WI no Kalmar Union

I've found some threads about a surviving Kalmar Union, but couldn't find any about the opposite idea: WI the union never happened? A possible POD is that Christopher, the eldest son of Valdemar IV, survives and have issue, or Margaret I is born a male.
So, if Valdemar IV is succeeded by male heir with no claim to Sweden and Norway, what could be the immediate different developments in Scandinavia?
 
Or that his son Valdemar who died in infancy lives.

But going with Christopher and Margrethe still going as OTL that would make for Oluf becoming King of Norway 1380 when his father King Haakon dies.
Also Albrecht of Mecklenburg is King of Sweden while his older brother Duke Heinrich is married to Valdemar's daughter Ingeborg which brought the issue Albrecht (another one).

A few years before he died Valdemar had been able to make peace in the war with the Hansa/Sweden/Mecklenburg/Holstein of 1367-71.

Margrethe might still have Oluf proclaim himself heir to the Swedish throne.

Christopher if he had inherited his fathers diplomatic skills as Margrethe surely had have solved the handover of the Scania fortresses occupied by Hansa since 1370-85.

By internal Swedish conflict Margrethe was asked to intervene against King Albrecht 1386 but this was postponed till 1388 and spawned off a war of 1389-95 where Margrethe emerged victorious. In the meantime Oluf had died 1387 thus Margrethe had adopted the son Erik of her sister Ingeborg's daughter Maria!

Thing is all this may be butterflied away by Christopher being in protracted conflict with the Count of Holstein thus probably not able to divert forces to fight Sweden in allied with Margrethe; he also have to watch the Hansa.

In all the internal Swedish conflict may result in King Albrecht strengthening his power within Sweden thus being able to defeat his opponents and bar Norwegian (Margrethe) intervention. Margrethe may though try to rally diplomatic support.

Albrecht might have been able to spawn off the Mecklenburg Dynasty of Sweden and continue the age old struggle with Denmark though without the Danish supremacy interlude of the Kalmar Union.

So the big picture might see little change in Scandinavia; of course no Danish - Norwegian Union (and the North Atlantic remaining Norwegian) and Sweden might start an earlier expansion east wards having of course conquered Scania beforehand! :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Last edited:

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
So the big picture might see little change in Scandinavia; of course no Danish - Norwegian Union (and the North Atlantic remaining Norwegian) and Sweden might start an earlier expansion east wards having of course conquered Scania beforehand! :eek: :eek: :eek:
Of course poor Norway would in the end have a hard time keeping the Orkneys and the Shetlands from the Scots and the English.
 
I think the myth of a united Scandinavia is only so strong because it once happens.
The Nordic togetherness, if only as a kind of perceived political agreement, exists until today, in spite of any direct affiliations. This counsciousness would be much weaker if the union had never existed in reality.
 
Of course poor Norway would in the end have a hard time keeping the Orkneys and the Shetlands from the Scots and the English.

Well, in the other hand, they might find a way to keep distance from possible Danish/Swedish conflicts or their wars in Germany and the Baltic, and so they could keep their attention towards the Atlantic.
 
Interesting ideas!:)
But couldn't Christopher help his sister in the conflict against Albert? Or would it be harder for the Danish king to raise an army to figth the Swedish?

Of course he could; he would just have to pacify the count of Holstein before which OTL was the major drain of Danish resources. ;)
It very much depends on his ability to do so but also keeping his own Jutland nobility in check who'd jump at his back at the slightest sign of weakness.
 
Top