AH Challange: A dual Monarchy with Denmark-Norway and Sweden!

IMO Margrete's only faulty decisison was the choice of Erik :(, but the death of her own son made her choices limited and hasty. With him the endless line of lousy Danish-Norwegian monarchs begun.

I must tough say that I fail to recognise your critic of her :confused:

What Iv read suggests that the bad times did not start until after Margrete's death in 1412.

She was putting prople loyal to her, ie Danes and Germans, in Swedish bishopries and Swedish castles before Erik took over. Erik did it far worse, and rarely visited Sweden to make sure the people he put there behaved, but the 1434 rebellion had lots of grievances going way back.
 
One of the main problems was that the Danes never saw the peasants as a power factor, because they were not in Denmark, but they were in Sweden.

The standard tactic of the Danes was to disenfranchise the nobles by putting their own loyal men in the castles and bishop palaces. If Sweden had been like Denmark, this would probably have been pretty smart. However, this angered not only the Swedish nobility, but also the peasants.

The peasant militia in Sweden at these times was quite a good force - not as good as Landsknecht mercenaries, especially not in open combat, but they used high-quality swordspears specifically designed to fight both mounted knights and pike- and halberd-wielding infantry. This was combined with a bow or later an crossbow and a sword or an axe as well as armour - ususally less than modern (scale or chainmail, helmet and bracers).

With superior numbers and good leadership, the Swedish peasant militia could take on the best forces the Danes could produce in open combat, like at the Battle of Brunkeberg 1471, where the forces under Sten Sture the elder completed an advanced manouvre and cut of a large part of the loyalist army (that was mostly Swedes too, but included a large amount of Danes and German mercenaries and the Danish King Kristian I). The Swedes were also early adopted of gunpowder, using arquebuses and cannons from the mid-1450s.

The Danes and Germans, especially the Germans, were not used to this and never really learned it either. For this scenario to be valid, you need to deal with the dual problem of Swedish nobility wanting more power for themselves and having their own interests and struggles (industry, Novogorod, Finland etc) and the Swedish peasantry's militancy, dedication to their old rights and strong armament and organisation.
 

Oddball

Monthly Donor
She was putting prople loyal to her, ie Danes and Germans, in Swedish bishopries and Swedish castles before Erik took over. Erik did it far worse, and rarely visited Sweden to make sure the people he put there behaved, but the 1434 rebellion had lots of grievances going way back.

Ofcourse she did. But IMO it was not until Eirik was let loose it started to becom a real problem.

One of the main problems .

..

I agree with all of this.

But I also see potentials in this for a senible monarch. Many who fiddle with ATL's want fast and wast changes. If you give your scenarioes time, many things can be acchieved.

Like I said, you will have to make the POD prior to 1400 and Erik, but IMO it is doable.

After all is this not althist? :D
 
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