Why did Sweden and Norway become the vassals of Denmark?
score:11
The reason goes back to Queen Margrethe I of Denmark. (She is to the current queen, Margrethe II, what Elizabeth I of England was to Elizabeth II).
Margrethe was the Queen Consort of King Haakon of Norway-Sweden with whom she had a son, Olaf. She was also the daughter of King Valdemar of Denmark. The succession plan was to have the son take over both Norway and Denmark. But then her father died, her husband died, and her son died. So even though she was a woman, she was the last of the royal families of Norway and Denmark, and the nobles of those two countries chose her to be the Queen Regnant (a reigning queen).
The Swedes were not so accommodating. They had earlier elected Albrecht of Mecklenberg, a German prince, and a cousin of Haakon, as their new king. But the more logical contender was the newly crowned queen of Denmark-Norway. The two went to war, and Margrethe I won, thereby uniting Denmark, Norway, and Sweden into a so-called "personal union," the so-called Kalmar Union of 1397. Subsequent Danish monarchs maintained this arrangement until 1523, when the Swedes rebelled, and became an independent country under Gustav Vasa. Norway remained united with more-populous Denmark until that country chose the wrong side in the Napoleonic wars, and Norway was taken from her and given to Sweden, who had been a part of the anti-Bonaparte coalition.
Upvote:1
According to Wikipedia's article on the Kalmar Union, it was a personal union, and Norway, Sweden and Denmark remained separate kingdoms that happened to have the same king. Since the king usually resided in Denmark and had mostly Danish advisors it seemed to some Norwegians and Swedes, then and later, that their countries were being dominated by Denmark.
Unless someone can find an official text of the Kalmar Union documents that says that Norway and Sweden were now vassals of Denmark, the original question must be considered technically inaccurate. It would have been fun, though, to see a king acting as king of Sweden do homage to himself acting as king of Denmark!
Upvote:7
Tom Au's answer above is mostly correct with regards to Norway; Albrecht actually had a formally stronger claim to the Norwegian throne, but was set aside since Margrete was so effective.
As for Sweden, Albrecht had been king there since 1364, and Margrete only really came to power in Norway and Denmark in her own name in 1387/1388 (she had been regent for several years then). At that point, the Swedish magnates had been able to reduce Albrecht's power greatly, but when it looked like he would regain it in 1386 when Bo Jonsson (Grip) (Sweden's most powerful non-royal person ever) died, they allied with Margrete. Exactly who fought on which side in the following war is not clear, but the end result is: Margrete won, and proved a much stronger regent than Albrecht ever was.
As for power, it should be noted that while Denmark-Norway was usually much stronger than Sweden during the 15th and 16th centuries, during the years before the Kalmar union, things were not always so. In the early 14th century, Magnus Eriksson inherited the Norwegian throne and was elected king of Sweden (this was mostly a formality at this point), he was also able to exploit Danish weakness and bought Scania. It was at that point in no way clear that Denmark would eventually end up the stronger power and stay so for over 200 years.
That it was can partly be ascribed to the Sound dues, which generated a steady, large revenue and gave the Danish king political independence from the privy council and diet. Denmark also had closer ties to Europe in general, meaning stronger diplomacy and easier access to mercenaries.
More post
- 📝 What is the diplomatic record on President Sadat's 1971 peace offer to Israel?
- 📝 Was World War I a war of liberals against authoritarians?
- 📝 Presidents of the French Tribunate from 1799 to 1807
- 📝 Did the Portuguese and the Spanish have slaves on European soil working for them?
- 📝 Why are the Rohingya not recognized in Myanmar (Burma), amongst the other 135 ethnic groups?
- 📝 Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?
- 📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?
- 📝 Are there any historical conceptions that accurately depict a scenario of swinging rapidly from a state of war to a state of tranquility?
- 📝 Are there any universally accepted or non-Abrahamic based books in history that have mentions of longevity of prophets?
- 📝 What distinguishes the mesolithic period from neolithic and paleolithic?
- 📝 Who discovered cancer in Egyptian mummies?
- 📝 Was anyone blamed for Japan's defeat at Tai'erzhuang?
- 📝 What kind of law courts existed in first-century Palestine?
- 📝 In Europe, why were hereditary dynasties more prevalent in the medieval world than in the ancient world?
- 📝 How did Isaac Newton support himself in the period of self-study that he conducted at 23?(after he received his B.A.)
- 📝 Were there any abolitionists imprisoned for being critical of the Congress or the President during the American Civil War?
- 📝 Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
- 📝 Why did Mozi's philosophy die out in China?
- 📝 Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this European ?naval uniform from photograph and likely date (belle époque)?)
- 📝 Why was Lakhdar Boumediene, in the Boumediene v Bush case, acquitted of his charges? And, why was the habeas corpus not suspended?
- 📝 Why was Queretaro chosen as a fail-safe capital of Mexico?
- 📝 What did Jacob Burckhardt intend to say by 'turn within' and 'turn without'?
- 📝 Why did the Germans build battle cruisers with a different profile than the British?
- 📝 Who presided over the election and swearing in of the first Speaker of the House?
- 📝 Did the Greeks win the battle of Salamis because their rowers were "free"?
- 📝 Is it true that Nazi Germany replaced prices ending in .99 by round prices and called this "Aryan pricing"?
- 📝 Who was Yoshioka Matashichiro?
- 📝 Were there many foreigners fighting during the American civil war?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this uniform /person?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did Sweden and Norway become the vassals of Denmark?
- 📝 Why did the US, Britain, France, Denmark and Sweden vote against the UN resolution that condemned Nazism and SS glorification?
- 📝 When and why did smiling at strangers and in photos become customary in the United States?
- 📝 When and why did the Democrats become the more liberal of the two main parties in the USA?
- 📝 When and why did blue become the colour of the British Conservative Party?
- 📝 Why did sculpture and architecture become unpainted white, like skeletons of the dead?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 When and why did having long hair become associated with women, and short hair with men?
- 📝 Why did Bayer lose aspirin and heroin trademarks under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why did only the English adopt, evolve and use the longbow en masse in war?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- 📝 When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
- 📝 Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Why did the Germans not encircle and besiege Stalingrad?
- 📝 Why did piracy thrive in the late 17th and early 18th centuries?
- 📝 Why did Churchill become the PM of Britain during WWII instead of Lord Halifax?
- 📝 Why did Canada, Australia and New Zealand separate from the UK?
- 📝 Why did baseball become more popular than cricket in the USA?
- 📝 Why did the Merovingians and Pippinids adopt Christianity so fervently?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
- 📝 How and why did trade unions in America become influenced by organised crime, but unions in Britain didn't?
- 📝 Why did few French and no Dutch pilots (but many Poles and Czechs) take part in the Battle of Britain?
- 📝 Why did the original Carthage never become a Roman city?
- 📝 How did Moldova and Romania become separate in the first place?
