Count's Feud with different outcome

1536-1598(moved the end of this peiod 10 years)

Though the Tausian argument stirred up things in academic circles and bothered Christoffer IV and Clement, it never really caught on.
Christoffer maintained his view that it would be ill advised to adopt one definitive religious doctrine, and chose to ignore the railings of the vocal Tausian faction.
Plenty of scholars within the intelligentsia argued against the uniformism of Hans Tausen, and the debate never made it out of university grounds.
In 1557 Tausen left Denmark for Sweden, where he offered his teachings to Eric XIV.

Also in 1557 Christoffer IV instituted mandatory school for children ages 8-14, three days a week, primarily aiming at teaching people how to read and write.

In 1558 the Royal Fleet numbered 43 ships, mostly caravels.

Throughout the 1550'ies Duke Frederik of Holstein-Gottorp launched a series of campaigns against the largely autonomous region of Ditmarsken, however the peasants of the region proved hard to subdue.

At the same time Eric XIV of Sweden pursued increased Swedish influence over the Baltics.

In 1560 the first known danish jew was counted in a census,
Efraim Alfassi, was counted as a resident of Malmo. His origin was presumably portuguese.
 
1536-1598, Dutch War of Independence

In 1561 the last of the big fortresses begun by Christoffer IV, Kronborg, was finished.

And with the completion of his projects the old King drew his last breath.
However not without earmarking a rather large sum for expansion and renovation of the Royal University of Copenhagen.

He would be remembered as Christoffer "Borgerkaer"("Friend of the Citizen")

Magnus assumed the throne as Magnus II, at the age of 25.
He had always been very adventurous, and had little interest for the more "dry" aspects of governing the country.
He had spent much of his youth aboard ships of the Royal Navy learning navigation and boatsmanship.
Almost immediatly after gaining the Crown Magnus embarked on a tour of his expansive Kingdom, as he felt that was an appropriate inauguration of reign. With 11 ships he visited Aalborg, Oslo, Bergen, Trondhjem, Thorshavn, Tromso, he even went as far as Reykjavik.

The tour was little else than the young King's celebration of himself, although the avuncular Rigshofmester had given him instructions to grant the large towns of Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland kjobstad status.
Some Norwegian nobles complained behind closed doors about the attempt to spread the regulatives from one part of the kingdom to others.

Magnus II returned to Copenhagen wishing to tie his vast lands closer together. he was especially concerned with the "lawlessness" of the fringe areas, and immediately began outfitting a naval squadron to sail to the Norwegian coast to deal with its pirate infested waters.
He would spent most of the ime by the harbour planning the effort and seeing to the condition of the ships, meanwhile Rigshofmester Clement would deal with more concrete matters.

Though Clement appluaded the King's maritime ambitions and enthusiasm, he feared that Magnus lacked a broader vision.
In the the last years of his life the Rigshofmester worked tirelessly to consolidate his King's position in the Rigsraad. He did this by getting more burghers into the council, an d by trying to strip the bigger nobles of some of their land. Estates temporarily leased to nobility was revoked more, often at the demise of a nobleman and then leased to smaller proprietors.
This strategy was largely effective in taking power from the traditional Rigraads nobility and winning over the general rural population, which had been a pillar of Christoffer's power.

In 1568 a long brewing rebellion in the Netherlands finally broke out.
 
Dutch war of independence continued

With the Duke of Alba imposing his terror reign on the Netherlands, the first wave of Dutch refugees had already started arriving in Aalborg and Copenhagen, stirring up anti-Hapsburg sentiment among their fellow Danish burghers.

Rigshofmester Clement sympathized with the dutchmen's struggle, sharing many similarities with his own, but he was reluctant to give any real support at the time.
Clement did enter into correspondance with Elizabeth I over wether to form a pro-dutch alliance, and he permited Dutch privateers to use Danish ports as bases of operation.
A more blatant act of defiance came about in 1571 when Phillip II demanded that the Sound be closed to Dutch shipping, and Clement answered with a resounding no.

Magnus II on the other hand was inspired by the Dutch, the sea-geuzen taking up righteous piracy to fight the oppressors.
In 1572 he called back the Norwegian squadron and commissioned the fleet into smaller units as privateers.

When the notorious sea-geuzen Count de la Marck took Brielle it was with the assistance of a band of Danish ships led by Jonas Berger.

With the increasing religious and political strife throughout western Europe, most notably the St. Bartholomew Day massacre, Rigshofmester Clement advised Magnus to welcome all protestant victims of the conflict.
One such victim was the dutch scholar Arminius of Leiden who arrived in Copenhagen in 1572 as his home city was being besieged.
He brought with him his school of thought, and was tenured at the Royal University and ushered in a new wave of theology that would add to the mixed bag of protestantism that was Denmark at the time.
 
Dutch war of independence continued(the 80 years war progresses almost as in OTL, I'm focusing on the Danish ATL perspective)

The Danish support for Dutch independence was unequivocal throughout the struggle, but never manifested itself in anything but privateering and Magnus II(at the request of Clement) financing some the Orange's war efforts.

Phillip II responded to Clement's Sound policy with closing the Gibraltar to any Danish ships and ordered the apprehension of any vessels, civilian or not, in Spanish waters, and closed Spanish ports to Danish merchant activity.

This, along with the somewhat decreased Dutch trading in Denmark and the Baltics, struck the Kjobstad burghers who suddenly lacked demand for their services as the Mediterreanean and the Iberian peninsula were effectively closed to them.

This of corse led to much cheaper Danish products flooding the British isles, but more importantly it turned the maritime burghers to the open Atlantic. The Embargo prompted a wealthy merchant of Aalborg, Esben Axholm, to outfit some of his(due to the slow business) unused ships for an expedition. In the spring of 1577 three ships left Aalborg, and in the late summer they went ashore at the mouth of the Gambia River, and in the following month proceeded to sail up and down the Coast of Guinea to look for any exotic products that might hold a profit for the investor(Axholm).
In December og 1577 the ships returned with ivory, exotic plants and timber. The inventory of the ships generated more poplicity than wealth, but the Axholm decided to outfit another expedition.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Sounds realistic.

But you also need to look at the effect the changes you have made have on the rest of the world. The biggest change outside Denmark at this point are the semi-independence of Schleswig-Holstein. Christian III started rather weak with two co-dukes, but the death of Johann II the older resulted in there only being two co-duke right now and Johanns domains been split between his brothers Adolf and Christian III.

Here's the changes I would suggest. Both Johann, Adolf and the fourth brother Frederik was a lot younger than Christian III and he ruled as regent for his halfbrothers, it was only in 1544 he was forced to split the duchies between his brothers (the last brother Frederik was made Lutheran adminstrator of Hildesheim and bishop of Schleswig against giving up his inherience). This mean that Christian has a decade to find a solution which means not splitting his domains. Making Frederik prince-bishop (Lutheran adminstrator) of Hildeheim and bishop of Schleswig aren't a bad idea so he're going to do that, in 1542 prince-archbishop Christopher the Spendthrift of Bremen-Verden was dismissed (until the Charles V force them to accept him again in 1547). This give Christian a good oppotunity to bribe the local Estates to accept one of his halfbrothers instead (likely Adolf). This will likely anger the Emperor, but I think he will accept it as it ensure a stronger counterweight against Denmark. So we only see Schleswig-Holstein split between Christian III and Johann II. Johann never married so at his death in 1580 Frederik II inheriate his domains (Frederik II has likely pushed his brothers into positions as Lutheran adminstrators of Bremen and Hildesheim after Adolfs* and Frederiks deaths). The result are a unified Schleswig-Holstein.

As you have suggested Christian II and his descendants will likely follow a policies of conquering Dithmarschen, beside that they will likely push their claims to Hamburg. I could very well see them succed. Beside that they will likely establish their own university to increase their prestige. Flesburg as fully ducal town outside the ritterschafts domain will likely be the university town. The primary purpose of the university will be to educate priests and it will do so in both German and Danish. The German used will be the local Plattdeutsch (Low German), while the Danish will be the local Platdansk (Low Danish the term used for the South Jutish dialect at the times). Thsi mean that we will see a standardlisering of South Jutish, much as we saw a standardlisering of Rigsdansk (standard Danish) in Copenhagen. The result could very well be a fouth East Scandinavian language, it would also mean that it would likely replace Low German as Church language in South Schleswig**.

Flensburg will likely end up the de facto capital of Christians III descendants, at least until they gain Hamburg or Altona, but it will stay both university town and adminstrative centre of Schleswig. As such it will grow to a much greater extent than in OTL, while unlikely to be able to compet with Copenhagen, I could easily see 10 000 inhabitants in 1600 and 30-40 000 in 1700.

The Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein will likely also push mercantile project both production and trade. They will likely also push for getting a right to claim customs on Elb***.

All in all I could see Schleswig-Holstein as a major north German player and if they can make a few good inherience they could do quite well.

*Adolfs children (if he get any) will likely end up owning some knightly estates, even while they are accepted as royalty.

**Most Danish speaker in Schleswig was bilingual in Low German, while they had a hard time understand Standard Danish thanks to their own distinct dialect, so when the choice qwas between a bible in Low German and Standard Danish, the former was chosen.

***This gave the Danish kings a even bigger income than the Sound Dues even in the years after 30YW. It more or less made up 25% of the Danish budget after 1657 (while the Sound sues gave 20%).
 
Once again your in-depth knowledge of Danish/duchies affairs is of great help :)

I'll be sure to include those changes and try to account for the Schleswig history as well as the Kingdom's I just got caught up in detailing the international impact of alternate Denmark :)

Could we perhaps see some confrontation at a given time, the OTL Christian IV(now Christian of Gottorp I guess) is going to be duke of Schleswig at some point and if he of the same mold as i was OTL he's going to try and expand his territory. Perhaps the Duchy could ally with Sweden at some point to challange Denmark-Norway?

Also, are you sure the Duchy would even prosper that much? With the Kjobstads dominating trade in the general area wouldn't the North German merchants be marginalised, what would be the Dukes' source of income to build a University?

I really like the cultural impact that you're describing, having another cultural and intellectual center(Flensburg) would surely mean that another dialect would be cultivated. Slowly a unique selfperception will emerge among the Schlewigans that is not necessarily linked to either Danish or German culture and patronization.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Once again your in-depth knowledge of Danish/duchies affairs is of great help :)

Thanks

I'll be sure to include those changes and try to account for the Schleswig history as well as the Kingdom's I just got caught up in detailing the international impact of alternate Denmark :)

Yes and they look realistic, but this are going to effect north Germany and the Baltic to a large extent too. In OTL Denmark moved to a north German focus in foreign policy, right now the king has none or just few possesions in North Germany. Another aspect are in the easten Baltic Frederik II in OTL gave up his claims to Estonia to his brother Magnus to keep from splitting up his part of the duchies. Here Christoffer doesn't have that incentiment with his alliance with mercantile burghers rather than as Christian III and Frederik II the nobility. Denmark has a great incentiment to gain control over the Livonian knights possesion (modern Estonia and Latvia), this will bring Denmark in conflict with Poland, Sweden and potential Russia (through the Russian may accept the Danish claim to keep the Swedes and Polish out)

Could we perhaps see some confrontation at a given time, the OTL Christian IV(now Christian of Gottorp I guess) is going to be duke of Schleswig at some point and if he of the same mold as i was OTL he's going to try and expand his territory. Perhaps the Duchy could ally with Sweden at some point to challange Denmark-Norway?

Quite likely through without the Danish mainline controlling any of ducal Schleswig-Holstein, the hoyuse will likely be named just Schleswig-Holstein rather than Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. Christian IV will likelty have two goals, one is to expand his power in Germany (and in Denmark if he can get away with it) the other are to increase his political and dynastic position by gaining a greater title, if he allies with Sweden against Denmark it's to remove his bond of fealthy to the Danish crown and maybe be raised to king or grand duke of Schleswig, territorial wise he may go after the Danish crown, but that's unlikely at best, so he may look to gain control over Nørrejylland (North Jutland) and Fuen. But primary he will try to improve his position in Germany (and do his best to gain a electorial title)

Also, are you sure the Duchy would even prosper that much? With the Kjobstads dominating trade in the general area wouldn't the North German merchants be marginalised, what would be the Dukes' source of income to build a University?

Schlewig-Holstein are big and rich, the dukes personal domain are vast. While the duchies are going to be poorer without the Jutish cattle trade, there's still the cattle trade from the duchies and the soil of the easten part of the duchies was as rich and good as Zealand and Fuens if not better. In OTL the Gottorps succed in founding a university in Kiel while they was poorer than the Schleswig-Holsteins are going to be and that was in the aftermatch of 30YW.

I really like the cultural impact that you're describing, having another cultural and intellectual center(Flensburg) would surely mean that another dialect would be cultivated. Slowly a unique selfperception will emerge among the Schlewigans that is not necessarily linked to either Danish or German culture and patronization.

Yes I think that's quite likely, they to large extent had that in OTL until the German conquest forced either a Danish or German identity down over Schleswigs inhabitants.
 
Struggle for dominance of the Baltics

While Magnus II's privateers waged a pseudo-war on the Spanish on behalf of the House of Orange, and adventurous burghers of Aalborg realized the commercial potential of the West African coast, the focus of ruling elite turned to the east.

With the gradual disintegration of Livonian Order leaving a powervacuum in the Balticum, several adjacent powers threw in their bids to make gais in the area.

From the times of Valdemar "Atterdag", the Danish Crown had laid claim to parts of Estonia(Wierland, Harrien and Oesel), but due to the infighting in Denmark(Count's Feud) and the general reform epoch taking place, these distant parts of the realm had been largely self-governing though still formally tied to the Danish Crown.

With the emergence of Ivan IV's Russia as a Baltic naval power, the Estonian tradecenter of Reval had lost its status as sole gateway to the russian trade, and Narva had become a legitimate competitor.
So in 1561 Reval accepted Erik of Sweden as a patron to strengthen itself against its russian rival.

The burghers of the Rigsraad recommended that the King exert his ancient rights to the Baltics so that the Danish trade on Riga could be protected and stabilized.

But another event delayed any action in the eastern theater, the death of Rigshofmester Clement.
The cunning tradesman, pirate and politician, who attained something along the lines of sainthood among burghers and peasants, died on December 6. of 1572. As the news spread several candlelit vigils were held all over the country.
He was interred among Kings and Queens at the Grand Cathedral of Roskilde.

With Clement's demise the chair of Rigshofmester was of course empty, and the nobility decisively appointed the prominent Peder Oxe to the post.
The inexperienced King Magnus was too unaccustomed to these dealings and had no choice but to accept the decision of the Rigsraad.

Peder Oxe was also somewhat respected among the burghers as he was an ardent protestant and wasn't particularly anti-bourgeoise.
All in all it was a natural sway of the political discourse that had been dominated by the burghers since the civil war.

The newly appointed Rigshofmester set about weakening the Swedish possesions in Estonia by establishing a trade agreement with Russia, ensuring free-trade between the two countries. This gave Danish burghers an edge on the competition in Narva, and on the other hand the fledgling Russian merchantry didn't pose any theat to commercial interest on the domestic market in Danish kjobstads.
Also, Oxe managed to slip in a concession from the Russians that they would recognise the old Danish claim on the island of Oesel.

With this treaty secured the Rigshofmester and now supported the the burgher powered King in his ambition to exert more mercantile control with the Baltics, as he eyed an opportunity to increase the power of his family with this venture.

In the spring of 1573 a Danish fleet of 31 ships set out from Copenhagen under the command of admiral Herluf Trolle, and with a quick stop on Gotland made it to Oesel.
The duchy of Oesel-Wieck had always been formally under the Crown, but with the Polish-Lithuanian King had not recognized the claim and was in posseision of the contenental parts of it. The island part however was somewhat independent and with the mere landing of Trolles fleet in Arnsborg the Danish claims were reestablished.

The Danes then seized the opportunity to take Riga while Polish and and Swedish were occupied with fighting the Russians in Estinia and Lithuania.
Since the fall of the Livonian Order Riga had been a self-gorverning free Imperial City and therefore very much on its own against this new faction introducing itself in the conflict.

Admiral Trolle let the city know that the Danes had no intention of razing the city, but merely wanted to protect it under the aegis of the Danish King Magnus II, and also secure the protestant city from the catholic(polish) and orthodox(russian) powers that threatened it.
The city complied an let the fleet enter, whereafter the admiral proceeded to quickly assume control with its fortifications and military structures.

Magnus II was thrilled with the succes of the expedition, but in the ensuing euphoria over the unbelievably easy victory Rigshofmester Oxe asserted that the lens(estates) of Oesel was to be governed by his brother Eskild. Riga essentially was given status of a Danish Kjobstad giving the Danish burghers a large slice of the livonian trade.

(I hope this entry isn't too unrealistic, I've tried as best I could to incorporate ATL events into the Livonian war :) )
 

Valdemar II

Banned
(I hope this entry isn't too unrealistic, I've tried as best I could to incorporate ATL events into the Livonian war :) )

Seem realistic enough.

But a few points "len" as a adminstrative unit would be translated county. But I think the Danes in this case would also succed in controling Wiek (which are the red area on the westen Estonian coast) and Dagö, the areas which the Poles claimed was the Bishopric of Courland (oranges) through Magnus of Ösel did get those in OTL before he lost it to the Poles.

Medieval_Livonia_1260.svg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Medieval_Livonia_1260.svg
 
In the period after the capture of Riga and the conclusion of the Russo-Danish trade agreement the maritime burghers profited from the trade with Russian furs and Livonian grain and other agrarian products.
And due to the Livonian conflict, and the situation in the Netherlands there was less competition in the Baltic sea in the period between 1573-1584.

The time of Peder Oxe's dominance of the Rigsraad however is remembered as a dark time for the Danish peasants. While Oxe made sure that the burghers were content so they wouldn't oppse him, many of the rights that the peasants had been given during the reign of Christoffer and Clement were ignored.

Some of the laws enacted were f.ex. the guarantee that the owner of a ship that had sunk was still entitled to all the goods and right to salvage what remained, before, the practice of stealing from shaips run ashore was widespread.

In this period the excuse of cracking down on smuggling was often used by nobles wanting to subjugate tenant farmers. Though many peasants were selfowning at this point(some estimates puts it at 45%), the majority still leased land, and the bad treatment of tenant farmers was general theme of Oxe's epoch.
Reddrsseng over unfair treatment was often ignored, as Oxe with his executive power chose not to enforce the law in many cases when nobility broke it.

With his zealous lutheran tendencies the Rigshofmester also promoted the old Tausian school of thought amongst the theologians, resulting in the neglect and harassment of the Arminians.

The King was rather remote on the actual political happenings, and was mostly consigned to oversee the expansion of the fleet.

In this period the steady trickle of refugees continued: Sephardim from Spain and Portugal, Hugenots from France and Calvinists from the Netherlands.

In Schleswig-Holstein Duke Frederik finally succeeded in fully integrating the heretofore autonomous region of Ditmarsken in 1579.
It had been a long process of subjugation and many mercenaries had been put to work with cracking down on the peasants.
With this task accomplished Frederik turned to the next: annexing Lubeck.

In 1579 the privateer Jonas Berger captured two Spanish treasure ships off the Coast of La Coruna, and brought them back to Copenhagen where people marveled at the unbelievable wealth of the New World.
 
While the King exerted power over the Baltic trade, and Peder Oxe amassed huge wealth at the cost of tenant farmers, another historical made his entrance on the stage in the early 1580's: Christopher Valkendorf.

The ever mercurial nobleman had served in Norway, but had been the treasurer of the Copenhagen city council since 1575.
At King Magnus' command he had begun gearing the city for the naval expansion that had been underway since the times of Clement, ambitiously modernizing the harbour and shipyards.
Most notably the construction of several artificial islands in the body of water between Zealand and Amager. These islands were to become the main tradehub and maritime center of Copenhagen, and they were built up against the already existing Holmen naval quarter.
The project was an unprecedented case of city-planning, developing the new quarter with determined plan, instead of letting the city grow organicly as had been the norm during the middle ages.
Upon their completion in 1581 the islands in were named "Christopherstaden" in honor of the late King.

Valkendorf tried to accomodate the immigrants from Holland, France and Iberia by ignoring the obvious pro-lutheran views of Peder Oxe and informally making it a Copenhagen policy to "allow the practice of all Abrahamic faiths".
Since the reformation religion in the Kingdom had been a gray area and there was no law that explicitly stated that one branch of protestantism was superior to another, but Oxe made no secret of his lutheran sympathies, and the relationship between the different sects could be uneasy at times.
Valkendorf however, allowed calvinist, arminians, erasmusians and even jews to pursue any position they so desired(at this point almost all these immigrants made their living in commerce and craftmanship), as he viewed their resources and knowhow as an invaluable asset.
This policy of pluralism made it possible for a young man by the name of Lionel de Cajabracal to enroll in the Royal Naval Academy.

Afraid of encroaching on the Kjobstads autonomy, Peder Oxe couldn't do much about Valkendorfs policies. But when Arminius returned to the Netherlands in 1582, he viewed it as a personal victory over the academic establishment that had allowed this theological subversion.
In truth it is more plausible that Arminius returned to his homeland because a brand new university requested his presence in Leiden.

With further regards to the Dutch-Danish relationship Magnus II married the daghter of William the Silent in 1581, Maria of Nassau.
This of course, was just one in a string of brillient diplomatic and military victories that the House of Orange celebrated in these times, the most prominent of course being the Act of Abjuration.
This was the culmination of the friendly relationship that the two countries had cultivated during the decade of war they had participated in.
King Magnus outfitted an expidition to the Faroe islands to deal with the pirate infestation.
The squadron departed from the new Christopherstad docks in the spring of 1582, the ships being of the English "razeed" galleon types that were more effective on the high seas.

In 1583 a group of tenant farmers, living on some of Oxe's land(which he had aquired when he married Mette Rantzau) on Lolland-Falster tried to redress the way that the nobles' taxation was carried out.
The payment of nobles by tenent farmers had always been that of naturalia, cattle f.ex. but this system wasn't sufficiently flexible as changes in the prize of the agricultural output went up or down, but the tax still consisted on a given portion of the tenant's output.
In the late 1500's the value of the agricultural output was high so the farmers contributed over their means to the nobles' wealth.

The burghers didn't care much, as the goods passed thorugh their kjobstads in any case, and the aristocracy wasn't about to cancel their sweet deal.
The ever negligent King Magnus didn't notice the redress and the Rigshofmester dismissed the proposal as greedy farmers trying to squeeze more money out of their lords.
He replied by cracking down hard on the black market for goods that the culture of rural smuggling had built over the past decades.
 
In 1585 a formal meeting was held between representatives of of England, Holland and England at the Court of Queen Elizabeth.

The representatives agreed upon an unequivocal recognition and support of the free Provinces in accordance with the Act of Abjuration.

The English claim to the Shetland Islands was further renforced and the so called "Nordhavs"(Northern Sea) policy was enacted, recognizing the right of British ships to sail the North Atlantic with the Danish guarantee of safe passage through Danish waters and anchorage in Danish harbours.

Furthermore a resolution of increased naval warfare against Spain in the Atlantic to better the position of the three nations and respect each of the countries claim to land and ealth in the New World.

At the convention the Danish privateer Jonas Berger met with Francis Drake and was inspired by the daring explorer to seek step up the Danish effort in the Atlantic and even in the Caribbean.

The Danish delegation counted the two noblemen Guildenstern and Rosenkrantz who would lend their names to the Shakesperian play, Hamlet, but the leader of the representatives was Valkendorf, who, through hiscunning diplomacy was instrumental in reaching the results of the negotiations. And close students of Shakesperare will notice that a minor character in The Merchant of Venice , by the name of Valorio who briefly defends Shylock's claim in the trial, was based on Valkendorf.
Unofficially Valkendorf advocated for readmission of Jews to Britain at the conference on behalf of the Copenhagen Jewry, but was unsuccesful, though his appeal would be referenced in later discussions on the subject in Britain.

Back in Denmark Rigshofmester Oxe continued purchasing more estates from other nobles and rural property holders, and began what he termed "purging" of heretic elements in his subjects. Meaning that he didn't allow the recalcitrant practice of eucharist(transsubstitution) and Saints worship among his tenants.

This policy was carried out in a rather draconian way with the deployment of German "landsknaegts", bringing back memories of the time before the Counts Feud.
The brutish manner in which Oxe's "thugs" forced lutheran practices on the peasants, resulted in an uprising in the aforementioned county of Lolland-Falster being lead by a local gamesman named Soren Henriksoen who had been one of the foremost redressers in the earlier inquiry.
He and and a band of likeminded peasants burned down a barn storing the naturalia taxes collected from tenants.
Henriksoen and his men termed themselves "Clement's men", invoking the name of the celebrated popular hero, and the stories of their exploits against the tyrannical Rigshofmester quickly reached the Capital.

This coincided with the return of Valkendorf's delegation, and thus Peder Oxe found himself in a problematic situation with his burgher-backed rival returning from a succesful mission, and his rebellious subjects being likened to the freedom fighters of the Skipper.

Valkendorf knew that he was next-in-line to the seat of Rigshofmester should Oxe fall and so he was not late to take advantage of the opportunity the whole affair presented him with.
He advised King Magnus to appease the peasants by acting as negotiator, by accepting the original redress and therby working out a solution to the problem.

With the Clement's men disrupting the flow of agricultural products to the nearby kjobstad og Nykjobing-Falster, the heretofore passive burghers also started complaining about the acions of Oxe which had roused the rural population in such a way.

Henriksoen was granted amnesty to come to Copenhagen and negotiate.

The result came in the fall of 1585, when it was asserted that the tenant-leasee relationship was of a purely economical nature and therfore the contract could not be used to dictate any religious practices.
The case for a more flexible naturalia taxation was not addressed however, but the peasants deemed this outcome a huge victory. The Crown assumed cusody over the particular estate where the redress had come from and Oxe was given some Royal land in Scania as compensation.

Thus beaten and disenfranchised Oxe stepped down as Rigshofmester and Valkendorf was quickly tapped as his successor.

In 1586 Queen Maria gave birth to Magnus' son: Christoffer.

With the outbreak of war in 1585 between Spain and England, the King and Rigshofmester commissioned Jonas Berger to sail to the Caribbean by way of West Africa to protect trade interest in those areas, but more imoportantly to aide the privateering campaign of Francis Drake.

Berger reached the Lesser Antilles, having captured a Portuguese slave ship on the way, in late spring 1586 and with a base on Antigua commenced with apprehending Spanish treasure galleons.

The Axholm trade house of Aalborg also expanded its trade on the coast of Gambia and Guinea.
A young captain recently graduated from the Naval Academy named Lionel De Cajabracal was hired by the Axholm house.
His diligent service to his employers ended rather briefly, when he in 1587 was unloading a shipment of slaves in Plymouth and heard of Francis Drake planing an expidition. Using the profit from his cargo, he outfitted his two ships for combat and left Plymouth with Drake.
When the news of his actions reached Aalborg it was accompanied by his daring participation in the Raid on Cadiz.
De Cajabracal had even earned two capyured Spanish ships from Drake for his essential role in taking out a gun positions guarding the entrance to Cadiz.

After this succesful adventure de Cajabracal sailed to the Lesser Antilles and merged his little fleet with that of Jonas Berger and together they captured several galleons laden with gold over the summer and fall.

In 1588 he returned to Europe with Bergers amassed bounties, presenting Queen Elizabeth of England with three galleons attributing the gift to his ruler: King Magnus.

De Cajabracal decided to delay his returen to Denmark when the news of the approaching Armada reached Plymouth.
He promised his help to Sir Drake and once against proved his seamanship in the ensuing battle.

In Late 1588 he returende to Copenhagen and the much-heralded return of the maverick was a big occasion in the Capital where the defeat of the feared Armada was seen as the proof of the "North Sea Alliance" could challenge the almighty Hapsburgs.

King Magnus always the sucker for heroic exploits greeted de Cajabracal and would hear none of the Axholm complaints about his mutiny(they where paid back by with the riches de Cajabracal had captured).
The King made de Cajabracal a proper privateer of the Royal Fleet.

(sorry if the entry became a bit swashbuckling at the end, it might be a bit over the top, but I got carried away:)
 
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