Even today Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are partially mutually intelligible as far as I know. Give them 500 years to blend and you'll end up with a standard Nordic language a la German and Italian (likely based on the Copenhagen dialect).
To be a Fox and a Lion - A Different Nordic Renaissance
- Thread starter Milites
- Start date
They were mainly slash and burn farmers, well adapted to agriculture forested regions with exposed bedrock in cold climate. They move in burn down the forest spread the ash farm for a 2-3 years move on and let he forest return. This is a significant different tactic from Danes or Norwegian, who are more likely to look for land with deeper soil or in the Danish case also to drain swamps, and the Forest Finns will enable the use of worthless birch and evergreen forest between the areas of deeper soil.
As for fur traders it will most likely be Danes, it doesn’t demand a specific skill set to trade furs.
Happy to see some early steps in settling the New World. Vinland should become a very interesting place in the realm.
Sorry to disappoint those who hoped for an update 
I joined the civil service half a year ago and the work has really been doing a number on me. It's been difficult to focus on counter-factual history when you come home completely knackered. I simply do not have the energy to be as active as I used to :I
The good news is that I'm still coming back to this timeline in my mind from time to time, plotting and scheming what would happen next. I'm not saying that there's an update on the line, but something is definitely brewing.
I really enjoyed the discussion after the last chapter, btw.
Indeed! One of my main aims with the chapter was to re-frame the colonial narrative a bit by stressing the agency of the natives vis-a-vis the European settlers/traders.
It's a definite possibility For now, I'd prefer to let the eventual Franco-Nordic-Possibly-Also-the-English fight over OTL's Canada remain intangible.
Thank you for the Tomasson reference! I'll be sure to check it out. The idea that Icelanders might find agro-economic incentives to move to ATL Newfoundland seems very appealing, actually. What a weird place Vinland would have been: Beothuk nomads in the forrests and on the shores, Icelandic sheep herders on the meadows and a mish-mash of Nordic and Basque fishermen looking for cod.
I don't know, to be honest. The consensus of the books/articles I read on the Beothuk was that they were very hesitant to adapt much if anything from the Europeans - see their reluctance to use firearms. I already think I stretched the credibility by having them cooperate with the Nordics as much as I did.
I have my doubts, though. In spite of all his reforms and administrative restructuring, Christian II is still a renaissance prince running a vast empire on a rather meagre budget. The union endures still, but it remains something of a fragile entity. Under these circumstances, I doubt Christian II would have the resources to commit to a concerted effort at colonising the Americas. Rather, I think we'd see smaller settlements pop up alongside the OTL Gulf of St. Lawrence and maybe down the New England Coast.
Oh, the French aren't to give up on their New World ambitions that's for certain!
Denmark is following an Erasmian confession and has a Church structure almost completely separated from the Papacy. Still, it remains in communion with Rome, although there are very powerful figures at court who are openly Evangelical, such as Mogens Gøye and Hans Mikkelsen.
It was more or less the same language already at this point, but yes
I joined the civil service half a year ago and the work has really been doing a number on me. It's been difficult to focus on counter-factual history when you come home completely knackered. I simply do not have the energy to be as active as I used to :I
The good news is that I'm still coming back to this timeline in my mind from time to time, plotting and scheming what would happen next. I'm not saying that there's an update on the line, but something is definitely brewing.
I really enjoyed the discussion after the last chapter, btw.
Indeed! One of my main aims with the chapter was to re-frame the colonial narrative a bit by stressing the agency of the natives vis-a-vis the European settlers/traders.
It's a definite possibility
For now, I'd prefer to let the eventual Franco-Nordic-Possibly-Also-the-English fight over OTL's Canada remain intangible.Thank you for the Tomasson reference! I'll be sure to check it out. The idea that Icelanders might find agro-economic incentives to move to ATL Newfoundland seems very appealing, actually. What a weird place Vinland would have been: Beothuk nomads in the forrests and on the shores, Icelandic sheep herders on the meadows and a mish-mash of Nordic and Basque fishermen looking for cod.
I don't know, to be honest. The consensus of the books/articles I read on the Beothuk was that they were very hesitant to adapt much if anything from the Europeans - see their reluctance to use firearms. I already think I stretched the credibility by having them cooperate with the Nordics as much as I did.
I have my doubts, though. In spite of all his reforms and administrative restructuring, Christian II is still a renaissance prince running a vast empire on a rather meagre budget. The union endures still, but it remains something of a fragile entity. Under these circumstances, I doubt Christian II would have the resources to commit to a concerted effort at colonising the Americas. Rather, I think we'd see smaller settlements pop up alongside the OTL Gulf of St. Lawrence and maybe down the New England Coast.
Oh, the French aren't to give up on their New World ambitions that's for certain!
Denmark is following an Erasmian confession and has a Church structure almost completely separated from the Papacy. Still, it remains in communion with Rome, although there are very powerful figures at court who are openly Evangelical, such as Mogens Gøye and Hans Mikkelsen.
It was more or less the same language already at this point, but yes
Oh congratulations are in order! My best wishes for a long and successful career!
Don't worry over the timeline. It is supposed to be just an enjoyable mental exercise for when the mind is idle and needs entertainment. If it becomes a chore then it loses all purpose. And who knows? A few years down the road you might publish an alternate history book of Denmark.
The Basque have a unique advantage for the offshore fishery because they have access to a lot of salt. The Nordic fishermen won't have that luxury. So, by necessity they will have to restrict themselves mostly to the inshore fishery. The inshore fishery depended on the seasonal migration of cod from offshore to the bays of Newfoundland during summer. In order to get salt, the Scandinavians will have to either sail to Europe to sell cod and return with salt or sail down to the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos to gather salt from uninhabited islands (as the British did in OTL).
That means that the settled scandinavian population of Vinland will further increase, because the offshore fishery did not require a permanent population.
Moreover, the Scandinavian fishermen have enough motives to establish settlements to OTL New England. The key to that is that New England's inshore fishery exhists also in winter.
Moreover, Nova Scotia's salt marshes were an excellent cattle pasture. The French settlers from Poitou had some knowledge on dykes and built a wonderful water management system in Acadia. But the Scandinavians are in the neighborhood 3 generations before the French and there are certain people in Christian's realm that live in impoverished salt marshes and have the needed expertise.
Well, it is the early 16th century. Other than the spice-funded Portuguese and the silver-funded Spaniards, there are no monarchs with a lot of resources. But the Union has an asset that the English and French currently lack: a charted trade Company. A trade company that its major rival is the Hansa. The Danes have been watching for centuries how profitable was the hanseatic fur trade with Russia. By the early 16th century it is the Dutch that control the fur trade flowing initially from Riga, Reval and Dorpat and later on via Arkhangelsk. During the 16th century, the fur trade was the most important source of income for Muscovy. For decades Muscovy's foreign policy was centered around controlling the siberian fur trade and cutting off Novgorod from it. The English and French may have not appreciated the value and extent of the early 16th century fur trade, but the Danes in the Sound should have had a pretty good idea about it.
Having a trade war with the Dutch would be very expensive and not politically viable considering the ties of the crown with the Emperor and his dutch subjects. I think the easiest solution would have been to search for furs in the newly discovered lands of Vinland and beyond. They know after all that animals with thick furs are encountered in places with cold climate.
In any case, it doesn't have to be a massive effort. But even a trickle of ships exploring, trading and establishing a couple of forts is doable and would pay huge dividends.
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I just completed the TL. I cant recall a better read on this site. I truly hope you would at least complete the first book (the reign of Christian II.). It really deserves publishing for a wider audience. Its the kind off work one would show to people who are estranged to counterfactual history when you want them to understand your own fascination.Sorry to disappoint those who hoped for an update
I joined the civil service half a year ago and the work has really been doing a number on me. It's been difficult to focus on counter-factual history when you come home completely knackered. I simply do not have the energy to be as active as I used to :I
The good news is that I'm still coming back to this timeline in my mind from time to time, plotting and scheming what would happen next. I'm not saying that there's an update on the line, but something is definitely brewing.
I really enjoyed the discussion after the last chapter, btw.
Indeed! One of my main aims with the chapter was to re-frame the colonial narrative a bit by stressing the agency of the natives vis-a-vis the European settlers/traders.
It's a definite possibility
Thank you for the Tomasson reference! I'll be sure to check it out. The idea that Icelanders might find agro-economic incentives to move to ATL Newfoundland seems very appealing, actually. What a weird place Vinland would have been: Beothuk nomads in the forrests and on the shores, Icelandic sheep herders on the meadows and a mish-mash of Nordic and Basque fishermen looking for cod.
I don't know, to be honest. The consensus of the books/articles I read on the Beothuk was that they were very hesitant to adapt much if anything from the Europeans - see their reluctance to use firearms. I already think I stretched the credibility by having them cooperate with the Nordics as much as I did.
I have my doubts, though. In spite of all his reforms and administrative restructuring, Christian II is still a renaissance prince running a vast empire on a rather meagre budget. The union endures still, but it remains something of a fragile entity. Under these circumstances, I doubt Christian II would have the resources to commit to a concerted effort at colonising the Americas. Rather, I think we'd see smaller settlements pop up alongside the OTL Gulf of St. Lawrence and maybe down the New England Coast.
Oh, the French aren't to give up on their New World ambitions that's for certain!
Denmark is following an Erasmian confession and has a Church structure almost completely separated from the Papacy. Still, it remains in communion with Rome, although there are very powerful figures at court who are openly Evangelical, such as Mogens Gøye and Hans Mikkelsen.
It was more or less the same language already at this point, but yes
Chapter 32: The Queen of the Eastern Sea
Chapter 32
The Queen of the Eastern Sea
There is found silver, iron and copper
Which is brought abroad in great number
Squirrel, ermine and marten
And all furs to which men hearken
Are there gathered in hands
And brought away to foreign lands
-
The Swedish Verse Chronicle, ca. 1450[1]
Saint Nicholas saving shipwrecked sailors by Hermen Rode, ca. 1478–1481. In this detail from a Reval altar piece, St. Nicholas is seen saving the merchantmen of a shipwrecked cog. Whilst the aged captain is rendering his thanksgivings to the patron of mariners, his crew is busy salvaging the ship's wares. The coat of arms on the forecastle mark the vessel as belonging to the Great Guild and Brotherhood of the Black Heads - a Reval-based mercantile association closely intertwined with the Hanseatic League. By the advent of the early modern period, the Hanse was experiencing economic stagnatnition and increased competition from Dutch, Russian and Nordic competitors.
The Queen of the Eastern Sea
There is found silver, iron and copper
Which is brought abroad in great number
Squirrel, ermine and marten
And all furs to which men hearken
Are there gathered in hands
And brought away to foreign lands
-
The Swedish Verse Chronicle, ca. 1450[1]
Saint Nicholas saving shipwrecked sailors by Hermen Rode, ca. 1478–1481. In this detail from a Reval altar piece, St. Nicholas is seen saving the merchantmen of a shipwrecked cog. Whilst the aged captain is rendering his thanksgivings to the patron of mariners, his crew is busy salvaging the ship's wares. The coat of arms on the forecastle mark the vessel as belonging to the Great Guild and Brotherhood of the Black Heads - a Reval-based mercantile association closely intertwined with the Hanseatic League. By the advent of the early modern period, the Hanse was experiencing economic stagnatnition and increased competition from Dutch, Russian and Nordic competitors.
While the chain binding the Nordic Union together was forged in the fires of military conquest, mercantile integration was the enamelling sealing its links.
Founded at Copenhagen in 1520, the Nordic Company has often been described as the epitome of King Christian’s innovative foresight. However, the primary objective of the company, to outmanoeuvre the mercantile hegemony of the Hansards, had been part and parcel of Danish foreign policy since the days of Valdemar IV and Margaret I in the 14th century. Furthermore, the ascendance of the company owed much to the perfect storm created by the subjugation of Sweden, the humbling of the Lübeck-Holstein alliance and the excellent relations with the Habsburg Netherlands. In other words, Christian II presided over a conglomerate realm which the structures of world history had ripened for an unprecedented economic boom. Yet structures can only explain the past up until a point. Although miniscule when compared to the Anglo-Flemish or Italian mercantile classes, the Nordic patricians and merchants struck above and beyond their weight when seizing the opportunity offered by the crown. Without the ingenuity of the burgher estate, it is doubtful whether or not the Company could have amounted to much more than a poor middle man between Dutch, Germans and Russians.
Essentially, the three Nordic realms supplied three major staples. Denmark provided a bounty of oxen, grain and foodstuffs. The realm of Norway possessed an abundance of timber, fish and furs whilst Sweden’s Bergslagen district bloomed with iron, copper and silver mines. Indeed, mining remained the alpha and the omega of Sweden’s economy, both domestically and export-wise. Most peasants paid their taxes in iron produce, which in turn meant that the free-holding peasants sold their produce of grain to the miners.[2] The easening of trade barriers between Scania and Sweden now meant that Swedish iron quickly found its way south to Danish foundries around Helsingborg and Sølvesborg where it was exchanged for large amounts of Scanian surplus grain.
Finland contributed a steady stream of frontier goods such as honey, wax and timber. In addition, the modest Nordic colonial presence around Vinland, Iceland and Greenland ensured a flow of valuable ivory and a massive amount of dried cod, which supplemented the fisheries of the North Sea tremendously. Indeed, it has often been said that the Oldenburg Navy Royal was crafted from Norwegian Wood, armed with ordnance forged from Swedish metal and its hulls supplied by Danish farmsteads.
While maritime trade was by far the most promising and profitable venture of the company, overland trade also played an important part. In Denmark, the export of livestock had come to account for a greater and greater part of foreign trade ever since the 1300s. In the 1460s, 2000 oxen were annually brought to the market of Ribe alone. Between 1501 and 1519, the overall export level had reached between 25.000 and 30.000 oxen, per annum. The livestock was driven South through Jutland along the aptly-named ‘oxen road’, either following the eastern or western seaboard, before converging in the Duchies. In exchange, the Danes got cloth, spices, wine, soap and ready money, which were shipped back aboard Netherlandish cogs. That this was an extraordinarily valuable enterprise is evident from the inventory of a Ribe trade ship, captured by Hamburg pirates in 1512, where the major oxen merchant, Laurids Severinsen, lost goods worth the astronomical sum of 3500 Rhenish guilders.[3]
Merchants such as Severinsen were the primary beneficiaries of Christian II’s economic reforms. The 1522-Law of the Realm had prohibited all trade outside specific urban entrepôts, concentrating trade in the hands of the burghers. Beforehand, peasants and nobles alike had been more or less free to engage in their own mercantile endeavours. As such, farmers on Funen sailed to the Duchies to peddle their wares, whilst the nobility of Jutland and Scania attempted to set up individual deals with merchant houses in Antwerp and Lübeck. The very fact that Christian II’s accession charter had codified the aristocracy’s right to pursue trade without governmental interference marked it as a valued and contested privilege. Yet even before the abrogation of the elective monarchy in 1523, the Danish nobility had begun to distance itself from commercial activities. It has been argued that this was the result of an identity-based pivot following the alteration of state, which transformed the aristocrats from entrepreneurial country gentlemen into true members of the noblesse d'épée. However, the fact that rising prices on grain and livestock made it far more profitable to focus on large scale manorial agriculture, whilst leaving the uncertain business of exports to professionalised burgher middlemen, seems just as, if not more, likely.[4]
The spatial restructuring of Nordic trade into a city-company framework was supplemented by further political initiatives. Of these, the most radical was undoubtedly the reform of the Sound Dues. Since its inception in 1429, the kings of Denmark had levied a fixed toll of one gold noble (also known as an English Rose Noble) per ship. This system had only been slightly altered in 1497 with the institution of three separate rates depending on the hull size of the passing ship. By 1530, the royal chancery had finalised a comprehensive restructuring of the clearance process, abandoning the static ship’s size rate in favour of a modular rate corresponding to the specific goods being transported. Not only did this dramatically increase the revenue flowing into the king’s coffers (in fact it was almost doubled), but it also allowed the crown to inspect all ships passing the Sound. The site of the clearance was also translocated from Helsingør in Northern Zealand to Copenhagen, resulting in a hitherto unprecedented expansion of the Nordic capital. The Bremerholm dockyards, ropewalks and foundries received particular attention from the king, who envisioned a second founding of the Oldenburg Navy Royal as a way to cement his claim to the dominium maris baltici.[5] In the words of a modern scholar, Christian’s reforms meant that Copenhagen was well on its way to become “… the premier staple of the North and the Queen of the Eastern Sea.”
One should, however, be careful in not overemphasizing the Nordic nature of Christian II’s enterprise. As stated above, the mercantile class of the three realms was an exceptionally miniscule entity within the late medieval state. While some, like Hans Mikkelsen of Malmø, proved that native Nordics could rise high within the company, many of its earliest leaders were immigrants from German or Dutch metropoles.
A prime example hereof was Jørgen Kock; a master tradesman, company shareholder and burgomaster of Malmø who was Westphalian by birth. Others, such as Albrecht van Goch and Christian II’s childhood friend, Ambrosius Bookbinder, were sons of influential Lower Saxon traders, who only recently had settled in Denmark.[6]
In Sweden, the Stockholm patriciate might have backed the Sture Party to the hilt, but a sizeable contingent of the capital’s German traders had been equally eager to join the Bishop of Strängnäs in seeking conciliation with Christian II in early 1519.[7] As such, only the most ardent partisans of the Lord Steward had been purged from the rolls of the company’s Stockholm charter. They were, however, replaced by others, such as Klaus Boye and Gorius Holst, who entered the enterprise with great vigour.[8] Undoubtedly, they correctly understood that the best way into the king’s good graces went through sizeable investments in the company’s endeavours. In Finland, too, foreigners were an important element in the few urban settlements. Between 1400 and 1471, nine of the fourteen burgomasters of Åbo and twenty of thirty-six town councillors were Germans. Indeed, one of the most important officials of the company did not even reside within Christian II’s dynastic patrimony.
Pompeius Occo by Dirck Jacobsz, ca. 1531. Born as Poppe Ockeszoon in East Frisia, Pompeius Occo was a master negotiator and trader as well as an accomplished Humanist scholar. Furthermore, he enjoyed close friendships with both Christian II and the Archbishop of Trondhjem, Erik Valkendorf and was in correspondence with both until his death. Ennobled by Emperor Maximilian in 1504, Occo’s coat of arms can be seen hanging from a tree in the background. His left hand rests on a human skull, symbolising the fact that all men must die whilst his right, conversely, holds a carnation; a symbol of the hope of eternal life.
Pompeius Occo had first come into contact with King Christian during the latter’s tenure as viceroy of Norway in 1512, when Occo sent the viceregal chancellor eight Rhenish guelders by way of Queen Christine.[9] Pompeius, however, initially served as an agent of the South German Fugger banking house, a continent-spanning enterprise, closely associated with the Habsburgs. As such, his appearance on Christian’s horizon was most certainly connected to the king’s betrothal to Elisabeth.
Occo soon became endeared to the king, smoothing over obstacles with courtesies and the liberal application of an open, almost bottomless, purse. Yet Pompeius had not entirely severed his ties to the Fuggers, who hoped to establish a monopoly on the extremely profitable Swedish copper export. By the time of Christian’s engagement to Elisabeth, the German banking clan already dominated the copper mines of Northern Hungary, but the copper extracted there was ferried to Danzig by way of Polish riverine barges before being shipped West through the Sound. The Fuggers, therefore, banked on establishing close relations with the King of the North.
In other words, the hands of Pompeius Occo skilfully intertwined the threads of Fugger copper interests, Habsburg dynastic aspirations and Oldenburg economic ambitions. Not for nothing did Christian II’s ambassador in Mechelen write home in admiring despatches that “… Pompeius is your Grace’s truest and most able servant, as I sense in every deal he strikes.”[10]
But Occo’s commission was not limited to conveyances and export licenses. Between 1519 and 1521, he had personally toured the Zuiderzee towns of Monnickendam, Marken, Edam and Purmerend in order to organise the emigration of some 180 Netherlanders to the island of Amager off Copenhagen.[11] During the next ten years, similar Dutch colonies were founded across the Danish realm, with Bøtø near Lolland and Egholm and Skagen in Northern Jutland being the most prominent.[12]
As a way of enticing immigration, Christian’s government promised generous privileges and local autonomy. On Amager and Bøtø, for example, the settlers were exempted from taxation for the first few years and were “… to have and to hold this entire land and live and judge themselves after the Dutch law, which they currently hold, and not after the Danish law.”[13]
A common trait of these settlements was the fact that they were all places where the Dutch skill in building dikes could be put to good use as well as providing good fishing in addition to grazing and horticulture. Agricultural yields rose with the introduction of new types of windmills and irrigation systems common to the Low Countries. In the Duchies, Netherlandish windmills sprang up from the marshes of the Wadden Sea like mushrooms, pumping water out of polders to make new pastures for the treasured oxen to grass on. Eventually, Dutch journeymen were invited to other parts of the Oldenburg realms. The great saw mills at Drammen in Norway became a Flemish enclave, Alpine specialists tunnelled through Sundsberg, where copper had been discovered in 1524, and in Finland, the city of Åbo had more German speakers than Rendsburg by the end of the 1550s.[14]
However beneficial immigration might have been from an economic perspective, the favouritism showered on foreigners did not sit well with neither the traditionalist nobility nor the fiercely reactionary peasantry. While the aristocracy might have been humbled after the Ducal Feud, it was adamant that its remaining privileges were not to be diluted by being granted to “…tyrants, knaves, witches and other foreigners.”[15] In the rural communities, the peasants resorted to more overt expressions of their dissatisfaction. On Egholm, for example, two peasants were hanged in 1526 after they murdered a Dutch settler in defiance of a royal command to vacate their island.[16] For decades, Nordic and Netherlandish communities shared monarchs and borders, but in all other regards they could just as well have been on opposite ends of the continent. Such unfortunate incidents aside, the influx of Dutch and German colonists stimulated the Nordic economy considerably in the short run and eventually resulted in an eclectic cultural intermingling that is still visible today.
Ethnic violence was not the only source of unrest created by this so-called ‘Europeanisation’ of the Northern lands. Foreign influence and the increased importance of the cities also galvanised an urban confessional conflict. While Christian II truly believed that the 1528-Synod of Copenhagen had settled the reform issue along Erasmian lines, religious dissent continued to rear its head at regular intervals.
In 1529, the citizens of Malmø drove out the Franciscans and secularised the monastery’s assets in direct violation of the synod’s stipulations. Similar events happened in the episcopal sees of Aarhus and Viborg in 1530 and in the town of Ystad in 1532. Although the Ordinance had, to a certain degree, legalised the secularisation of monastic properties, it had also stressed that it was to occur organically and at the convenience of the clergy. In Malmø, Christian II himself had granted Jørgen Kock and the Malmø patriciate the rights to their city’s monastic buildings, since these were in disrepair and the monks few and malnourished, but had also commanded that this was only to happen once the last of the Franciscans had left voluntarily. However, the burghers understood the king’s command differently. Stones were thrown through monastic windows; Evangelical sermons were provokingly held in the convent church before finally a score of citizens forced their way into the monastic cellars and literally ate and drank the entire Franciscan pantry.[17] When the royal constables arrived, the remaining monks were already packing their few intact belongings into bundles.
Essentially then, the domestic effects of Christian II’s great enterprise were truly societal in scale. The growth of the company was felt and experienced in the villages, in the towns and in the manor houses of the secular as well as ecclesiastical nobility. In this perspective, it is difficult to dispute Matthias Gabler’s servile poetry when he wrote that “… Denmark is a dynamic country ruled by a most providential prince.”[18]
Trade in the Northern lands 1525-1550. A decade after its founding in 1520, Christian II’s trade company had become a power to be reckoned with in the Baltic. Although its own merchant fleet was minuscule by the middle of the first half of the 16th century, the Company made tremendous profits on the export of a varied assortment of goods and resources.[19]
Internationally speaking, Lübeck remained a powerful player in the Baltic and, next to Danzig, the only real competitor to the Oldenburg Navy Royal. Furthermore, the city maintained its grip on the export of Lüneberger salt; a commodity which fickle Sweden was especially dependent on. Yet while keeping the Dutch in and the Hansards out of the Baltic had been a long-time goal of the Danish crown, the Swedish pre-unification elite had, surprisingly, towed a quite similar line. In 1513, the Archbishop of Uppsala, Jakob Ulvsson, had pointed out that the primacy of the Hansa had detrimental effects on the prices of imported goods in Sweden: Cloth from Leiden cost 28 Marks at Swedish markets, but only 19 Marks in Lübeck. As the Archbishop remarked “… all goods brought into the country, salt and cloth and anything else, are costly if the Dutch are excluded from the Baltic Sea.”[20] In other words, breaking the power of the Hansards by bringing in the Netherlanders was a policy which both Danish and Swedish elites could agree upon. This consensus was subsequently institutionalized within the framework of the Royal Trade Company and proved to be another slab of mortar binding the Nordic union together.
Therefore, Lübeck for a time co-existed with the trade structures set up by the Nordic Company, even somewhat integrating with it. Still, Hanseatic decline had for all intents and purposes become self-evident. Frustration at the defeat had seen the city council swept clean by the Evangelical-democratic party of Jürgen Wullenwever and Herman Israhel in 1525 and calls for revanchism were as common as pirates’ heads on the Holsteintor.
Unfortunately, the Wendish Hansards lacked allies to challenge the stirring power in the North. Had Christian II somehow alienated his brother-in-law, Charles V, and if the Frederickians had struck at a more opportune moment, perhaps in concert with the Sture rebels, then Lübeck might have had stood a chance at keeping the Nordics divided and held back the rising tide of Dutch supremacy in the Baltic. For a time at least. Conjecture aside, the writing was very much on the wall vis-à-vis the ascendancy of the Netherlanders. In 1528, 10% of the ships passing through the Sound had the Wendish cities as port of origin while the rivalling Prussian Hansa made up for another 18% or so. In comparison, 60% of the ships passing the Sound originated in the Netherlands.[21]
The reason for this was simple: The export of grain from the Vistula-Danzig axis. Between 1500 and 1560, the quantity of grain imported from the Baltic to the Low Countries rose by five times, enough to feed perhaps 15-20% of the population of the entire Habsburg Netherlands. Import increases were precipitated by an unprecedented boom in population. In the year 1500, Antwerp had a population of 45.000. Sixty years later, it had almost doubled to 85.000. Amsterdam went from 12.000 to 27.000 in the same period, Utrecht from 15.000 to 26.000. Broadly speaking, Baltic grain had become an absolute necessity for the societal stability of the urbanised Low Countries.[22] As a consequence, control over the Vistula Basin would become hotly contested in subsequent years.
For its part, the hegemon of the Prussian cities, Danzig, was in an awkward position. Its reigning council had close ties with the Fuggers, but the city also remained the only safe port of call for the remaining adherents of the exiled Lady Kristina. Confounding the matter even further, Danzig privateers wrought havoc on the small but steady trickle of Muscovite trading vessels attempting to reach the Netherlandish market. Understandably, this greatly vexed Grand Prince Vasily III, who ordered his ambassador in Copenhagen to request Nordic protection of the Russian traders for: “…the King of Denmark is our friend and brother and the brother-in-law of our brother Charles V.”[23]
Simultaneously, the grand prince strictly prohibited his namestniki (governors) along the Karelia border to refrain from raiding the Swedish-Finnish population and to diligently keep the peace with the King of Denmark’s subjects.[24] This did not magically remove the deeply anti-Russian sentiment in Finland and Sweden. The nobility continued to pine for the restitution of Olofsborg, but it did provide “this end of the country”[25] (as Christian II often termed his easternmost territories) an unprecedented period of peace where Finns, Swedes and Germans gradually advanced the border of civilisation away from the settled areas around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.
Vasily’s request for assistance was another step on a well-trodden path of Dano-Russian coalignment. In 1493, 1506 and 1516, Copenhagen and Moscow had concluded a series of trade deals, which secured Danes in Russia and Russians in Denmark “… guarantees of unimpeded passage and trade, protection from local government and fair justice.” By 1515, Christian had convinced Vasily to allow a number of Danish burghers to come to Russia in order to receive language training. When Russian ambassadors came West to treat with the Holy Roman Emperor, they now stopped in Copenhagen to make representations, rather than in Lübeck, as had been the custom previously.
The crowning moment of the diplomatic-commercial alignment came with the treaty of 1517, wherein Vasily III granted Christian II the unique concession of allowing Danish merchants to establish a fenced-in faktorie with accompanying Catholic church and priest in both Ivangorod and Novgorod. Combined with the confirmation of previously granted privileges to trade across the entirety of the grand prince’s lands, these commercial rights were far beyond anything the Hansards had ever obtained in Russia.[26] This was a truly dangerous development, not just for Lübeck, but for the entirety of the Hanseatic League. Denmark’s commercial strength had originally been its geographical location, but with the pacification of Sweden and treaties with the Fuggers and Muscovites in hand, the king of Denmark was aiming a kick at the very foundation of the league. That Christian II and Vasily III’s endeavour was seen as posing an existential threat to the Hansards is evident in a letter from the council of Reval to Lübeck, wherein it was stated that continued Nordic expansion would send “… the German merchant and all Hanseatic towns, especially these Livonian towns, to a great, hopeless, perpetual destruction.” [27]
While the Wendish and Livonian towns were quick to link arms against the rising tide of Russo-Nordic cooperation, Danzig continued to drag its feet. Nonetheless, it was plain for all to see that it was Christian II that the Hansards feared in the most. Finally, in 1531 Danzig concluded a (albeit nominally) defensive alliance with Lübeck where it was explicitly stated that “… if one or the other is attacked by the King of Denmark, then the one shall not abandon the other, but rather offer support with all its power and loyally help and support the other.”[28]
What then drove Danzig into the arms of Lübeck and the Livonians? It has often been claimed that Danzig was steered on the path of war by way of cool, economic considerations. Indeed, the city’s council knew full well that the Baltic grain scale tipped two ways. It might have hurt the Danziger finances to lose the export business for a time, but if it meant smothering Oldenburg-Rurikid ambitions in the cradle, then it was a risk worth taking. Yet this begs the question of why this realignment didn’t occur earlier. Lübeck had already fought two wars with Denmark in 1512 and 1522-23 without Danziger involvement. In this regard, one has to look further East for an explanation. The Russo-Lithuanian truce established in 1522 had, at great difficulty, been prolonged for another five years in 1527, but neither Vasily III nor Sigismund I expected the peace to last. In such a conflict, Poland would most certainly also be drawn in and with it, Danzig. Similarly, the letters of alliance between Copenhagen and Moscow had obliged Christian II to side with the grand prince. Consequently, Denmark and Danzig were poised to participate in the general conflagration on opposing sides. Securing the aid of the other Baltic Hansards was therefore, simply good business.
Author’s note: Quite a hiatus this time around. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and its exploration of the cultural, economic and political effects of Christian II’s great trade company.
Footnotes:
[1] OTL quote from the Chronicle, translated by yours truly. Please allow for some poetic license.
[2] This is OTL as well.
[3] Again, this is OTL. The oxen trade was incredibly profitable throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. To put the price in perspective, 3500 guilders in 1512 would be worth roughly 280.000 EUR in 2021.
[4] This also happened in OTL. When the nobility got its most far-reaching trade privileges in 1536, it had already more or less ceased engaging in foreign trade.
[5] Another example of Christian II’s OTL plans blossoming. The reform of the Sound Dues was instituted in 1517 under Sigbrit and was one of the prime causes for the Hansards to align with the Swedes and Holsteiners. King Hans had tried a similar reform, which had also led to war with Lübeck.
[6] All three were important characters during OTL’s Count’s Feud. Jørgen Kock was an especially deft political operator. Ambrosius Bookbinder is generally assumed to have been a playmate of Christian II while the king was fostered in a burgher’s house in Copenhagen.
[7] See Chapter 9.
[8] In OTL, the burghers of Stockholm were amongst one of the groups most viciously persecuted during the bloodbath. The two merchants mentioned were actual traders at the time, who joined the Nordic Trade Company in OTL. Beforehand, they had been outmanoeuvred by Sten Sture’s supporters.
[9] This happened in OTL as well. In earlier historiography, it was assumed that Christian II came into contact with Occo by way of Sigbrit, but recent scholarship has ascertained, that the averse was actually true.
[10] A slightly reworked OTL quote from a letter written by Christian II’s personal physician and envoy, Alexander Kinghorne, in 1523. The original reads: “… Pompeus is juwer gnaden truwe dener, alsze ick mercken kan in allem handel.”
[11] As already stated in Chapters 9 and 13, this happened in OTL as well.
[12] Also happened in OTL, but these colonies did not last on account of poor conditions and Christian II’s deposal.
[13] OTL quote from Christian II’s so-called “1521-letter of privilege” given to the Dutch settlers on Amager. Own translation of a modern Danish rendition. To this day there are still faint traces of these original 180 Dutch settlers.
[14] While it is true that the Bishop of Hamar was granted the right to develop the newly discovered copper deposits at Sundsbergs Kobberbjerg around 1524, the invitation of German miners is ATL.
[15] From the OTL 1522-Letter of Conspiracy, wherein the Jutlandic nobles outlined their plan to and justification of the deposal of Christian II. This line in particular is a not too subtle nod to the influence wielded by the detested Sigbrit.
[16] There were violent clashes between settlers and Danes in OTL, but the quoted incident is fictional. The areas marked out by Christian II as zones of settlement were the crown’s own property and the peasants inhabiting them were consequently royal tenants. The king was therefore in his right to command the peasants to leave and settle on other royal estates, but that hardly made the command easier for the peasants to accept.
[17] The Malmø incident also happened as described in OTL, but in 1528. Despite the 1528-Synod, Evangelism is still spreading amongst the cities of the North.
[18] OTL quote from 1521.
[19] The number of ships passing the Sound in 1528 are OTL figures, the first year of which we have a comprehensive list. While the number of Nordic ships participating in the Baltic trade would certainly have been at least slightly higher given the fact that Christian II did not take the better part of the Danish fleet with him in TTL, I’ve opted to keep the OTL numbers as a way to show a historically correct baseline.
[20] OTL quote.
[21] These are OTL figures. A total of 982 ships passed through the Sound in 1528 - the first year from which we have a complete annual inventory of the Sound Due. Of these, 101 had Wendish cities as port of origin. Of these, Lübeck contributed 27.
[22] These figures are all OTL. See, Israel, Jonathan: The Dutch Republic - Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806 (Clarendon Press, Oxford: 1995)
[23] Original quote from a letter by Vasily, 1518. I’ve replaced Maximillian with Charles V.
[24] This also happened in OTL in 1517.
[25] Gustav Vasa often termed Finland (also known as the Eastland) as ‘thetta landsände’
[26] This is all OTL, including language classes and Russian ambassadors making representations in Copenhagen rather than in Lübeck. Christian II was a bit upset with Vasily though, as the Danish scholars were moved quite far inland instead of staying in Novgorod and Ivangorod as initially agreed upon.
[27] An OTL quote from the 2nd of May, 1516.
[28] OTL quote from the 1522-treaty between Danzig and Lübeck, translated by yours truly. The original reads: “… Daer de eyne efte andere von kon. w. to Dennem. ouerfallen wurde sal de eyne den anderrn nicht vorlaten, Dan na allem vormogen entszetten getruwlick helpen vnd bystaen.”
Great update! The idea of “Europeanizing” the Northlands is reminiscent of Russia’s efforts during the 19th century, but here it seems like more of an economic and cultural intermingling than an effort to colonize the country with a “superior” group. However, the actual colonies are quite interesting to think about as well, considering how the settlers are building more infrastructure for farming and trade. Just so long as they don’t get any funny ideas about tulips!
The island of Amager was populated by Dutch Danes until the 19th century (the same ones mentioned here), we can get a pretty good idea of the effect of them. They’re were wealthy farmers who had a monopoly on chalk from Saltholm, they lost connection to Netherlands in a generation and simply became a ethnic enclave in Denmark. Amager is still well known for it Dutch forenames, which are rarely used in the rest of Denmark.
It's back and with another amazing map !
The foundations of Nordic power are very nicely explained. I think the next target of the Kings of the North would be Saxe-Lauenburg. It is basically all they need to crush Lubeck, since the Salt Road and canal passes through this domain. And there will be an opportunity in the future, since duke Francis I was heavily indebted and had pawned off most of his land.
The foundations of Nordic power are very nicely explained. I think the next target of the Kings of the North would be Saxe-Lauenburg. It is basically all they need to crush Lubeck, since the Salt Road and canal passes through this domain. And there will be an opportunity in the future, since duke Francis I was heavily indebted and had pawned off most of his land.
While the Baltics is a 'shallow bathtub' in comparison, this'll ultimately help supplying a larger amount of adventurous/skilled sailors and merchants willing to splurge on the chances of getting stupid-rich on colonial projects.
As an aside, given the population of the Livonian Order (specially in the north, near former Danish territories), are going to be increasingly Lutheranians, would it perhaps be possible that a future Wendic Hansa/Northlands wars, the Urban population there, revolts against the order and more or less send a gold-framed invitation to Christian to land his armies there to push south, flanking Riga's naval defenses
As an aside, given the population of the Livonian Order (specially in the north, near former Danish territories), are going to be increasingly Lutheranians, would it perhaps be possible that a future Wendic Hansa/Northlands wars, the Urban population there, revolts against the order and more or less send a gold-framed invitation to Christian to land his armies there to push south, flanking Riga's naval defenses
Strong and wealthy Danish monarchs had in the past turned the dukes of Lauenburg into de-facto vassals through economic means, so it should be quite easy for Christian to do the same, no military action required.
Great update, nice to see this continue! I have one minor question though, no mention of wood tar at all? It was one of THE most important and profitable products from Finland, for centuries, and as there seems to be an increase in sailing/ships, I'd expect the demand would be ever growing?
I had something similar in mind. Francis will pawn off most of his lands to cover his debts and the Crown can basically buy most of the duchy. There is no reason to abolish the duchy altogether, that would have been a very intricate political matter and the Emperor would have to be involved. But have the duke to keep a few towns and his title while most of his demesne and the vital Stecknitz Canal is controlled by Copenhagen? That's way easier.
I think it will depend on the political climate in Copenhagen post-1543. If the king and his court feel confinded of an enduring influence, then just subsidies would be enough. However, if they feel that this is a one time opprtunity - since you cannot be sure the next duke will be a spendthrift, then buying up most of the duchy makes sense.
It seems that Muscovy and the Kingdom of the North are becoming close trade partners. I think than Copenhagen won't have an issue with a russian outlet in the Baltic, Ivangorod in this case. After all, Ivangorod's trade is taxed through the Sound Dues. There is one potential point of contention though: Livonia. Both Sweden and Denmark had traditionally interests in Livonia and would be unacceptable to see the region being turned into a muscovite vassal or annexed outright.
I think it only really became a major export in the 17th century, when Ostrobothnia were settled with Swedes from Götaland.
I'm sure Russia could forgive losing Livonia if they got other prizes from war with the PLC (and while Denmark would want Riga, perhaps they part with Daugavpils?)
Being a trade and military partner of the North could also bring Russia in with the Habsburgs to fight the Turk. Or perhaps Russia, having taken Kazan decades early, goes the way of Afanasy Nikitin and tries to corral the Caspian and Transoxianan trade by taking Astrakhan?
Being a trade and military partner of the North could also bring Russia in with the Habsburgs to fight the Turk. Or perhaps Russia, having taken Kazan decades early, goes the way of Afanasy Nikitin and tries to corral the Caspian and Transoxianan trade by taking Astrakhan?