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Sorry for the many Danish/Scandinavian threads lately. I'm just exploring pivotal historical moments to see where significant change could happen.

So the POD is the "civil war" known as the Count's Feud(1524-1536), where a peasant rebellion and the pro-Christian II faction was eventually defeated by the pro-Christian III faction. The feud came about for a variety of reasons. 1. the powerstruggle between the rural/agrarian nobility and the mercantile bourgeoisie of the cities, the traders and caftmen had enjoyed unprecedented benevolent legislation during the reign of Chritian II, mostly at the cost of the nobles' priviledges. 2. the burgeoning reformation of the Church.

The idea is that the victory of the "plutocratic" establishment and the peasants could lead to a radically altered Kingdom more along the lines of vision of Christian II, the "citizen King", instead of backtracking to a sclerotic feudal society.

The Feud progresses as OTL with Christian II being imprisoned in Sonderborg Castle after his failed attempt to take back the throne with his mercenary army. Count Christoffer of Oldenburg(a distant relative of Christian II, and an enemy of the Gottorp dynasty) is in possesion of Scania, Zealand and Funen with the consent of the "third estate" in the absence Christian II, while the nobility and Christian III is controlling Jutland and the Duchies.

The year is 1534. Lübeck, up until now an ally of Count Christoffer, signs a peace with Christian III after an effective siege of the city is carried out by General Johan Rantzau. With Lübeck out of the picture the General is able to free up troops and move toward northern Jutland to put down the rebellious peasants who are loyal the imprisoned King.
The rebellion is led by Clement Andersen("Skipper Clement"), who has engaged in privateering on behalf of the rightful King since his mutiny in 1525 when the king was exiled in the Netherlands.
The flimsy group of peasants had already proved their mettle on the 16. of October 1534 at the Battle of Svenstrup where local Jutish nobles were defeated, but the inevitable clash with the Rantzau's battletested troops seemed to spell the doom of the Skippers' ragtag group.

Her comes the deviation: on the 9. of November 1534 Rantzau tried to cross Skjern creek a few miles away from the town of Varde, he encountered around 300 armed peasants assembled on the far side of a small bridge. The two groups exchanged a few crossbow bolts and musquet rounds before the peasants took flight and dispersed in a forest not hundred yards away. Rantzau ordered his men across the bridge and when around half a fennike(ca. 200 men) were on the far bank, the mounted Rantzau rode across as well.

Many historians have since jested how subpar Danish carpentry became the bane of the great warrior. Actually it is just as plausible that the heavy rainfall of the Fall had eroded the structure.
But whatever caused it, the effect remains inescapable: the bridge over Skjern creek collapsed.
An eyewitness account by one of Rantzaus squires tell of how the magnificent conqueror, who held so much promise, was able to shed his breastplate and avoid drowning, only to wade onto the far bank and find his men under attack from bow-wielding peasants standing on the edge
of the forest raining arrows down on the troops standing in the open.
The flimsy arrows was but a nuisance to the armorclad professional soldiers, but a stray arrow from an unknown archer struck General Rantzau, vulnerable at the fateful moment. The skirmish quickly ended with few casualties on either side, but the General bled out in a matter of minutes.
The legendary Johan Rantzau had survived much grander battles, he had undergone pilgrimage to the Holy Land and kissed the foot Pope Leo X in Rome. But his best known memorial to this day stands in the unassuming town of Varde(the exact location of the bridge is unknown), where a small pillar has been erected to commemorate one of the two turning points in the Count's Feud. This one, however much less dramatic, yet much more ironic and peculiar than the other: The battle of Oksnebjerg.

This entry became a bit more anecdotal than i originally intended, but I will post a second bit soon. Sorry for any inconsistensies in language or grammar.
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