Well, for the most part, yes. The dowry a queen got was meant for her to have some income in case she became a dowager queen and was a lending 'pro tempore'. Which means that if she decides to marry a northern noble, the dowry would fall back to the kingdom, as then her husband would be responsible for her income
The Sons of Semiramis - A house of Folkung Kalmar Union
- Thread starter Atterdag
- Start date
Anne would surely work and she is almost good as a French Royal princess being double first cousin of Louis XI’s children (Charlotte of Savoy was sister of her father)
I think I’ll go for her. It doesn’t seem like it should have any too major consequences either.
Hedwig's brother, Vladislaus, was crowned king of Bohemia in 1471 and she married George of Bavaria who WASN'T grandson of any emperor, heck he wasn't even direct descendant of Louis IV of Bavaria (actual Wittelsbach emperor) in 1475, when the matter was "resolved" and Bavarians didn't help Vladislaus in his struggles against Matthias Corvinus.
You mislabelled your argument.
This concerns Hedwig, who was a grandchild of Emperor Albrecht II., not Georg of Bavaria.
Ah, btw....
Louis IV. (+1347) - Stephan (+1375) - Frederik (+1393) - Henry (+1450) - Louis(+1479) -George (+1503)
No direct descendant, wasn´t it, yes?
Yes she was, and that's why there were a lot of better offers from her like Maximilian of Austria or Matthias Corvinus (the earlier match didn't go through because Frederick III supported Teutonic Order against Poland, the later didn't because both Casimir and his wife considered Matthias and usurper), so ITTL if royal prince tried to get her hand he could be accepted. Still, our discussion is sensiless now because author had already made his choice.
Still only a great-great-great-great grandson of an Emperor from family who lost that title.
So you aren´t a direct descendant of your great-great-great-great-grandfather?
Oh, and it was great-great-great-grandfather...once again.
You are, but it didn't give George any boost to importance because of this ancestry being distant af.
I said it as a general principle, that "you" (as plural term, reffering to whole humanity) are descendats of their great great (X) grandpas, not referring to any particular person.
Part 24 – The Battle for Norway [1469-1471]
Part 24 – The Battle for Norway [1469-1471]
Close to Maribo abbey on the Danish island of Lolland is the mansion of Taastrup. Locals sometimes jokingly call it “Lolland’s other nunnery” for it is truly a house of women. Lady Anne Nielsdatter Kabel lives there with her five daughters, having inherited the house from her father and being its sole authority since the death of her husband in 1460. She is a known figure in Lolland, conducting business on equal terms as any local Lord – and being very good at it. In addition to Anne and her family, Lady Kabel employs a staff almost entirely made up of women. Since a few years back, Taastrup’s also been the home of Isabella Valdemarsdatter, King Valdemar V’s natural daughter. In an era where women’s position in society often is highly vulnerable, Lady Kabel and Taastrup certainly stands out as a place where a woman might make something else of her life than becoming a wife and mother, almost like a secular nunnery. Lady Kabel owes her sense of security in no small degree to the Peace of Margaret, which since 1396 has given women a stronger legal position, protecting them from crimes like forced marriage and kidnapping, as well as harshly punishing those who still attempt such heinous acts.
But since King Jon’s håndfæstning of 1466, the Peace of Margaret is no longer enforced. That is why Taastrup for the last week has been surrounded by a circle of tents, occupied by armed men. They had first come as visitors, declaring that their leader was here as a suitor of Isabella. Lady Kabel had told them off, informing them that Isabella certainly was not seeing suitors, indeed that she intended to join a nunnery. The men had left, but soon returned in greater numbers and set up camp around the mansion, effectively besieging it. Lady Kabel had sent out a girl named Helga as a runner to call for help. As a former herder she had often had to run to catch those heads of cattle who broke off from the herd, making her very fleet of foot. However, Helga had not been quick enough, and the besiegers had caught her. They had sent her back to the mansion, bruised and bloodied, perhaps to relay a message, but she had not spoken a word since returning.
Isabella sat in the highest room of the mansion, peaking out through a small crack of the window. There had been an awful lot of movement in the camp this morning, clearly something was up. When the men first made clear they were not taking no for an answer, and after Helga had been caught, Isabella had offered to give herself up to spare the mansion and its inhabitants. Lady Kabel had however refused and banished her to the room, telling Isabella to lock it from within and only open when she heard voice she knew. She had come every morning and brought Isabella food and drink, but not today. Isabella did not know if it was because their supplies had run out, or if something more important was occupying her today. Given that the men outside appeared to be forming a column, Isabella guessed it was the latter.
The small besieging force closed in on the mansion, carrying with them a crude improvised ram made from a felled tree. Lady Kabel had surely reinforced the door, for it sustained the blows of the ram far longer than Isabella would have guessed, but eventually it fell. One of the attackers was left on the ground as the rest stormed in, having been knocked out, hopefully for good, by a cast-iron pot which had been dropped from the window above. Lady Kabel owned no weapons, instead Isabella had grabbed some sort of gardening tool she had found stoved away in a closet. She did not exactly know what it was called, but it had a wooden handle, a metal head and something that resembled a point, that was good enough for her. Lady Kabel had clearly decided that they were going to try and defend themselves against their assailants, and although Isabella knew it would be a hopeless fight, she would at least try.
Isabella was unsure how much time passed, it could be minutes that felt like hours, or hours that felt like minutes. In either case there was the noise of running around, screaming, and the clanging of metal coming from all around the house. Eventually it died down, Isabella dared not think of just how many of her friends had just died, but as she could hear footsteps coming up the stairs outside, she steeled herself. Grabbing her improvised weapon with two hands, Isabella hid behind the door. She heard several men outside, first pushing on the door and when it did not open, seemingly throwing themselves at it. For a few moments Isabella almost believed that it would hold, but then with a loud crunch it was ripped entirely of its handles, falling into the room. Isabella did not think, she did not even look, she only spun around and with as much force as her young, lite body could produce she swung her “weapon”, hoping to hit whoever stood outside the door.
A noise that was equally vomit-inducing and satisfying briefly filled her ears, and as she looked, Isabella saw the man who had just broken her door staggering backwards, the metal point buried deep within his eye. Isabella felt triumphant for an instant, then panicked as she realized her only mean to defend herself now was buried within the man’s head. The attacker fell backwards, but several of his companions were right behind him, they stepped over his body as Isabella shuffled backwards into the room. There was nowhere to run, as one of the men violently grabbed Isabella’s arm and pulled her out of the room, down the stairs past them man she just now realized she had killed. Isabella struggled, kicked, and screamed, but to no avail as she was dragged through the rooms of the mansion, seeing several bodies of staff members she recognized. As she got to the main hall, she saw Lady Kabel and her daughters, some of them hurt but seemingly all alive, having been captured by the assailants. Isabella was dragged in front of a large man, seemingly their leader. She was made to look at him, and saw his blood-stained face staring down at her, with a terrifyingly joyful smile on his face he spoke to her. “Good day princess, I’m your betrothed.” Isabella spat in his face. He laughed and wiped it off. “Bastards always fight the hardest, truly God’s most blessed outcasts.”
The Kabel family arms. Taastrup’s brief time as a “secular nunnery” was ended by the assault, it would pass from the family after Anne’s death some years later.
The Brock family was known as a quarrelsome bunch in Denmark. Owning lands in both Jutland, Funen and Sjælland, they were spread-out and wealthy enough to get into feuds all over the Kingdom, and claiming descent from a bastard line of the old Estridsen dynasty perhaps gave them a heightened sense of importance. In either case, scarcely anyone in the family had died by natural causes for generations. Jens Jensen Brock had been stabbed to death by a nobleman he had a feud with, his son Eske Jensen had been hacked to pieces by peasant rebels, and his son Lauge Eskesen was surely living up to his ancestors. He was violent and short-tempered, getting into feuds with high-ranking nobles for reason he only self knew, often with the bloodshed they caused as an end of its own. Lauge had a very hands-on approach to these struggles, preferring to be the man plunging the dagger himself whenever possible.
Such a violent lifestyle did come with its benefits, as Lauge had a natural knack for martial matters. He had first gone to battle as a young man, in King Valdemar’s war with the Hansa. Lauge had been among the men sent to occupy Rügen, where he had been commended for his skill at arms, and his cruelty towards the local population. This was enough for King Valdemar to grant him a knighthood after the war. When Valdemar had sent his mercenaries to occupy Schleswig, Lauge had been with them, dealing with potential insurrectionists through his usual mean of intimidation and murder. Finding time to get involved in a blood feud with the Erik Rosenkrantz, Lauge found himself exposed as King Valdemar had left for Sweden, leaving much control of the Denmark in the hands of the Steward. When the second Bonde feud broke out in Sweden, Lauge had thus attempted to offer his services to Olaf but been dismissed after repeated reports of mistreatment from the mostly peasant soldiers. Lauge returned to Schleswig, but now offered his services to Duke Jon in his struggles with the Holsatian brother-Counts.
Jon had taken a liking to Lauge, if only for the fact that he had little interest in politics and made him his chief commander of the forces he sent to support various sides in Holstein. As long as Jon provided Lauge with ample opportunity to loot and kill, he remained loyal and effective. Lauge took no part in the election games following King Valdemar’s death, instead renewing his feud with Rosenkrantz as the former steward’s position became weakened, and readily swore loyalty to Jon when he was crowned. Lauge did become leader for the party of Jutish noblemen wanting to seize Queen Anne’s holdings in the peninsula, not seeing the implication it could have for the larger Scandinavian war. Jon was split, on one end he needed to keep Anne’s Jutish holding safe, on the other hand he intended to make Lauge commander of his forces in his war against Olaf. Jon asked Lauge to name his price for leaving the former Queen’s lands alone and was surprised and confused when Lauge requested he be given Isabella Valdemarsdatters hand in marriage. It was unclear what Lauge wished to attain through such a marriage, Isabella was a bastard and came with no great economic or political connections. Perhaps Lauge merely believed that as he himself had “royal” blood, it was only right he marry the daughter of a King – bastard or not.
Jon granted the wish, either not knowing or not caring that Isabella had contacted Olaf already, whom she believed her legal guardian, asking for permission to either join the nunnery at Maribo or Vadstena. While Olaf would allow this, Jon managed to react first, giving Lauge free reins to acquire his bride in whatever way necessary. Even though the circumstances of her birth had been controversial in King Valdemar’s time, her kidnapping was nothing short of barbaric. It was perhaps to be expected from the bloodthirsty Lauge Brock, but the crime did shine a bad light on Jon for allowing it to happen. After all, even without the Peace of Margaret, kidnapping and forced marriage was still illegal, just with less clear provisions for how to deal with cases of it.
In either case, Jon had Lauge’s loyalty, and in the summer of 1469, he had gotten his money and soldiers from the Hanseatic League. Putting Lauge in charge of his forces, Jon dispatched them north on ships. The King intended to first put down Elise Eskilsdatter’s rebellion in Norway and thus ensuring he fulfilled his promise to the Hansa, letting them back into Bergen, before turning his attention to Olaf in Sweden.
Lauge’s father had been killed by Jutish peasant rebels in the late reign of King Eric VII, judging by how Lauge treated the peasants living on his own lands he held them all accountable for this.
Olaf himself was not sitting patiently as Jon put his plans into motion. He had been greatly alarmed by the news that his half-cousin was recruiting an army with Hanseatic support, but also saw great opportunity in the Norwegian revolt. Olaf intended to offer Elise Eskildsdatter any support he could and readied his forces for an invasion to the west. The problem of Anne’s lands remained. Olaf had tried to negotiate with the widow Queen, but she fiercely defended her neutrality. No guarantee of letting her keep her lands indefinitely, even compensating her for any Jutish lands lost, swayed her to Olaf’s cause. While Anne probably saw Olaf in a better light than she did Jon, probably even believing the justness of his cause, she could not see a situation where supporting him would not bring further harm to the people she saw herself as protector of.
The possibility of Olaf marrying Anne was even put forth by advisors as a solution. In that way Olaf could not go back on his word and Anne would even get to be Queen again, a position which surely would let her help more people. Olaf was however very wary of this proposition. First, the marriage would be considered incestuous by the church, as Anne was Olaf’s sister-in law. This could surely hurt his legitimacy. Secondly, Anne was over thirty now and seemingly had not been very fertile even in her younger years, Olaf could not be sure she would give him any children. He of course already had a son and heir, but Nils was not a very strong child, and the chances of him not living to see adulthood were very real. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there was no guarantee Anne would even say yes to such a proposition. She had never much liked being Queen, and seemingly enjoyed the freedom of widowhood. Thus there would be no proposition of marriage.
Incest through marriage was just as illegal as incest through blood, and as Anne had given birth to Valdemar’s child, there could be little doubt that the marriage had been consummated.
Instead, Olaf would have to try and see if he could make it to Norway some other way. The Swedish province of Dal, bordering Norway just north of Anne’s domain, was held by Jon’s family members of the Tre Rosor family. They were also strong in the Norwegian border province of Jemtland. Olaf decided he would try to attack in these regions and see if he could push further into Norway from there. Olaf himself lead the forces into Dal, besieging among other places Dalaborg castle where his grandfather and namesake had first been hailed as King of Sweden in 1388. A smaller force was sent to invade Jemtland, and from there hopefully Trondheim deeper in Norwegian lands. Trondheim housed the grave and relics of St Olaf, perpetual King of Norway, and was where both Olaf and Jon had been crowned as Kings of Norway. Holding the town would be a great boon in legitimacy for either cause, possibly opening another road to support Elise’s revolt in Bergen.
The forces sent to Jemtland were under command of among others Herr Sten Gustavsson of the Sture family. A half-nephew and former supporter of Karl Knutsson Bonde, Sten had at first lead Karl’s remaining supporters in western Sweden when his uncle retreated to Finland. Seeing how pitifully outnumbered they were however by Olaf’s peasant forces, Sten had entered negotiations with him. In return for recognizing Sten as rightful heir to Karl Knutsson’s lands over Karl’s own bastard son, Sten would switch his allegiances. Olaf agreed to this but made very clear that these lands would only entail Karl’s “legal” ancestral lands in Småland, Östergötland and Uppland, not his illegally acquired ones in Finland, Gotland, Öland or otherwhere. Sten’s switching of allegiance had been instrumental in dismantling Karl’s support network in western Sweden, and as a promising commander he would surely be a valuable ally even after his uncle’s demise.
While Jon’s forces were playing for time in Dal, holding out in their castles, most of the soldiers they could muster were sent to Jemtland under Jöns Knutsson to oppose the forces under Herr Sten. Jon also fully realized the importance of holding Trondheim, and as the town had offered no resistance when Olaf entered it last time, why would now be any difference? No, Olaf’s forces had to be stopped from reaching Trondheim altogether, they would have to be stopped in Jemtland. Neither Jon nor Sten’s forces really had the numbers to clearly be able to defeat one another if it came to an open battle. Instead Jöns Knutsson opted to defend through a strategy of irregular warfare, hiding his forces in the hills and ambushing small segments of Sten’s forces as they passed by. Sten’s forces quickly adopted to this strategy, and the war in Jemtland became categorized by small, rapid, and deadly skirmishes. For now, however, both Sten and Olaf were stuck in the borderlands.
Sten Sture as imagined much later.
News of Jon’s forces heading out to sea had also reached Elise and her pro-Olaf supporters in Bergen. Understanding that Olaf, stuck in Dal, would not be able to meet up with them in time, Elise realized that she would have to face this force alone. Her allies were neither many nor well-armed enough to oppose a force of hardened mercenaries on land, but she did still command the private fleet she had built up with her husband many years ago. If she were to have any hopes of defending against Jon’s forces before help from Sweden could arrive, she would have to do so navally. Taking to the sea again alongside her two surviving sons and many other of Olaf’s supporters, she set sail southwards to engage the Dano-Hanseatic fleet before it could reach Bergen. With her were also some English ships, as conflict had again flamed up between England and the League there was now an unofficial alliance of convenience between Elise and several English privateers.
Where the first engagement between the two forces met is not entirely certain. Possibly it stood somewhere in the Skagerrak, possibly further out in the North Sea. Usually when Elise fought in open sea, she and her sons acted as a pack of wolves, isolating enemy ships before engaging them together. When they fought close to land, they hid in the fjords they knew so well and ambushed enemies who were less familiar with the terrain. Whether due to bad weather, unfavorable location, or miscommunication between English and Norwegian ships however, Elise was unable to pull of these strategies. Perhaps the Dano-Hanseatic ships were simply too large and heavily armed for her smaller and quick to do any real damage. In either case, Elise’s oldest surviving son Olov was killed in the battle, and she was forced to retreat, leaving most of her English “allies” behind to cover her. The road to Bergen now lay open.
Last time the Hansa had attacked Bergen in 1455 they had burned down an abbey. This time it would be much worse. King Jon had given Lauge strict orders to capture the town but leave it in such a condition that it would still be useful to the Hansa. Lauge interpreted this as him being given free reins to do as he pleased with the town except for the old Hanseatic quarter. He carefully led his soldiers through the quarters of the town, ransacking it and executing many “traitors”, most of whom simply were burghers, as most actual allies of Elise had come along with her on her fleet. This ordeal would take several days, weeks even, and while he squeezed as much loot as he could out of the town, Lauge installed himself in the Bergenhus fortress, where he also left a garrison to make sure the town would remain loyal. Whilst in Bergen, reports came that Elise’s fleet had been spotted to the south again. Lauge figured she was heading for Scania, to join up with her son-in-law Niels Pedersen and try to convince his Scanian alliance to take up active arms against Jon. A new opportunity for loot in other words.
“Bryggen” – the pier, the old Hanseatic quarter of Bergen.
Elise Eskildsdatter had indeed turned her attention south with her remaining forces, but she was not heading for Scania. This was a rumor she had deliberately started to try and lead Lauge and the Hanseatic fleet away from Bergen. She was currently hiding in the Norwegian fjords but planned to try and make it to northern Bohuslen, from which she would journey inlands and meet up with Olaf. Her bluff seemed to work as in the spring of 1470, Lauge and the Hanseatic fleet journeyed out of the Skagerrak and into the Kattegat, but then to both Elise and everyone else’s surprise, the fleet halted off the southern shores of Bohuslen.
Lauge, still ever ignorant of the politics shaping this conflict, rowed to shore with parts of his forces, set up a base in the old fortress of Bohus and then sent out his men to forage, and plunder, in Västergötland – the heartlands of Anne’s domain. Sure, Lauge had promised Jon to leave Anne’s Jutish holdings alone, but nothing of her Swedish territories. Believing himself to have found a loophole in his promise to his King, Lauge intended to resupply his forces and enrich himself before moving on to Scania. He had however made a fatal miscalculation, believing that all Swedish forces were tied up in Dal and Jemtland he had not considered the sheer mass of men who would quickly take up arms in defense of Anne. Soon, Lauge found himself besieged in Bohus castle, surrounded by a horde of angry peasants, very displeased that he had disturbed their peaceful refuge.
Anne had already been outraged at Jon for letting Lauge kidnap and forcibly marry Isabella, and when he actively began plundering her lands neutrality was simply no longer possible. She contacted Olaf and pledged to support his cause, asking only that he keep better control of his soldiers than Jon did. The news that Anne had finally taken a stance in the war was a great moral boost for Olaf’s forces, and a blow to Jon. His forces in Dal were now surrounded, pressed by Olaf’s men from the east and Anne’s from the south. Dalaborg, as well as most other castles in Dal would soon surrender, opening the road to southern Norway.
In addition, as the Hanseatic fleet still stood stationary of the southern coast of Bohuslen, Elise saw a chance to strike again. Emerging from her hiding spot in the Norwegian fjords, she caught them by surprise. The fleet was expecting an attack from the south, not the north, and as such most of their guns were facing the wrong way when Elise attacked. With a thirst for revenge in her heart, Elise’s fleet of smaller ships managed to surround many of the Hanseatic ones before their sails were even raised, capturing, or sinking them. The rest of the Hansa’s fleet abandoned Lauge and the men trapped in Bohus and retreated into the Øresund. This further demoralized Lauge’s men, who by midsummer decided to attempt a breakout from the castle. It was somewhat successful, the men made it past the besieging peasants and to the smaller boats they had come to shore on. Staying close to the coast, they began making it southwards, hoping for dear life that Elise’s fleet would not find them. Lauge Eskesen was reported killed during the breakout, but his body was never retrieved – quickly sowing doubt that he might have escaped.
Hanseatic ships steadily became larger and larger throughout the latter half of the 15th century, matching the general development of ships in Europe.
The situation having quickly changed, Olaf and Anne’s forces joined up with one another and began marching on Oslo. Jöns Knutsson was called to return from Jemtland to try and hinder their advance, which they did. Jöns met Olaf close to Oslo, but in a conventional battle his forced, tired after over a year of guerilla warfare in Jemtland and the long march south, had no chance against Olaf’s superior numbers. With Elise blockading the town from the south, Oslo fell quickly to the invading forces in the late fall. Jöns’ withdrawal from Jemtland had also opened up the road to Trondheim for Sten Sture and his persistent force. When he arrived, it is said that he was met by a herald of the town, who asked if he too had come to be crowned King. Sten is said to jokingly have replied that the townspeople must have mistaken him for his uncle, and that he had no such ambitions.
Thus, after roughly two years of fighting, the situation in Norway had almost been reversed. With Olaf and his supporters holding Trondheim and Oslo, and Jon’s last real point of strength being in the ransacked town of Bergen, but this was not to last long. After wintering in Oslo, Elise set sail for Bergen, intending to re-take the town and, again, see the Hansa thrown out. Her fleet was now enlarged by ships captured from Oslo harbor. By the summer of 1471, close to all of Norway had fallen under Olaf’s control, there was now little doubt that he alone was the King of Norway.
Still, the battle for Norway was not the end of the war, for the Union was still divided. The conflict would enter something of a lull again as both sides considered their next move. Olaf was faced with the same task his father had stood before over 40 years ago, take back Denmark from a base in Norway and Sweden, while Jon now had two crowns to win back if he wanted to prove that he was capable to rule the whole union. Still, there was no sight of reconciliation between the two sides, and surely the question of rulership was still to be settled on the battlefield.
The Folkung dynasty had held Sweden and Norway before it made it to Denmark the first time, could it do so again?
Close to Maribo abbey on the Danish island of Lolland is the mansion of Taastrup. Locals sometimes jokingly call it “Lolland’s other nunnery” for it is truly a house of women. Lady Anne Nielsdatter Kabel lives there with her five daughters, having inherited the house from her father and being its sole authority since the death of her husband in 1460. She is a known figure in Lolland, conducting business on equal terms as any local Lord – and being very good at it. In addition to Anne and her family, Lady Kabel employs a staff almost entirely made up of women. Since a few years back, Taastrup’s also been the home of Isabella Valdemarsdatter, King Valdemar V’s natural daughter. In an era where women’s position in society often is highly vulnerable, Lady Kabel and Taastrup certainly stands out as a place where a woman might make something else of her life than becoming a wife and mother, almost like a secular nunnery. Lady Kabel owes her sense of security in no small degree to the Peace of Margaret, which since 1396 has given women a stronger legal position, protecting them from crimes like forced marriage and kidnapping, as well as harshly punishing those who still attempt such heinous acts.
But since King Jon’s håndfæstning of 1466, the Peace of Margaret is no longer enforced. That is why Taastrup for the last week has been surrounded by a circle of tents, occupied by armed men. They had first come as visitors, declaring that their leader was here as a suitor of Isabella. Lady Kabel had told them off, informing them that Isabella certainly was not seeing suitors, indeed that she intended to join a nunnery. The men had left, but soon returned in greater numbers and set up camp around the mansion, effectively besieging it. Lady Kabel had sent out a girl named Helga as a runner to call for help. As a former herder she had often had to run to catch those heads of cattle who broke off from the herd, making her very fleet of foot. However, Helga had not been quick enough, and the besiegers had caught her. They had sent her back to the mansion, bruised and bloodied, perhaps to relay a message, but she had not spoken a word since returning.
Isabella sat in the highest room of the mansion, peaking out through a small crack of the window. There had been an awful lot of movement in the camp this morning, clearly something was up. When the men first made clear they were not taking no for an answer, and after Helga had been caught, Isabella had offered to give herself up to spare the mansion and its inhabitants. Lady Kabel had however refused and banished her to the room, telling Isabella to lock it from within and only open when she heard voice she knew. She had come every morning and brought Isabella food and drink, but not today. Isabella did not know if it was because their supplies had run out, or if something more important was occupying her today. Given that the men outside appeared to be forming a column, Isabella guessed it was the latter.
The small besieging force closed in on the mansion, carrying with them a crude improvised ram made from a felled tree. Lady Kabel had surely reinforced the door, for it sustained the blows of the ram far longer than Isabella would have guessed, but eventually it fell. One of the attackers was left on the ground as the rest stormed in, having been knocked out, hopefully for good, by a cast-iron pot which had been dropped from the window above. Lady Kabel owned no weapons, instead Isabella had grabbed some sort of gardening tool she had found stoved away in a closet. She did not exactly know what it was called, but it had a wooden handle, a metal head and something that resembled a point, that was good enough for her. Lady Kabel had clearly decided that they were going to try and defend themselves against their assailants, and although Isabella knew it would be a hopeless fight, she would at least try.
Isabella was unsure how much time passed, it could be minutes that felt like hours, or hours that felt like minutes. In either case there was the noise of running around, screaming, and the clanging of metal coming from all around the house. Eventually it died down, Isabella dared not think of just how many of her friends had just died, but as she could hear footsteps coming up the stairs outside, she steeled herself. Grabbing her improvised weapon with two hands, Isabella hid behind the door. She heard several men outside, first pushing on the door and when it did not open, seemingly throwing themselves at it. For a few moments Isabella almost believed that it would hold, but then with a loud crunch it was ripped entirely of its handles, falling into the room. Isabella did not think, she did not even look, she only spun around and with as much force as her young, lite body could produce she swung her “weapon”, hoping to hit whoever stood outside the door.
A noise that was equally vomit-inducing and satisfying briefly filled her ears, and as she looked, Isabella saw the man who had just broken her door staggering backwards, the metal point buried deep within his eye. Isabella felt triumphant for an instant, then panicked as she realized her only mean to defend herself now was buried within the man’s head. The attacker fell backwards, but several of his companions were right behind him, they stepped over his body as Isabella shuffled backwards into the room. There was nowhere to run, as one of the men violently grabbed Isabella’s arm and pulled her out of the room, down the stairs past them man she just now realized she had killed. Isabella struggled, kicked, and screamed, but to no avail as she was dragged through the rooms of the mansion, seeing several bodies of staff members she recognized. As she got to the main hall, she saw Lady Kabel and her daughters, some of them hurt but seemingly all alive, having been captured by the assailants. Isabella was dragged in front of a large man, seemingly their leader. She was made to look at him, and saw his blood-stained face staring down at her, with a terrifyingly joyful smile on his face he spoke to her. “Good day princess, I’m your betrothed.” Isabella spat in his face. He laughed and wiped it off. “Bastards always fight the hardest, truly God’s most blessed outcasts.”
The Kabel family arms. Taastrup’s brief time as a “secular nunnery” was ended by the assault, it would pass from the family after Anne’s death some years later.
The Brock family was known as a quarrelsome bunch in Denmark. Owning lands in both Jutland, Funen and Sjælland, they were spread-out and wealthy enough to get into feuds all over the Kingdom, and claiming descent from a bastard line of the old Estridsen dynasty perhaps gave them a heightened sense of importance. In either case, scarcely anyone in the family had died by natural causes for generations. Jens Jensen Brock had been stabbed to death by a nobleman he had a feud with, his son Eske Jensen had been hacked to pieces by peasant rebels, and his son Lauge Eskesen was surely living up to his ancestors. He was violent and short-tempered, getting into feuds with high-ranking nobles for reason he only self knew, often with the bloodshed they caused as an end of its own. Lauge had a very hands-on approach to these struggles, preferring to be the man plunging the dagger himself whenever possible.
Such a violent lifestyle did come with its benefits, as Lauge had a natural knack for martial matters. He had first gone to battle as a young man, in King Valdemar’s war with the Hansa. Lauge had been among the men sent to occupy Rügen, where he had been commended for his skill at arms, and his cruelty towards the local population. This was enough for King Valdemar to grant him a knighthood after the war. When Valdemar had sent his mercenaries to occupy Schleswig, Lauge had been with them, dealing with potential insurrectionists through his usual mean of intimidation and murder. Finding time to get involved in a blood feud with the Erik Rosenkrantz, Lauge found himself exposed as King Valdemar had left for Sweden, leaving much control of the Denmark in the hands of the Steward. When the second Bonde feud broke out in Sweden, Lauge had thus attempted to offer his services to Olaf but been dismissed after repeated reports of mistreatment from the mostly peasant soldiers. Lauge returned to Schleswig, but now offered his services to Duke Jon in his struggles with the Holsatian brother-Counts.
Jon had taken a liking to Lauge, if only for the fact that he had little interest in politics and made him his chief commander of the forces he sent to support various sides in Holstein. As long as Jon provided Lauge with ample opportunity to loot and kill, he remained loyal and effective. Lauge took no part in the election games following King Valdemar’s death, instead renewing his feud with Rosenkrantz as the former steward’s position became weakened, and readily swore loyalty to Jon when he was crowned. Lauge did become leader for the party of Jutish noblemen wanting to seize Queen Anne’s holdings in the peninsula, not seeing the implication it could have for the larger Scandinavian war. Jon was split, on one end he needed to keep Anne’s Jutish holding safe, on the other hand he intended to make Lauge commander of his forces in his war against Olaf. Jon asked Lauge to name his price for leaving the former Queen’s lands alone and was surprised and confused when Lauge requested he be given Isabella Valdemarsdatters hand in marriage. It was unclear what Lauge wished to attain through such a marriage, Isabella was a bastard and came with no great economic or political connections. Perhaps Lauge merely believed that as he himself had “royal” blood, it was only right he marry the daughter of a King – bastard or not.
Jon granted the wish, either not knowing or not caring that Isabella had contacted Olaf already, whom she believed her legal guardian, asking for permission to either join the nunnery at Maribo or Vadstena. While Olaf would allow this, Jon managed to react first, giving Lauge free reins to acquire his bride in whatever way necessary. Even though the circumstances of her birth had been controversial in King Valdemar’s time, her kidnapping was nothing short of barbaric. It was perhaps to be expected from the bloodthirsty Lauge Brock, but the crime did shine a bad light on Jon for allowing it to happen. After all, even without the Peace of Margaret, kidnapping and forced marriage was still illegal, just with less clear provisions for how to deal with cases of it.
In either case, Jon had Lauge’s loyalty, and in the summer of 1469, he had gotten his money and soldiers from the Hanseatic League. Putting Lauge in charge of his forces, Jon dispatched them north on ships. The King intended to first put down Elise Eskilsdatter’s rebellion in Norway and thus ensuring he fulfilled his promise to the Hansa, letting them back into Bergen, before turning his attention to Olaf in Sweden.
Lauge’s father had been killed by Jutish peasant rebels in the late reign of King Eric VII, judging by how Lauge treated the peasants living on his own lands he held them all accountable for this.
Olaf himself was not sitting patiently as Jon put his plans into motion. He had been greatly alarmed by the news that his half-cousin was recruiting an army with Hanseatic support, but also saw great opportunity in the Norwegian revolt. Olaf intended to offer Elise Eskildsdatter any support he could and readied his forces for an invasion to the west. The problem of Anne’s lands remained. Olaf had tried to negotiate with the widow Queen, but she fiercely defended her neutrality. No guarantee of letting her keep her lands indefinitely, even compensating her for any Jutish lands lost, swayed her to Olaf’s cause. While Anne probably saw Olaf in a better light than she did Jon, probably even believing the justness of his cause, she could not see a situation where supporting him would not bring further harm to the people she saw herself as protector of.
The possibility of Olaf marrying Anne was even put forth by advisors as a solution. In that way Olaf could not go back on his word and Anne would even get to be Queen again, a position which surely would let her help more people. Olaf was however very wary of this proposition. First, the marriage would be considered incestuous by the church, as Anne was Olaf’s sister-in law. This could surely hurt his legitimacy. Secondly, Anne was over thirty now and seemingly had not been very fertile even in her younger years, Olaf could not be sure she would give him any children. He of course already had a son and heir, but Nils was not a very strong child, and the chances of him not living to see adulthood were very real. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there was no guarantee Anne would even say yes to such a proposition. She had never much liked being Queen, and seemingly enjoyed the freedom of widowhood. Thus there would be no proposition of marriage.
Incest through marriage was just as illegal as incest through blood, and as Anne had given birth to Valdemar’s child, there could be little doubt that the marriage had been consummated.
Instead, Olaf would have to try and see if he could make it to Norway some other way. The Swedish province of Dal, bordering Norway just north of Anne’s domain, was held by Jon’s family members of the Tre Rosor family. They were also strong in the Norwegian border province of Jemtland. Olaf decided he would try to attack in these regions and see if he could push further into Norway from there. Olaf himself lead the forces into Dal, besieging among other places Dalaborg castle where his grandfather and namesake had first been hailed as King of Sweden in 1388. A smaller force was sent to invade Jemtland, and from there hopefully Trondheim deeper in Norwegian lands. Trondheim housed the grave and relics of St Olaf, perpetual King of Norway, and was where both Olaf and Jon had been crowned as Kings of Norway. Holding the town would be a great boon in legitimacy for either cause, possibly opening another road to support Elise’s revolt in Bergen.
The forces sent to Jemtland were under command of among others Herr Sten Gustavsson of the Sture family. A half-nephew and former supporter of Karl Knutsson Bonde, Sten had at first lead Karl’s remaining supporters in western Sweden when his uncle retreated to Finland. Seeing how pitifully outnumbered they were however by Olaf’s peasant forces, Sten had entered negotiations with him. In return for recognizing Sten as rightful heir to Karl Knutsson’s lands over Karl’s own bastard son, Sten would switch his allegiances. Olaf agreed to this but made very clear that these lands would only entail Karl’s “legal” ancestral lands in Småland, Östergötland and Uppland, not his illegally acquired ones in Finland, Gotland, Öland or otherwhere. Sten’s switching of allegiance had been instrumental in dismantling Karl’s support network in western Sweden, and as a promising commander he would surely be a valuable ally even after his uncle’s demise.
While Jon’s forces were playing for time in Dal, holding out in their castles, most of the soldiers they could muster were sent to Jemtland under Jöns Knutsson to oppose the forces under Herr Sten. Jon also fully realized the importance of holding Trondheim, and as the town had offered no resistance when Olaf entered it last time, why would now be any difference? No, Olaf’s forces had to be stopped from reaching Trondheim altogether, they would have to be stopped in Jemtland. Neither Jon nor Sten’s forces really had the numbers to clearly be able to defeat one another if it came to an open battle. Instead Jöns Knutsson opted to defend through a strategy of irregular warfare, hiding his forces in the hills and ambushing small segments of Sten’s forces as they passed by. Sten’s forces quickly adopted to this strategy, and the war in Jemtland became categorized by small, rapid, and deadly skirmishes. For now, however, both Sten and Olaf were stuck in the borderlands.
Sten Sture as imagined much later.
News of Jon’s forces heading out to sea had also reached Elise and her pro-Olaf supporters in Bergen. Understanding that Olaf, stuck in Dal, would not be able to meet up with them in time, Elise realized that she would have to face this force alone. Her allies were neither many nor well-armed enough to oppose a force of hardened mercenaries on land, but she did still command the private fleet she had built up with her husband many years ago. If she were to have any hopes of defending against Jon’s forces before help from Sweden could arrive, she would have to do so navally. Taking to the sea again alongside her two surviving sons and many other of Olaf’s supporters, she set sail southwards to engage the Dano-Hanseatic fleet before it could reach Bergen. With her were also some English ships, as conflict had again flamed up between England and the League there was now an unofficial alliance of convenience between Elise and several English privateers.
Where the first engagement between the two forces met is not entirely certain. Possibly it stood somewhere in the Skagerrak, possibly further out in the North Sea. Usually when Elise fought in open sea, she and her sons acted as a pack of wolves, isolating enemy ships before engaging them together. When they fought close to land, they hid in the fjords they knew so well and ambushed enemies who were less familiar with the terrain. Whether due to bad weather, unfavorable location, or miscommunication between English and Norwegian ships however, Elise was unable to pull of these strategies. Perhaps the Dano-Hanseatic ships were simply too large and heavily armed for her smaller and quick to do any real damage. In either case, Elise’s oldest surviving son Olov was killed in the battle, and she was forced to retreat, leaving most of her English “allies” behind to cover her. The road to Bergen now lay open.
Last time the Hansa had attacked Bergen in 1455 they had burned down an abbey. This time it would be much worse. King Jon had given Lauge strict orders to capture the town but leave it in such a condition that it would still be useful to the Hansa. Lauge interpreted this as him being given free reins to do as he pleased with the town except for the old Hanseatic quarter. He carefully led his soldiers through the quarters of the town, ransacking it and executing many “traitors”, most of whom simply were burghers, as most actual allies of Elise had come along with her on her fleet. This ordeal would take several days, weeks even, and while he squeezed as much loot as he could out of the town, Lauge installed himself in the Bergenhus fortress, where he also left a garrison to make sure the town would remain loyal. Whilst in Bergen, reports came that Elise’s fleet had been spotted to the south again. Lauge figured she was heading for Scania, to join up with her son-in-law Niels Pedersen and try to convince his Scanian alliance to take up active arms against Jon. A new opportunity for loot in other words.
“Bryggen” – the pier, the old Hanseatic quarter of Bergen.
Elise Eskildsdatter had indeed turned her attention south with her remaining forces, but she was not heading for Scania. This was a rumor she had deliberately started to try and lead Lauge and the Hanseatic fleet away from Bergen. She was currently hiding in the Norwegian fjords but planned to try and make it to northern Bohuslen, from which she would journey inlands and meet up with Olaf. Her bluff seemed to work as in the spring of 1470, Lauge and the Hanseatic fleet journeyed out of the Skagerrak and into the Kattegat, but then to both Elise and everyone else’s surprise, the fleet halted off the southern shores of Bohuslen.
Lauge, still ever ignorant of the politics shaping this conflict, rowed to shore with parts of his forces, set up a base in the old fortress of Bohus and then sent out his men to forage, and plunder, in Västergötland – the heartlands of Anne’s domain. Sure, Lauge had promised Jon to leave Anne’s Jutish holdings alone, but nothing of her Swedish territories. Believing himself to have found a loophole in his promise to his King, Lauge intended to resupply his forces and enrich himself before moving on to Scania. He had however made a fatal miscalculation, believing that all Swedish forces were tied up in Dal and Jemtland he had not considered the sheer mass of men who would quickly take up arms in defense of Anne. Soon, Lauge found himself besieged in Bohus castle, surrounded by a horde of angry peasants, very displeased that he had disturbed their peaceful refuge.
Anne had already been outraged at Jon for letting Lauge kidnap and forcibly marry Isabella, and when he actively began plundering her lands neutrality was simply no longer possible. She contacted Olaf and pledged to support his cause, asking only that he keep better control of his soldiers than Jon did. The news that Anne had finally taken a stance in the war was a great moral boost for Olaf’s forces, and a blow to Jon. His forces in Dal were now surrounded, pressed by Olaf’s men from the east and Anne’s from the south. Dalaborg, as well as most other castles in Dal would soon surrender, opening the road to southern Norway.
In addition, as the Hanseatic fleet still stood stationary of the southern coast of Bohuslen, Elise saw a chance to strike again. Emerging from her hiding spot in the Norwegian fjords, she caught them by surprise. The fleet was expecting an attack from the south, not the north, and as such most of their guns were facing the wrong way when Elise attacked. With a thirst for revenge in her heart, Elise’s fleet of smaller ships managed to surround many of the Hanseatic ones before their sails were even raised, capturing, or sinking them. The rest of the Hansa’s fleet abandoned Lauge and the men trapped in Bohus and retreated into the Øresund. This further demoralized Lauge’s men, who by midsummer decided to attempt a breakout from the castle. It was somewhat successful, the men made it past the besieging peasants and to the smaller boats they had come to shore on. Staying close to the coast, they began making it southwards, hoping for dear life that Elise’s fleet would not find them. Lauge Eskesen was reported killed during the breakout, but his body was never retrieved – quickly sowing doubt that he might have escaped.
Hanseatic ships steadily became larger and larger throughout the latter half of the 15th century, matching the general development of ships in Europe.
The situation having quickly changed, Olaf and Anne’s forces joined up with one another and began marching on Oslo. Jöns Knutsson was called to return from Jemtland to try and hinder their advance, which they did. Jöns met Olaf close to Oslo, but in a conventional battle his forced, tired after over a year of guerilla warfare in Jemtland and the long march south, had no chance against Olaf’s superior numbers. With Elise blockading the town from the south, Oslo fell quickly to the invading forces in the late fall. Jöns’ withdrawal from Jemtland had also opened up the road to Trondheim for Sten Sture and his persistent force. When he arrived, it is said that he was met by a herald of the town, who asked if he too had come to be crowned King. Sten is said to jokingly have replied that the townspeople must have mistaken him for his uncle, and that he had no such ambitions.
Thus, after roughly two years of fighting, the situation in Norway had almost been reversed. With Olaf and his supporters holding Trondheim and Oslo, and Jon’s last real point of strength being in the ransacked town of Bergen, but this was not to last long. After wintering in Oslo, Elise set sail for Bergen, intending to re-take the town and, again, see the Hansa thrown out. Her fleet was now enlarged by ships captured from Oslo harbor. By the summer of 1471, close to all of Norway had fallen under Olaf’s control, there was now little doubt that he alone was the King of Norway.
Still, the battle for Norway was not the end of the war, for the Union was still divided. The conflict would enter something of a lull again as both sides considered their next move. Olaf was faced with the same task his father had stood before over 40 years ago, take back Denmark from a base in Norway and Sweden, while Jon now had two crowns to win back if he wanted to prove that he was capable to rule the whole union. Still, there was no sight of reconciliation between the two sides, and surely the question of rulership was still to be settled on the battlefield.
The Folkung dynasty had held Sweden and Norway before it made it to Denmark the first time, could it do so again?
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Jon is a fool, Isabella Valdemarsdatters legal guardian by any standard is Olaf (or maybe even Queen Anne) as long he was alive. It was pretty clear that he had no right to offer her hand in marriage no matter whether Jon is king or not. What Jon here have fundamental done is showing that he doesn’t respect legal guardianship of the families. There’s likely plenty of Danish and Norwegian nobles who are furious about the precedence Jon have set up.
One of my favorite aspects of researching this timeline is the many interesting minor historical figures I come across. I may have made Lauge a tad worse here than he was otl, but he never had as much power otl as he got here either.
Yup, but when your legal guardian is at war with said King, power and politics often take precedence of laws.
Even by some miracle Jon wins, Norway and Sweden will likely rebel and try to break away.
Although by this Jon has more or less pissed off anyone who isn't Danish Nobility, though even that seems fading too.
Although by this Jon has more or less pissed off anyone who isn't Danish Nobility, though even that seems fading too.
Yes I can see why he did it, but it gives a easy excuse for any noble family to change side and may even push some to change side on their own. I would imagine that the Zealandic and specific Lollandic nobility is extra furious over this, especially anyone related to the Kabel af Taastrup, especially if anyone of the family have been abused. Lollandic nobility were rich, so they could be pretty dangerous if they began to raise their own troops.
Very nice chapter.
The fall of Taastrup was a very poignant event, even if it might be seen as minor in some contexts. Really shows one aspect of the Peace of Margaret, and what revoking it could mean besides 'more powerful nobles'. Not too sure the event will have so massive an effect in regards to the Danish nobility, since revoking the Peace of Margaret seems to have been one of their major goals.
Man, this Lauge guy is an easy guy to hate. Sounds like he was a historical figure as well, even though I don't know of him. I guess I could see why Jon might allow such behaviors, kind of hard to finance a war without excessively looting your enemies when you basically gave up your powers of taxation over your supporters, but Lauge's actions are probably really spreading by this point. Even pushed Anne into Olaf's camp. Jon seems to have fallen to the issue that a commander who wins tactical victories but consistently makes strategic blunders due to a lack of care for politics will generally come to bite you in the ass somehow.
I am a bit shocked that Elise managed to lead a Norwegian naval force to victory against a Dano-Hanseatic force, even if she lost first and then got sort of lucky. Not too knowledgeable about this time period for Norway, but 1470 to 1530 were basically the nadir of Norway's population struggles post-Black Death. Is Norway doing noticeably better in this time period? Otherwise, the Fall of Norway has really cut down one of Jon's major pillars of support since that's where most of his family's power and influence was. Not like the North Sea Islands are strong basses of support.
As for the war from this point. I'd expect Skane to join Olaf by this point, since he controls the rest of the Scandinavian peninsula and Jon's faction just took a naval blow. Skane joining might allow Olaf to launch an offensive, thus keeping Skane from being the center of the fighting and shifting it to Sjaelland, Falster, or Lolland. A bold move that could potentially pay off though is Olaf quickly moving to reinforce Anne's Jutish lands, before it is occupied fully. Utilize Anne's local support there (a spirited defense of the peasantry there against the nobility could start a swell of peasant support for Olaf), distract the Jutish nobility and draw them into a fight Olaf's forces can stay on the defensive, and potentially force Jon to leave Copenhagen and Sjaelland vulnerable if the Jutish nobility demands he come reinforce them on that front. Although I suspect that Jon is going to try to get his Schleswig supporters and forces to stop looking towards Holstein.
Looking forward to how the war in Denmark plays out. you've continuously surprised me with how thing will go.
The fall of Taastrup was a very poignant event, even if it might be seen as minor in some contexts. Really shows one aspect of the Peace of Margaret, and what revoking it could mean besides 'more powerful nobles'. Not too sure the event will have so massive an effect in regards to the Danish nobility, since revoking the Peace of Margaret seems to have been one of their major goals.
Man, this Lauge guy is an easy guy to hate. Sounds like he was a historical figure as well, even though I don't know of him. I guess I could see why Jon might allow such behaviors, kind of hard to finance a war without excessively looting your enemies when you basically gave up your powers of taxation over your supporters, but Lauge's actions are probably really spreading by this point. Even pushed Anne into Olaf's camp. Jon seems to have fallen to the issue that a commander who wins tactical victories but consistently makes strategic blunders due to a lack of care for politics will generally come to bite you in the ass somehow.
I am a bit shocked that Elise managed to lead a Norwegian naval force to victory against a Dano-Hanseatic force, even if she lost first and then got sort of lucky. Not too knowledgeable about this time period for Norway, but 1470 to 1530 were basically the nadir of Norway's population struggles post-Black Death. Is Norway doing noticeably better in this time period? Otherwise, the Fall of Norway has really cut down one of Jon's major pillars of support since that's where most of his family's power and influence was. Not like the North Sea Islands are strong basses of support.
As for the war from this point. I'd expect Skane to join Olaf by this point, since he controls the rest of the Scandinavian peninsula and Jon's faction just took a naval blow. Skane joining might allow Olaf to launch an offensive, thus keeping Skane from being the center of the fighting and shifting it to Sjaelland, Falster, or Lolland. A bold move that could potentially pay off though is Olaf quickly moving to reinforce Anne's Jutish lands, before it is occupied fully. Utilize Anne's local support there (a spirited defense of the peasantry there against the nobility could start a swell of peasant support for Olaf), distract the Jutish nobility and draw them into a fight Olaf's forces can stay on the defensive, and potentially force Jon to leave Copenhagen and Sjaelland vulnerable if the Jutish nobility demands he come reinforce them on that front. Although I suspect that Jon is going to try to get his Schleswig supporters and forces to stop looking towards Holstein.
Looking forward to how the war in Denmark plays out. you've continuously surprised me with how thing will go.
Thanks a lot, was a bit unsure about how it was going to turn out
He was, I came across him while browsing the Danish Wikipedia, his article isn’t translated to any other languages, apparently he features in an old folk song as well... In otl he never quite reached the point where he lead any major forces, but he was just as bloodthirsty
Part of it is also that Jon just in general has a lot of trouble controlling everything going on around him, he did after all more or less become King because of events out of his own control and on the conditions of noble autonomy.
It should be a bit stronger, otl’s Norway quickly became really marginalized in the union, it’s not quite as a bad in ttl. Norway was also damaged quite a bit (as far as I understand) in otl’s Karl Knutsson’s repeated attempts to control Sweden, ttl the conflict was more contained in Sweden.
Oh and also, not just Norway itself, but Elise’s position is much stronger than it was in otl, where her family lost control over Bergenhus after her husband’s death and then gradually the rest of their lands were confiscated by Christian I.
As always, stay tuned. I have a general idea for the rest of the war, but a lot of details need to be panned out.
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Part 25 – A Skirmish in Scania [1471-1472]
Part 25 – A Skirmish in Scania [1471-1472]
Following the re-capture of Bergen by Elise Eskildsdatter, the civil war in the Union entered a short lull. King Jon had to regroup his forces and decide on his next move, while Olaf had to try and solidify his grip on Norway. This was easier said than done however, Jon had after all managed to ascend to the throne of Norway in large part due to the influence his family held in the Kingdom. If Olaf were to secure Norway, he would have to manage the Tre Rosor family, the question was merely how? A possibility would of course be treating them all as traitors, confiscate all their lands and execute the lot, but such punitive actions might hurt Olaf’s overall situation. The Tre Rosor family was after all originally a Swedish noble house, and they did have many connections back in their home country. In addition, if word reached Denmark of Olaf killing the Norwegian nobility, chances were that the Danes would fight all the harder to avoid a similar fate.
Olaf thus turned to his half-aunt for help. Margaret Olafsdatter, last surviving child of King Olaf Arv, had acted as regent for Jon after the death of his father Sigurd Jonsson. During the years of Jon’s minority, she had actively had to prevent the Tre Rosor family from seizing control of her son’s inheritance. She needed the family’s help to manage all her late husband’s widespread holdings, but they of course wished to rule it as if it were their personal fiefs. The difficulties of keeping the Tre Rosor in line had only increased after Jon left Norway for Schleswig in 1460, and the job had again fallen on Margaret. Now in her late 30’s and her son living abroad, she decided to re-marry to strengthen her own position in Norway.
Margaret’s second husband was be the Norwegian knight Jon Svaleson Smør. He was the last living member of the Smør family, a powerful though declining Norwegian noble house. His father had held the position of Commander of Bergenhus until his death in the mid 1440’s, when Jon Svaleson had inherited holdings spread throughout the Kingdom, including lands in Shetland and the Faroes. Wary of the growing influence of “foreign” nobles’ families such as the Tre Rosor, he seemed like a good counterbalance to their ambition on Jon’s lands and thus a perfect husband for Margaret. The only issue with the wedding was that Jon Svaleson may possibly already have been married, but the facts are unclear, in either case he did not let it get in the way of his marriage to Margaret.
Jon Svaleson had been very displeased with King Valdemar’s reign, believing him to purposefully be marginalizing Norway’s autonomy within the Union, such as by appointing a child as høvitsman. Additionally, the King had used the Norwegian privy council as little more than a glorified seal, often having them agree to decisions Jon Svaleson believed to be against the Kingdom’s best interest, like the abolishment of the Bohus toll. Even so, Jon Svaleson had not been enthusiastic about his stepson becoming King after Valdemar’s death. While he saw merit in the argument that a Norwegian-born King would not neglect Norway, he was uneasy about ignoring the Kingdom’s laws of succession. Agreeing to a new King simply because he had been elected in Denmark was another step in sidelining Norway in favour of its southern neighbor. Once King Jon did ascend the throne, these fears were seemingly confirmed. He did not empower the Norwegian privy council, instead he mostly ruled through his familial connections. Jon Svaleson saw stunts such as appointing a Norwegian as Jarl of Orkney as little more than a smokescreen for further curbing of Norwegian autonomy.
Thus, when Olaf had invaded Norway, Jon Svaleson’s contribution to King Jon’s cause had been symbolic at best. Once it became clear that Jon would not be able to hold onto the Kingdom, Jon Svaleson had actively switched sides and hailed Olaf as the true and lawful King of Norway. Now, Olaf thus made an offer to his half-aunt and her husband. If she agreed to continue her work of keeping the Tre Rosor family down, Olaf would agree to return her son’s Norwegian holdings once he was defeated. Most of the Tre Rosor family’s own land both in Sweden and Norway would however still be seized. In addition, Olaf would appoint Jon Svaleson as new høvitsman of Norway, showing that he would respect Norway’s position within the Union. Margaret and Jon Svaleson agreed, and thus the Tre Rosor family had successfully been neutered, without Olaf risking coming off as a tyrant.
The Smør family crest, sometimes the house is instead known as ‘Leopard’s head’, as depicted on the shield. Smør literally means butter in Norwegian, seemingly not the most glamorous name, but the substance was a common form of payment in medieval Norway and is thus perhaps an allusion to wealth.
While Olaf was busying himself in Norway, Jon was considering his options in Denmark. Elise Eskilsdatter’s surprise attack outside the coast of Bohuslen had forced his fleet to withdraw with some losses, though not as catastrophic as they had first been reported. Now the fleet were back in the safety of the Øresund. Here there was unlikely to be any surprise attacks, and Elise was surely not daring enough to try any. In addition, a smaller portion of Jon’s fleet was in the Baltic sea to make sure Gotland and Öland were kept safe. If need be, he could call on those to bolster his naval forces. Thus, there was probably no risk of an invasion by sea just yet. There were however dangers coming from within his own lands, specifically in Schleswig. Ever since the King turned his attention to the North, his ability to contain the Holsatian brother-counts had suffered. It had come to the point that the Holsatians were able to launch their own counterraids into Schleswig.
Schleswig is not only home to Germans and Danes, on the westernmost coast is the region commonly known as North Frisia. As the name suggest, much of the common population here is made up of Frisians. Unlike the largely enserfed Danish and German peasants of the Duchy, they are proud of the Fryske Frijheid – the freedom of the Frisians, and ready to fight to keep it. In this way, the Frisians are not unlike the Swedish peasantry. In North Frisia is also the town of Husum, having grown rapidly in the last couple of decades, with a mostly German burghership. In 1471, an alliance between the North Frisian peasantry and the burghers of Husum was formed and a revolt broke out. The reasons for it were partly dissatisfaction with the conflict with Holstein, but the Frisian peasantry also felt like the emboldened nobility in Schleswig was trying to enserf them. In addition, the burghers of Husum believed that they were being denied the rights a town of their size deserved.
The nobles of the Duchy called upon King Jon to put down the insurrection, but he had few men to spare as he busied himself with the Union. Feeling obliged to his Ducal subjects however, he gave them permission to look abroad for help. This they did, and it led them to a certain Count Christian VI of Oldenburg. At 45 years of age, Count Christian had done a little bit of everything as part of his career. He had lived as a robber baron with his castle of Delmenhorst as a base, he had tried his luck as a pirate off the coast of Germany, and he had served as a mercenary in several wars. The Count also claimed to have partaken in crusades against the Turks, but the validity of this claim is dubious. In either case, a big part of his reign had been spent fighting unruly Frisian peasants who refused to submit to feudal rule. This seemingly made him the perfect candidate to put down the revolt in Schleswig, and the nobility gave him a royal invitation.
Christian VI was the only child of Dietrich the Lucky of Oldenburg and his wife Catherine of Pomerania-Stolp. He thus descended from King Christopher I of Denmark on his father’s side, and Valdemar IV Atterdag on his mother’s. Indeed, the nobility which had rebelled against King Eric VII in the war of the privileges had considered Dietrich a potential candidate for the Danish throne. Whether or not Christian had the same ambitions as his father remained to be seen however, but he did enthusiastically accept the invitation to come and crush the North Frisian uprising, arriving in Schleswig in early 1472.
*
Count Christian VI of Oldenburg liked to present himself as a gallant knight, though he did engage in many less virtuous activities, such as robbery and extortion, like much German nobility at the time.
The revolt in North Frisia was not the only issue King Jon faced. Following the loss of Norway, he had been approached by representatives of the Hansa. They claimed that Jon had failed to fulfill his promise to restore the League’s position in Bergen, and thus they threatened to retract their support for his war. If Jon lost the League’s support, he would have no army to even try to challenge Olaf’s position, but he if he wanted to keep it, he would have to grant the Hanseatics further concessions. Jon knew just as well as everyone else in Denmark what this would entail – letting them back into the Scanian towns around the Øresund.
Niels Pedersen’s Scanian alliance had been formed just for this reason, and King Jon understood granting these privileges would mean them siding with Olaf, but what was he to do? If he broke off with the Hansa, he would have no way to challenge Olaf, but by continuing working with them his internal base of support would continue to erode. Truly, it seemed like he was damned if he did, damned if he did not. But Jon was at least going to try. As soon as it became known that he had caved to Hanseatic demands, Niels Pedersen began marshalling his alliance’s forces in Scania and sent message to Olaf that they pledged themselves to his cause. Jon was however much closer to Scania than Olaf, who was still in southern Norway. Even though Olaf began moving southwards even before he got Niels’ message, predicting that it was coming, he could not make it there before Jon.
Now heading his army personally, Jon quickly seized the towns of Helsingborg, Landskrona, Malmö, and all the Scanian west coast. Unlike Lauge Brock, he limited plundering to a minimum, not wishing a repeat of what had happened in Norway. Even though it happened under threatening conditions, he also did make sure that the burghers of the Scanian towns officially recognized the Hanseatics’ right to do business there on their own terms. This at least made his actions seem somewhat less tyrannical, something he desperately needed both after Lauge’s brutal ransacking of Bergen, and the controversial kidnapping of Isabella Valdemarsdatter. The time Jon spent getting everything in order on the west coast had however let Olaf’s forces join up with Niels Pedersen, now they marched in a united front southward, intending to drive Jon out of Scania, and securing Olaf’s hold of the entire Scandinavian peninsula. Jon marched north to meet them.
The herring market of Skanör was something of a swimming silver mine, and a large part of why the Hansa desired influence in the region.
Exactly where the confrontation between Jon and Olaf’s forces stood is unclear, but it happened somewhere around the Halland ridge that separates Scania in the south from Halland in the north. It was probably not a single large-scale battle between the two sides, but perhaps a series of skirmishes spread out over a larger area. In any case, Olaf would now for real feel the might of Jon’s mercenary force. So far in the war Olaf had only faced the feudal levies that Jon’s Norwegian family had managed to assemble, but the professional force he commanded now was a different nut altogether. The woodland terrain did give Olaf’s forces the chance to practice a more asymmetrical style of battle, but whenever larger groups of soldiers met, Olaf’s were forced to retreat from the heavily armoured German mercenaries.
Even so, Olaf did at first manage to push Jon further south over the several days the battle raged. Eventually, he controlled most of the Halland ridge and had pushed Jon’s forces down to the two lakes. With the lakes at their back, Olaf’s forces to their north-west and Niels Pedersen’s to the north-east, it seemed like Jon’s forces might be surrounded. Feeling how his own forces were nearing exhaustion, Olaf decided that he could not wait any longer, he would have to crush Jon now. But then, as Olaf and Niels pushed south to smash their enemy, a new foe appeared.
Following their breakout from Bohus castle, the small force under Lauge Brock had first intended to make it south and reunite with the larger Dano-Hanseatic force. News had however reached him of the King being displeased with his conduct in Norway, and so Lauge had convinced his men to take a detour, travelling inland to plunder the countryside of southern Småland. As a small force, they had mostly gone unnoticed by Olaf’s agents, who were squarely focused to the south. When Lauge heard that both Olaf’s and Jon’s forces where amassing at the Halland-Scanian border, he figured he could redeem himself in the King’s eyes by arriving in the nick of time and turn the battle. His small force had thus hidden in the woodlands, observing the battle, waiting for it to turn against the King before joining in themselves. Though only a small force, they took Olaf and Niels by total surprise and effectively cut their forces in two. Now it was they who risked being surrounded.
Olaf had managed to turn his enemies’ heavy armor against them in the battle of Åland, but he had less luck at Halland’s horst.
The battle of Halland’s horst, as it became known, ended as an embarrassing defeat for Olaf and Niels. They had seemingly had victory in the palm of their hand, only for the arrival of a quite small force off enemies causing them to panic. Worse than the defeat itself however was that Olaf and Niels’s forces had been separated from each other. Niels managed to flee south-east, to Gønge, where he held several castles. There he could fortify himself with the men he had left. Olaf retreated to the north, but then pivoted eastwards into the forests of Småland. Olaf realized he would have to play defense against Jon for a while, as he tried to rebuild his shaken and scattered forces. He made his base in Kalmar castle, which he would try to hold from any potential assault of Jon’s, either from the sea or from Blekinge.
Olaf had chosen to pull back to Småland rather than Västergötland, because he trusted that former Queen Anne could hold out in the west against any potential attacker. She was however not there anymore. As Anne had begun supporting Olaf in the war, her Jutish holdings had come under occupation of Danish noblemen, with little chance to resist. Olaf had promised that those lands would be restored to Anne once he became King of Denmark, or otherwise that she would be compensated with lands elsewhere in the Union, but Anne could not wait that long. As such she had been in contact with Elise Eskildsdatter and convinced her to use the ships under her command to ferry Anne and a small force from Västergötland across the Skagerrak.
Jon, who expected all action to happen in or around the Øresund had not considered such a bold move, and thus there was no opposition to this crossing. Arriving in Skagen in late 1472, Anne was met by a cheering crowd of commoners. She was no less popular in Vendsyssel than she was in Västergötland. After meeting with the nobility that had seized her lands, and finding them unwilling to leave, she called upon the peasantry to rise in her favour. This they did in great numbers, throwing out their new feudal lords. The Jutish nobility in turn looked southwards, having heard of the Count who had arrived in North Frisia to deal with a similar problem to theirs. Thus, while King Jon and his forces were advancing in Sweden, Olaf was gaining a foothold in Denmark he had not planned for.
The peasants of Vendsyssel were known as a rebellious lot and retained more of their old rights and freedoms than in most other regions of Denmark.
*Otl’s Christian VI of Oldenburg, who became Christian I of Denmark, was the son of Dietrich the Lucky and Helvig of Holstein, who in ttl was the second wife of Olaf Arv. Thus that’s not actually him, but close to.
Following the re-capture of Bergen by Elise Eskildsdatter, the civil war in the Union entered a short lull. King Jon had to regroup his forces and decide on his next move, while Olaf had to try and solidify his grip on Norway. This was easier said than done however, Jon had after all managed to ascend to the throne of Norway in large part due to the influence his family held in the Kingdom. If Olaf were to secure Norway, he would have to manage the Tre Rosor family, the question was merely how? A possibility would of course be treating them all as traitors, confiscate all their lands and execute the lot, but such punitive actions might hurt Olaf’s overall situation. The Tre Rosor family was after all originally a Swedish noble house, and they did have many connections back in their home country. In addition, if word reached Denmark of Olaf killing the Norwegian nobility, chances were that the Danes would fight all the harder to avoid a similar fate.
Olaf thus turned to his half-aunt for help. Margaret Olafsdatter, last surviving child of King Olaf Arv, had acted as regent for Jon after the death of his father Sigurd Jonsson. During the years of Jon’s minority, she had actively had to prevent the Tre Rosor family from seizing control of her son’s inheritance. She needed the family’s help to manage all her late husband’s widespread holdings, but they of course wished to rule it as if it were their personal fiefs. The difficulties of keeping the Tre Rosor in line had only increased after Jon left Norway for Schleswig in 1460, and the job had again fallen on Margaret. Now in her late 30’s and her son living abroad, she decided to re-marry to strengthen her own position in Norway.
Margaret’s second husband was be the Norwegian knight Jon Svaleson Smør. He was the last living member of the Smør family, a powerful though declining Norwegian noble house. His father had held the position of Commander of Bergenhus until his death in the mid 1440’s, when Jon Svaleson had inherited holdings spread throughout the Kingdom, including lands in Shetland and the Faroes. Wary of the growing influence of “foreign” nobles’ families such as the Tre Rosor, he seemed like a good counterbalance to their ambition on Jon’s lands and thus a perfect husband for Margaret. The only issue with the wedding was that Jon Svaleson may possibly already have been married, but the facts are unclear, in either case he did not let it get in the way of his marriage to Margaret.
Jon Svaleson had been very displeased with King Valdemar’s reign, believing him to purposefully be marginalizing Norway’s autonomy within the Union, such as by appointing a child as høvitsman. Additionally, the King had used the Norwegian privy council as little more than a glorified seal, often having them agree to decisions Jon Svaleson believed to be against the Kingdom’s best interest, like the abolishment of the Bohus toll. Even so, Jon Svaleson had not been enthusiastic about his stepson becoming King after Valdemar’s death. While he saw merit in the argument that a Norwegian-born King would not neglect Norway, he was uneasy about ignoring the Kingdom’s laws of succession. Agreeing to a new King simply because he had been elected in Denmark was another step in sidelining Norway in favour of its southern neighbor. Once King Jon did ascend the throne, these fears were seemingly confirmed. He did not empower the Norwegian privy council, instead he mostly ruled through his familial connections. Jon Svaleson saw stunts such as appointing a Norwegian as Jarl of Orkney as little more than a smokescreen for further curbing of Norwegian autonomy.
Thus, when Olaf had invaded Norway, Jon Svaleson’s contribution to King Jon’s cause had been symbolic at best. Once it became clear that Jon would not be able to hold onto the Kingdom, Jon Svaleson had actively switched sides and hailed Olaf as the true and lawful King of Norway. Now, Olaf thus made an offer to his half-aunt and her husband. If she agreed to continue her work of keeping the Tre Rosor family down, Olaf would agree to return her son’s Norwegian holdings once he was defeated. Most of the Tre Rosor family’s own land both in Sweden and Norway would however still be seized. In addition, Olaf would appoint Jon Svaleson as new høvitsman of Norway, showing that he would respect Norway’s position within the Union. Margaret and Jon Svaleson agreed, and thus the Tre Rosor family had successfully been neutered, without Olaf risking coming off as a tyrant.
The Smør family crest, sometimes the house is instead known as ‘Leopard’s head’, as depicted on the shield. Smør literally means butter in Norwegian, seemingly not the most glamorous name, but the substance was a common form of payment in medieval Norway and is thus perhaps an allusion to wealth.
While Olaf was busying himself in Norway, Jon was considering his options in Denmark. Elise Eskilsdatter’s surprise attack outside the coast of Bohuslen had forced his fleet to withdraw with some losses, though not as catastrophic as they had first been reported. Now the fleet were back in the safety of the Øresund. Here there was unlikely to be any surprise attacks, and Elise was surely not daring enough to try any. In addition, a smaller portion of Jon’s fleet was in the Baltic sea to make sure Gotland and Öland were kept safe. If need be, he could call on those to bolster his naval forces. Thus, there was probably no risk of an invasion by sea just yet. There were however dangers coming from within his own lands, specifically in Schleswig. Ever since the King turned his attention to the North, his ability to contain the Holsatian brother-counts had suffered. It had come to the point that the Holsatians were able to launch their own counterraids into Schleswig.
Schleswig is not only home to Germans and Danes, on the westernmost coast is the region commonly known as North Frisia. As the name suggest, much of the common population here is made up of Frisians. Unlike the largely enserfed Danish and German peasants of the Duchy, they are proud of the Fryske Frijheid – the freedom of the Frisians, and ready to fight to keep it. In this way, the Frisians are not unlike the Swedish peasantry. In North Frisia is also the town of Husum, having grown rapidly in the last couple of decades, with a mostly German burghership. In 1471, an alliance between the North Frisian peasantry and the burghers of Husum was formed and a revolt broke out. The reasons for it were partly dissatisfaction with the conflict with Holstein, but the Frisian peasantry also felt like the emboldened nobility in Schleswig was trying to enserf them. In addition, the burghers of Husum believed that they were being denied the rights a town of their size deserved.
The nobles of the Duchy called upon King Jon to put down the insurrection, but he had few men to spare as he busied himself with the Union. Feeling obliged to his Ducal subjects however, he gave them permission to look abroad for help. This they did, and it led them to a certain Count Christian VI of Oldenburg. At 45 years of age, Count Christian had done a little bit of everything as part of his career. He had lived as a robber baron with his castle of Delmenhorst as a base, he had tried his luck as a pirate off the coast of Germany, and he had served as a mercenary in several wars. The Count also claimed to have partaken in crusades against the Turks, but the validity of this claim is dubious. In either case, a big part of his reign had been spent fighting unruly Frisian peasants who refused to submit to feudal rule. This seemingly made him the perfect candidate to put down the revolt in Schleswig, and the nobility gave him a royal invitation.
Christian VI was the only child of Dietrich the Lucky of Oldenburg and his wife Catherine of Pomerania-Stolp. He thus descended from King Christopher I of Denmark on his father’s side, and Valdemar IV Atterdag on his mother’s. Indeed, the nobility which had rebelled against King Eric VII in the war of the privileges had considered Dietrich a potential candidate for the Danish throne. Whether or not Christian had the same ambitions as his father remained to be seen however, but he did enthusiastically accept the invitation to come and crush the North Frisian uprising, arriving in Schleswig in early 1472.
Count Christian VI of Oldenburg liked to present himself as a gallant knight, though he did engage in many less virtuous activities, such as robbery and extortion, like much German nobility at the time.
The revolt in North Frisia was not the only issue King Jon faced. Following the loss of Norway, he had been approached by representatives of the Hansa. They claimed that Jon had failed to fulfill his promise to restore the League’s position in Bergen, and thus they threatened to retract their support for his war. If Jon lost the League’s support, he would have no army to even try to challenge Olaf’s position, but he if he wanted to keep it, he would have to grant the Hanseatics further concessions. Jon knew just as well as everyone else in Denmark what this would entail – letting them back into the Scanian towns around the Øresund.
Niels Pedersen’s Scanian alliance had been formed just for this reason, and King Jon understood granting these privileges would mean them siding with Olaf, but what was he to do? If he broke off with the Hansa, he would have no way to challenge Olaf, but by continuing working with them his internal base of support would continue to erode. Truly, it seemed like he was damned if he did, damned if he did not. But Jon was at least going to try. As soon as it became known that he had caved to Hanseatic demands, Niels Pedersen began marshalling his alliance’s forces in Scania and sent message to Olaf that they pledged themselves to his cause. Jon was however much closer to Scania than Olaf, who was still in southern Norway. Even though Olaf began moving southwards even before he got Niels’ message, predicting that it was coming, he could not make it there before Jon.
Now heading his army personally, Jon quickly seized the towns of Helsingborg, Landskrona, Malmö, and all the Scanian west coast. Unlike Lauge Brock, he limited plundering to a minimum, not wishing a repeat of what had happened in Norway. Even though it happened under threatening conditions, he also did make sure that the burghers of the Scanian towns officially recognized the Hanseatics’ right to do business there on their own terms. This at least made his actions seem somewhat less tyrannical, something he desperately needed both after Lauge’s brutal ransacking of Bergen, and the controversial kidnapping of Isabella Valdemarsdatter. The time Jon spent getting everything in order on the west coast had however let Olaf’s forces join up with Niels Pedersen, now they marched in a united front southward, intending to drive Jon out of Scania, and securing Olaf’s hold of the entire Scandinavian peninsula. Jon marched north to meet them.
The herring market of Skanör was something of a swimming silver mine, and a large part of why the Hansa desired influence in the region.
Exactly where the confrontation between Jon and Olaf’s forces stood is unclear, but it happened somewhere around the Halland ridge that separates Scania in the south from Halland in the north. It was probably not a single large-scale battle between the two sides, but perhaps a series of skirmishes spread out over a larger area. In any case, Olaf would now for real feel the might of Jon’s mercenary force. So far in the war Olaf had only faced the feudal levies that Jon’s Norwegian family had managed to assemble, but the professional force he commanded now was a different nut altogether. The woodland terrain did give Olaf’s forces the chance to practice a more asymmetrical style of battle, but whenever larger groups of soldiers met, Olaf’s were forced to retreat from the heavily armoured German mercenaries.
Even so, Olaf did at first manage to push Jon further south over the several days the battle raged. Eventually, he controlled most of the Halland ridge and had pushed Jon’s forces down to the two lakes. With the lakes at their back, Olaf’s forces to their north-west and Niels Pedersen’s to the north-east, it seemed like Jon’s forces might be surrounded. Feeling how his own forces were nearing exhaustion, Olaf decided that he could not wait any longer, he would have to crush Jon now. But then, as Olaf and Niels pushed south to smash their enemy, a new foe appeared.
Following their breakout from Bohus castle, the small force under Lauge Brock had first intended to make it south and reunite with the larger Dano-Hanseatic force. News had however reached him of the King being displeased with his conduct in Norway, and so Lauge had convinced his men to take a detour, travelling inland to plunder the countryside of southern Småland. As a small force, they had mostly gone unnoticed by Olaf’s agents, who were squarely focused to the south. When Lauge heard that both Olaf’s and Jon’s forces where amassing at the Halland-Scanian border, he figured he could redeem himself in the King’s eyes by arriving in the nick of time and turn the battle. His small force had thus hidden in the woodlands, observing the battle, waiting for it to turn against the King before joining in themselves. Though only a small force, they took Olaf and Niels by total surprise and effectively cut their forces in two. Now it was they who risked being surrounded.
Olaf had managed to turn his enemies’ heavy armor against them in the battle of Åland, but he had less luck at Halland’s horst.
The battle of Halland’s horst, as it became known, ended as an embarrassing defeat for Olaf and Niels. They had seemingly had victory in the palm of their hand, only for the arrival of a quite small force off enemies causing them to panic. Worse than the defeat itself however was that Olaf and Niels’s forces had been separated from each other. Niels managed to flee south-east, to Gønge, where he held several castles. There he could fortify himself with the men he had left. Olaf retreated to the north, but then pivoted eastwards into the forests of Småland. Olaf realized he would have to play defense against Jon for a while, as he tried to rebuild his shaken and scattered forces. He made his base in Kalmar castle, which he would try to hold from any potential assault of Jon’s, either from the sea or from Blekinge.
Olaf had chosen to pull back to Småland rather than Västergötland, because he trusted that former Queen Anne could hold out in the west against any potential attacker. She was however not there anymore. As Anne had begun supporting Olaf in the war, her Jutish holdings had come under occupation of Danish noblemen, with little chance to resist. Olaf had promised that those lands would be restored to Anne once he became King of Denmark, or otherwise that she would be compensated with lands elsewhere in the Union, but Anne could not wait that long. As such she had been in contact with Elise Eskildsdatter and convinced her to use the ships under her command to ferry Anne and a small force from Västergötland across the Skagerrak.
Jon, who expected all action to happen in or around the Øresund had not considered such a bold move, and thus there was no opposition to this crossing. Arriving in Skagen in late 1472, Anne was met by a cheering crowd of commoners. She was no less popular in Vendsyssel than she was in Västergötland. After meeting with the nobility that had seized her lands, and finding them unwilling to leave, she called upon the peasantry to rise in her favour. This they did in great numbers, throwing out their new feudal lords. The Jutish nobility in turn looked southwards, having heard of the Count who had arrived in North Frisia to deal with a similar problem to theirs. Thus, while King Jon and his forces were advancing in Sweden, Olaf was gaining a foothold in Denmark he had not planned for.
The peasants of Vendsyssel were known as a rebellious lot and retained more of their old rights and freedoms than in most other regions of Denmark.
*Otl’s Christian VI of Oldenburg, who became Christian I of Denmark, was the son of Dietrich the Lucky and Helvig of Holstein, who in ttl was the second wife of Olaf Arv. Thus that’s not actually him, but close to.