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wiki/Frederick_II_of_Denmark (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588)

Frederick II was the son of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. Frederick II stands as the typical renaissance ruler of Denmark. Unlike his father, he was strongly affected by military ideals. Already as a young man he made friendship with German war princes. He had desired to marry his mistress, Anne of Hardenberg, but was finally persuaded not to. Shortly after his succession he won his first victory by the conquest of Dithmarschen in the summer of 1559.
The dominating conflict of his rule was the Scandinavian Seven Years' War form 1563 to 1570 in which he tried in vain to conquer Sweden, which was ruled by his cousin, the insane King Eric XIV. It developed into an extremely expensive war of attrition in which the areas of Scania were ravaged by the Swedes and Norway was almost lost. During this war the king led his army personally on the battlefield but without much result and the conflict damaged his relationship to his noble councillors. However, internal unrest in Sweden and the taking over of Danish administration by the able Steward of the Realm Peder Oxe stabilised the situation. The war ended by a status quo peace that let Denmark save face but also showed the limits of Danish military power.
After the war Frederick kept the peace without giving up his attempt of trying to expand his prestige as a naval ruler. His foreign politics were marked by a moral support of the Protestant powers – in his time as a bachelor he wooed Queen Elizabeth I of England, an initiative which made him Knight of the Garter - but at the same time by a strict neutrality. Councillors of experience like Peder Oxe, Niels Kaas, Arild Huitfeldt and Christoffer Valkendorff took care of the domestic administration.
wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603)Elizabeth set out to rule by good counsel,[1] and she depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. One of her first moves as queen was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement held firm throughout her reign and later evolved into today's Church of England. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry, but despite several petitions from parliament and numerous courtships, she never did. The reasons for this outcome have been much debated. As she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity, and a cult grew up around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day.
In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and siblings.[2] One of her mottoes was "video et taceo" ("I see, and say nothing").[3] This strategy, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Though Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs and only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France and Ireland, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated her name forever with what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history. Within 20 years of her death, she was celebrated as the ruler of a golden age, an image that retains its hold on the English people.
Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era, famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake. Some historians are more reserved in their assessment. They depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered,[4] sometimes indecisive ruler,[5] who enjoyed more than her share of luck. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity to the point where many of her subjects were relieved at her death. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic performer and a dogged survivor, in an age when government was ramshackle and limited and when monarchs in neighbouring countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones.
Say they get married in about 1560/1561? France and Spain would not be happy, but could such a large protestant state have resisted? Might a stronger hand in the Netherlands and Sweden resulted in a vast trade and naval power untouchable by papal bull?

Elizabeth was hard pressed to avoid the poison chalice of Dutch sovereignty, but could the lowlands be held with the addition of Denmark-Norway to back them up? With a stronger hand in the channel and north sea, might Scotland and Ireland succumb more easily? The Faroes, Shetland and Orkney make home ports more immediate.

Frederik was keen to take Sweden, but was ground down in a war of attrition that risked losing Norway more than gaining Sweden. Might the added support of England tip the balance to expand the empire to include all of Scandinavia?

With most coastal holdings in the North Atlantic in their grasp, how would the the most protestant emperor and empress seek to exploit North America?

The wank writes itself, but how sustainable/likely are the early stages? Was this a desirable marriage to both parties? Could the states unite and survive any internal/external opposition? Would the resources and wisdom of the whole be greater than the parts?

The Kingdom of Denmark was already officially bilingual (Danish and German), how could the wider state communicate and organise itself?
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