An Age of Prosperity, The Kingdom of Denmark

[Bastiram]

Konrad and The New World

Konrad II, had never imagined becoming king, especially not at such a young age. Just two years younger than his elder brother, he had grown up together with the future king of Dania, often participating in the same lesson as Valdemar IX, yet still distinctly in the shadow. His father had planned for him to have a career in the military, and many of his tutors had been the favourites of Erik VI and in the inner circle of the Danish government. So that both Konrad, but also Valdemar would gain a proper military upbringing.

Konrad and Valdemar became close, as both were close to each other’s age. Valdemar was the spitting image of their father, aggressive, and with a love for all things military. Konrad on the other hand, always in the shadow of Valdemar, was more reigned in, while they were close, he had to guard his thoughts more closely than Valdemar. Yet Valdemar would grow up to respect his little brother, and listen to Konrad’s, often more well thought out arguments.

In the aristocratic circles, or at least those with access to the palace and the royal family, many expected Valdemar to continue his father’s policies, which had been successful, if a bit expensive for the resulting gains. But where Erik, had no one to reign him in, and only listened to either his military advisers or the whims of his various mistresses. Valdemar on the other hand, at least would have the steady and calming presence of his brother to reign in the excesses that royalty sometimes indulge in. Even if Valdemar at age 17 already had gone through two mistresses, and gotten at least one known bastard.


As for Konrad and his future, his father Erik had planned to give Konrad a military posting in Mittelmark when he reached the age of 17, and while his studies increasingly were directed toward taking control of Mittelmark, which in the eyes of Erik, would become one of the most important provinces of Dania, due to location in the south, but also due to the already large population, the economic prowess and potential of the area.

Konrad can only be said to have taken upon his studies dutifully, but if he had, had a choice about his future, it would be to sail west. Konrad and Valdemar, had grown up with the stories and news of their father’s war against the Spanish, and both had been present when Sebastián de Toledo visited the king, but only one of the young men, listened intensely, when de Toledo, told about his adventures in the service of the Grand King.

The death of his father came as a surprise, still relatively young, and while Valdemar was crowned Grand King, and held court for the dignities of Europe, Konrad, travelled to Mittelmark, to the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, the regional capital of the area. And while Valdemar began the first steps to gain an alliance with France, Konrad moved his residence from the meagre Brandenburg an der Havel, to the just as dull city of Spandau.

Located more centrally than Brandenburg, Spandau would be easier to defend in case of a war with Saxony. Furthermore, it was located conveniently, on the confluence of the Havel river and the Spree river, making it a natural choice. Spandau was also located close to other urban settings, such as the cities of Cölln and Berlin on the Spree river, and Potsdam on the Havel river.


Konrad, being a royal prince and brother to the Grand King himself, was naturally an important person, and his presence in Mittelmark, brought more than just the Prince, Konrad had greater access to the royal treasury than nearly everyone else in the Kingdom. And he used this access to fund not only the border defences of Mittelmark, but also a palace in Spandau, fortifications in the towns and cities around Spandau were expanded, and when his plans and projects in and around Mittelmark finally was completed years later, Spandau was a real contender, of being the best defended city of the Grand Kingdom, maybe even the best defended city in Europe.

Spandau owes its prominence due to the activities of Konrad, and while Konrad never got to live long in the city, his actions during the few months certainly laid the foundations, of Spandau's eventual dominance of Mittelmark, as its greatest city. As for Konrad, while overseeing the construction of one of the fortresses on the border of Dania and Saxony, he got the news of his brother’s untimely death. Which saw Konrad leave for København in short order.

Konrad would visit Spandau on occasions following his coronation, but never for long. While the city and its town privileges go back to the early 13th century, this period of the 15th century is often dubbed as the real founding of the city. The city would honour the memory of Konrad, by adopting the name Konradstadt after his death.



Before Konrad was crowned, he had originally planned , if possible, to influence the Danish colonial policies from the side. It is true that he was young, but being the king's brother certainly gives influence. His plans for this had never had time to emerge during his short tenure at Mittelmark, much as he had just recently arrived there, so too was Konrad’s brother newly crowned. And talks about the new territories far to the west had been put aside, for more immediate concerns. Such as the blustering Saxony to the south, and the negotiation of a new ally.

So, when Konrad took the throne, the young king just shy of 18 years, stood in the somewhat remarkable position, of being able to decide the policies towards the new world, and the recently gained territories there. In short order de Toledo, was called to the capital, from his estates in eastern Skåne, and with a handful of other advisers, mainly from the Kronstæder, the future of Kuba, Markland and Vinland would be decided.


While Markland and Vinland, just consisted of autonomous farmsteads, and a few towns that could not really be described as cities, Kuba was quite different. De Toledo’s discovery of gold on the isle, had clearly been unsuccessful, and the isle lacked a clear purpose, besides being a point where the Danish flag was planted. Still money had been poured into it during his father’s reign, and the defences of Mariashavn stood strong, near 3.000 men had decided to stay behind, either as soldiers, or as civilians, gaining land in the process. As such, a series of villages had sprung up around Mariashavn, and the former soldiers now toiled away producing agricultural products from the fertile land of the island.

Still, it was a sparse populated place, not even reaching 5.000 Europeans, and by now, the indigenous population of the isle had been decimated from sudden illness’ to becoming enslaved by Spain due to their hunger for manpower in their gold mines. Worse about these 5.000 people that lived so far from Europe, was that the population by far was not sustainable. As there was a distinct lack of women. Compared to Markland and Vinland, where entire families sometimes uprooted themselves from Iceland or Ireland, to pursue a new life in these settlements. In Kuba that was not the case.

As for Markland and Vinland, they first of all a much larger population, which was not only sustainable, but thriving, what it did not have, was peace at its borders. Skraelings, pushed the boundaries of the European settlements and it was not uncommon that either side of the conflict went on punitive expedition, to the dread of the somewhat innocent bystanders. There was also the case, that the two might not look forward to further influence from Dania in their adopted homeland.


So, each of the two required different policies, that much was clear. To alleviate the distinct demographic problems that Kuba was facing, a policy of shipping off poor and criminal women to the island became a reality, though men would also come to the new world from this policy. Another policy which, if questionable ethically, remained a substantial source of the needed women in Kuba, was orphans, these where often shipped to Kuba, with the poor and criminals, it helped that orphans often were poor, due to obvious reasons. They were on the other hand, often preferred over the older, and more lewd criminals and poor people.
This deliberate movement, of less than desirable people from Dania towards Kuba, would help stabilize the demographic situation of the Danish colony in the Caribbean, and soon the entire island, except for the eastern part felt the presence of Dania.

Now all it needed was to become economically viable, the hope that the island would become a source of gold took a firm second seat, instead the plan was to rely on the growing of sugar, on the suggestion of de Toledo, mirroring a development happening on the Spanish isles. But sugar plantations need manpower, here the poor and criminal male settlers would come into the picture as it was after all expensive for Dania to ship these off to the New World, as such, they would be required to work a few years in sugar plantations, or other such backbreaking work, before they could take their future in their own hands. Though experience would soon prove that the North European settlers, was ill suited for the plantation work combined with the climate of Kuba.


As for the Markland and Vinland settlements, under Danish rule, they would be firmly established as Kronmark by Konrad in 1557. The two would remain distinct from each other, but Vinland, would be ruled from Kronborg [OTL Montreal] in Markland. At the time Kronborg was the second largest town or city, depending on the definition, but ideally and centrally located. The largest urban settlement remained the aptly named Kronhavn [OTL Quebec] being the principal harbour of Kronmark, here the large ships from Europe would arrive. Here cargo would be transferred to either barges, or ships more suited for traversing the Great River, indeed the old ships of the Norsemen, were still put to good use here. Centuries after they had spread fear across Europe.

While the inhabitants of Kronmark were not exactly pleased when the newly appointed Gældker [Governor] arrived, and took control of the “newly” established colony. Bergen had never done such a thing, and the governing of the settlements, had been more akin to the Icelandic Althing. Where judgements and the law were passed. Instead, they now had to learn to live under the supremacy, of one man, appointed by another man, half a world away. The gældker was joined by not only senior and junior clergymen, but also priests, all so Danish rule would be complete.

The largest group of people that arrived with the Gældker, and probably the one that would be appreciated the most, was the thousands of soldiers. The inhabitants of Kronmark might not have liked the idea, at first, of being under Dania. They were, however, more than willing to accept the help of the veterans of Dania, from the battlefields of Europe, to the Caribbean, these men would help push back the Skraelings, and expand Kronmark, along the rivers that fed the Great river, and into the great lakes beyond.


Konrad and his advisors, had hoped that by aiding the Marklanders, in the bloody conflict with the various Skraeling tribes, that not only would the inhabitants of Kronmark, more readily accept, the meddling of Dania. But also, to gain access to manpower that they needed for the sugar plantations in Kuba. Soon in Kronhavn, it would not be an uncommon sight to see, the unfortunate victims of this policy, as a great number of Skraelings were shipped off to Kuba. Though much like the poor and criminals from Dania, these people taken captive would not fare well due to the extreme change in climate and due to illness and sickness, which inevitable took hold of nearly all Skraelings.

While the hope that slaves from in and around Kronmark would be able to feed the plantations of Kuba with slaves, it would be one of the policy’s that would end in failure. Which resulted in the first established slave fort in West Africa 15 years later. While slavery is nothing to proud of, the realistic view of it, is that it happened, and it contributed greatly to the development of both Kronmark and Kuba.


In Kronmark, soon so called slave hunters made their living by going into the wilderness, enslaving the neighbouring Skraeling population, even if the Skraelings had come to an agreement with the authorities of Kronmark, would it offer little protection against these people. Yet by far the largest producer of slaves, would be the soldiers that were sent into the conflict, and with the added weight of these, soon the borders of Kronmark expanded dramatically, and new land could be settled by the Europeans.

Dania would not immediately go on to supply settlers for Kronmark, the population, around 75.000 overall, did not have the more immediate concerns that Kuba did, as such, while some of the ships carrying criminals and poor people did arrive in Kronhavn, the majority continued to Kuba. Iceland and Ireland would remain the major provider of settlers, though Nidaros would also go on to supply quite a few. But as for the areas around the Baltic, if the peasants wanted to take up a new life elsewhere, then Dania had plenty of land at home that could serve that need.

The population of the Kronstæder, were a lot freer to choose, and would become a big part of the urban population of both Kuba and Kronmark. These early settlement patterns would have a marked effect on Kronmark, the population and the majority of the settlers did not speak Danish, but steadily the elite of Kronmark certainly did, as the merchants, and educated body of the colony increasingly came from Dania, or descended from these. Dania would build a lot of churches in Kronmark in these early years, and the priests that would go on to preach in these churches did so in Danish.

So, while the population might not have identified as Danish, they certainly began to speak the language.

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So large update, about twice the size of the usual one. I tried to find pictures to break up the text a bit but couldn't find any, I hope that is okay. I had more planned for this update, but it was already quite long!

As for names, please speak up if they make no sense, I can't express how much I hate figuring out names for new places. I'm especially thinking about Kronhavn here and Konradstadt

The name Kronmark is something I have planned for quite a while, and I much prefer it over "Ny Danmark" etc, and I think it is reasonable assumption that a Danish setter colony could have ended up being called that.

I had original planned for the capital of Dania, to be Kronborg [better known in English as Elsinor] but its rise to power was butterflied away as no sound toll happened in TTL. To satisify my need to have a prominent city called "Kronborg" the capital of Kronmark seemed a apt choice.

Kronhavn, I don't necessarily dislike the name, I at one point was thinking about naming København that instead, my problem with it, in this context is that there already are Kronmark and borg, it is a lot of "Kron"

just to clarify, "Krone" is Crown in Danish.

I needed a name for the largest city in Mittelmark, Berlin was out due to associations with Germany, Cölln would have been a good choice, but then again there is Cologne in Lotharingia which is gonna play a big role there. Spandau also seemed a better choice, being located on the confluence of the Havel and Spree river. The problem with Spandau, is personal, as I chuckle everytime I had to write it. Simply put it, a popular Danish Pastry is known as a Spandaur, hence I needed another name, and Konradstadt became a thing.

Oh yea I don't particularly like Kuba either..

 

[Bastiram]

West Africa:
There is some disagreement which fort is the first established by the several Danish expeditions to West Africa around the years of 1560. It is generally believed to be Fort Toledo, along the Gold Coast. Certainly, Fort Toledo would become one of the principal forts of Dania in West Africa. There is, however a vocal minority, Lead by a professor in Rostock, that claims that Dania earlier established at least two forts in the extreme of western Africa. Which before these claims, is generally believed to only have had a Spanish presence.

If the claims are true, this Danish presence in what is perceived as Spanish territory in later treaties, was certainly short and not very noteworthy. And most importantly, not profitable. It is believed by the people that buy into the theory, that Spain quietly took control of the forts in 1562. The ships that were meant to trade there, would then go on to establish forts along the gold coast, amongst these Fort Toledo.

The early Danish presence in West Africa can generally be divided into two distinct geographical areas, one along the gold coast, and one farther to the east, along, what was believed to be massive wetlands, with a dense population. Several forts were established, but two forts, would rise among these as the principal Danish presence in West Africa.

Along the gold coast, four forts can be traced back to the middle of the 16th century. Three of them would remain minor, mere outposts of the more formidable Fort Toledo, which would be the centre of Danish commerce in the region. A bond with the local Asante people, were quickly established. The Asante were a series of chiefdoms, and vassals of the more powerful Denkyira Kingdom. While both people were the descendants of the Akan people, which migrated there, they would establish various states that would go on to wage bloody war for supremacy.

The Asante, or Ashanti tired of their overlords, were willing to both trade gold, which they had significant amounts of, and slaves captured in battle for European weapons and other goods. The entrance of Dania into the power struggle of the Ashanti and Denkyira kingdoms, would firmly change the balance of power. Leading to a series of success for the so-called Ashanti Confederacy. And with a decline of the Denkyira Kingdom, as it suffered from the renewed onslaught of the remarkable disciplined Ashantis.

To the east, another cluster of Danish forts was established following Fort Toledo in 1562. Much like Fort Toledo, Fort Valdemar would rise to become the principal fort in the area, located on one of the many passages of what was believed to be a massive wetland. Most importantly the area was densely populated, and strife was not uncommon. It would later turn out not to be a Wetland area, but a massive delta.

When discovered, it was not known that this river, was in fact the river Niger, which to a degree already was known in Europe, instead the Danish occupants of the forts in the area thought it was a new river. And to the merchants and other associated people of the Danish forts, the river became known by the local Igbo name Orimili. With Orimil River increasingly becoming the norm. To this day there remains a conflict of which name is the “correct” one, Orimil or Niger.

The forts along the Orimil, took a second place, compared to the forts of the Gold Coast, but would eventually take over, as conflicts in the interior would supply an ample number of slaves. This combined with the eventual establishment of the Ashanti Kingdom, and later Ashanti Empire, that brought stability to the interior of the Gold Coast, and a decline in slaves. Would cement the Orimil forts as the principal departure of slaves for the Danish colonies.

Italy, War and Glass:
Back in Europe another great war had emerged, albeit without Dania’s participation. Even then Dania was close to entering the war due to their alliance with one of the major participants of the war; France. The Italian war, was a war that started in 1561, with the invasion of the Kingdom of Naples, by the Kingdom of Spain. Naples ruled by the Anjou dynasty, would call upon the assistance of its allies in France.

The entrance of France would trigger a landslide, as Spains North Italian allies entered the war. However, in Lotharingia, now allied with Spain, Spain was seen as the aggressor, rightfully so, and Lotharangia would therefor stay outside the war. Ensuring that Danish participation would not become a reality.

The war would end in a stalemate in 1567 but it would have a series of consequences. First amongst these was the decline of Venice. Venice sided with Spain in the war, and would see much of its hinterland plundered by Savoyard and French troops during the war. The city itself remained safe, due to its indomitable defensive position. So too did its important trade posts across the Mediterranean.

The decline came due to, two unfortunate events, one being a renewed Portuguese offensive in the Indian Ocean, taking control of the West Indian Spice trade once again, removing the trade route that went through the Mamluk land, and then onwards to Venice. It was an incredible source of wealth that Venice lost to the Portuguese, but it was not enough to bring the city state to its knees.

The other event which had a marked effect on Venice, was the loss of the glass monopoly on the island of Murano. Inherited from the Byzantine craftsmen, the glass produced on Murano was leaps and bounds ahead of anything else in Europe. Sure, glass was not uncommon, but outside Venice it was of questionable quality. It was of such importance, that the craftsmen of Murano, was forbidden to leave the Republic.

During the war, France tried an ultimately unsuccessful amphibious assault on Venice. But Murano was under French control for several weeks, after the attack on Venice. It is estimated that around half of the glass craftsmen were gone, when France left the isle. Most went to France, but many spread across Europe, seeking employment at various kingdoms and rich nobility. A few would go on to establish a legacy, with workshops carrying on the proud tradition. Others of the craftsmen would part away no knowledge to an apprentice.

The four most well-known workshops were established in Paris, Aachen, Prague and København. With the one in Dania being established later than the three others, and by some counting as under the one in Paris, but it was just a few years younger. These four cities, are regarded to have preserved the knowledge from Murano. While other workshops across Europe also rose to prominence, they are considered lesser, due to the loss of knowledge.

In Dania, glass production before the arrival of the Venetian glassmakers consisted of solely Wald glass, this glass with Greenish and yellow hues were often considered of far inferior quality and crude designs compared to their Mediterranean counterparts. It is a bit unfair, as the craftsmanship had surely improved compared to earlier medieval times.

The workshops of København, became a reality when 6 Venetian craftsmen, came to Dania, as part of the large retinue, the French Princess Jeanne de Valois brought with her, to her new home.

Marriage and Royal residences:
The marriage between Grand King Konrad II, and now Queen Jeanne, was an answer to the diplomatic situation that France saw itself in. The alliance between Spain and Lotharingia threatened France, to the south and north, leading France to seek closer ties to Dania, the only realm deemed strong enough to oppose Lotharingia, in northern Europe. These ties would Certainly make sure that Lotharingia, would think twice, before it invaded the Kingdom of France.

Dania, was not in the same situation, as France, it did not have a rival to the north, but Lotharingia had shown itself as a capable enemy, and now enlarged it had become a real threat to the Grand Kingdom. Diplomatically Lotharingia was better off, alliances with England and Spain, and various duchies, ensured plenty of goodwill to the Kingdom.

The marriage between Konrad and Jeanne, was one amongst a series of political marriages that Dania entered during the period of 1560-1570, besides the marriage of Konrad, four of his sisters would be married off, in Scotland, the youngest of Konrad’s sisters, became Queen Margrethe, in Halych-Volhynia, his eldest sister, became Queen Helena. While the two remaining sisters never became Queens, they nevertheless came into positions of influence in Central Europe.

Jeanne, Queen of Dania, would stay out of politics, she is largely remembered, not only for the love that the people bore her, but also to the establishment of the Queens Garden, a series of greenhouses, and around these gardens, and while the original greenhouses was replaced years later, the complex that was built around the original series of Greenhouses, became one of the grandest in Europe, with expansive fountains and sculptures, generally called a piece of Île-de-France in Dania.

A hunting lodge was built as part of the gardens, though on the outskirts, and soon, the area became the summer residence of choice for Konrad and Jeanne, overtaking the old Cistercian Palace, in Eastern Jutland. Which had been the summer residence of choice for near on a century.

Gyldenlund, 1586

After Konrad’s death, Jeanna, then the Dowager Queen made the Hunting Lodge, her permanent residence, for the last thirty years of her life. While the complex, sometimes is known as Konradlund, the original name, Gyldenlund, of the defunct noble estate, that Jeanne was gifted by Konrad, remained the most popular and official name.

Jeanne would continue to expand upon Gyldenlund, and at her death in 1627, Gyldenlund came into the hands of the Grand King again. Soon becoming the royal residence of choice, the Cistercian Palace, would once again become the summer residence of choice. The old royal residence, the opulent Absalonsborg Palace, located centrally in the capital, would take a step back, only to be used by the Grand King, when he visited the city. Though famously, second sons would often call it their home.

Lotharingia and the New World:
Lotharingia in these years would establish their own colonies in the New World with the first being Nieuw-Vlaanderen. It took over all four expeditions to the area, as the first three settlements, were overrun by Skraelings, which were not too happy to see other “white men” on their shores. Having learned from their neighbours to the north of the conflict that they brought with them.
Nieuw-Vlaanderen, established on an Island, in the estuary of a large river, was ideally suited to defend against the Skraelings, it also helped that one of the largest natural harbours in the world was located there.

Several expeditions would follow later, establishing a Lotharingian presence in the Caribbean Isles, though here they would not be the third to do that, as France would establish its own presence in the New World by 1570, just two years later than Lotharingia.

 

[Bastiram]

Konradian Reforms:

A series of reforms enacted by Konrad II, in the late 16th century, is often credited as taking Dania from its feudal past to a more modern era. Dania in the late 16th century, was hardly a feudal state compared to earlier years, but much of its administrative machinery was outdated and furthermore not exactly standardised. While there had been several minor reforms the previous centuries and decades, it remained a mishmash of Danish administrative workings from the capital, and inherited structures in the more newly acquired regions.

A province like Samland, for example, which had been conquered three centuries previously from pagan tribes, did not differ widely from the bureaucracy in Denmark. Neither did it in Mecklenburg, which for long had been a royal province, where the Grand King owned a lot of land. But other provinces, such as the military frontier of Pomormark, which had seen no military action for several decades. Kept certain traditions alive, so too did Masurien, which still retained significant influence from its polish past. Karelia, in the far northeast also had its own autonomous way. Holstein, one of the oldest provinces of Dania, had a history of autonomous duchies.

The Konradian reforms, as such, sought to not only centralize Dania further. But also drive out the worst excess of corruption, which was inevitable in such a system. In the old Kingdom of Denmark, there had been an official, in the eastern part of the Kingdom, with the title Gældker*, in latin the position was known as Prefectus Lundensis or Prefectus Scanie. The position had fallen into obscurity in the late 14th century. But when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, came into a personal union with Dania. the Grand king, needed an official to represent his interest in the Grand Duchy. The position of representing the Grand King, in the Grand Duchy, became known as the Gældker. Using the old defunct title.

Before Konrad, there had been six so called Royal cities of Dania, the first amongst these was of course the capital of København in Denmark, then there were the military cities in the south, Schwerin (Mecklenburg), Valborg (Samland) and Valmeria (Livonien) Where the three Marsks took care of the defence of the vulnerable southern border. Furthermore, Falun (Dalarna) was also known as a royal city, due to the Kings inherent interest in keeping a close eye, on the massive copper works in the area. The last, and most recent royal city was Volkshavn (Denmark) the headquarter of the royal navy.

Some count Trakai, in Lithuania as a seventh Royal city, due to it being the headquarter for the Danish gældker and his staff. While Vilnius remained the capital of Lithuania.

The reforms went as such, the borders of the Marks** were firmly established, though not much changed, most of the work was done between the northern provinces of Finland and Hälsingland. In each Mark, a Royal city, or provincial capital would be chosen, if a Mark did not already have one. Each would be the seat of an appointed Gældker and staff associated with that position. The Gældker, much like in Lithuania, would be the appointed royal representative in the area, just with far more power compared to the Lithuanian one.

The position of Gældker of a Mark, was one appointed directly by the king, as such, it became some of the most prestigious in the Grand kingdom. And would more often be awarded as a reward than due to merit. Of course, it could also be a punishment. Being a Gældker of Pomormark, was not that attractive to the nobility, compared to, say Gældker of Samland or Mecklenburg. It gave the king a powerful tool, as he now had 28 positions he could award to people. Though only about twenty of those were seen as prestigious ones, at least by the nobility.

The Gældkers answered directly to the Danish Chancellery, which was the Danish government in the capital. Here the Gældker of Lithuania differed, due to answering to the much smaller and less important Lithuanian Chancellery. One of the reasons that the position of Gældker was sought out, was the possibility to skim off a little bit of the taxes and tariffs of the Mark. Obviously, this was known, but tolerated, as long as it was not done too much. This was also one of the reasons, that some Marks were much more lucrative than others. Famously, many a noble or common, had their head removed due to being greedy in their position as Gældker.

There was one thing the Gældker did not decide in his assigned Mark, and that would be military matters. Before Konrad, the military command, both at sea and at land was made up of the Rigsmarsk, and four Marsks. These positions were much like the Gældkers awarded and had more to do with favours and influence than merits. That would stay, but in general the Marsks were considered far more capable of the job than Gældkers. The Marsk system would be expanded too, creating a position in each Mark. Again, it was a courtier title, these positions did demand the attention of the person holding the position. For example, both Gældker and Marsk, had to reside in the given province.

Nevertheless, the Rigsmarsk, was nearly always a man of military experience, and the king had a way to work men of military merit into a position, where they could use their knowledge. The rank of General had been a work around for decades by now, it was a rank given by the King or Rigsmarsk, and here it did not matter who you were, merit often mattered more than influence at the court. Many a Rigsmarsk had been general before their appointment, though here they did need noble blood.

How exactly the rank of general would fit into the military hierarchy was a bit confusing, for example, the position of General of the Saxon frontier. Was a position under the Marsk of Mittelmark, often being regarded as his second in command. On the other hand, the General of the East, with his headquarter in Nevastad, had several of the eastern Marsks answer to him.

The royal navy would see little development in its command structure, though it had undoubtedly better officers, early on, due to the Volkhavn Naval Academy. In time the Navy would distance itself and become its own structure. The rank of Admiral would become common, with the entire thing commanded by the Rigsadmiral, a position much like the Rigsmarsk. Still as an honorary title the Rigsadmiral, was always the Marsk of Blekinge.

Denmark, the largest Mark in all of Dania, population wise, would remain distinct from the rest, not only did it not have a Marsk, at least if you did not count the Marsk of Blekinge, furthermore it would neither have a Gældker, such a position was deemed either too powerful or too unnecessary, instead, Denmark would have five subdivisions (Nørrejylland, Sønderjylland, Sjælland, Skåne and Småland) which in many regards could be considered Marks in themselves, except militarily. Each of these subdivisions would have an appointed Rigsfoged, which in many ways had the same powers as a Gældker and answer to the Danish chancellery. Importantly, Rigsfoged was a position only obtainable by merit.

These various reforms would firmly establish a solid foundation for the Danish Bureaucracy in the coming decades. Succeeding to a degree in limiting corruption. Money flowed into the royal treasury, and with the enlarged organisation of the military command, it showed the various flaws in the current military system of the Grand Kingdom. Especially the lack of manpower at the border. Which would be solved later by the military reform by Konrad’s heir, the Crown Prince Valdemar.

*Gældker a rough translation, would be a debt collector, though the Gældker in Scania seems to have been far more than that. Gældker will be the Danish word for Governor In TTL, instead of adopting the Danish version "Guvernør" as OTL.

** Mark will be the Danish word for Province/region in TTL. The roots of the word, are the old border marches.

 

[Bastiram]

So Many Principalities

The Ottoman Empire or the Turkish Empire, was an entity that encompassed the Aegean, ruling both the Balkan peninsular and the Anatolian one, with a fist of steel. Furthermore, the riches of the Levant had been added to the already considerable holdings and the river system of the Tigris and Euphrates had been wrested from their eastern neighbours, which still had not managed to establish a coherent state, that could stand up to the might of the heirs of Rome.

It was an exceedingly rich and populous realm that could vomit forth soldiers, if the Sultan of Constantinople demanded such a thing. It was also dangerously unstable. Having many different people, customs and even religions inside its border. But as long as a strong ruler, ruled from the greatest city of the western world, everything would be just fine.

Not all the neighbours of Constantinople had been humbled. The Venetians controlled much of the Aegean, the Greek Isles had for decades been in Italian hands, even land along the Greek coast were under the control of Venetia. One of the great Greek cities defied Ottoman rules, as the Walls of Thessaloniki, were manned by stout Greek and Italian soldiers.

Farther to the North-west, The Kingdom of Hungary stood. Once the eastern half of the kingdom had been under the rules of the Sultanate, but no more. Even the pesky Knights of St. John defied the Ottomans on the isle of Rhodes. During the war that had seen Venice annex many of the Greek Isles, The Knights had even dared launch an invasion of Anatolia. While the Knights were soon thrown back to the sea again, it clearly showed, that the Ottoman Sultanate, was not the all-encompassing power that its Sultan believed it to be.

Even now in the year of 1575 Ahmed II, Sultan of the Ottomans, could look out of his palace and see the Italian merchants of predominantly Genoa and Venice walk the streets of his capital. And see their ships cross into The Black Sea. Forced by treaty to let these merchants not only into his city, but sail where they wanted. Ahmed cursed his father and grandfather for their infernal acceptances of the “Frankish” demands. That had the result, that the Ottoman grip on the trade in the region had faltered.

Ahmed had only been sitting on the throne for two years, when he began his elaborate plan, to reassert Ottoman control in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, against the advices of his advisors. A large army was gathered to march upon Hungary under the leadership of one of Ahmed's Brother-in-laws. A court favourite with little experience in war.

Ahmed had originally had a series of competent generals at his side, but they quickly fell out of favour with some condemned as traitors, due to the perceived failure in conquering Egypt, during his father’s reign. It is true that they failed to do so, but the war had in all purposes been successful. Succeeding in wresting control of the rich land of the Levants from the Mamluk Sultanate.

History does not exactly look kindly back upon Ahmed as a person, nor on his reign, he is generally blamed for the decline of the Ottoman sultanate, and while he surely was a poor ruler, he did seem to have a talent for rooting out people that were in opposition to him. His grip on the throne remained strong, except for the first year of his reign, while his court consisted of his father’s favourites. But as they were cleared out, he replaced them with remarkable loyal men, which were not always competent, though some surely were.

While the large army under Ahmed’s brother-in-law marched towards the Kingdom of Hungary, signs of dissident in various provinces had already emerged, especially in the east. Nonetheless, Ahmed seemed to be perfectly happy letting his Beys rule as they wished.

Historians seem to disagree if the eastern, or Kurdish revolt happened before or after the complete rout of the Ottoman army and eventual destruction of the army in Hungary. What can be said, is that it is highly unlikely that the news of said defeat would have been able to reach the far eastern part of the Ottoman State. What is known, is that the Ottoman Empire, in the year of 1576 saw a large army destroyed in an invasion of Hungary and at roughly the same time a large scale uprising happened in the northern part of the newly acquired land of the Tigris and Euphrates led by either the Bey of Mosul or Shahrizor, which both had local leaders.

While the south around Baghdad and Basra, remained loyal it was cut off from the rest of the sultanate. The situation was grim considering the loss of a large amount of manpower at the same time, in the other end of the Ottoman state. Following the early success of the so called Kurdish revolt combined with the invasion by Hungarian and Austrian troops. Meant that soon minor revolts emerged, from the Balkans, to Greece, in Syria and the Levant even in the core territory of western Anatolia.

Ahmed needing to deal with revolts were remarkably adept at responding to the situation, organizing and equipping men that was so sorely needed. But much as he, or his bureaucracy miraculously put together armies to fight the revolts and invasion, Ahmed still appointed court favourites with little disregard for experience or ability.

That is not to say that he only gave command to fools, both armies sent to deal with the largest threats, the Kurds and Christian invaders succeeded to a degree in doing so. In the North-west the Habsburg armies were checked, but needing the troops elsewhere Ahmed was forced to cede territory, establishing Hungarian rule in Belgrade once again. Against the Kurdish revolt Ahmed's army would go on to score a victory that resulted in the death of the Kurdish leader. But even if the head of the snake had been cut off, the strongest clans and nobility of the Kurds could smell blood in the air. Continuing the rebellion.

Ahmed spent in all fourteen years on the throne, before he died in 1588 and the last twelve of those years the Ottoman empire spent in perpetual revolt and warfare, with Ahmed refusing to concede. His successor, a mere puppet on the throne, would ensure that Constantinople would enjoy peace again. But it was a much-reduced Sultanate, and it now bordered various Principalities, which had thrown off the yoke of their Turkish “oppressors”. Much of the Balkans, the Levant, Mesopotamia and more were now ruled by their respective local nobility.

The decline of the Ottoman Sultanate had started, and it was a harsh start.

---------------
So. original this update was meant as one among three smaller updates, it got a bit longer than planned, so it is getting its own instead, the two other are hopefully not getting as long.
I don't plan to spent too much time developing outside Europe and the New World. BUT I do think it makes sense to touch a little upon various parts of the world, especially when it have consequences for Europe. Such as the decline of the Ottoman Empire much earlier than historical.
For reasons in Europe, I decided early on that having the Ottoman Empire become the powerhouse it was historical, was counterproductive, so I had to engineer its downfall. I don't think such a event is impossible considering there is a solid 300 years of butterflies by now
This of course mean I have to think what happens with the middle east, so far I have only [in my opinion] fun plans for Egypt

A small spoiler, the two other parts that was supposed to be in todays are called:
"The Far East"
"A Northern Passage"
I'm also planning to update the map.

 

[Bastiram]

The Far East

After the Portuguese victory in western India succeed in regaining control of the west Indian Spice trade, Portugal would once again see great wealth arrive at its ports. Portugal would use the next years to spread out its trade network. Strategic straits, Islands and other areas came under Portuguese influence. Yet everything had not gone in the favour of Portugal, several attempts were made to gain a larger foothold in India, and nearly all were a failure of some sorts.

The first real success, besides trading posts, where the acquisition of large parts of the island of Ceilão and eventual all of it. While the trouble of the Portuguese efforts on acquiring territory in the east, seemed to be troublesome, there was a reason for it. For the first couple of decades Portugal had followed a specific policy to gain trade rights and controlling strategic locations, such as forts. It was first around the late 16th century that that policy would change.

Generally, Portugal had exploited local rivalries, supporting one side over the other but these relations were not ironclad. One of the best-known examples of this was the so called Fourth Portuguese campaign in India. Trying to expand their influence Portugal had allied itself to a set of native nobles in eastern India, in their efforts to strengthen their hold in western India.
Men, supplies and money were spent on this alliance and at first it promised to break the stalemate. But just as the main army had engaged the West-Indian opposition, mainly consisting of the men from the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. The Portuguese was betrayed by their eastern allies and the eastern army was slaughtered to the last man. Resulting in a sounding and bitter defeat.

Historians agree that one of the reasons that the Portuguese efforts were met with such hard-fought resistance was the impression that they had given off when arriving in India, often using cannons instead of diplomacy to acquire the desired trading rights. Which can also be seen in the general support of the earlier Mamluk efforts to take control of the spice trade from cities along the coast of Western India.

The second European nation to really try to establish a foothold in the far east was Spain. But Spain would take a quite different route, already established in the new world Spain had established a naval presence in the western part of the new landmass by sailing around the southern continent. But it was a perilous journey that saw few ships try it.

In 1578 Spain would try to cross the pacific to get to the far east, a journey that was ultimately successful. But that is where Spain’s luck ran out, the following three expeditions were all lost. While that would not had been enough to completely stop the efforts. A rebellion, in 1580 saw Spain lose control with its land on the southern continent of the New World.

Spain’s control of the more southern located colony had been far more tenuous than in the Vice Royalty of New Spain. And finally, the harsh treatment that the indigenous population suffered under the Spanish colonial rule in several of the mines was enough and a general revolt emerged. Spiralling out of control and eventual lose the land for Spain.

The loss of nearly fifty percent of Spain’s colonial territory in the New World, was not just due to a few ships going missing or a rebellion. It was also helped on its way, by the monarch of Spain, which compared to the old king, had far less interest in the colonies of the west. Instead, he looked east and the opportunities that had arisen there.


A Northern Passage

The discovery of The New World proved to be a headache for an eventual trade route to China and the far east. A southern route had been discovered by Spain in the early 16th century, but not only was it perilous it was also not exactly a time saver. For decades and even centuries Europeans would try to discover a northern passage, which was believed by many to exist.

The search for a northern passage is split in two, the Northwestern in the New World, which many participated in. And an Eastern passage, which not only started later, but also saw little involvement from outside Dania and Muscovy.

The search for the Northwestern passage, for an easy sea-lane between Europe and China would help fuel the exploration of the New World. Rivers were explored in case they could lead to a transcontinental passage. One of the most famous expeditions were the Danish one sailing down the Great River, and into the Lakes beyond. While clearly unsuccessful, it succeeded in expanding the knowledge of the New World and the extent of the massive lake system, that Danish settlers had started to settle in.

Another ultimately unsuccessful expedition, this one from England, would discover the large King’s Bay as it would be known. Though, the English captain as the two English ships sailed into what was believed to be a strait and the Northwest passage. Had originally named it after King Richard IV. It would take several years before it was proved that it was no strait at all but a large bay. It took even more years to explore the various large river systems that flowed into the King’s Bay.

At least the Rivers and land around the King’s Bay would prove profitable as various nations established trading settlements in the area, as fur was a valuable commodity.
The search for the Northwest passage would go on for decades without being truly successful, today it is romanticised, idealised even as the brave captains and their men braved the elements. And not all returned home.

While the Northwestern passage would take a prominent place in people’s mind, the North-eastern passage did not do that to the same degree. One of the reasons was that Dania was not only the first to try to discover it. Dania also had an iron grip on the approach and considered the waters between Greenland, Iceland and the Scandinavian peninsula its own. And only Danish whalers and fishermen were allowed there. Any approach from foreign ships were not welcomed with open arms.

This would have the effect that only two entities would search for the North-eastern passage. Muscovy and Dania.

Dania’s efforts to explore the North-eastern passage had the effect that several outposts were established along the cost. Nominally the land was uninhabited, or at least neither Dania nor Muscovy exercised any control of it. But Muscovy certainly claimed it. The result was Muscovy trying to establish a presence, and while they had lost Arkhangelsk it could be regained, or another port may be established at the Arctic Sea. And maybe that would open up for an Asian trade route. But only if the pesky Danes could be removed from what was rightfully Muscovy land.

Westphalian War

The Westphalian war was a conflict that broke out in late 1579 between the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Lotharingia. The conflict had its roots in a series of diplomatic victorious for Saxony in the various Northern Duchies, resulting in increased influence in the duchies. Importantly marginalising Lotharingian influence in the Catholic Duchy of Mark. Which was situated on a tributary of the Rhine. The diplomatic coup of Saxony, was a sword point directed towards the heart of Lotharingia.

The war would change the face of central Europe and what seemed to be, might not actually be what it was.

Albrecht IV at his death in 1554 had ruled for 60 years, he had at the age of two been proclaimed Duke and Elector of Saxony. Later in life he would see his Duchy, in union with other states humble the Holy Roman Empire. Which resulted in a royal title and the elevation of Saxony into a now enlarged Kingdom.

But while Albrecht’s rule can only be described as very successful, he had not rested on his accomplishment in his later years. Albrecht realised that while Saxony had emerged victorious in the large religious conflict, it was not due to Saxony but due to the alliances made during the war.

The geopolitical situation of Saxony following the war was not exactly excellent, the alliance system of the protestant leaders quickly evaporated as the threat to their religion vanished. And Saxony was left without allies and potential enemies on all borders.

To the West lay the Catholic Lotharingia, and Saxony controlled not only substantial catholic lands, but also parts of the Main river something that Lotharingia itched to get it's hands on. To the North lay Dania, neutral, but dangerously close to the core territory around the Elbe river. To the East Moravia, the closest thing to a friend amongst the major powers of Central Europe. To the south Bavaria, smaller and weaker than Saxony, but far more friendly with Moravia than Saxony was. To the Northwest lay the only salvation, the Northern duchies which were quick to align themselves with various stronger neighbours.

Brunswick-Lauenburg the largest of the northern duchies was not only a long term alliy with Dania, but also represented Dania’s interest in influencing the areas west of the Elbe river. Göttingen at least had close ties to Saxony practically being a vassal.

While the diplomatic situation was bleak, the newly established Kingdom internally looked good. The population might have been smaller than Lotharingia's, Dania's and Moravia's but it was a rich population and generally well educated.

The eastern cities of Saxony were thriving, artist and intellectuals could find eager benefactors. Religiously the capital Wittenberg still held major significance, even if Salzburg would go on to challenge it in 1587.

Albrecht knew his kingdoms limits, he also knew that it was too big not to participate in the game for central Europe, and as such he would prepare the kingdom for when peace was no longer on the horizon.

Albrecht died in 1554 after 61 years on the throne of Saxony, leaving the Kingdom to his second son Christian I. It was a reformed kingdom and its neighbours eyed it warily, the court at Wittenberg was on one hand a flourish of art and delicate beauty the envy of much of Europe. On the other hand cold and disciplined officers of the recently established Standing army was just as a common sight.

Albrecht had started several military reforms before his death, which would be finished by his son Christian. The doctrines established would for example phase away the use of mercenaries, which Albrecht had less than ideal experiences with, in the religious wars of the early 16th century. Instead, it would establish the largest standing army in Europe at the time, with standardized armament and formations. Saxony would be one of the first European nations to stop using the crossbow favouring gunpowder weaponry, furthermore lighter cavalry became common, augmenting the abhorrently expensive heavy cavalry that required the incredible expensive full plate armour. They would prove very successful.

also importantly the militia system was reformed, what some historians have called proto-conscription and others fervently against the term, was established to support the standing army with effective reinforcements and additional men to the army of Saxony. At the same time proper schooling for officers were established in Magdeburg and Dresden.
It would prove in the late 16th century and early 17th century, to be an incredibly effective, reliable, plentiful and somewhat cheap fighting force that the Kingdom could rely upon in wartime.


Christian had not planned to go to war, in fact he would never lead his armies into war himself. But he was an incredible competent diplomat, if a bit aggressive, which resulted in several success in the Northern Duchies, with both Göttingen and following that Oldenburg falling into the hands of Saxony.
And after that the eyes of Saxony began to look upon the Duchy of Mark. Which eventually led to the Westphalian War.

Lotharingia might have been threatened but it was still richer, more populous and wealthier than Saxony. And with Saxony remaining without a large ally, it was seen as an easy war that would result in significant gains from not only Saxony’s catholic provinces but also an excuse to annex Mark and its capital Dortmund.

History would prove otherwise, Saxony was far more ready for a war than Lotharingia and quickly moved into Mark, ousting the Duke of Mark, and installing the son and heir of Christian as Duke of Mark, all with the relative support of the nobility of Mark.

The Lotharingian response was a twin invasion, one along the Main river into Franconia, the southernmost part of Saxony. And another invasion into Mark, the main battlefield. Neither was a success and just two years into the war Köln not far from the capital of Aachen was under siege.

In all Lotharingia ceded land around Arnsberg to the Duchy of Mark and all land along the Main river till the Confluence at the Rhine river, resulting in the loss of the important cities of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.
It was a humiliating defeat for Lotharingia, and the first among two victorious wars that would see Saxony rise to become regarded as the power of Central Europe.
The success of Saxony in the war did not sate the Kingdom and soon it looked north and south where other dreams and claims were present. Which would eventually lead to the drums of war to beat again.

At least with some hindsight the neighbors of Saxony can take a breath of relief, for as much as the year 1581 marks the first of many Saxon victories in the foreseeable future. It is also the year of Frederick of Brandenburg's fathers death, Frederick of Brandenburg, who was born just outside Dresden in a minor noble estate. Frederick of Brandenburg would go on to gain infamy and fame as one of the few generals in the history of mankind to not face defeat on the battlefield and Saxony would surely wish that he had never been born. But that is in the future and for now the well-oiled military machine of Saxony marches to new victories. The death of his father was significant as it was at that point he choose to pursue a military career.

 

[Bastiram]

Nidaros

When talking about Nidaros in Dania three things comes to mind: City, Mark and Prince-Archbishopric. All three are correct. Nidaros is one of the more peculiar places of Dania. It is the name of one of the largest and least populated Marks of the Grand Kingdom being located along the northern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula and spreading east along the Kola Peninsula. Besides its large and varied geographical area, with large parts in the arctic circle, the Mark also boasted a small population, which, besides the autonomous nature of the area had a larger impact on Dania than one would expect.


Nidaros the Mark can be split up in three “lesser” areas. The first of these areas is of course Nidaros itself. Nidaros is placed in the extreme south west of the Mark, located centrally in the large Trondheim fjord. The fjord was not only home to Nidaros the city, but four out of five cities of the Nidaros Mark was located along the waters of the Trondheim, and several villages and towns with their own charters too. Calling everything but Nidaros a city is a stretch and Stjórdalr, Lifangr and Steinkjer are probably better described as large towns which acted as minor centers of trade in the Trondheim.

Nidaros the city, and Trondheim were home to well over half the population of the entire Mark and the vast majority of its wealth. For its northern location the area was home to abundant farmland, which helped explain how such a large gathering of the Nidaros population resided along or near the large fjord. In other areas of Nidaros, the population heavily relied on fishing, less so in this corner, even if fishing remained a very important and large part of the life along the Trondheim. Furthermore, it was also home to a large number of miners at the Røros copper works.

The second area of Nidaros ,was farther to the east and north, a small part of the Kola peninsular where were the last of the five “cities” of Nidaros lay. Aslakshavn, on the Murman coast was a relative new town or city, with its history going back a century or so. Founded by the first Prince-Archbishopric Aslak Bolt in 1455. It was the center of Nidaros’s ambition to settle the Kola peninsula and quickly grew to a few thousand inhabitants. Several villages and small town clustered around the larger settlement, as people looking for a new life, settled the coast to the west and east, and into the interior of the peninsula along the two rivers that Aslakshavn was situated at.

All in all, Aslakshavn and associated areas were not exactly populous, an early census from 1550 had the population at 15.000, roughly 10 % of the population of the Nidaros Mark.

Whalers from Aslakshavn

The last of the three areas goes under the category “of the rest”, everything not located near Nidaros or Aslakshavn is included in this one. While a large percentage of the population of the Mark resided outside the two cities influence, they were spread out in small communities. These people, especially lived on the coast, but few communities also existed inland, living off the rivers and rich game in the area. Agriculture outside Nidaros was rare, especially in the more northern located areas where fishing or hunting was the primary source of food.

These small communities economical were of little gain, often barely scraping by. Yet sought for goods could be attained from them, one such being furs.


While Nidaros had often stayed outside conventional Danish bureaucracy, it would still see the effect of the Konradian reforms that started a period of centralization in Dania. Much like all the other marks, Nidaros would also see the presence of a Gældker, the royally appointed presence in the Marks. Nidaros was considered by the nobility as a less than desirable place than many other Marks, and as such, the Gældkers in Nidaros were often of the more common blood.

The reason for the Mark being seen as unattractive by the nobility of Dania, was twofold. first it was a relatively poor province, secondly due to the still high autonomy of the Prince-Archbishop. The Gældker was hardly the one in command of the Mark.

As a result, many a historian has argued that the Gældker of Nidaros can be seen as a junior position in the 16th and 17th century. Backing up this statement, is the fact that many high-ranking people at the Danish court with common blood, had at one point been holding the position of Gældker of Nidaros.

In fact, besides the relative poverty, isolated location and small population, Nidaros, and its people would have a marked effect on Dania. Nidaros had by the late 16th century a proud tradition of supplying mercenaries across Europe, but by far the largest user of these was Dania itself.

While in the service of Dania the payments for the mercenaries were not always in the currency of metal. The payment was also sometimes in land, it was a policy that in all regards payed off. This policy combined with Nidaros own efforts in the Kola peninsular and the coast of Murman, would result in sizable communities of people from Nidaros across the Grand Kingdom.

These people often integrated themselves into other Danish communities in the various areas, but there were a few notable enclaves in eastern Dania, where the Nidaros settlers stayed distinctly different from other Danish settlers. Nevertheless, the settlers from Nidaros would in time be absorbed into the Danish category, there were simply never enough mass to sustain isolation.

As such, much like many people that might not have been Danish, but lived in Dania and settled among the land of the Pomors, Finns and Karelians they would be regarded as Danish due to the shared language.


in Nidaros the Archbishopric, The Bolt family had ruled as both religious leaders and as autonomous dukes for nearly a century. It combined the secular role of a ruler, with the religious role, of the Archbishopric being an entirely inherited position. As such, their title was simply known as Prince-Archbishop.

In essence, the Prince-Archbishop were often lauded as the second most powerful man in the Nordic church of Dania, following the Archbishop of Lund. This had more to do with riches than any extraordinary spirituality in the Archbishops of Nidaros. Quite simply, compared to the rest of the clerics of Dania, Prince-Archbishop Adolf Bolt [b. 1537, ruled from 1564-1591] was filthy rich. The church in Dania had lost land over two periods of time, first when the original schism between the Catholic south and Dania happened. And later in the early 16th century, when Lund had its short-lived rebellion and attempt on the Grand King’s life. Contrary to the other Archbishoprics and bishoprics, Nidaros had seen absolutely no church land confiscated.
his had everything to do with Nidaros’s special position and the fact that Nidaros had been fiercely loyal to the Grand King during the upheaval.

The wealth of the Bolt family, could for example be seen by the establishment of the first university in Dania without any funds contributed by the royal treasury. The University of Nidaros established by Adolf Bolt’s father in 1536.

Not everything was a bed of roses for the Archbishopric, it was widely known that Nidaros held little influence in the traditional dioceses under it. Stavanger, Hamar and Oslo, had early on looked to Lund due to the much earlier Danish presence in those lands. It didn’t help that Nidaros had been nominally subordinate to Lund. It was a trend that the three bishoprics looked to Lund and not Nidaros. Even then due to the waning position of Lund during the 16th century. Nidaros had begund the progress to establish some of its old presence.

The Diocese of Bergen had also once been subordinated to Nidaros. But during the various conflicts that had seen Dania acquire Viken. The bishops of Bergen had sided with the Merchants of the city in their conflict, with the Petty kings of Nidaros. By now the Bishops of Bergen headed the Bergen Evangelical Church, which, also included the former dioceses of Nidaros: Hólar, Skálholt, Gardar, Kirkjubøur, Kirkwall, Sodor and finally several dioceses in Ireland.


Nidaros The City had by the late 16th century already a long and distinct history, it was however, not counted amongst the booming cities of Dania. It was a relatively small city and economical it was not exactly potent. For centuries the most important part of the city was its destination as the largest pilgrimage site in northern Europe.

St. Olavs Grave

That had undoubtedly taken a hit when the Nordic Schism took effect, still it remained the most popular pilgrimage side in Dania. But it was clearly not a development that was helpful for Nidaros. The establishment of the Røros Copper works would help revitalize the city, but it remained a small city in the overall picture. With the Nidaros University becoming a thing in the 16th century the sleepy city would take on another facet. Following that, the collapse of Bergen would ensures an increase in prosperity of the city. As the merchants of Nidaros suddenly gained access to an enlarged market. It would make it so that Nidaros was not just a mere cathedral-city, but that it had other perks to fall back on.

Nevertheless, the city was undeniable tied to the Cathedral and the church organisations that followed, being in essence the capital of the only ecclesial state in the protestant faith.

The cathedral of Nidaros, was considering the history of Nidaros, new. Due to a misfortunate fire. The rebuilt cathedral had seen large investment from the city itself, but also the ruling family had contributed significant sums of money, the result was an impressive cathedral. It was the largest cathedral in Dania not built in the very common Brick gothic style. And only the Cathedrals in Lund and Oliwa were bigger.


Nidaros however, have a long way to go, before it becomes the large and important city it is today.

 

[Bastiram]

Lower Saxony War 1583-1587

The Lower Saxony war is often coupled together with the Westphalian War. And while there remained distinct differences between the two, they also shared quite a few characteristics. The elephant in the room and why they were coupled together in the first place was of course that the Kingdom of Saxony participated in both, another was the close proximity in not only time [Westphalian 1579-1581, Lower Saxony 1583-1585] but also both were fought mainly in the area then known as the Northern Duchies.

Much like the previous war, this one happened due to a series of diplomatic events between Saxony and one of the Northern duchies. To be exact, that duchy was the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Brunswick-Lüneburg had a long and distinct history behind it, and compared to the other duchies, it was far richer, larger and more populous. Brunswick-Lüneburg roughly controlled fifty percent of the Northern Duchies. As such, it not only had a substantial and respectable army it also to a far greater degree than the other duchies, applied influence in the immediate areas around the Duchy. It was also extremely hostile or at least wary of many of its neighbours and other states in the area. Especially Catholic ones.

Dania however were a different case. The history between the two states went back centuries by now, and the Welf dynasty that had ruled the Duchy since 1235 had prospered from it. Furthermore, it had the honour of supplying Dania with more Queens than any other state. Not to count other marriages that had happened between Royal and noble families across the borders.

To say that Dania and Brunswick-Lauenburg were close, is hardly a lie. For years the duchy had been the only Danish ally in the now defunct Holy Roman Empire, and the Duchy had often sided with the Danish Kings and Grand Kings in opposition to their rightful overlord. Altmark was just one of several territories that the Duchy had acquired due to its alliance with Dania.

Economical the two had also seen several projects between themselves and many of the various cities of the two had very close connections. Obviously, the major part of this can be attributed to the Elbe river. The Lower Elbe was completely in the hands of the Duchy and the Grand Kingdom, with one in the west and the other to the east. Both Hamburg and Lybæk some of the largest Kronstæder and cities of Dania, and in case of Lybæk the largest, owed to some extent their success to the Duchy. Lauenburg the second city of the Kronstad Lybæk was situated on the Elbe and had grown tremendously due to the trade with the Duchy. On the other side Lüneburg the capital, largest city and beating heart of the Duchy, had likewise prospered due to the immense wealth that the salt trade bought it.

Hamburg likewise had several interests in the area, and the Kronstad owned swathes of land along the Elbe in the Duchy, reclamation projects had been co-funded by the city and the Duchy, resulting in for example Altes Land, a reclaimed Marshland downstream from Hamburg, that area now supplied Hamburg with most of the food that the growing city needed.

Due to all these connections it should come to no surprise that Dania came to the defence of the Duchy which they rightfully claimed as their area of influence.


Generally, the Kingdom of Saxony is considered to be the aggressor in the war, in contrast to the Westphalian war where they are considered the defender. But that is painting with broad strokes to say the least.

Essentially the victory over the Catholic Lotharingia quickly and decisively was the first pebble among many that started the eventual landslide that would lead to the war. With the victory Saxony’s prestige rose to new heights in Europe and especially in Brunswick-Lüneburg which definitely still had ill feelings towards Lotharingia which had committed several atrocities when they had occupied the land in the religious conflicts in the early 16th century.

The inspiring victory that Saxony had achieved in many ways opened up the door to greater influence in Brunswick-Lüneburg, something that Saxony greatly desired due to one of their goals being able to assert greater influence on the Elbe river. Which ran through the core of the Kingdom.

Not surprisingly Christian I, King of Saxony was eager to exploit this new opportunity. Christian might very well have been one of the most competent diplomats of his life time quickly acquired a measure of success in his efforts rallying several nobles of Brunswick-Lüneburg to his side. It helped that Brunswick-Lüneburg remained predominantly followers of Staupitz and not the Nordic Church of Dania.

Nevertheless, the majority of the Duchy remained faithful to its far older ties to the Grand Kingdom to the north.


The war would eventually spark in 1582 due to a series of events that would escalate the situation into a full-blown conflict between Dania and Saxony. But at the earliest date, neither of these can be said to be involved. The precursor to the war was a rebellion around the cities of Wolfsburg and Stendal lead by the local and very influential Bartensleben family, which never really had seen eye to eye with the Welf Dukes. At first it seemed that the Ducal troops had the situation under control, and the rebellion just one among many that plagued the European continent in this day and age, where change was common, and not all that liked.

In desperation after the initial uprising had failed in 1582 Adolf von Bartensleben, the leader of the rebellion sought aid from Saxony, history disagrees upon a few facts here. Some say that the rebellion of 1582 was not instigated by Adolf von Bartensleben, but by a more far reaching plot of Christian, King of Saxony. Others point out that it was likely just a convenient opportunity for Saxony.

Never mind what of the two are the truth, a Saxon army quickly moved into Brunswick-Lüneburg and raised the siege of Wolfsburg defeating the ducal army in the process. But as said the Duchy was not exactly helpless and the army had suffered relatively light casualties. Continuing through 1583 the conflict strictly remained between the Duchy and Saxony, several clashes between the two happened throughout the spring, summer and autumn of that year. Mostly in the favour Saxony.

The battle of Stendal would be the last battle of 1583 and by far the most memorable. Depending on the sources about 40.000-80.000 men fought in that battle alone. The consequence of the Saxon victory there would ensure the Dania intervened in the war.

Originally Otto VI, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg had been determined to deal with the invaders himself, Dania and the Grand King there did not exactly want to step on any toes and seemed to respect the wishes of the prideful duke. Nonetheless material, men and other such nonsense certainly started to be moved towards the south-western border, just in case.

And well with the death of Otto due to complication from wounds sustained at the battle of Stendal, leaving his infant son the throne of the Duchy. As regent his mother Dagmar of Rygen would call upon her kin to help the duchy defeat the Saxon invaders.

Early 1584 would see the first clashes between Danish and Saxon soldiers as Danish men and material crossed the Elbe. But the fighting was not constricted to just the ducal lands of Brunswick-Lüneburg both sides would try to take the war into each other’s land, Saxony by far the most successful at that.

Dania tried early on to knock Saxony out by striking across the frontier from Mittelmark towards Wettin, the capital of Saxony located conveniently close to the border, and more importantly on the east side of the Elbe. But the army was beaten back by a smaller Saxon force.

Dania might have been able to drown Saxony in men and material for the war, but they certainly lacked one thing that Saxony seemed to have in abundance, leadership. That is not entirely fair, Dania with its large population could draw upon one of the largest group of nobility on the entire continent, even a well educated one. And the war and the future conflict to come would prove that Dania still had competent leaders to call upon. What Dania lacked, was leaders with experience.

Dania had not fought in a major conflict since the early 16th century and the surviving officers from that time was at best old and feeble and at worst just as old and senile. Several of these veterans did serve during the war, but far from the front line, only one veteran officer saw actual combat during the war, a certain Gorm Hvid, which served during the first year as the leader of the garrison of Bremen, he however took sick and retired to his estate during the war, dying from Pneumonia shortly after.

While it comes to no surprise to historians later that Dania would go on to lose the war it was certainly a surprise to contemporary Europe, that Saxony could go on to defeat two major powers in less than 10 years.

As for the war not everything went as planned, Saxony remained virtually undefeated on the battlefield, except for smaller skirmishes. Sieges however, proved to be problematic, Both Schwerin, a major Danish focal point for the military in the southwestern part of the realm, and Hamburg came under siege. So too did Bremen, and while the Danish enclave eventually surrendered both the siege of Hamburg and Schwerin ended in favour of the Danish defenders.

Mittelmark the newest territory of Dania, and neighbour to the rich cities of “High Saxony” the core of Saxony became one of the primary objectives for the Saxon Kingdom, but the formidable Saxon frontier fortresses were capable of repulsing the Saxon advances.

On a more detailed note, one of the Saxon attacks on the formidable Danish fortresses saw the death of a noble with the rank of Oberst, a somewhat forgettable man, and surely a man that would have been forgotten by history if not for his son. The death of Frederik of Brandenburg’s father would have a profound effect on the young boy. As a young boy and later in life, Frederik of Brandenburg was often sick, and many on a quick glance would regard him as a weak man, certainly he was not a man you would expect to seek a military life.

Not surprisingly, being the youngest boy of five other boys in the family, no one expected Frederik of Brandenburg to pursue such a path in life, and his mother and father for that sake had early on decided that he would study in Wettin, and become a priest. The death of his father, however had Frederik of Brandenburg decide early on, that he wanted to pursue a career in the Saxon army.

Back to the war, it was clear that the war was going against Dania, Bremen had fallen so too had Lüneburg, and the young Welf duke and his mother had earlier in the war been ferried away to their relatives in Rygen. Both Holstein and Mecklenburg, prosperous Marks had seen the heavy hand of Saxon soldiers on its peasants. Though both would fare better than expected, one of the first instances where the widespread use of the potato would help the poor peasants from starving, still it was bad for business.

The war ended 1587, the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was gone, instead the Duchy of Lower Saxony took its place, With Christian I, King of Saxony taking the reins. The Danish enclaves west of the Elbe was lost, and Saxony was once again enlarged, it now ruled over the Weser river in its entirety and much of the Elbe.

The Kingdom of Saxony, with the Duchy of Lower Saxony (Ruled by King Christian I of Saxony) and Grand Duchy of Westphalia (ruled by the young son of Christian I of Saxony)

 

[Bastiram]

Nymark

The third Danish colony in the new world saw the light of day in 1584. Nymark was an answer to the increasingly dissatisfied investors of the Kronstæder in Kuba. When first the money had started to flow in from the sugar trade, the King had received a fraction of what he would expect such a venture to afford him. The solution was simple, increase the tariffs on the only port of Mariahavn and furthermore ensure that the sugar trade moved through that port, by law.

Even with the tariffs that secured the Grand Kingdom got its cut from the trade, the merchants and owners of the sugar plantation grew very rich indeed. The Kronstæder besides the annoyance of the new tariff, were also unhappy about who could trade in sugar. Quite simply the Kronstæder had gotten used to specific privileges over the lesser cities, or the Købstader. That was not the case on the island of Kuba and the “upstart” cities were equal to the Kronstæder in that regard. It represented an unwelcome competitor, even if the various Købstader were generally far smaller and less economical potent than most of the Kronstæder.

Nymark was the answer to this, spearheaded by Stettin, but supported by virtually all the Kronstæder, they funded an expedition to the New World, to set up their own colony. Islands across the Caribbean were by now not an option. They had all been claimed in some form or another by the various Kingdoms of Europe, and while some still remained uninhabited and untouched, the Kronstæder would instead look to the mainland of Markland, as it was known in Dania. Due to the unwillingness to annoy other states in the endeavour. Taking an Island that another nation had claimed as theirs would just be bad for business it was argued.

Nymark was founded on one of the larger rivers along the eastern seaboard of Markland, the river has been known by many names, such as Altahama, Allamah and Alatamha and it would first be in the 19th century that an official name was chosen. As such, the various spellings can be found across historical documents mentioning the river.

The first settlement was a joint venture between the Kronstæder, it remained the seat of the governing body of Nymark, as the representatives from each Kronstad met there. Kronstaden as it would be known as, remained the unofficial capital of Nymark and eventual official. Each Kronstad was quick to stake their claims to land up the river, where the various settlements were strictly speaking a piece of the parent Kronstad. In every sense of the word, every Kronstad participated in the venture, but while the larger ones easily could afford the expenses of their own settlements. The smaller Kronstæder which had but a fraction of the larger one’s economical prowess, had to work together to be able to afford the expenses.

These smaller settlements were quickly out-competed by the larger ones. Instead of giving up most sold their claims to their larger cousins, and moved either upriver or north to another river aptly nicknamed Little Alathama, where the competition for land was less cutthroat, these new settlements officially founded in the early 17th century remained part of Nymark.

Nymark faced a series of challenges early on. It had been founded at an excellent time, the Grand King of Dania Konrad II had fallen ill, and was incapacitated, in time his heir would become regent, but in 1584 that had not happened yet. At the same time a low-key conflict had once again broken out between Dania and Muscovy which could break out in full scale war on short notice. The eyes of Dania were, as such, looking east and not west.

Nevertheless, Nymark did not escape the attention of Dania, and while it remained strictly under Danish control, the King and his council exercised little power there. In an effort to make Nymark less than desirable place for investments, the vital trade of slave that the Europeans participated in now was denied to it. Danish ships coming from the African slave forts were forbidden to sell their “wares” in Kronstaden and Nymark as a whole.

Instead Nymark would in the early years rely on indentured servants from Dania, which could be worked just as hard. Another option which also was used, was a loophole in the law. Kronmark had little use of slaves, but just around the end of the 16th century and the start of the 17th century, the large colony would see a flourishing slave trade. As Nymark was able to buy slaves there and then promptly transport them south again. The same loophole in the law was tried in Kuba, but royal authority was far stronger there, and it was quickly put to a stop. Suffice to say, if the death rate and living conditions of slaves on the ships from Africa to the Carbbiean was horrendous it was far worse, for those bound for Kronmark.

On another note. The indentured servants from Dania would represent the first large scale movement of Danish settlers to the New World.

In time, the divide between the Kronstæder and the Grand King was mended. The merchants of the Kronstæder accepted new and lowered tariffs in Nymark and Kuba. The Købstader would be allowed to keep using Kuba, but Nymark was strictly a place for the Kronstæder, with one exception, the merchants of the Danish capital were also allowed to trade there. The Danish slave ships were allowed to trade there once again. And the Danish state took official control of the new colony.

Some quirks would remain from Nymark's “rebel past”, in essence, Nymark remained under the Gældker of Kuba, but unofficially it was the trade-council in Kronstaden which ruled over the settlements and plantations of Nymark.


Sylvanie and Nieuw-Vlaanderen

The French colony of Sylvanie and the older colony from Lotharingia; Nieuw-Vlaanderen would, much like their parent nations have a very frosty relationship. One being of course that both France and Lotharingia were competitors, but both colonies were also but a stone’s throw from each other. There was no agreed border between the two colonies and settlements had sprung up left and right, so if there was a border, there would also be several enclaves on both sides.

Early on both sides would refrain from antagonizing each other. There was, after all plenty of land to be had, but it would not take long before each colony started to ally with various Skraeling tribes. It was a situation that was building tensions as raids by various militias became increasingly common. The various enclaves became less farmer communities and instead strongholds for armed men that raided into the neighbouring communities.

Both the court in Aachen and Paris knew about this. The conflict and trouble could easily be the kindling for a devastating war between the two great powers, and both were open to finding a solution to the conflict, but neither were really willing to approach each other on the issue.
So, both settled down to awkwardly denying it being a problem, while silently sending a few extra supplies to their new colonies.

One would think that Nieuw-Vlaanderen would have an edge on Sylvanie, considering it was at least one decade older and therefore more established, more populous and had better contact with the various Skraeling tribes in the area. That is not quite the truth. Some of it certainly was as such. But already by 1585 Sylvanie was clearly the larger of the two colonies, in area and population. Not so it could dominate Nieuw-Vlaanderen, but at least giving it the upper hand.

The reason for this was quite simple. The French colony did not only receive settlers from France, but also from quite a few other European states. This was due to the generous Edict of Orleans from 1528, which granted the followers of Gallicanism equal rights to the Catholic followers in France. While it was not exactly a law, one of the side effects of the edict was in general much increased tolerance for all religions, and not only Gallicanism, as it was seen as a personal matter in France.
Religious communities persecuted in other realms saw an opportunity in this. Now France did not exactly welcome these people in metropolitan France, but were more than willing to accept them in their Caribbean islands and in Sylvanie leading to a large percentage of the early settlement in the French colonies to come from outside France. Ironically, people from Lotharingia made up the largest percentage of the population of Sylvanie, after the French population.

As said the Edict of Orleans had some unfortunate or fortunate side effects and one of these was the sudden greater liberty of Jews in France, and Jews from across Europe began to flock to France and would in time boast the largest population in Europe of Askenazic Jews and Sephardic Jews. The Edict is one reason for that, but it also helped that Jews from the neighbouring Iberian peninsula and Lotharingia were expelled from their adopted country.

Other realms would also boast large Jewish populations, such as Moravia and Muscovy. But generally, France and its early respect for peoples religion, even if different from the countries own, would in time have the largest population of Jews.

The English Curse

The English Curse is a myth or legend. Its origin is from the late 16th century and early 17th century, when England much like other European nations participated in the colonization of the New World. With little early luck.

The legend goes that an early English settlement attacked and wiped out a Skraelings tribe. Which may or may not have killed an Englishman. One Skraeling survived, which in all the stories are portrayed as a witch worshipping the devil. The Skraeling Witch cursed the English settlers and their kin. And the settlement was unable to survive the following winter.

It is true that there was a relatively large death toll among the first European settlers, and it was not uncommon for even a settlement not to survive. It has been established that all the settlements that did not survive the first few years, over half of these were English, so certainly there is a degree of truth in the English Curse.
Yet not all was ill luck from the English site, their Carribean colonies suffered little compared to their contemporaries on the Mainland.

On the mainland continent of Markland England would succeed in establishing settlements or trading post in three distinct places, in the far north, mere trading posts to establish a foothold in the fur trade. To the north of Nieuw-Vlaanderen and lastly along the Gulf of Mexico.

For the English King Richard IV, it was a source of disappointment, that England was unsuccessful in establishing a prestigious colony, such as, Kronmark, Sylvanie or Nueva España. It is one of histories great ironies that the colony of Eduardia along the Gulf of Mexico, and the capital New Norfolk, or Newfolk, would grow into one of the premier colonies and nations on the continent of Markland.

Eduardia was considered little more than a swamp, but it was at its founding seen as another avenue for the fur trade which indeed was very rewarding. It was first in the middle of the 17th century, decades after Richards death, that it truly dawned upon the English crown, and the few English people in the trading post of Newfolk, the sheer extend of the watershed of the river that Newfolk had been founded at.

Sure, they knew it was a large river, but when an English expedition came back with the news that they had made contact with the Danish colony of Kronmark, by just sailing up the far reaches of the river. It was then that the first English trading post became a proper settlement as gold and people poured in from England to claim what surely was their right and destiny to settle along the rivers many tributaries. The river is sometimes known as the Queen of Rivers (The Great River of Kronmark is sometimes called The King of Rivers) or Misi-Ziibi from the native Skraelings.

Extend of European colonization in Markland, 1600.

 

[Bastiram]

Regency

In 1587 Konrad II, Grand King of Dania had fallen ill, incapacitated he would nominal remain the ruler of Dania for the remaining ten years of his life. But he was so incapacitated that already by 1585 his son, Crown Prince Valdemar took effective control and became Regent until his father’s dead and his own coronation.

Valdemar would surround himself with a series of advisers, he was after all only 19 when he became regent, with the two most prominent amongst these advisers being Gorm Hvide, his father’s bastard brother. And Toke Hvide his father in-law.

The marriage between Valdemar and the Danish noble woman, Margrethe Hvide in 1585 was a bit controversial, and one that his royal parents probably wouldn’t have chosen. But Konrad was sick, and Jeanne, Queen of Dania had never actively involved herself with the policies of the Grand Kingdom. Besides both were removed from the political centre in København, as they both permanently lived at Gyldenlund.

The marriage was controversial quite simply due to the fact, that it had become the norm for the Grand Kings and their heirs to marry outside the borders of the realm, it was to put it simply a good and convenient way to make alliances. There was also the fact, that by not marrying into the nobility of the kingdom, the Grand King could stay aloof of any conflict between the noble families of the Kingdom.

While armed conflict between the nobility of Dania was exceedingly rare, there was certainly friction between the large group of nobles that vied for influence and wealth. Some families managed well, while others would disappear into the history books.

At least Valdemar could comfort himself with the fact that he had married into the arguably wealthiest and most powerful noble family of Dania.

Much like the Estrid dynasty could trace their lineage back to the early days of the Kingdom of Denmark, so too could the Hvide family. The family had, had several marsk’s of the realm, before the reform of the army structure, but it had been the religious world where the Hvide family would leave their earliest legacy. Being one of the first prominent noble families to embrace Christianity. Combining that with their wealth and influence would see the family produce several bishops, archbishops and abbots.

Most famous amongst these was the Archbishop Absalon (1128-1201) a close comrade of Valdemar the Great, he was arguably as instrumental in the rise of Denmark as the great and legendary king Valdemar I, the first and father to a series of brilliant kings that would go on to conquer the Baltic Sea.

Other noble magnates and families had emerged from those early days being powerful in their own rights, but the Hvide family still stood out due to its proud history and close ties to the Kings and Grand Kings of Dania.

It should come as no surprise that Gyldenlund, the magnificent royal resident had once been part of the land of the Hvide family. The home of the influential Toke Hvide, father-in-law of the next Grand King of Dania was that of Jørlunde a large estate to the south of the royal Gyldenlund. The city of Slangerup conveniently located between Jørlunde and Gyldenlund was a Hvide Stronghold. The city was practically owned by the Hvide clan, and it had prospered from not only its close ties with the estate of Jørlunde, but also the royal residence of Gyldenlund.

Slangerup is sometimes dubbed the smaller brother of København and as the second capital of the Grand Kingdom. It would never grow up to be a large city like the capital. But the city was by far the wealthiest city in the kingdom per capita. The city enjoyed favours from the royalty of Dania. Such as the establishment of the diocese of Slangerup, and the lavish cathedral with the foundation laid down in 1603.

Some argue that these favours were a way to reward the Hvide clan, as they by far were the ones to get the most out of it. Others argue that it is simply natural that the city of Slangerup would gain from its closeness to the royal estate of Gyldenlund. Naturally luxurious that the royal family desired would be something that Slangerup would cater to.

1: Gyldenlund, Royal residence. 2: Slangerup, seat of the Dioceses of Slangerup (bright red is the area attached to it). 3: Jørlunde, large estate of Toke Hvide. 4: København, Capital of Dania. 5: Roskile, seat of the Dioceses of Roskilde (Dark red is the area attached to it) 6: Jægerspris a favourite hunting estate of the royal family. 7: Ringsted, previously one of the most important resting places of Danish kings. 8: Sorø Abbey, once the wealthiest monastery complex in northern europe, another important resting place of Danish kings.

Early army reforms

During the early years of his regency, and before the war with the newly established Tsardom of Russia in 1590, Valdemar together with Gorm Hvide, the General of the East and with Rigsmarsk Erik Motlke toured Dania. Visiting border fortresses, Kronstæder, Archbishops and other strongholds across the land. Naturally, this was to give Valdemar an idea of the land he now ruled. It was also an educational tour.

During this travel with the two highest ranked military members of the Danish realm, the talk often turned towards military matters, and how Dania could have performed better against the “lesser” foe of Saxony in the Low Saxon war. It was from these talks that started what eventually would become the army reforms finished in the early 17th century.

The military of Dania can be divided into five groups before the reforms, four without the naval aspect. The four are: Rural militia or the Ledgang, Urban militia, Mercenaries and Regulars. The regulars were the backbone of the army and consisted of the royal guard and roughly 10.000-15.000 troops at any given time. In peace time the troops that did not guard the royal family acted as skeletal garrisons around the various border fortresses and strongholds of Dania. In time of war, the fortresses would be manned by local militias, and the regular troops could form the backbone of an army supplemented by mercenaries.

On the topic of mercenaries, it was what Dania relied on when going to war, their armies consisted largely of mercenaries and sometimes militias, but it was the mercenaries that were expected to win the battles and ultimately the wars. The Rural militia or the Ledgang, the large body of men that had won the Baltic for Dania had nearly ceased to exist, instead Dania relied on the option to levy taxes upon the rural population to help paying for mercenaries. The only real exception to this was the rural population around fortress’ which during the war saw service in the nearby garrisons.

The army reform that was finished in 1607 would change the army of Dania of one relying on mercenaries to instead rely on a large regular army. A professional officer corps trained in a series of academies across the realm. The cavalry would change from the heavy shock formation of plated men and horses, to cheaper cavalry, with tactics learned not only from Saxony’s army reform, but also by lessons in the upcoming Russian war.

Russia

Ivan V, the first Tsar of Russia ascended the Russian throne in 1581. He would continue the policy that the previous rulers of Muscovy had, by focusing on the land to the south. Russia during the last century had made great strides in taming the lands to the south, and along the rivers that flowed into the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Russian peasants toiled away at the land making up a large part of the population in some areas even the majority. Every year, more arrived from the core territory of Russia, and soon in large numbers from the northern parts.

Ivan founded the city of Ivangorad on the Don river, nearly directly west of the city of Volgograd that his father Feodor III had founded in 1560. Tanais on the estuary of the Don river had for nearly a decade now, been the largest city of Russia, even overtaking the capital of Moscow. For long it had been a city of Russian, Italian and Greek people, surrounded by the hostile steppes, but now as the Russians had focused on settling the Volga and the southern rivers. The hostility had disappeared and the city could thrive.

Ivan invited Greek and Italian settlers from not only Tanais but also from Genoa itself and the Greeks under the rule of the dissolving Ottoman state. While relatively few settlers from Genoa proper arrived, it was another story of the Greeks, tired of the instability of their homeland they arrived in the following years in great numbers, and not only people to settle in the city, but also along the lower Don river, from Tanais to Ivanograd.

To fund the expenses of Ivanograd, Ivan looked to the north. He sold his lands in the northern reaches to a series of noble families. In essence, these nobles all from in or around Moscow not “native” nobles became the owner of autonomous fiefs, they only had to do two things to uphold these rights. A generous yearly tribute was to be paid to Ivan and his descendants, and all trade had to go south. The nobles were free to squeeze their territories for as much wealth as they could.

It was a blow to northern Russia, especially around Novgorod, which saw its economy deteriorate as harsh rule of the southern nobility descended upon it. Novgorod would suffer from the policy of Ivan, and dissatisfaction turned traitorous when the years went on, and the heavy hand of private tax collectors kept coming back.

A plea was sent to Dania. A plea of support if the Grand Kingdom went to war with Russia. It would be a welcome one, as Dania was itching for a casus belli to invade Russia, the young regent wanted to wash away the shame of his fathers defeat in the low saxon war.

 

[Bastiram]

The Russian war officially started in the spring of 1591, when Gorm Hvide, half uncle of Crown Prince Valdemar, the regent of Dania, crossed the border between Dania and Russia. But preparation for the war started earlier, Gorm had spent most of the previous year and a half preparing for the war in Nevastad the eastern most Kronstad and harbour in the Baltic sea. Supplies and more importantly mercenaries were gathered in the city for the coming war.

Dania might have gone through a period of military reforms during this period, but it was in its infancy and there for Gorm had to rely on mercenaries for the bulk of his army.

In all the army of Gorm that crossed the border and marched towards Novgorod consisted of about 20.000 men. 15.000 from Dania and 5.000 from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Roughly divided the army consisted of 10.000 mercenaries from Central Europe, Scotland, Ireland and Nidaros. 3.000 men described simply as Infantry believed to be urban levies from Nevastad. Furthermore, 2.000 heavy cavalry from the regulars of the army, professional troops. From Lithuania 2.500 more cavalry, 2.000 classified as light cavalry, generally regarded as regulars or professionals, but no knowledge about these exist before the war. Some think they were Cossacks that had found service in Lithuania and Dania after being displaced from around the lower Don by Russian efforts to settle the region. The last 500 cavalry is regarded as heavy, consisting mostly of Lithuanian nobles and retinue. The remaining 2.500 are simply described as auxiliaries or peasants of dubious quality.

Correspondence between Gorm and Valdemar have survived, in these Gorm describes him only being able to rely on the mercenaries and heavy cavalry, he had little patience for the peasants of Lithuania and the city-dwellers of Nevastad. Admittedly, he describes the light cavalry as an unknown factor, but later describes that he does not believe they will be able to perform admirably in a pitched battle.

As for Russia, they were not oblivious to the built up of Danish forces just across the border, and would prepare themselves. Resources were poured into Novgorod, the mighty northwestern bastion of Russia, which had withstood several sieges from Danish armies in previous wars. While the Danish forces were kept at bay at Novgorod, the main Russian army would knock out the Danish ally, The Kingdom of Halych-Volhynia. With the Ruthenian state removed from the equation the resources of the Russian state could fully focus on Dania, without worrying about Halych-Volhynia devastating the valuable southern provinces.

The Russian plan was sound, deal with the lesser threat while Novgorod and Smolensk to a lesser degree kept the greater threat contained. Combined with the vast distances between the core of Russia and the supply routes of Dania, would make sure that Dania would not be able to do anything without Russia having time for an adequate response. As long as the fortresses of Novgorod and Smolensk did not fall.

But there was little chance of that, both were arguably some of the most modern fortifications at the time, and Russia might have neglected the northern reaches of the realm, but not the fortifications of the cities.

It therefore came as a shock that Novgorod did not last months or even years as Russian generals believed it to be capable of, and in truth had done just that in previous wars. But fell in less than a week.

It wasn’t a fault in the fortification themselves, but due to treachery of course, the heavy-handed rule of Russia over Novgorod had turned the once loyal citizens of the city to treachery. Novgorod’s previous successes had partially been a possibility due to the well-armed and trained citizen militia of Novgorod, which had supported the Russian efforts in the earlier wars.

Unfortunately, without their loyalty, unbeknownst to the Russian commander, the main gate of Novgorod was opened in the middle of the night leading to the successful capture of the city. Casualties amongst the Danish invaders was less than 500. Estimates believes that around 1.500 Russian soldiers fell during the confusing night with several thousands of the remaining garrison becoming prisoners.

It was a disaster for Russia, the road to Moscow was practically open for Dania, and the main army of Russia was starting the campaign against Halych-Volhynia near the Don River. Not all was, however terrible, the army going south could be split in two, without risking the southern campaign too much. With the other half becoming the core of a second field army, to face the expected Danish trust towards the capital.

It was a great boon for Gorm and the Danish army to capture Novgorod so easily, not only did Gorm not have to draw upon his supplies for a siege, with the capture of the city he also gained the Russian supplies which had been stockpiled for the siege, that the city was believed to expect.

Still for Gorm and the Danish army it was not quite as simple to walk towards the Russian capital, the Tsarist Russian state was spread across a vast area of forests and steppes. Supplies where needed, and while the Danish army clearly possessed these, they still needed to transport them, ideally on parts of the waterways of the Volga River. The city of Tver remained the last Russian strongpoint between the capital and Danish army. It was also conveniently located to raid any supply routes if the Danish army bypassed it.

Gorm and the Danish army would just a few weeks after the capture of Novgorod march towards Tver. But in this city no traitors were willing to help, and the city stubbornly closed the gates. Tver would give Russia a year, the city held out during the summer and autumn of 1591 and as winter were pressing on, the city still gave no sign towards opening the gates and all efforts to open the gates by force had been thwarted.

Unbeknownst to the Danish army the supplies for Tver were desperately low, it had never been prepared for a long siege, like Novgorod, but in the end, it prevailed. A large column of supplies was captured by a small Russian force from Moscow. Unable to face the Danish army on the field quite yet it had instead tried to raid the supply routes of the besieging army, with little success, that is untill the force managed to capture this supply column.

With the winter supplies captured or destroyed Gorm realised that the Danish army would be unable to survive the winter, and in late October, the Danish army returned to Novgorod.

Great Novgorod

Frederik of Brandenburg

Today Frederik of Brandenburg is a celebrated figure or in some circles cursed, but evidence of his early life is scarce. There are two sets of primary sources that shed light upon his life before he came into the service of Dania and participated in the campaign against Russia in 1592.

The first, is a set of letters between his father and mother, while his father was off fighting in the Low Saxony war against Dania. it shows how before his father’s dead fighting on Saxon side, Frederik o had decided at the age of twelve, to pursue a military career, much like his father and four elder brothers. Originally he had been set on a religious path, deemed too frail for the military. Yet clearly the stories during these early years had a profound effect on the young boy, that would grow up and enter the military academy of Dresden.

The second set of primary sources are years later, it shows the story of how Frederik recently graduated from the Kingdom of Saxony’s military academy in 1589, unhappy with the junior posting he got, he had somehow managed to get an audience with the King, he was after all a nobleman and son of a celebrated war hero.

A legend has Frederik fleeing the capital of Dresden after having insulted Christian, King of Saxony for refusing his request. One thing is sure, besides having four older brothers in the service of the Kingdom, some with a measure of influence there he left Saxony to find employment elsewhere after his audience with the King.

His family originated from the Margraviate of Brandenburg, but being followers of Staupitz they had taken their fortunes and shifted their loyalty to Saxony, which did not persecute the followers of Staupitz. Nevertheless, a branch of the family remained in Brandenburg, or what was now the Danish Mark of Mittelmark.

The family in Mittelmark was not nearly as influential in Dania as their cousins in Saxony, nevertheless, Frederik managed to get an audience with Crown Prince Valdemar when he was visiting Konradstadt, and he must certainly have impressed the regent of Dania.

Frederik found himself as the commander of the Fortress of Narva in Estland, and as the second in command of the Marsk of Estland in Tallinn. It was in this position that would see him join the Russian campaign of 1592.

Frederik commanding his own regiment of regulars from Narva, the 17th. consisting of two battalions from Estland and one from Livonia plus a smattering of rural levies from Finland, Estland and Livonia reinforced Gorm Hvide, during the winter of 1591.

Early Campaign of 1592

Before the snow disappeared Gorm Hvide and his army left the winter quarters of Novgorod, 35.000 men strong marching towards Tver. The army never arrived at Tver, about half way there while marching through the heavily forested terrain of northern Russia the army was ambushed.

Gorm Hvide and the most senior officers of the army were travelling in a big group just behind the vanguard all were cut down during the first 30 minutes of fighting. The vanguard in its entirety was effectivly destroyed in just an hour of fighting.

The main army had little time to react to the destruction of the Vanguard, Russian cavalry had ensured that no messengers would warn them. It was first an hour after the bloody destruction of the Vanguard that the remaining officers in the army realised the trouble they were in.

The Danish army barely had time to go into a formation more suited for battle than the column they had travelled in, but at least they had a little time and warning. Furthermore, the main army was also significantly larger than the roughly 5.000 men of the vanguard.

It was a bloody battle that history recorded as a pyrrhic victory for Dania and as a strategic victory for Russia. It might very well have gone different, as soon as the Danish lines was attacked, the detachment from Novgorod immediately began to buckle due to the pressure and as it pulled back the left flank of the Danish army became increasingly vulnerable. As it was cut off from the rest of the army it was shattered in under two hours of fighting. With the loss of the left flank the Danish army lost the last senior officer remaining.

The only remnants of the Danish army were the remnants of the centre, the large mercenary contingent, and the right flank, commanded by Frederik of Brandenburg, consisting of his regiment roughly 2500-3000 men strong at full strength and the levies of eastern Dania and Lithuania. Furthermore, the light cavalry from Lithuania was the only surviving cavalry, the heavy cavalry was lost with the vanguard.

However, the Russian army had been battered in the last hours of fighting, the vanguard might have been an easy victory with little loses, but the main army had fought tooth and nails and many of the Russian regiments were tired from the fighting and force marching they had endured that day.

Still, it is considered a miracle that Frederik managed to turn the tide and in the end, stand as the master of the battlefield. By withdrawing the entire Danish force to the more defensible right flank, the Danish army managed to prevent a total rout. As the Russian army threw itself at the bloodied Danish army, the regulars and mercenaries of Dania, professional troops all managed to repulse the Russian attacks without further serious losses.

The Danish army was left as the masters of the field as the rural levies charged the reeling Russian line and scattered the cohesion of the Russian army. The Danish levies left on the field, were the one that had been stationed on the right flank, and as such they had seen very little fighting until that point. They might not have been well trained or well equipped, but they had not been fighting for hours like the rest of the men present on the field of battle and they had numbers.

For Frederik it was unmistakably a triumph and the first of many victories that he would manage through his life, for Dania it was a disaster and for Russia a splendid victory that would keep Tver and therefor Moscow safe for at least another year. Or so they thought.

The Russian army returned to Tver to celebrate their victory, there might have been a large Danish force left, but it was too small for a serious siege of Tver which had been reinforced during the winter of 1591-1592.

The Danish army was left in a pickle, obviously a siege Tver was not possible anymore, with no senior officers left, but the young Frederik, at 24 years old. Many of the mercenary captains argued that with the campaign goals of Tver out of their reach, the army should retire back to Novgorod, another try for Tver could be tried in a few months, or maybe next year. Frederik however, was unwilling to return to Novgorod, while Tver was undeniable not a possibility, other cities might be.

In the end Frederik was left with his own regiment, reduced to effectively two battalions, two other regiments acknowledging him as the senior remaining commander, both at max fifty percent strength. 5.000 regulars in all, the remaining cavalry with about 1.500 fit for battle, furthermore a small amount of the levies decided to stay. In all Frederik, and therefor Dania had an army left in the field of about 7.000-8.000 men.

Returning to Novgorod was the entirety of the mercenary contingent and much of the levies, in a slow march carrying the wounded that was possible to transport, it was a ragged column that nonetheless managed to return safely to Novgorod.

On the field of battle 15.000 of the Danish army was lost, though surely many, such as the Novgorod levies survived, it is undeniable that many too was left as carrion fodder, such as the vast majority of the vanguard.

Frederik’s choice not to retire to Novgorod is one of history’s many what if, the ensuing campaign have become legendary, with movies and books written about. In more contemporary times, it ensured continental fame and infamy for Frederik and his undeniable rise in the military hierarchy of Dania. It also laid the foundation for the intervention of the Grand Kingdom of Moravia.

 

[Bastiram]

Fall of Moscow
The peace of a tranquil early morning in late April was shattered, as the southern gate of Moscow, capital city of the Russian Tsardom opened. The thundering sound of hooves upon stone could be heard long before any horses could be seen. It was the Russian royal guard in all its splendour that in haste rode out of the city, followed quickly by three lavish carriages. Which again was followed closely by more horsemen of the royal guard, it was not only the royal family that left the capital on an official tour of the southern part of the country, but following the royalty the upper echelons of Russian elite left the city too.

When the inhabitants found out that Tsar Ivan V, his family and most of the nobility had left the city, a solemn mood fell over the power centrum and second largest city of Russia. It was a stark contrast to the jubilant mood that had erupted scant two weeks earlier, when the news about the destruction of the invading Danish army had reached the city. A people that had feared the savage invaders and their barbarian treatment of those they conquered. The city had flowed with food and alcohol in celebration, now that the threat to the city was gone. And who would not be happy about that? They’ve all had heard the stories about what had happened to Novgorod when it finally had fallen to the Danish invaders.

Just a week earlier the Tsar had been woken up after a week of near continuous celebration to the news that between Tver and Moscow, several villages had been burned and looted. Surely it was deserters that now rested outside the law, which had done this or maybe common outlaws.

But as more news arrived about villages being burnt down closer and closer to Moscow. The offending officers could no longer keep the secret from the Tsar. The Russian victory had not been complete, in fact the Russian army while undoubtedly successful. Had not been the masters of the field after the battle. But all evidence the Russian general thought, had pointed towards the Danish army retreating back to Novgorod. As such, he had maybe been too colourful in his dispatch to the Tsar, about the victory he had archived.

When the Tsar finally received confirmation that several thousand hostile soldiers marched towards him, and only two days away at that, he panicked. Moscow was only defended by the royal guard, which while of very good quality only consisted of roughly 1.500 men. Of course the citizen militia could be armed and numerical superior to the approaching Danish army might successfully be able to defend the city. But the quality of these men could only be described as abysmal, Moscow had not been threatened in decades, and the citizen militia was more used to hustle the citizens that it was supposed to protect than participate in anything that can be described as drill.

Moscow left without proper soldiers, leadership, with inadequate and outdated defences fell to the small Danish army led by Frederik of Brandenburg on the ninth of May of 1592 after a short siege. When news reached Europe, it was celebrated in Dania, while the neighbours of Dania became increasingly worried, which eventually saw the Grand Kingdom of Moravia intervene on the behalf of Russia.


Entrance of the Grand Kingdom of Moravia
Moravia not interested in seeing the Kingdom of Halych-Volhynia and Dania triumph of Russia would invade both the next year. Strategically the fall of Moscow did not exactly improve the situation for Dania, as Frederik of Brandenburg abandoned it two months later. For Russia and especially the Russian Tsar it was a huge prestige loss that would eventually lead to the coup that disposed the Tsar and placed his son on the throne instead in 1595. This unsurprising was followed with the peace treaty of Smolensk.

The reason that Frederik abandoned Moscow was quite simple, Dania had no chance of reinforcing him and several Russian forces were descending upon the city. In a display of dashing bravery, brilliance and aggressiveness Frederik would manage to withdraw back to Novgorod in the late autumn of 1592 with his small army relatively intact. To do this he would go on to decisively defeat three numerical superior armies that intercepted him. Without losing too many soldiers in the process that he could ill afford.

In all when Frederik and his army, arrived back in Novgorod to a hero’s welcome, over half of the original 8.000 men where fit to fight or walking wounded. A thousand more or so was transported with the large baggage train too ill or wounded to march. 3.000 were left in the Russian ground, never to return.

While the stories that had been told to the Russian inhabitants of Moscow the savagery, plundering and generally destruction that followed the Danish invaders was hardly true, case in point of this was the tale that Novgorod had been destroyed by the Danish invaders. Not the truth that the city in fact defected to the side of Dania.

Nevertheless Moscow payed the price for the tsars panics, when Russian soldiers once again entered the city, it was a far cry from a few months earlier, a broken and ruined husk far removed from its former glory.

Frederik’s reputation as a brutal man would emerge from the ruins of Moscow, from the villages and towns that suffered the consequences when his army marched towards Moscow with little supplies and from the prisoners of war that he took on his retreat from Moscow, counting thousands that he ill could afford to guard, or release due to the threat they posed to his small and battered army.

Ivan deemed Moscow too ruined and too hard to defend; as such he moved the capital of Russia to Ivanograd on the Don River. Though it would only hold that title for three short years as the capital under his son was moved to the larger and more important city of Volgograd. One of the reasons being that, that city was less tainted by his father’s legacy, nevertheless Ivanograd would undeniable prosper from its location and become one of the prominent cities of Russia.

For the remainder of the war Frederik would serve in Masuria, being instrumental in keeping the numerical and well-prepared troops from the southern Grand Kingdom at bay. Even if Frederik and his army, which at this point had been brought up to strength, together with other Danish forced led a spirited defence, the fighting was located in the Danish Mark of Masuria, resulting in several of the towns and villages being plundered, or generally just facing misfortune.

One effect it had was turning of the otherwise neutral peasants of Masuria against the invading forces, due to the hardship suffered by these. This is important because the Mark still retained a large part of the population which spoke the Masovian dialect of the Polish language. Many have argued that if the Moravian forces had been less hard on the population of Masuria during the Russian war. Then the large polish speaking population might not have turned pro-Danish, like the remaining population of the Mark already were.

This would help integrate the large Masovian speaking population further into the realm of Dania. That in time meant that when the concept of nationalism became widespread across Europe, the Masovian speaking population did not align themselves with the population of Moravia, but instead that of Dania. This might have more to do, with the Danish language having become quite dominating in Masuria at this point. While the Masovian dialect had become far less common in the day to day life of the population of Masuria.

As for the war, the entrance of Moravia became the saving grace for Russia. Moravia had little success in its invasion of Dania, except for making sure that all the substantial Danish resources were not poured into a decapitating strike on Russia.

On the other side the invasion of Halych-Volhynia was more successful. While the Halych-Volhynia had more resources than people give it credit for, it was still the smallest nation part of the Russian War. With Danish victories in the north, Halych-Volhynia had managed to rout the Russian army, which had been reduced in size and capabilities, due to the Danish victories. As such they had laid siege to Tanais the largest city of Russia. Unfortunately Halych-Volhynia had been incapable of blocking the city from the sea, and as such the siege so far had been unsuccessful.

The invasion of the land around Lublin meant that Halych-Volhynia had to divert significant resources to its western border hurting the Siege of Tanais. The siege would eventually fail as Russia, giving breathing room, managed to marshal its forces and send the army of Halych-Volhynia reeling.

The Peace
In the end, by 1595 with the coup in Russia, and the following peace feelers from Russia, would end the war. While Moravia might have not have reached all its war-goals it had managed the most important one, and it was unwilling to fight a two front war on its own.

The Peace of Smolensk of 1595 resulted in several territorial concessions; the border between Moravia and Dania would remain as it had been before, as Moravia had been unable to get a decisive victory over Dania. On the other side, Halych-Volhynia would cede its border territory around Lublin, and a piece of the former Polish Kingdom had been reconquered by its rightful owner. In Russia, the peace was “less precise” with each side agreeing to stop the fighting.

This meant that whatever territory that each side occupied at the end of the war, became the new border. The results were minor losses to Halych-Volhynia, but a large part of the north-western part of Russia was ceded to Dania, including Novgorod.

Novgorod would become the regional capital of a newly establish Mark, named by Crown Prince Valdemar, Regent of Dania, as Skjoldmark. The name is two-fold; Skjold the Danish word for shield, and as such its position as the second military march of Dania, with the other one being Pomormark also on the Russian border. As such it would remain significantly more autonomous that many other Marks. Also the name is a reference to the legendary Danish king Skjöld, and the Skjöldungar, the descendants of said legendary king.

As for Frederik of Brandenburg, the war meant his undoubtedly rise in the Danish military hierarchy, and a sharp increase in person wealth, he would however, first breach the highest echelons after the next war. This would result in him being quite remarkably awarded the title Duke of Mittelmark, which meant that he might very well be the only person being a duke and not sharing an ounce of royal blood. Of course by the late 16th century and early 17th century, the ducal titles had lost much of its prestige and power. It was nonetheless very much an unprecedented event.

 

[Bastiram]

Ascension of Valdemar IX

In 1597 the bells in all churches across the Grand Kingdom of Dania could be heard, first to mark the passage of Grand King Konrad II and secondly to celebrate the ascension of his son Valdemar IX, the new Grand King of one of Europe’s largest, most populated and richest realms.

While only 32 years old at his coronation Valdemar was no stranger to his new responsibilities, for nearly a decade he had served as his father’s regent. As such, it was an experienced individual that took the throne of Dania. Just a few years previously Dania under Valdemar had succeeded in the so called First Dano-Russian War, even if it was not the first conflict between the two largest states of Europe.

With the triumph in the east Valdemar and Dania would spend the next couple of years looking inwards, the military reforms which had started under the supervision of Gorm Hvide, who had fallen in The First Russian War, continued. Influenced by the experiences of the war, noticeable Frederik of Brandenburg would have a role it in too, especially when it came to the infantry.

For many decades, even centuries Dania had relied on mercenaries to make up the bulk of its army. After the entire mercenary contingent had retreated to Novgorod after the Battle of Torzhok early in the war. Frederik would distrust the mercenary regiments for the rest of the war and after. On the same turn, Frederik’s success with the few regular regiments that he commanded would likewise have a profound effect on Frederik, albeit positive, compared to the negative one of the mercenaries.

There was nonetheless a small vocal faction of nobles that were against the idea of not using mercenaries anymore. Spearheaded by a minor, but influential group of nobles from Nidaros, and the various enclaves across Dania settled by retired mercenaries from Nidaros, which not surprisingly had seen their fortunes rise in the service of Dania and Europe in general as mercenaries.

Another group of nobles not tied to the ones of Nidaros were also against this, these were not so much against change, but feared that valuable knowledge would be lost in such a drastic reform, a move they argued could be disastrous for the Grand Kingdom.

Thrown about was also a disdain for the earliest regular troops employed by Dania, calling them nothing but glorified garrison troops, not fit for marching and campaigns. Those voices, however, were early on stifled due to the success of Frederik in the First Russian War.

In the end a compromise was made and the various Nidaros mercenary regiments became part of the new regular army. Often seen in the position of Guard regiments for various people, noticeable the Royal family, but not exclusively. These guard regiments which had evolved from the original mercenary regiments in the coming decades became the elite of the Danish army. As such, the number of regiments fielded increased, and with that the demand in manpower. This meant that the former rules about the men coming from Nidaros or descended from Nidarosi people in the various enclaves disappeared.

That meant ironically, that the various regiments raised in Nidaros later would have far more in common with Nidaros than the twelve guard regiments that descended from the Nidaros mercenary regiments. With one exception, being the Third Guard Regiment, which were stationed in the City of Nidaros, under the Prince-Archbishop. Which naturally meant it would draw the vast majority of recruits from there.

The compromise also meant that in the wars to come, some of the mercenary leaders who had refused to follow Frederik towards Moscow, would once again serve under him.

Law and Order

The military reforms of Valdemar were not the only reforms to come into effect during his reign. His father had worked on a single law code for the entire realm, the early start of that had happened with the more or less standardisation of the various regional Marks of Dania. In how they were governed, taxed and their military obligations. But the various Marks still held to their regional laws.

The second set of Konradian reforms had during the last few decades worked on unifying the law into one set. But it was no easy work. The laws of Dania were quite simply a patchwork. It did not help that the Old Kingdom of Denmark, the core territory of Dania and now one of the most important Marks of Dania, did not have a single law code. But in fact, had four different ones. The Jylland, Skåne and Sjælland law codes of the three traditional lands of Denmark and that of Småland which had several different laws depending on which part you were in.

Codex Runicus from around the 1300. the only surviving text, among a group of works written in medieval runes, which would lay foundation for the Runic Alphabet used by Dania today.
The Codex includes among other things the oldest preserved law text in Northern Europe, that of the provincial law of Skåne.

It would be these traditionally Danish law codes that would form the basis for the new laws of Dania, as they remained the most common across the Grand Kingdom. Rygen for example by now used a variant of the law from Sjælland. Other examples of such instances would be the land that had become part of the Grand Kingdom due to the Nordic Crusades.

But not all of the new laws would have its roots from the old Danish laws, the important Kronstæder based their laws on the Imperial Free Cities of the now defunct Holy Roman Empire.

This momentous work would continue during Valdemars reign, and finally implemented in 1617. Known as the Konradian law code.

Population, Potatoes and Agriculture

Potatoes and Wild Rice were among the most important crops that came to Dania from the new world. The potato especially would help spur population growth and development. Some credit solely the potato for the early population growth that happened in the late 16th century and which would continue for the next many decades.

This idea that potatoes are solely responsible for this is likely wrong, as there were several parameters that in the end would help develop and innovate the agriculture of not only Dania but also in Europe.

Wild Rice is sometimes forgotten in the discussion of agriculture, simply because widespread farming of it ended in failure, even though several projects tried to do such a thing in Dania. How the American Wild Rice was introduced to the wild of Dania is unknown, but being native to the great lakes of Markland and the Great River it was well suited to the waterways of Dania, especially in the northern reaches* where the land was less cultivated and the lakes were plentiful.

It has never been suggested that Wild Rice was responsible for much, but what is known, is it allowed peasants to harvest it in the autumn, and mostly sell it due to the high price it demanded.

The four-field crop rotation is one of the reasons the agricultural output increased in this period, it is likely that this system first appeared in the densely populated parts of Lotharingia, but there never have been a definite place of origin. In Dania the first evidence of this being implamented comes from the late 16th century, but it would first really be a common practice in the mid-late 17th century.

Nonetheless the introduction of fodder crops, such as turnips and clover, would mostly replace leaving the land in fallow, though it is important to note that this only came to be, due to a change in laws during the Konradian reforms.

Traditionally Dania had practiced the so called open-field system, which was prevalent across much of Europe, it is now considered an inefficient system for agricultural production and highly resistant to technological innovation. As everyone had to conform to the village norms.

The Konradian reforms would help to destabilise this system. Quite simply with the “fall” of the strong dukes, the strongest voice of the feudal system and that of serfs had been weakened. This meant that the freeholders, or free farmers, which had seen its influence wane, would see it increase once more.

Due to several influential freeholders, nobility in all but name, the free farmers suddenly had a loud voice during the Konradian reforms, which resulted in a splendid foundation for more privately-owned land. Which would help introduce technological advances in the near future.

One being The Asian Plough a common name given to a new plough coming in from China, due to increased contact with the east in the early 17th century. The advantage with his new plough, besides the effectiveness and ease of making it, was that it had to be pulled by less draft animals than the heavy northern European plough that had been used previously.

The Konradian reforms did not just help the freeholders, another thing that happened was the lessening, and in some cases complete removal of feudal tolls, internal tariffs and customs barriers. This would help spur the development of more private markets. Legislation by government middlemen remained predominantly to make certain the required registration and other legal matters happened according to the law.

One of the largest problems faced was the transportation costs faced by the merchants, that wanted to transport commodities far outside the markets radius. Generally, the prohibit cost of transporting goods on roads, made certain that the goods would not be transported much more than 30-50 kilometres to another market or to a waterway.

Transporting goods on the canals and rivers by barges or over the water with ships was far cheaper and more effective. It is no surprise that following the development of agriculture in Dania, there was sharp rise in ships and barges built across the realm. As the demand for cheap transportation increased.

Canals were not an unknown quantity in Dania, several had been constructed, but mostly limited to the capital rich southwestern parts, between 1600-1700 a boom in the construction of canals appeared across Dania. Likewise, during this period large road projects were initiated, improving the road network, which had been established a century before during the times of Knud VIII.

*When talking about northern Dania, it refers to everything North of the Baltic Sea.

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I update will be coming shortly with population numbers for Dania at around 1600.

 

[Bastiram]

Population at the start of the 17th century. I've ordered the various Kronstæder in the Marks(provinces) they're located in. [With four exeptions being Lybæk, Hamburg, Bergen and Visby] this does not mean they are subservient to these, it's because previous population lists were a clutter in the end with all the small Kronstæder. It also adds and idea about the urbanisation (in my opinion) I've added other cities that are prominent in their own right to the list too, these will in the most case be subservient to the Mark, due to being part of it, however, they're often also provincial capitals so..
Key:
(C) = Colony
(R) = Royal city, cities that are significant to the crown somehow.
(RC) = Religious centre, seats of the various Archbishoprics
(K) = Kronstad

Grand Kingdom of Dania: 13.088.500

• Danmark: 2.000.000
  • Kronmark (C): 200.000
  • København (R): 100.000
    
  • Kuba & Nymark* (C): 90.000
    
  • Kalmar (K): 22.000
    
  • Folkshavn (R): 20.000
  • Lund (RC): 15.000
    
  • Aalborg (K): 14.000
    
  • Slangerup (R) 7.000

• Irish Provinces:

• Corcaigh: 375.000
• Daire: 370.000
• Luimneach: 110.000
• Gaillimh: 100.000

• Mittelmark: 840.000
  • Konradsstad (R): 20.000
  • Brandenburg an der Havel (R): 10.000

• Samland: 640.000
  • Gdansk (K): 40.000
  • Valborg (R) 15.000
  • Neuburg (K): 10.000
  • Storerød (R): 10.000
  • Oliwa (RC): 8.500

• Masurien: 590.000
  • Rava (R): 25.000
  • Plock (R): 20.000
  • Warsaw (R): 15.000
  • Liv (R): 10.000

• Livonien: 540.000
  • Riga (K): 45.000
  • Valmeria (R): 12.000
  • Dorpat (RC): 10.000
  • Pernau (K): 9.000
  • Vänta (K): 8.000

• Skjoldmark: 500.000
  • Novgorod (R): 40.000

• Pomeranien: 490.000
  • Stettin (K): 45.000
  • Kammin (RC): 8.000

• Mecklenburg: 465.000
  • Schwerin (R): 15.000
  • Wismar (K): 15.000
  • Perleberg (R): 8.000

• Svearland: 440.000
  • Upsalla (K, RC): 15.000
  • Ulfsholm (K): 12.500

• Viken: 410.000
  • Kongsberg (R): 13.000
  • Akershus (R): 11.000
  • Stavanger (R): 8.000

• Holsten: 400.000
  
  
• Neumark-Silesien 360.000
  • Legnica (K): 25.000
  • Glogau (K): 15.000
  • Landsberg (R): 7.500

• Rygen: 310.000
  • Rostock (K): 35.000
  • Stralsund (K): 12.000
  • Griefswald (K): 10.000

• Finland: 290.000
  • -Aspå (R): 10.000
  • -Åbo (RC): 5.000
• Väster Götland: 290.000
• Bergen (K): 180.000
• Nidaros: 270.000
  • Nidaros (RC): 15.000

• Pskov: 260.000
  • Pskov (K): 25.000

• Öster Götland: 250.000
  
  
• Dalarna: 240.000
  • Falun (R): 6.000

• Estland: 240.000
  • Talinn (K): 15.000
  • Narva (K): 9.000

• Ingria: 240.000
  • Nevastad (K): 30.000

• Pomormark: 240.000
  
  
• Lübeck (K): 130.000
  
  
• Iceland: 120.000
  • Akureyri (R): 8.000
• Hälsingland 100.000
  
  
• Hamburg (K): 90.000
  
  
• Island of Gotland (K)**: 30.000
  • Visby (K): 25.000

Grand Duchy of Lithuania: 600.000

• Vilnius (R): 20.000
• Trakai (R, RC): 15.000
• Medeniken (R): 7.000

* Nymark is governed by the the royal representive in Kuba, nonetheless it remains very much the most autonomous of the "three" colonies of Dania.
** The Island of Gotland is not part of the Kronstad of Visby, but it is governed from the city and it is not part of any other Marks. It is a weird position, with the peasants of Gotland directly subservient to the Grand King, yet they pay tax, follow the law etc. of Visby.

As previously iterations of this, these are rough numbers.

 

[Bastiram]

Peace

It is undeniable that The Grand Kingdom of Dania in the latter half of the 16th century had seen immense growth, this was, due to a series of circumstances that all in their own way pushed this growth.

In Europe the effects of these circumstances, which not all were unique to Dania, also pushed the growth of other states on the continent. Nevertheless, unknown to everyone at the time, the population of Dania at the turn of the century, cemented itself as the second highest populated realm due to the growth the country had enjoyed.

While this fact would not last, it helps explain some of the events that would unfold in the early 17th century. During these times the demographic knowledge and surveys were universally considered state secrets. As such, the sheer extend of the Danish population of over 10 million souls were very much unknown.

Dania by other European states had often been regarded as a mere periphery state, certainly strong and with a substantial population owing simply to the sheer extend of the Danish realm. But its neighbours certainly did not expect its population to be as high as it actually was.

Instead Danish successes were instead credited due to the wealth of the Grand Kingdom, it was no secret that the Scandes and generally the northern reaches of Dania, had abundant, high-quality, mineral wealth. One site that can be described as iconic for this, would be the Royal mine of Falun. It had been in service for centuries, but its production would peak in the 17th century and bring in immense wealth. It is estimated, that this single mining district of Falun, produced maybe as much as two thirds of Europe’s copper needs during its heyday.

Falun was not the only copper producing mines in Dania, but it certainly was by far the most prominent. Other mining districts also produced substantial amounts of copper, silver, iron and even gold.
The various mining districts also represented the largest pre-industrial workplaces of Dania.

minerals was not the only raw material that Dania possessed in abundance, all things forestry was naturally also a large source of income, and unlike many other European realms, Dania was not facing a shortage in naval supplies, such goods could be sold at high prices, or as some realms feared, not sold at all. Giving Dania a distinct advantage in naval warfare.

It was this strategic fact, amongst others, that saw many of Europe’s seafaring nations to first look to the New World, known in Dania as Markland. And with good reason too, while no deliberate policy was in place during Valdemar IX’s reign, one would be put in place shortly after his death by his son and heir.

An example of this would be the navy of Naples around the year 1700, consisting of more than twenty capital ships, and numerous lighter vessels, around half of the capital ship's origin, could be tracked back to the shipyards of Dania.

Another aspect that saw Europeans make the journey to the new world, was the demand for fur. Now Dania much like Europe felt the consequences of the collapse of the European beaverstock in and around the 17th century. As a matter of fact, it is believed that the beaver was hunted to extinction in Denmark proper as early as the 11th century.

Nonetheless, the colony Kronmark, was located ideally to exploit the beaver population of the New World and gave Dania a large share of the fur market. Attempts at monopolizing the fur in Markland resulted in failures it was simply too vast, besides that, Russia’s exploration of Siberia and settlements there represented another source of fur, which Dania had relatively little control of.

Lastly Dania, considering its northern location was a large exporter of agricultural goods. Cereals and livestock all went south from the Grand Kingdom.

As such, besides luxury wares, Dania was very much self-sufficient, while many European realms depended on importing goods from Dania and/or other realms.

This had very much resulted in a positive balance, and the money that Dania had earned from this situation, had not just been wasted away. Infrastructure had been improved, and many of the previous Grand Kings had invested this money in developing the country. The urban population had grown from just a few thousand souls in the old Kingdom of Denmark, to a now large, thriving and rich part of Dania.

Nowhere else, is this exemplified better than the Kronstad Lybæk, just a century earlier, the needs of the current Grand King for the rebuilding of the burned down capital of København, saw the rise of the first banking system of Dania. As the 17th century rolled in, the banking system of Dania was nearly as developed as the banks of Lotharingia and that of Northern Italy.

Lybæk, at some point in the 16th century

The thriving urban population had created several proto-industries, further lessening dependence on imports from Europe. An example of this would be the exodus of the Venetian glass makers, a few of these had brought their knowledge to Dania. Which before that, only had a limited production of wald glass, often regarded as an inferior product, compared to the Venetian glass.

Now several cities had a substantial production of glass, not only for their own needs, but also for export, chief amongst these were of course Lybæk but especially København, which was the principal supplier to the royalty and nobility of Dania. With the introduction of Venetian glass, the production of Wald glass did not disappear. Some of the former, so called Glass houses did disappear. But the knowledge was kept as the production was kept alive. Especially the glass craftsmen in the Kronstad Kalmar, produced both Wald Glass and Venetian glass, so too, to a lesser extend did Folkshavn. Obviously helped by the proximity to the forests of Småland.

There was one vital good, that Dania wasn’t self sufficient in, and that was salt. Lybæk’s close relation to the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had resulted in them importing the vast majority of salt in Dania, as the city of Lüneburg geographical lay very close to Lybæk, and had a substantial salt production. In time Lybæk had diversified where it imported its salt from, as French salt from the Mediterranean was imported too. Even with this, Lybæk’s former salt monopoly had gradually degraded into just supplying most of the salt, that the growing Danish population needed.

The salt from Lüneburg as such remained a very important source of salt for Dania, and after the Welf dynasty lost the throne to their duchy to the Kingdom of Saxony, that source went from regular and substantial shipments to barely a trickle.

While not a catastrophe for Dania, it certainly was a blow to Lybæk. The salt trade no longer remained the biggest earner for Lybæk anymore, it was however, still regarded as the lifeblood of the city. The city had been built with the money that the so called white gold had earned it. As such, when the city was cut off from its valuable supply, it quickly looked outwards to make up the sudden shortcomings.

The result was the start up of salt production in specific areas of Dania, the first was in Iceland, as the rather unique geothermal features, made salt production from the sea viable in a region it normally wouldn’t be. However, in the larger scheme of things the production of salt in Iceland never came close to supply as much as the salt works in the new world.

Lybæk would develop elaborate salt-works in the Caribbean Sea, utilising the abundance of year-round access to the sea, sun and wind, here salt could be produced with relative ease. The work might have been hard, but labour on the island of Kuba could be gained relatively cheap.

Start of second war for Lower Saxony.

Still, the loss of the salt from Lüneburg, remained a sore point for Lybæk. It is no wonder that when war once again broke out between Saxony and Dania, that Lybæk, would help pay for the cost and upkeep of several regiments, with two of those raised in the city itself, and another one raised from the population around the Upper Trave River, which belonged to Lybæk. Furthermore, regiments from Holstein and Mecklenburg were also sponsored by Lybæk.

In all Lybæk and to a lesser extend Hamburg, during the four-year period the war lasted, would pay for the upkeep of a third [in the start] to a fourth [in the end] of the regiments fielded in the war by Dania.

Valdemar IX had been looking for an opportune time to go to war with Saxony, not only did he want to right, the embarrassing defeat his father had suffered. More so his relatives of the Welf dynasty had been located for some years in his court, they had expertly intermingled in the Danish court, gathering a large amount of support for their goal, of acquiring their rightful throne back.

The war started in 1607, after years of peace in Dania, the time was chosen due to the ongoing war between the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary and the Grand Kingdom of Moravia, over their western border. Specifically issues over the smaller Kingdom of Bavaria.

With Moravia focused on the south in an increasingly bloody struggle, it was believed, correctly so, that Moravia wouldn’t enter the war on the side of Saxony. Like they had done in the Russian war roughly a decade earlier.

The resulting war from 1607-1611 pitted the well trained and disciplined forces of Saxony against what was regarded as relatively inexperienced soldiers of Dania, which at the time had finished its military reforms just a few months previously.

It was the first test of the state army, or regular army of Dania, which no longer depended on a mix of mercenary companies, levies and state raised companies & regiments. The mercenary contingents had been removed, deemed too unreliable and expensive, replaced solely by regiments raised by the state. The levies too had been reformed during the latter years, serving two purposes, training men in the effective tactics of the day, so they could either be drafted into the state regiments to replace looses quickly or to be raised as levy regiments to supplement the regular regiments.

Much like the previous levies, the new levy system supplied troops of a varied quality, though compared to earlier, where the generic levy often would have been described as of poor quality, the new system produced men of at least decent quality.

During the course of the war, as expected by many, the Saxon soldier would prove to be the most effective, but not to such an edge that it would make them win the war due to it. The regular regiments of Dania, was not the inexperienced soldiers as believed, many of them being veterans of the Russian war. Combined with superior numbers, the two sides are often regarded as about equal.

In one of the more interesting battles, during the second year of the war, one of the Danish armies fresh off from a victorious siege of Lüneburg, led by Frederik of Brandenburg would narrowly defeat a Saxon army, in the Battle of Uelzen, just south of Lüneburg. The Saxon army was led by Frederik’s older brother, a high ranking Saxon officer, Christian of Dresden.

Christian of Dresden, due to the loss and another more decisive one a week later, which led to Danish control of the Ilmenau river, would come under scrutiny, accused of cowardice and even treachery.

The court martial, would eventually find no wrongdoing by Christian of Dresden, among the evidences presented was a letter written by Frederik of Brandenburg, detailing, what he described as his hardest won victory yet and what he could only describe as a well conducted battle plan, which in most cases would have meant victory and not defeat.

Christian of Dresden, acquitted of the charges levied against him, would once again serve in a commanding role during the last year of the war, having missed the third year due to the charges. He would score a series of strategic victorious, albeit not against his younger brother, as he served on another front.

These events meant that Frederik of Brandenburg would have contact with his estranged family in Saxony once again, and he would often entertain his older brothers and their families in his residence in Mittelmark. Though he never visited them in Saxony, the king had made it clear he was not welcome.

 

[Bastiram]

The battle that happened just a few days after the Battle of Uelzen.
A few notes;
It is painted by the somewhat famous descendant of Christian Schultz in the early 18th century in Magdeburg.

Burggraf during this time have become a prominent title in the military of the Kingdom of Saxony.

Frederik of Brandenburg at this point was in fact not a Duke, he would be elevated to the rank after the war, due to his exploits during it.

The Schultz family is a prominent noble family in both Saxony and Dania. The origin of the the family was the Electorate of Brandenburg then under the control of the von Holland dynasty.
Back then it was a humble linage of well to do commoners/burghers/lesser nobility.
Being followers of Staupitz the majority of the family moved to Saxony during the religious conflict and pogroms that happened in the majority Staupitz Brandenburg under the rule of the Catholics von Hollands.

The Battle of Dannenberg resulted in a collapse of Saxony's defense of Lower Saxony, further ruined by the fall of Bremen to a combined siege and blockade by sea just a few months later in late August.

Furthermore the battle, combined with the one in Uelzen saw Christian Schultz recalled to Wittenberg due to allegation of cowardice and treason. Something his political opponents exploited.
The result of this was a shift as followers of Christian Schultz were removed from their military postings.

Burggraf August Haugwitz of Magdeburg (his rival) became the preeminent military commander of Saxony during the next two years. His inability together with his subordinates to stem the Danish advance would see Christian Schultz return to the field in the last year of the war.

 

[Bastiram]

The war started in 1607 with a two-pronged assault by two Danish armies into the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. As the war goal was to restore the Welf dynasty to the duchy, it would be vital to actually control it for the peace talks in the future.

Besides the two armies that invaded the former duchy, men had been mustered across the remaining border to deter a possible push into Mittelmark, from the royal heartlands of Saxony. Mittelmark by now had taken a position in Dania as a very valuable province. While it remained less urbanized than some places in Dania it had a large, only outdone by Denmark itself, and relatively rich rural population. More importantly the nobility was weak in the province. Something which was rare in the southwestern Marks of Dania, which meant that it had become a bastion of royal authority.

For the two armies going into the lands of Lower Saxony, crossing the Elbe River had been relatively painless. As Dania controlled one side of the river, and the infrastructure was good along it due to the close contact that the two previously had held.

The first skirmishes happened in and around Lüneburg where one of the Danish armies objective were to oust the Saxon garrison, secure it and then swing east and south to secure that part of the duchy. The fighting was hard. In the years that Lower Saxony had been under the control of Saxony, they had heavily invested in the defence of a few but vital strongholds. One of these was Lüneburg.

The first siege of Lüneburg did end in failure, a relief force combined with a well-timed sally from the garrison in Lüneburg managed to inflict a defeat on the besieging Danish army. However, it soon became clear that the relief force, even combined with the local garrison, was severely outmatched by the Danish army, which once again managed to cut off the city roughly a month later after the defeat.

The first real battle of the war happened to the west, as the other Danish army marching towards Stade, one of the other modern strongholds in Lower Saxony. Here the Danish army clashed with the army of Burggraf Claus von Der Deckens of Bremen. A native of the Duchy, the von Der Deckens had early on transfered their loyalty from the Welf dynasty to the Ascanian dynasty of Saxony.

The von Der Deckens had been raised to undeniable prominence in the northern and western part of the duchy, due to the loyalty shift. The young Claus von Der Deckens, had been quick to raise the forces of the area to oust the invaders. But his army did not consist of the disciplined and lethal troops of Saxony, but levies and a few remnants of the old army of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The core of his army was two regiments of Saxony infantry and one regiment of horse. Just shy of 5.000 reliable troops out of the 20.000 he commanded at the Battle of Steinkirchen. Compared to other battles of the war, this first one was relatively unremarkable and Marsk Sigurd Gyldenløve commanding both a larger army and one of better quality, was victorious in the this first clash. Resulting in the siege of Stade

Stade

One of the reasons that Dania was as successful as it were the first year of the war, can be explained with that Saxony was surprised by the declaration of war. The court of the Wettin dynasty had perhaps come to the conclusion that Dania was happy with the peace it had enjoyed for several years after the Russian War. This helps explain the inadequate relief force that had marched on Lüneburg, and the ragtag army of Claus von Der Deckens.

Nonetheless Saxony was quick to muster its men after the declaration of war, but the surprise had done its work, and before Saxony was ready to field a proper army, Lüneburg and Stade had fallen to the invaders.

The army that Claus von Der Deckens had raised, had weakened many of the garrisons in the western parts of the duchy, and that helps explain the relative fast fall of Stade, in the same note the Burggraf of Lüneburg was after the war accused of treason and in fact executed. No evidence of Danish bribery exists besides him being executed.

After the fall Sigurd Gyldenløve, would go on to take control of Vörde once an important stronghold, it had seen little of the investment that Stade, Bremen and Lüneburg had in the previous years. Following that Ritzebüttel, more of a pirate haven than a proper military fortress was conquered.

Siege of Vörde

Ritzebüttel was once built to protect the estuary of the Elbe from pirates, but after the enclave had fallen into the hands of Saxony, it had been used for quite the opposite and privateers had been a constant and serious pain for Hamburg during the last two decades.

A story goes that just a few hours after the pirate haven fell to the Danish forces, several ships from Hamburg arrived with soldiers and labours and immediately began to fortify it once again. While undoubtedly an exaggeration, Hamburg did indeed during the war build a new fortress at Ritzebüttel and man it with soldiers. Sigurd Gyldenløve would go on to establish his winter camp near Ritzebüttel.

In the east Duke Frederik of Brandenburg had taken control of the other Danish army, after the fall of Lüneburg, however, he did not have as easy of a time, his advance was checked by his own brother and him and his army would establish their winter camp on the Ilmenau river, just south of Lüneburg.


The second year would prove little better for Saxony, after a month or so Frederik Schultz of Brandenburg forced his brother into battle at Uelzen, a strategic crossing on the Ilmenau river and defeated him there, and just a single week later the decisive battle of Dannenberg happened. Which resulted in the political and militaristic opponent of Burggraf Christian Schultz of Dresden to take control of the Saxon war effort, while Christian Schultz had to defend himself and his actions in the capital of Wettin.

Meanwhile, Claus von Der Deckens would suffer his second defeat against Sigurd Gyldenløve, and withdraw to the city of Bremen. Bremen contrary to both Lüneburg and Stade would prove a hard nut to crack, even if it was cut off from aid both from land and sea. The garrison consisted not only of the original garrison that Claus von Der Deckens had led to war, but also the majority of the Saxon garrison of Stade, combined with the battered levies which also had withdrawn to the city, it was a surprisingly strong garrison. Sigurd Gyldenløve had little choice but try to starve the city or storm it which undoubtedly would mean his army would pay a high price.

Sigurd Gyldenløve would have preferred to starve the city into submission, deeming the risk associated with storming the city too high, but pressure from higher ranks eventually meant that the city would be taken by force. In late November four months into the siege, the infantry of Sigurd Gyldenløve overran the defenders and the city of Bremen, through two breaches in the wall. But it was not without cost as that day was the single bloodiest in the entire war.

The third year of the war would proceed very much like the previous two, meaning sieges with few actual battles. With Sigurd Gyldenløve marching his battered and bloody army towards Oldenburg. Now with his original objective, securing the northern and western parts of Lower Saxony, completed after the fall of Bremen. Though this time he would resist his superiors insistent on speed, and instead he settled for a long siege.

Meanwhile, much like Sigurd Gyldenløve, which had left Lower Saxony, and entered Westphalia, Frederik Schultz, marched from his winter camp at the Ilmenau river, into the heart of Saxony. This campaign year for Frederik Schultz and his army very much centred around the fortress of Wolfsburg as the army would take the entire campaign season to overcome the obstacle that Wolfsburg would prove to be. In May the Battle of Wolfsburg happened, where Frederik Schultz would prove his mastery over the Saxon commander, Burggraf August Haugwitz of Magdeburg.

This battle besides being a somewhat inconclusive victory for Dania, also resulted in Frederik Schultz not participating in the remaining war, due to one or several wounds he acquired during the battle. He survived, but was first returned to the occupied Lüneburg and later his estate in Mittelmark where he would recover.

Wolfsburg much like other Saxon fortresses, besides Oldenburg, eventually fell and the Danish army, now led by Valdemar IX himself made preparation to march on Magdeburg, the largest and richest city of Saxony.

The threat to one of the most important cities of Saxony, would see Christian Schultz return into favour again, and take command of the efforts to protect the city from the invading Danish army once again, during the latter months of the third campaigning season and early months of the fourth Valdemar IX and Christian Schultz armies would clash several times in indecisive skirmishes. But finally, at the Battle of Magdeburg, Saxony would find the victory they had been denied so far, in an arguably more decisive battle that Dannenberg earlier had been.

Yet the damage had been done and three years of near continuous losses on the battlefield, even if siege warfare had been the most prominent feature of the war had made its impact. The political infighting among Saxony’s high command had put them in a position where Dania quickly had gained their war goal of securing the former duchy, and with Oldenburg under siege and Danish forces mustering once again not far from Magdeburg. Saxony agreed to meet at the peace table during the early months of the fourth year of the war.

The peace of Magdeburg restored the Welf dynasty to the ducal throne of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the former Danish enclaves across the Elbe was restored, to be specific Bremen and Ritzebüttel, which both fell under the influence of the Kronstad Hamburg, though Bremen remained far more autonomous than the other.

Saxony did gain several important concessions, which was instrumental in making them accept the loss of the duchy, these concessions where economical in nature. Saxon traders would gain the same rights that Danish ones did on the Elbe river, in essence while they lost control of the lower part of the river, their trade would not be hampered, and the lack of tolls would make several prominent merchant families in Saxony fabulous wealthy.

The second concession was a share of the tolls earned by Bremen at the mouth of the Weser River. This revenue was also immensely important to Saxony, Oldenburg which had stubbornly resisted the Danish siege would enjoy the most immediate benefits of this. It would replace Bremen as the Saxon strong point in the area.

The lessons that Saxony learned from this war, where important, it was by that point known that the Saxon armies could fight on equal footing with the larger and more establish “great powers” and this war did not change that. What Saxony could not afford was the infighting among the High command of Saxony, during such a war, it had crippled the war effort as Christian Schultz and August Haugwitz and their supporters had fought in letters and in person in the royal court of Saxony over how the war was supposed be conducted.

This lesson was certainly learned, and after the war August Haugwitz lost his prominent military position, and Christian Schultz on behest of the only real Saxon victory, the Battle of Magdeburg, remained, uniting the previously fractured court of Saxony.


In the Grand Kingdom of Moravia, the war had been followed closely with some worry. The war confirmed all but their biggest fears, as Dania continued with its aggressive border warfare, enlarging their already formidable realm. But contrary to the earlier Russian war, Moravia itself had been busy fighting to its south, and as such had been unable to intervene.

The conflict between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Habsburgs of Hungary had broken out. In the Duchy of Austria, which was under a personal union with Hungary, had lands in Swabia, and for decades relations had been frosty with the Kingdom of Bavaria, which in turn believed that the lands of Swabia should belong to them, especially the cities of Augsburg and Ulm. A belief that was not unfounded, both cities had been granted to Bavaria following the religious wars nearly a century before. But before Bavaria could lay its claim to the two cities, the armies of the Habsburgs had taken them by force.

The western part of the Habsburg realms, with the Austrian enclave and Swabia which Borders the Swizz confederacy, Duchy of Würtemberg, and the Kingdom of Bavaria.

The uneasy status quo had stayed liked that for near on a century, until anew ambitious King of Hungary had unfolded his plan to enlarge the lands he owned in Swabia. Bavaria had not been unprepared for such events and had made allies with some of the few remaining duchies in the area, and of course with Moravia.

The Habsburg realm was unable to deal with both the forces of Moravia, Bavaria and its ducal allies, while at the same time expanding into the Balkans. The loss of the Swabian lands and its western enclave was a prestige loss for the young new King. But it would later be regarded as a blessing in disguise, as the focus of the Habsburg fully settled to its East and South. Where the upheaval of the Ottoman fracture very much still could be felt.

 

[Bastiram]

The “Frontiers” of Europe, Portugal

Portugal had been ruled by the Afonsine dynasty for centuries, in the early 17th century, it was Emmanuel II that sat on the throne of the southern European Kingdom. The Portuguese Kingdom had unlike many other European Kingdoms known piece in its little corner of Europe for many years. It was prosperous and wealthy and was regarded as one of the most prominent seafaring nations in Europe if not the most prominent one.

Diplomatically Portugal had secured its border by remaining friendly with its only and larger neighbour Spain. It had been a policy for quite some time to keep the ties between the Spanish Trastámara’s and the Portuguese Afonsine’s friendly. Which, can only be described as successful.

Beside the dynastic ties to its neighbours there was one other European realm, that Portugal had diplomatic ties to, and that was the Kingdom of England.

The Anglo-Portuguese alliance originally originated due to a conflict with neighbouring Castille, now Spain, and while that enmity had waned during the previous decades, the alliance, trade agreements and other benefits were still very much valued on both sides and the relations between the two catholic Kingdoms remained impeccable.

Portugal was in the early 17th century, arguably the most accomplished European nation when it came to colonies, The Portuguese colonial empire was spread out on four continents, something no other nation had accomplished at the time.

Driven by the Portuguese exploration of Africa, Portugal had the largest presence of any European nation in Africa, and the most sophisticated network of trading post and forts on the large continent. Furthermore, it remained the only European nation to have established a presence on the eastern side of the African continent.

Like many other European nations Portugal had also established a presence in the New World, though its discovery of the land which now was a host to a relatively large population was more of an accident during Portugal’s exploration to the South, than any explicit effort from their own part.

Terra da Santa Cruz was nonetheless a welcome addition to the budding Portuguese Empire, which brought considerable wealth to the crown and other involved. Located on the southern continent of Terra Nova* in the New World, Portugal would avoid the squabbles that the northern colonies would result in, in the 17th century.

The Crown Jewel and money maker of Portugal were and had been for quite some time, its possessions in the sub-continent of India. Portugal had waged wars in this far off corner of the world to establish itself and reap the benefits of the wealth of India. First to tumble the Mamluks and take over the spice trade, and while the Mamluks, with the assistance of Venice had fought admirable Portugal had won out in the end.

That did not mean the troubles were over for Portugal, India dwarfed Portugal in size and population both, and as such Portugal could not hope to subdue the patchwork of entities on the sub-continent. Instead strategic harbours and cities were acquired and from which the spice trade could be controlled.

The big breakthrough was the acquisition of the island of Ceilão, the Portuguese presence on the island had been just another part of its policy of controlling trade in the area, over time it had resulted in controlling substantial parts of the island, and finally in 1601 the last resistance on the island was smothered and the control of the island was fully in the hands of Portugal.

Much of this had been the result of the policies of Emmanuel II’s father and continued under Emmanuel II's reign, where Portugal had enacted a more aggressive policy, and Portugal had essentially more than tripled its land holdings in the Indian subcontinent under the rule of Emmanuel II and his father.

Portuguese presence on the island of Ceilão, before its conquest in 1601

Of course, Portugal could not expect to keep the wealth of the east for itself, this had been proved when Spain had tried, successfully, to discover a route from the New World to the east in 1578.

However, due to indigenous uprisings on the continent of Terra Nova, Spain would lose much of its territory in the New World, and importantly for Portugal, lose interest in this new route to the East.

Nonetheless both Danish and Lotharingian ships had become a somewhat common sight in the Indian Ocean in the early 17th century, which most certainly worried Portugal, especially the presence of Dania, as it, after Portugal, had the second largest presence in Africa. As such, the presence of Danish ships and when discovered trading posts on the island of Madagascar, would put Portugal on edge over Danish ambitions in the Indian Ocean.

This is the first part of four planned updates about Portugal, Spain, Habsburg Hungary and Italy** hope you enjoyed

* I’m toying with the idea of naming South America Terra Nova and with Markland becoming the name of North America, thoughts?

** Italy part might require more than a single update, we will see.

Edit: added pictures, because I'm not a smart man.

 

[Bastiram]

The “Frontiers” of Europe, Spain

The Indigenous uprising of 1578 would have a profound effect on the Kingdom of Spain and their Trastámara kings, the uprising meant that a political shift happened in Spanish society.

It propelled a series of Aragonese or Pro-Aragonese nobility to power in Spain, a position they would hold for the next 50 years. This group, together with the king, managed to tie the interest of the larger Castille, together with the well developed but less populated Aragon.

Before Aragon had joined in a union with Castille it had, had a well-developed empire in the Mediterranean, which had been inherited by Spain. However, in the decades before 1578, these possessions had taken a backseat, as the Castilian aristocracy had focused on the New World in the west.

The aftermath of the indigenous uprising of 1578, in Terra Nova, which cost Spain half its territory in the New World would see the Spanish focus going from the west to the east.

Calls to secure Italy against French influence became loud, and the old alliances with the Republic of Genoa and the Duchy of Milan was dusted off, furthermore the Island of Sicily long a Spanish possession was fortified, in the previous decades agents of the Kingdom of Naples had spread discontent on the island. Which they claimed was rightfully theirs.

France and Naples would play a important part in the policies of this eastern focused Spain, Naples ever hostile over the Spanish possession of Sicily, would remain as such. With Naples closely allied to France, which was eager to spread its influence in Northern Italy, meant that relations deteriorated quickly.

France had a stronger hand in the politics of Italy, while it controlled no land in the area, like Spain did, it remained friendly with the largest powers of Italy, that of Naples in the south, which was ruled by the French Anjou dynasty and the largest Republic, that of Venice in the north. Furthermore, the Duchy of Savoy at this point can at best be described as a French puppet.

The Papal States were heavily courted by both sides, but remained staunchly neutral, though it was leaning towards favour of the Kingdom of Naples. One bright point for Spain was the alliance with the Republic of Florence, which came to fruition in the last years of the 16th century.

To further strengthen its position against France, Spain would answer favourable when emissaries from the Kingdom of Lotharingia came with the proposition of an alliance, it was gladly received. Though the efforts to get the Habsburgs of Hungary to join the Alliance and complete the encirclement met with utter failure.

The real breakthrough for Spain in the Mediterranean was not Italy, though it was hotly contested, but quite simply due to the implosion of the Ottoman Empire, Spain, like other states in the Mediterranean would exploit this for their own gain, the Muslim states lacked the organisation to defend themselves against their expansionist neighbours across the sea.

Spain would go on to establish or take control of strategic citadels and cities along the North African coast, it would meddle in the Greek mainland, to the annoyance of both Venice and Naples, finally taking control of the city of Kórinthos from Greek rebels in 1592. From there It would try to establish control of the Greek Peloponnese Peninsular from the strategic stronghold that Kórinthos was.

The efforts in the Peloponnese were helped by the divided nature of the peninsula, with the majority of the Island in the hands of infighting Greek rebels, though the region of Achaea remained in control of the local Ottoman garrison.

Similar efforts were tried to establish control of the neighbouring Attica region, but fully under the control of Greek rebels, which was united, compared to the ones on the Peloponnese and heavily supported by Venice, would resist the efforts from the Spanish crown.

Nonetheless, the Greek mainland would remain a sideshow, much like the Italian business, what this period is known for is the triumphant acquisition of the city of Beirut located in the Levant. The Levant had compared to Greece fallen completely into anarchy following the implosion of the Ottoman state.

City states and the local nobles now ruled in a patchwork of semi official states waging for control of the once thriving and rich region.

It was due to one of these feuds, that saw Beirut, essentially a city state by now, besieged by enemies. Unable to break the siege on their own, and with no local allies of note, Beirut found it necessary to look for outside help.

Spain f had eyed the Levant for a few short years previously to this, but being busy in North Africa, Greece and Italy had restrained Spain, however, with success in North Africa and the political game in Italy locked in place, the Spanish realm jumped at the opportunity to get a foothold in the Levant when it was presented to them.

The foothold in the Levant was hoped to be a springboard to dominate the region. It was argued in the Spanish court, to justify the initial expenses, that not only could the Levant become a net gain for Spain, but it also represented a political chess piece in Italy, how better to curry favour with the Pope, then reconquering the Holy Land?

The King of Naples was not ignorant to these ambitions, and him being the titular King of Jerusalem, could hardly stand by. And as such, the politics of the Italian peninsular spread across the Mediterranean once again.