jöns they drove Karl Knutsson into exile in Danzig and summoned Christian, who was subsequently proclaimed King of Sweden in Uppsala in 1457. On the same occasion, his son, Hans, was elected heir to the throne.
Christian 1., King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Duke of Slesig and Holsten. Copy of a 16th-century contemporary portrait of Christian and Dorothea. The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg. Photographer unknown.
Thus, it would seem, the Scandinavian Kalmar Union was fully re-established.
Christian now appeared as a mighty ruler. He was King of the three Nordic kingdoms and also ruler of the Duchy of Slesig and the County of Holsten. It was the largest Danish empire since the time of Cnut the Great. In reality, however, he had overreached.
Furthermore, reaching this point had cost Christian a great deal of money. A last surviving member of the Holstenian count dynasty and his brothers, the Counts of Oldenburg, held inheritance rights to the duchies and had to be compensated with enormous sums. He borrowed the money, gave notorious mortgage fiefs as security. To raise funds to redeem the debt, he imposed increased taxes across all his lands.
The Church was not exempted from this taxation, nor were the funds collected for a crusade against the Turks, bearing in mind that, as we know, Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.
The Swedish Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson had previously led the rebellion that, in 1457, ousted Karl Knutsson and invited Christian to Sweden as king.
However, Christian’s increased taxes caused the archbishop to turn against him and instigate a rebellion, likely in 1462–63.
In 1463, Christian responded by imprisoning Jöns Bengtsson in Denmark, which triggered a new and much larger Swedish uprising led by Bishop Ketil of Linköping. The King was forced to release the archbishop again in 1464.
Karl Knutsson was recalled by the rebels and returned at the head of an army of German and Polish mercenaries. Upon his arrival in Sweden, he found himself at war with the archbishop, and in the winter of 1464–1465, he was once again exiled.
The Swedish noblemen known as the Axel sons, a branch of the Thott noble family, which also held estates in Denmark, seized power in Sweden in 1466. However, they failed to summon Christian. This enraged Christian to such an extent that he invoked the principle of collective punishment, confiscating the family's estates in Denmark in retaliation for the transgressions he believed their Swedish kinsmen had committed.
Erik Axelsson Tott subsequently declared a feud against Christian 1. and, in 1467, recalled Karl Knutsson Bonde to the Swedish throne for a third term. He reigned for three years, sharing power with the Council of the State until his death in Stockholm in May 1470.
The hatred of the Danes that characterized Sweden for several subsequent centuries can be traced back to Karl Knutsson. His Karlskrønike, spanning 10,000 lines of verse, is an orgy of anti-Danish sentiment. The infamous lines about King Erik’s brutal bailiff originate from there:
The poor peasants of Dalarna dwelt,
and their bailiff caused them great distress.
He had the peasants hung in the smoke,
so harshly did he oppress them.
He had their women tormented too;
harnessed to hay-wagons, they were forced to pull them.
He brought such great misery upon them
that they gave birth to children, who were dead.
The popularity of Karl Knutsson’s crude propaganda demonstrates that Danish kings, bailiffs, and Danes in general were unpopular among the people of Sweden.
Location of Brunkebergsåsen north of old Stockholm, 1637. Photo Stockholm enligt 1637 "Swensche Plante Boken" okänd, the map is supplemented with modern stadsdelsnamn av Holger Ellgaard 27 April 2008 (UTC) - Stockholm map Wikipedia
Following the death of Karl Knutsson in 1470, the Axelsson brothers appointed their brother-in-law, Sten Gustavsson Sture, as acting regent of Sweden. Sten Sture was also the son of Karl Knutsson’s sister.
However, as early as the autumn of 1471, Christian once again reached for the Swedish crown. He landed a Danish army of approximately 3,000 men, carried by perhaps 70 ships, near Stockholm. He was quickly joined by many Swedish supporters of the Union. The decisive battle took place at Brunkebjerg, an area that today forms the Norrmalm district of modern Stockholm.
Negotiations regarding a peaceful resolution to the conflict were already underway with acting regent Sten Sture, so King Christian’s unionist forces were caught somewhat off guard, when a Swedish army led by Sten Sture himself launched a surprise advance from the woods north of Stockholm. A portion of King Christian’s army was surrounded near St. Klara’s Convent and defeated. Christian was a brave man, who personally led his army on the battlefield at Brunkebjerg. Firearms were used, and the king was hit by a bullet from a handheld gun, which knocked out two of his teeth.
The Danes and the Swedish Unionists were defeated and fled back toward their ships. Many drowned when the wooden bridge collapsed.
In 1469, Christian gave his daughter Margrete in marriage to King James 3. of Scotland. Unable to afford the dowry, he pledged the Orkney and Shetland island groups, which were Norwegian tributary lands, to the Scottish king as security. As we know, the pledge was never redeemed. Subsequent Scottish kings simply refused to accept the money.
While traveling to Rome in 1474, Christian met with the German Emperor, and it was decided that, the County of Holsten, Ditmarsken and Stormarn would be merged and elevated to the Duchy of Holsten, to be held as a hereditary territory. No one bothered to consult the people of Ditmarsken themselves.
King Christian was a man of grand scale, when it came to costly political ambitions and the display of chivalric splendor. The Queen was his complete opposite. She was thrifty, if not downright stingy, and had systematically redeemed all the pledged fiefs the King had granted in the duchies. After redeeming them, she had kept the fiefs for herself, meaning that upon her husband's death, she could offer her son, young Frederick, a whole duchy or two, virtually free of debt.
She had suggested to Christian that young Frederick be sent to his future subjects in Holsten, allowing him to naturally step into the role of their future prince.
Christian 1. is buried in Roskilde Cathedral. His tomb has been opened twice, most recently between 1843 and 1847. He is missing the two teeth, he lost in the Battle of Brunkeberg. He was of very sturdy build. An examination of the skeleton in 1847 indicated that he was 188 cm tall.
Upon his death in May 1481, he left behind two sons: Hans, who was then 26 years old, and the much younger Frederik. Queen Dorothea loved both her sons, but she worried most about young Frederik. Her preference was for each to have his own kingdom, but since that was not feasible, she wanted young Frederik to receive at least a duchy.
21. Hans
King Hans depicted on Claus Berg’s altarpiece in St. Knud’s Church in Odense, dating from around 1515–25. It was his queen, Christine, who commissioned the altarpiece, so it is reasonable to assume that the figure is a true-to-life portrait. Photo: Jacob Truedson Demitz for Ristesson Wikipedia.
It is easy to see that this would have marked the beginning of a repeat of the history involving Knud Lavard and, later, Duke Abel, namely, a scenario where a younger member of the royal family, having been granted a portion of the kingdom exclusively for himself and his descendants, sought to transform it into a fully independent kingdom by enlisting the support of neighboring nations.
This was also the view held by the newly crowned King Hans upon his father's death, and for this reason, it is said, he arrived at the negotiations regarding the future of the duchies accompanied by several thousand armed men.
He succeeded in securing recognition as dukes for both himself, as king, and his yonger brother. However, this did not entail one receiving Holsten and the other Slesvig, as a promise had been made that the two duchies should remain "forever undivided."
The duchies were indeed divided, but in a highly intricate manner. Both King Hans and Duke Frederick received parts of Slesvig as well as Holsten, creating a complex patchwork arrangement that would persist for centuries. The aim was to ensure cooperation between the king and the duke.
The Council of the State represented a natural continuation and streamlining of the Danehof assemblies. It was considered inconvenient for so many people to have to travel long distances to gather every single year. Consequently, a council - likely self-replenishing and composed of the kingdom's leading men - could meet much more frequently.
However, Eric of Pomerania clearly must have believed that the Danehof held greater authority than the Council of the State, given that he convened the last Danehof in Danish history in 1413, despite already having a Council of the State in place.
Historians Erik Kjersgaard and Johan Hvidtfeldt note the existence of a document from the reign of King Hans that describes the Council’s view on the distribution of power: "There is no doubt regarding the authority of the councillors, for they - along with the inhabitants of a typical elective kingdom - are the true and unquestionable owners of the kingdom itself, because the sovereign rights and actual ownership of the kingdom undoubtedly reside with them." The king is thus merely an administrator entrusted with power by the councillors and the inhabitants of the land. "First and foremost, careful attention must be paid to how cautious, vigilant, and attentive the councillors and inhabitants of an elective kingdom must be, they must not, through carelessness or negligence, tolerate or accept their elective kingdom becoming the king's hereditary kingdom, for then the councillors and inhabitants would lose their rights of ownership." This would lead to "serfdom," and "to avoid such serfdom, one should shun a long succession of kings in a direct line within an elective kingdom. If the fourth generation grants a right of inheritance, then the third generation is already dangerous, unless one secures sufficient guarantees, if such can be found at all."
At a meeting in Halmstad in January 1483, Hans was compelled to sign a pan-Nordic charter, at least for Denmark and Norway, stipulating that he could not transfer tax revenues from Sweden and Norway to Denmark, nor bring foreign troops into the realms, nor place "anyone of low birth" above the members of the Council of the kingdoms. This meant he could not allow commoner secretaries or the like to make decisions, that properly belonged to the councillors. Furthermore, a clause was added to the charter granting the subjects the right to rebel, should he violate the charter's provisions.
Only then, two years after Christian's death in 1481, was Hans crowned king in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen. Archbishop Jens Brostrup performed the anointing itself, but several councillors of the kingdom then stepped forward to assist in placing the crown upon the king's head. His title was "By the Grace of God, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden –". Consequently, he was anointed by God’s representative, the archbishop. However, the fact that the Council of the kingdom assisted in placing the crown upon his head suggests that he also became king "by the will of the people," given that Denmark remained an elective monarchy, regardless of the title the king adopted.
That same year, he was crowned King of Norway.
However, Sweden was still governed by acting regent Sten Sture.
In many respects, King Hans was the opposite of his father. He was a broad-set man, likely somewhat overweight. He was a man of simple habits. By the standards of the time, he ate modestly, preferring hearty, old-fashioned Danish dishes to foreign delicacies. He did not seek to outshine other men with his attire, indeed, it could be difficult to point out the king out of a group of men, if one was not familiar with his appearance.
He was in his right element when sitting on the bench, "making merry" with his men. He loved song, music, and uninhibited chats. He was an passionate gambler, who enjoyed passing the time with cards and dices. During a voyage to Gotland aboard the ship Gribshunden, the cards were dealt as soon as they were off Dragør and barely left the table for an entire week.
Graphic reconstruction of the Danish warship Gribshunden from the time of King Hans by Mats Vänehem. The illustration is on display at the museum at Kallvattenkuren in Ronneby. Photography was permitted without restriction at the museum. Gribshunden sank in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Ronneby, Blekinge, in 1495 due to a fire on board. The vessel is one of the best-preserved shipwrecks from the late Middle Ages.
Ivar Akselsen, of the powerful Thott family, ruled over Gotland. However, he found himself in a precarious position, as the Swedish Active Regent Sten Sture had already captured his castle, Viborg, in Finland, and it was only a matter of time before that same Sten Sture appeared before the walls of Visborg. He then repeated the feat Eric of Pomerania had accomplished in 1449: right under the noses of the Swedes, in 1487, he handed over the castle, and with it, the island of Gotland, to King Hans. He himself withdrew to Scania, where he died shortly thereafter.
There were still powerful forces in Sweden that wanted a union, including Archbishop Jacob Ulvsson and the influential nobleman Arvid Trolle. Both worked to restore the union and pressured Active Regent Sten Sture to respect King Hans's right to the Swedish crown.
When Sten Sture accused the pro-union Swedes of intending to hand the country over to the enemy, and further allowed his supporters to plunder the archbishop's estate in Uppsala and besiege his castle north of Stockholm, the tension ignited an open civil war. King Hans decided the time was right to act.
The king hired the professional mercenary corps known as "The Black Guard" or "The Saxon Guard", led by Junker Thomas Schlentz. The Junker himself and his staff were mounted, while the army itself consisted primarily of infantry clad in iron helmets, cuirasses, and iron thigh guards. The Guard had its own field chaplains and a musical corps that accompanied their advance with fifes and drums.
They had the worst possible reputation. They spread terror and dread wherever they went. They were armed with long lances for use against cavalry and long two-handed swords for close combat. They took no prisoners.
"I have never seen better soldiers or worser human beings," one of the guard's officers is said to have remarked about his men.
As they crossed Holsten on their way to Denmark, the local population fled behind the protective walls of Lübeck. That was how Junker Schlentz wanted it to be. The mere cry "The Guard is coming" was intended to paralyze all resistance.
In addition to the Guard, King Hans is said to have mobilized all his Danish noblemen and every tenth peasant. All in all, it must have been a massive army that marched up through Östergötland. They crossed the border at Brömsebro and continued to Kalmar, which surrendered after a few days. Supplying such a large army with food, and the horses with fodder, while marching through the rugged landscape must have been a major logistical challenge. Perhaps they received supplies by sea at Kalmar. We recall that Svend Grathe had to abandon a similar campaign and turn back halfway, while Valdemar Atterdag turned his attention to Gotland instead.
The great army encountered little resistance between Kalmar and Stockholm, as the Swedish nobleman Arvid Trolle had instructed the commanders to open their castles and join the Council of the State's rebellion against Sten Sture.
King Hans laid siege to Stockholm and established his headquarters on the site of his father's old battlefield, Brunkeberg Ridge, north of the city.
However, the Danes intercepted intelligence that a large army of dalkarlar that is men from the province of Dalarna, was marching from the north to come to Sten Sture's aid. The armies clashed at Rotebro in 1497, a location situated perhaps 12–15 km north of Stockholm as it existed at the time.
A footbridge over the stream in Rotobro north of Stockholm where the battle took place in 1497. Photo Rotebro Youtube.
The Swedes had cut the bridge and were firing their crossbows at the Danish forces on the opposite bank. Yet, amidst a hail of arrows "as thick as a snowstorm," the Saxon Guard waded across the stream and massacred the men from Dalarna.
When the Guard returned to the main camp at Brunkenbjerg bearing the captured banners of the Dalarna men, Sten Sture, who was besieged in Stockholm, believed the Dalarna men had triumphed and were now attacking King Hans's camp. He therefore ordered a sortie.
However, he soon realized his grave error and managed to save himself by steering his horse into the water and letting the current carry him back to Slotsholmen. His men fared less well, they fled back to Stockholm in a panic, crowding onto the bridge and pushing one another into the water, where the weight of their armor dragged them down.
King Hans, however, could not afford a prolonged siege. The Saxon Guard cost a fortune every single day. Consequently, he sought negotiations and a settlement.
An agreement was reached. On October 10. 1497, King Hans was finally able to make his entry into Stockholm.
It is said that King Hans intended to have Sten Sture arrested and executed, and that the executioner was already waiting in an adjoining room. However, a Swedish supporter of the Union restrained the king with these words: "Old Lord Sten is like a rotten egg, left alone, it does no harm. But if you crush it, it will stink."
On November 25. 1497, he was crowned the rightful King of Sweden. The actual regent Sten Sture formally handed over all Swedish castles and fiefs to him, and in return, the King granted him the entire åbo in Finland, including seven castles, and all of Norrbotten as a fief. Finally, Hans secured the recognition of his eldest son, Christian, as heir to the throne.
With this, the Kalmar Union was restored.
But King Hans enjoyed only three years of paradise before trouble struck again.
As we recall, Christian 1. met the German Emperor in 1474, and together they decided that the County of Holstein, Ditmarsken, and Stormarn should be merged and elevated to the Duchy of Holsten, to be held as a hereditary territory. The people of Dithmarschen were not consulted.
However, since the people of Dithmarsken were now part of such a duchy, they were naturally expected to acknowledge the dukes as their overlords and pay them taxes, or so believed the two collaborating Dukes of Slesvig and Holsten: King Hans and his younger brother, Frederick.
In January 1500, King Hans and his younger brother assembled an army in Neumünster consisting of conscripted peasants, mounted Danish and Holstenian armored cavalry, and the infamous Saxon Guard led by Junker Schlentz, which was primarily an infantery force. The army is estimated to have totaled around 10,000 men.
An easy victory over mere peasants was expected. The army brought along a large number of empty wagons intended to carry away the anticipated spoils.
On February 11. the army entered Ditmarsken. Apart from a wedding party that was taken by surprise, there was no sign of the Ditmarskers. The campaign appeared to be proceeding with great ease, and the advancing army encountered no peasants, who did not submit or surrender.
Resistance was met only upon reaching the main town of Meldorf. However, a salvo from the new cannons shattered the fortifications. Junker Schlentz’s "Landsknechte" stormed forward, killing the few defenders and slaughtering women, children, and the elderly in their customary fashion.
But where were the Ditmarskers? The army waited in vain for three days for them to arrive and defend their town.
The Saxon Guard cost a small fortune every single day, consequently, King Hans insisted that the army should press on, despite the terrible weather with rain and sleet, and the fact that the road was nothing but a strip of mud. Furthermore, the Ditmarskers had opened the sea dikes, filling the roadside ditches to the brim and flooding the fields.
On February 17., the army broke camp at Meldorf and marched northward, resembling a serpent a kilometer long, uncoiling along the narrow road. At the vanguard marched the Saxon Guard, followed by the conscripted peasant soldiers, then the noble cavalry, including King Hans and Duke Frederick themselves, and finally the cannons and wagons laden with spoils.
Schlacht bei Hemmingstedt,historical mural in the assembly hall of the office building (Kreishaus) in the former Süderdithmarschen district of Meldorf. Wikipedia.
Just behind a bend in the road, the Ditmarskers had erected a barricade overnight, which was invisible from the road until the turn was rounded. In front of the barricade, they had dug a ditch which, naturally, was filled with water. There, the peasant Wulf Isebrandt stood with a few hundred men and some small cannons.
Junker Schlentz’s men carried bundles of brushwood. He ordered them to fill the ditch in front of the barricade and attack, but they were mown down. He then brought up cannons, but they failed to fire because the fuses had become wet.
Meanwhile, the kilometer-long column of horses, wagons, and men could not see what was happening ahead, nor did they know, consequently, they kept pressing forward. The result was that men and horses were forced into the ditches, where the horses became stuck and the armored knights tumbeld in the mud. There, they were attacked by the Ditmarskers from both sides.
The wagons could not be turned around on the narrow road, and in desperation, attempts were made to tip them into the ditch.
Junker Schlentz dismounted and personally led his men, in a column bristling with lances, across the water-filled ditch, over the fallen and wounded, and up onto the barricade. However, Isebrandt ordered his men to take off their boots, helmets, and armor so they could move more freely. They then attacked the Saxon Guard from all sides, shouting the battle cry "Help, Maria Milde."
King Hans and Duke Frederik narrowly escaped.
Well over a third of the army was left behind on the road between Meldorf and Hemmingstedt, killed, drowned, or missing. Furthermore, the Danes' priceless banner, the Dannebrog said to have fallen from the heavens, had fallen into the hands of the Ditmarskers and was hung as a trophy in the church at Meldorf.
A few weeks later, Shrovetide festivities were celebrated in Lübeck, where the jokes was directed particularly at the king and his brother.
Kong Hans's defeat at the hands of the Ditmarsker peasants significantly weakened his authority in Sweden.
When he returned to Stockholm in the early months of 1501, the Council of State presented him with a formal protest regarding his failure to uphold the terms of the union.
Unfortunately, envoys from Grand Prince Ivan 3. of Moscow arrived in Stockholm at the same time. Speaking in Latin, they called upon King Hans to fulfill his part of the agreement with the Grand Prince, thereby revealing, within earshot of the Swedes, that Ivan 3.’s recent attack on Finland in 1495 had actually been done in agreement with King Hans to help him secure the Swedish throne.
The Swedes were deeply dismayed that their king had allied himself with their Muscovite enemies against them.
On his way back to Denmark, he learned, likely in late March 1501 that the knight Sten Kristiernsson Oxenstierna had raised the banner of rebellion in northern Uppland. Hans returned to Stockholm, where he accused Sten Sture of conspiring against him, while simultaneously receiving fresh complaints regarding his failure to honor the terms of the union agreements.
Lithograph by Carl Johan Billmark showing Stockholm from the east in 1868. In the center, Gamla Stan is visible, featuring the tower of Storkyrkan and the Stockholm Palace slightly to the right on the island. Södermalm is on the left. Stockholm City Museum / Wikipedia.
In August 1501, Sten Sture, Hemming Gad, and several other council members renounced their allegiance and obedience to him.
Hans then sailed to Denmark for reinforcements, leaving Queen Christine at Stockholm Castle with a strong garrison.
Swedish propaganda placed great emphasis on the fact that he had taken his mistress, Edele Mikkelsdatter Jernskjæg, with him instead of the Queen. There are many theories as to why, but the most likely explanation is that the Queen feared the bouts of melancholy King Hans - perhaps on rare occasions - might suffer. She therefore sent her trusted lady-in-waiting with him, tasking her with keeping the King in good spirits by talking to him, playing dice and cards with him, and the like.
Around October 10. 1501, an army of rebellious peasants advanced on Stockholm, where it split into two groups. One half besieged the city from Södermalm and the other from Norrmalm. A force of German mercenaries attacked the peasants, first at Norrmalm and then at Södermalm. However, the peasant army was too numerous, and the attacks were in vain. The siege became a reality.
About a week later, a fire broke out in the city. When the gates were opened to fetch water, the rebels seized the opportunity to capture the city. The 4,000 peasant soldiers now surrounded Stockholm Castle itself. In a letter Queen Christine later sent to King James of Scotland, she stated that the castle was garrisoned by around 1,000 Danish and German mercenaries, together with the Swedish Archbishop Jacob Ulfsson and several noble Swedish knights. Following the loss of the city, this large number of people was now crammed together inside the fortress itself.
The castle was equipped with numerous cannons, enabling an effective defense. On December 6, 1501, the defenders fired the largest one, named "Ingeborg", for the first time. It destroyed a palisade and killed two men.
There were many mouths to feed. When provisions ran out, the horses were slaughtered.
Scurvy ravaged the garrison, and the defenders died in droves. With no possibility of burial, the bodies were stacked in the cellars, creating a stench of death that permeated the entire castle. They kept an increasingly desperate watch for a relief force.
The Swedes feared that the ice would soon break up and a Danish relief force would appear. Consequently, the peasant army attempted to storm the castle on March 25, 1502. However, Stockholm Castle was a formidable fortress, and the attack failed.
By April 1502, only about 200 of the original 1,000-man garrison remained alive. They fought on, ravaged and tormented, bearing the blue bruises of subcutaneous hemorrhaging, gaunt as mummies, and gradually becoming toothless, with blood and mucus streaming from their noses and inflamed gums. The stench from the many rotting corpses in the cellar spread everywhere.
On April 29. 1502, the Swedes stormed the castle, aiming to capture it before Danish reinforcements could arrive. The Swedish commander wrote: "We stormed Stockholm Castle last Friday, and with God's help, we climbed the ramparts and burned them, together with the ships and boats, leaving nothing behind. We forced our way to the western outer wall, burned down the gate, and entered the courtyard." However, they were there met with a barrage of crossbow bolts, musket balls, and stones, and were forced to retreat.
By then, about half of the defenders had been killed or wounded in the fighting, leaving only 100 remaining.
Realizing that everyone would perish before relief could arrive, the Queen initiated peace negotiations.
On May 9. 1502, the castle gates were opened; according to Stockholm tradition, only 70 half-dead, battered, and emaciated soldiers staggered out. Only 10 of them could still be considered fit for combat.
Only three days later, King Hans's fleet anchored off Stockholm. Yet, he could only watch as the enemy banner waved over the castle. There was nothing to do but return to Denmark.
In violation of the agreement Queen Christine had made with Sten Sture upon surrender, he detained the Queen for nearly a year and a half in various convents, before a Catholic cardinal and the people of Lübeck secured her release.
Queen Christine of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, depicted on Claus Berg’s altarpiece in St. Knud’s Church in Odense from about 1530. The Queen herself commissioned the altarpiece, and there is no doubt that it bears a strong resemblance to her. Photo: Jacob Truedson Demitz for Ristesson – This image comes from the Southerly Clubs of Stockholm, Sweden Wikipedia.
By all accounts, she was a truly extraordinary woman. She inspired a thousand soldiers to hold out against all odds.
After returning home, Christine retired to Odense, where she commissioned the renowned woodcarver Claus Berg to create the magnificent altarpiece that now stands in St. Knud's Church.
Denmark gained its first bookprinter in 1489. His name was Godtfred of Ghemen.
In 1509, King Hans established a shipyard on the island of Slotø in Nakskov Fjord. He commissioned the construction of ships that were designed as warships from the very outset. Arild Huitfeldt records that two large warships, named "Engelen", which means The Angel, and "Maria," were built there.
On August 10. 1510, King Hans appointed Henrik Krummedige as "supreme captain and commander of all our captains, troops, and retainers, whom we have dispatched and ordered to sea, to serve us and our realm and land against the enemies and adversaries of us and the kingdom." This date is considered the birthday of the Danish navy. Consequently, the Danish navy is the oldest existing naval military organization in the world.
In 1510, Lübeck declared war on Denmark. The Swedish acting regent, Svante Nilsson, eagerly followed suit. However, Denmark quickly gained the upper hand in the ensuing naval war.
The new Danish navy, which included vessels specifically built as warships, won its first victories here.
When Hans's eldest son, Christian, attacked Sweden from Norway in the winter of 1511, the Swedes and the Lübeckers were forced to make peace. This took place on 23. April 1512 in Malmö. Sweden recognized Hans as king, and Lübeck was required to pay an indemnity of 30,000 guilders. Denmark retained Kalmar and Borgholm Castles.
In January 1513, King Hans was traveling from Ribe to Aalborg, when his horse fell at a ford across the Skjern River, north of Tarm. He was accompanied on the journey by Queen Christine and his eldest son, Christian. The king was soaked and possibly injured, yet he continued to Aalborg, where he grew increasingly weak. He died at Aalborghus Castle, the very place where he had been born 58 years earlier. He is buried in St. Knud's Church in Odense.
22. Christian 2.
Christian 2. was designated heir to the throne while still a young prince, by the Danish Council of State in 1487, the Norwegian Council in 1489, and the Swedish Council in 1499. The Kalmar Union thus still existed, albeit largely in theory.
From 1506 to 1512, Christian served as viceroy in Norway, exercising absolute authority on his father's behalf. He distinguished himself through his decisiveness, cunning, and ruthlessness. Disregarding protests from the archbishop, the Pope, and even his own father, he kept Bishop Karl of Hamar imprisoned on charges of inciting rebellion and conspiring with the Swedes.
As viceroy, he deliberately worked to undermine the traditional influence of the Norwegian Council of State and the Norwegian nobility. He never permitted the Council to convene in full session, and he replaced Norwegians with his own, Danish commanders at all key strongholds. All rebellions were ruthlessly suppressed.
At a dance event in Bergen, he met a Dutch merchant's wife, Sigbrit, and her young daughter, Dyveke. Sigbrit became a sort of advisor to Christian, while Dyveke became his mistress. Sigbrit helped prepare the ground for his confrontations with the Council of State. Dyveke and "Mother Sigbrit" subsequently accompanied him to Denmark.
Detail of Claus Berg's altarpiece in St. Knud's Church in Odense, depicting King Hans on the right and Christian 2. on the left. Orf3us Wikipedia.
Throughout his reign, Christian 2. worked to curb the power of the nobility while relying on the new, rapidly growing merchant class. He also cultivated popularity among the peasantry. His policies foreshadowed the absolute monarchy that was to come.
However, as early as July 22. 1513, following the death of King Hans, a meeting of Danish and Norwegian Councillors in Copenhagen adopted a royal charter, a hand binding contract, for Denmark and Norway that curtailed the king's power. The king was forbidden from having his son elected co-king during his own lifetime, a practice that had been customary for Danish kings since the time of Valdemar the Great. Furthermore, the king was prohibited from employing commoners, those of non-noble birth, as advisors. If the king violated the charter and refused to abide by the Council of State's decisions, the Council had the authority to take remedial action, this meant they had the right to rebel and depose him without being accused of breaking their oath of allegiance.
In October 1513, Christian received homage in the Duchies, and the following year, 1514, he was crowned king in both Copenhagen and Oslo.
In August 1515, he celebrated his wedding in Copenhagen to 13-year-old Elisabeth, sister of the future Emperor Charles V. But he did not end his relationship with Dyveke.
Dyveke died quite suddenly in 1517, and the king accused Torben Oxe, the commander of Copenhagen Castle, of having poisoned her. There was no actual evidence, and it was also difficult to see what motive the commander could have had for poisoning a young girl. Yet, despite intercession by the Council of the State and the court, the king had Torben Oxe beheaded.
The execution of Torben Oxe was a clear violation of the terms of the hand binding contract, and subsequently, discord and conflict arose between the king and the Council of State.
Christian had been crowned heir to the Swedish throne while still a boy, but the Acting Regent, Sten Sture the Younger, prevented him from actually becoming King of Sweden.
Sten Sture the Younger was not related to the elder Sten Sture, he had simply found it convenient to adopt the name Sten Sture. He was the son of Acting Regent Svante Nilsson.
Sten Sture the Younger continued the policy of hatred of the Danes held by Karl Knutsson, Sten Sture, and Svante Nilsson, thereby gaining the support of the peasantry, the mining communities, and the mechants against the aristocratic Council of State.
He deposed Archbishop Gustav Trolle and had his castle, Almarestäket, demolished, an act that prompted the Pope to place Sweden under interdict. This situation would later be exploited by Christian 2. to justify the Stockholm Bloodbath.
The new Union king, Christian 2., attempted in vain to invade Sweden in both 1517 and 1518. But the third attempt proved successful. In January 1520, a Danish army comprising French, German, and Scottish mercenaries under the command of Otto Krumpen advanced into Västergötland, where Sten Sture the Younger confronted the invading force with 10,000 men on the northern shore of Lake åsunden, east of Borås, located between Gothenburg and Jönköping.
One of the first cannon shots shattered one of Sten Sture’s knees, and created confusion and panic broke out within the Swedish army. The wounded Sten Sture was transported by sled to Strängnäs and then on toward Stockholm, but he died while being transported across the ice of Lake Mälaren. Subsequently, the Danish army captured Stockholm.
In November 1520, Christian 2. was crowned King of Sweden in Stockholm by the reinstated Archbishop Gustaf Trolle, thereby restoring the Kalmar Union.
By agreement with the Swedish Council of State, Christian had granted pardon and safe conduct for all actions taken against him personally. However, the Swedish Archbishop Gustaf Trolle and the Danish Archbishop Didrik Slagheck argued that he could not forgive offenses committed against the Church. Then, acting on his own initiative, Christian made and dramatic change od attitudes and decided to use this as a pretext to have all of Sten Sture’s supporters executed, thereby resolving the problem once and for all, or so he thought.
The king had around 80 of Sten Sture’s supporters sentenced to death for heresy.
On November 7. 1520, Christian’s men led the approximately 80 condemned individuals out to Stortorget to be executed.
The Stockholm Bloodbath. It must be Christian 2. sitting there, resting his head on his hand. Drawing of unknown origin.
Bishop Mattias Gregersson of Strängnäs was the first to be beheaded. He had received the dying Sten Sture in Strängnäs and subsequently approached Gustaf Trolle with the Acting Regent's call for reconciliation. On March 6. 1520, he had negotiated a truce with the Danish army, and he was the first to acknowledge Christian as King of Sweden. He negotiated on Christian's behalf with Sten Sture's widow in Stockholm and persuaded citizens and peasants to acknowledge Christian. Arild Huitfeldt writes, that no Swede had done as much for Christian's cause as he had.
Afterwards, the remaining condemned men were beheaded at intervals of about three minutes.
Two months after the Stockholm Bloodbath, Gustav Vasa raised the banner of rebellion in Dalarna. On June 6. 1523, he was proclaimed King of Sweden in Strängnäs, and thus the Kalmar Union finally ceased to exist.
At a meeting in Viborg on December 21, 1522, a number of Jutland bishops and members of the Council of State raised the banner of rebellion against the king. They contacted the king's uncle, Duke Frederik of Gottorp, who was king Hans' much yonger brother.
King Christian responded by convening a national meeting in Aarhus, where he promised to address all grievances. However, the rebels did not appear. They remembered, what had happened to Sten Sture’s supporters in Stockholm and renounced their allegiance to the king.
On March 8. 1523, Duke Frederik declared war on his nephew, Christian 2. Led by his general, Johan Rantzau, his army crossed the Kongeå River in March 1523, and within a few months, he conquered the Kingdom of Denmark.
23. Frederik 1.
On March 26. 1523, Frederik was elected king at the Viborg Ting, and in the duchies, he was acclaimed as sole sovereign.
On April 13. 1523, Christian 2. sailed away on the warship "Løven", accompanied by his queen, his three young children, "mother" Sigbrit, and a group of loyal men. He landed on May 1. 1523, at Veere in Holland.
However, Copenhagen and Malmö did not surrender until January 1524, following an eight-month siege. Frederik 1. was subsequently crowned in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen on August 7. of that same year.
The Norwegian Council of State also recognized Frederik 1. as king, however he was required to issue a special Norwegian coronation charter acknowledging Norway as an elective kingdom.
Frederik continued to reside in the duchies, visiting Denmark only to attend the annual meetings of the Council of the State. Arild Huitfeldt described him as "an old hen loath to leave its nest at Gottorp." He did not speak Danish, nor did he ever travel the country to preside over legal proceedings at the local tings as other kings had done.
Frederik 1. This painting from 1539 is attributed to Jacob Binck, who had created a portrait medal of Frederik 1. by the time of the king's death. The king wears a black cloak held together by a leather strap over his gold chains; his left hand rests in the fold of the cloak. Photo: unknown Wikipedia.
He continued to view the partition of the duchies in 1525 as a violation of his rights. By way of retaliation, he laid claim to parts of the kingdoms, specifically, half of Norway and the islands of Lolland, Falster, and Møn in Denmark.
Søren Norby was Christian 2.’s commander on Gotland. He landed in Blekinge, where he succeeded in assembling an army of around 8,000 men. With this force, he began a siege of Helsingborg Castle, intending to restore Christian 2. to the throne. However, Frederik’s experienced general, Johan Rantzau, along with several Danish noblemen, defeated the inexperienced peasants in two bloody battles near Lund at Bunketofte on April 28 and Helsingborg on May 4. 1525, respectively.
In his coronation charter, Frederik 1. had pledged to uphold the Catholic faith, yet he openly sympathized with Protestantism. At a meeting in Odense in 1526 and 1527, he declared that before anyone could be punished with the loss of life or property, the prelates would have to prove that the teachings in question were heretical.
He believed that religion was a matter for the individual. He stated that, as king, it was not his role to judge souls, just as he could not force anyone to leave a monastery: "Whoever wished to marry or flee a monastery could do so at their own risk."
While in the Netherlands, Christian 2. succeeded in securing payment of a part of the dowry for his wife, Elisabeth, the Emperor’s sister. He assembled an army of around 10,000 men, with which he set sail from Medemblik in Holland on 24. October 1531. However, he departed too late in the season. A storm scattered the fleet, and he arrived in southern Norway on 5. November with only 4,000 to 5,000 men. He succeeded in being acclaimed king in parts of southern Norway, but he was unable to capture Akershus Fortress.
He was lured to Copenhagen under a promise of safe conduct to negotiate with Frederik 1., but he never met his uncle. Instead, he was arrested and placed in confinement at Sønderborg Castle, where he remained for the next 17 years. In 1549, however, he was transferred to less harsh conditions in Kalundborg, where he died in 1559 at the age of 77.
Christian 2. is buried in St. Knud’s Church in Odense alongside his queen, Elisabeth, his parents, Hans and Christine, and his younger brother, Frans.
In 1533, Frederick 1. died at Gottorp Castle at the age of 61, leaving the Council of State with a dilemma. The majority of the 50-member Council were Catholics, who wished to uphold the Catholic faith, but Frederick’s eldest son, the 30-year-old Duke Christian, was a convinced Lutheran and, moreover, deeply committed to this new branch of Christianity. He said he would rather "walk away from there and leave everything behind" than yield on the question of religion.
The Council of the State rightly feared a Protestant king, not only for the sake of religion, but also because Protestantism would result in the Church’s vast wealth in land and buildings falling into the hands of the kings, which, as it turned out, would make kings impossible to control. The Council’s hesitation meant that Denmark was left without a king for a full year.
24. The Count's Feud, Reformation, and Christian 3.
For reasons not recorded for posterity, the new mayor of Lübeck, Jørgen Wullenwever, sought to restore the popular, though imprisoned, Christian 2. to the thrones of Denmark and Norway. The mayors of Malmö and Copenhagen aligned themselves with this policy. They appointed Count Christopher of Oldenburg to lead the military forces tasked with making it happen.
Count Christopher of Oldenburg.
The Count and his army landed in a kingless Denmark on June 22, 1534, at Hvidøre, north of Copenhagen, thereby initiating the civil war known as the Count's Feud.
In July 1534, Count Christopher was acclaimed as Regent at the Zealandic Ting in Ringsted, and on August 10. 1534 the Scanian nobility swore allegiance to Christian 2. ,represented by Count Christopher, at Sankt Libers Høj.
On Funen, the Count was welcomed as a liberator because an aristocratic army had just massacred a rebel force of peasants and burghers near Nyborg.
By September 1534, the Count already controlled most of Denmark east of the Great Belt, as well as parts of Funen.
Meanwhile, the nobleman Mogens Gjøe had convened an assembly of the nobility in Ry, which elected Frederick’s eldest son, Duke Christian, as king. He received the crown in Horsens on July 4, 1534, as Christian .
Clement Andersen was a peasant's son from Vendsyssel who had established himself as a merchant in Aalborg and Copenhagen. Later, he served as a vice-admiral under Christian 2. Following that king's fall, he likely joined Søren Norby on Gotland and became a privateer, or a pirate, as some might say. It was here that he acquired the name "Skipper Clement".
In collaboration with Count Christopher, he undertook the task of raising the banner of rebellion in Jutland as well.
On 14 September 1534, Skipper Clement arrived at Aalborg, which he quickly captured. He then assembled a peasant army that, within only one month, gained control over large parts of North Jutland, Vendsyssel, and Thy.
The nobleman Mogens Gjøe gathered an army of Jutland nobles to halt Skipper Clement. This force encountered the peasant army near Svenstrup, south of Aalborg, on 16. October 1534.
Skipper Clement positioned his forces on the high ground north of Svenstrup. The nobles launched an attack, but their horses were weighed down by heavy armor and became stuck in the mud of the surrounding bogs, making them easy targets for the peasant army. The noble army suffered a crushing defeat. Commanders Holger Holgersen Rosenkrantz and Niels Lavesen Brock, along with 12 other noble leaders and an unknown number of foot soldiers, were killed.
The uprising subsequently spread across all of Jutland, with the exception of East Jutland south of the Gudenå River. A large number of manor houses were burned down.
Several agents sought to exploit the turbulent situation by participating in the war in Denmark. Lübeck contacted Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg to secure further support for the war, offering him the Danish crown in return, a move strongly opposed by Count Christopher, who likely harbored his own ambitions of becoming King of Denmark.
Duke Albrecht dispatched an army led by Count Johan of Hoya.
The two counts conducted a veritable hunt for the nobility across Zealand and Funen. They burned down castles and took numerous noblemen prisoner, transporting them to Mecklenburg.
Christian 3. succeeded in concluding a peace treaty with Lübeck in November 1534. This peace freed Christian to focus his efforts elsewhere. His general, Johan Rantzau, hastened north and stormed Aalborg on 18. December 1534. Skipper Clement himself managed to escape, albeit severely wounded, however, he was recognized by a peasant in the village of Storvorde, east of Aalborg, and handed over to Johan Rantzau.
Skipper Clement and the other leaders of the uprising were sentenced to death at the Viborg Ting. They were executed and their bodies displayed on the breaking wheel and gallows in 1536.
Supported by Admiral Peder Skram, Rantzau transported "300 horsemen and 5 companies of foot soldiers" from Als to Helnæs in March 1535.
In a battle at "Favrskov north of Brendeaa", likely near Husby, Rantzau defeated an army composed of Lübeckers and peasants. The forces from Lübeck managed to escape to Assens, but the peasants were cut down. He conquered the whole of Funen, except for Nyborg and Svendborg.
In the Battle of Øksnebjerg, just under 10 km east of Assens, the Count of Hoya suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Johan Rantzau on 11. June 1535. The Count himself fell in the battle. .
Copenhagen surrenders to Christian 3. in August 1536 after a year-long siege, marking the end of the civil war. Photo: Rasmus Christiansen 17032. Educational chart from the Danish School Museum. Photo: unknown Wikipedia.
Almost simultaneously, on 12 June 1535, a fleet comprising ships from Denmark, Sweden, and Holsten, led by the Danish Admiral Peder Skram, won a decisive victory in a naval battle against the Lübeck fleet in the Baltic Sea.
Peder Skram subsequently supported Rantzau’s troop transfers from Funen to Zealand and led the blockade of Malmö and Copenhagen in 1536.
Copenhagen surrendered to Johan Rantzau in August 1536 after a year-long siege; following this, Malmö and the rest of Scania were also compelled to pledge allegiance to Christian 3.
In Lübeck, the faction led by Mayor Jørgen Wullenwever had gradually lost influence due to a series of disappointing defeats. In August 1535, the old council regained power, and Jørgen Wullenwever was forced to step down. Under the Treaty of Hamburg in February 1536, Lübeck recognized Christian 3. as king in exchange for the confirmation of its privileges.
Just two months after the capture of Copenhagen, in October 1536, a meeting was held in the city that formally abolished the Roman Catholic Church in Denmark. The Catholic bishops were imprisoned, and their vast wealth and estates, as well as those of the monasteries, were confiscated by the king.
Bishops and archbishops were no longer to hold earthly power. Christian 3. demanded that the members of the Council of State should promise that no future bishop would exercise secular power in Denmark. The future Lutheran bishops became merely a kind of inspectors, overseeing that the clergy preached the correct Lutheran doctrine.
For more than five hundred years, kings and magnates had bequeathed estates and entire villages to monasteries and churches for the salvation of their souls, lands and properties that subsequently fell under the Church's privileges, including, at times, exemption from royal taxation. This was a one-way trend. Churches and monasteries were immortal, they never relinquished anything they had once acquired, and they grew steadily wealthier.
However, with the transition to Protestantism, all this immense wealth suddenly fell into Christian 3.’s lap. There was no question of returning this fortune to the original donors, as fairly as possible, or anything of the sort. It went solely to the monarchy.
Peasants, though not noblemen, were still required to pay tithes, but now to the King. Christian was unwilling to forgo such a lucrative tax.
It is easy to see that this greatly strengthened the monarchy. From that point on, it became increasingly difficult for the Council of the State to keep the monarchy in check. In his "Recess," Christian argued that, in the future, it would no longer be necessary to levy extraordinary taxes in the event of war, "so that the Danish crown and king might amass greater wealth, and should any attack be made upon the realm."
Furthermore, Christian 3. revived the old custom of the Valdemarian kings of crowning their eldest sons as co-kings during their own lifetimes, a practice the Council of the State had previously strongly opposed. All in all, King Christian took a major step toward absolute monarchy.
