Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
German-born king. The Swedes hailed Margrethe as their regent, and in turn she sent Dan-
ish troops to Sweden, securing victory over the king's forces.
A decade later Margrethe established a formal alliance between Denmark, Norway and
Sweden known as the Kalmar Union, to counter the powerful German-based Hanseatic
League that had come to dominate regional trade.
In 1410 King Erik of Pomerania, Margrethe's grandson, staged an unsuccessful attack
on the Hanseatic League, which sapped the Kalmar Union's vitality. This, together with
Erik's penchant for appointing Danes to public office in Sweden and Norway, soured rela-
tions with aristocrats in those countries. The Swedish council withdrew from the union,
whereupon the Danish nobility deposed Erik in 1439.
Erik's successor, King Christopher III, made amends by pledging to keep the adminis-
trations of the three countries separate. However, the union continued to be a rocky one,
and in 1523 the Swedes elected their own king, Gustav Vasa. The Kalmar Union was per-
manently dissolved, but Norway would remain under Danish rule for another three centur-
ies.
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about a millennium of Danish royals at
The Lutheran Reformation & Civil War
The monarchy and Catholic Church played out a pivotal power struggle during the Danish
Reformation. Caught in the middle of this religious and political foment was King Frede-
rik I, who over the course of ten years went from promising to fight heresy against Cath-
olicism to inviting Lutheran preachers to Denmark. When Frederik died, the lack of a clear
successor left the country in civil war.
The following year (1534) Hanseatic mercenaries from Lübeck (now in Germany) in-
vaded southern Jutland and Zealand. By and large the Lübeckers were welcomed as liber-
ators by peasants and members of the middle class, who were in revolt against the nobility.
Alarmed by the revolt, a coalition of aristocrats and Catholic bishops crowned the
Lutheran Christian III as king. Still, the rebellion raged on. In Jutland, manor houses were
set ablaze and the peasants made advances against the armies of the aristocracy.
Christian's general, Rantzau, took control, cutting Lübeck off from the sea and march-
ing northward through Jutland, brutally smashing peasant bands. Rantzau's troops be-
