The overthrow of Christian, both in Sweden—Finland and in Denmark— Norway, had been carried out with Hanseatic assistance. In 1523 Gustav Vasa granted extensive privileges to Lubeck, Danzig and other Hanseatic towns which were exempted from paying customs in Sweden. Further, Swedish merchants were not allowed to trade beyond the Danish straits, these rules being complemented in 1526 by a Swedish—Prussian commercial treaty.
In 1531 Christian II invaded Norway with support from the Low Countries, which once more induced Frederik I to align himself with Lubeck. On 2 May 1532, the Danish—Norwegian government concluded an agreement with Lubeck valid for ten years. The Hanseatic town promised to aid Frederik in his war against Christian; in return Frederik undertook to attack vessels from the Low Countries in the Baltic, but only once Christian’s forces in Norway had been beaten. By a provisional agreement with Frederik’s forces (9 July 1532) Christian had ceded Norway, but obtained a safe-conduct to negotiations with Frederik. When Christian came to Copenhagen, relying on the safe-conduct, he was not allowed ashore, as the council had decided to keep him prisoner for life. At the end of July, he was sent to Sonderborg castle, where he was kept until 1549. He was then transferred to Kalundborg, where he lived in milder custody till his death in 1559.
Frederik’s death in April 1533 complicated the situation because his Lutheran son, Duke Christian, was unacceptable to the still Catholic majority of the aristocracy. For the same reason, the interim government by the rigsrad would not lend support to Protestant Lubeck. Consequently, the latter’s troops, commanded by Count Christoffer of Oldenburg, invaded Denmark in 1534 in order to restore Christian II, who still had followers in the bourgeoisie and among the peasants. In the ensuing civil war (‘Grevens Fejde’ or ‘the Count’s War’, 1534—6) Duke Christian emerged the victor. He sealed his handfastningin 1536, and was crowned on 12 August 1537. The intervention in Denmark was to be Lubeck’s last large-scale attempt at controlling Baltic trade and at dominating Nordic commercial policy.
Both Gustav Vasa and Frederik had to deal with the problem of the spread of Protestantism, which came in the German, Lutheran form. Using for their own purpose existing tendencies towards increased control of the Church by the government or by laymen in general, the two rulers steered a course between a benevolent neutrality (and sometimes even more than that) towards the Reformers, a prudent attitude towards the remaining Catholic majority of the people, and the desire of both for political and economic advantages to be gained from the subordination of the Church.
In Sweden—Finland, the turning-point came with the Diet of Vasteras in 1527; in Denmark, with that of Copenhagen in 1536. Schleswig-Holstein had in many respects already adopted Lutheranism in 1528. In Norway and Iceland, resistance towards the Reformation meant, at least for some people, resistance against national subordination under Denmark. Christian III’s handfastning (30 October 1536) abolished the Norwegian rigsrad since its majority had illegally seceded from the union with Denmark. In future, Norway was to be considered as a province of Denmark governed by the Danish rigsrad, a development in which the interests of the Danish aristocracy in Norwegian fiefs played a significant role. When Archbishop Olav Engelbrektson of Trondheim learnt that the Danish bishops had been imprisoned (12 August 1536) and that Lutheranism was being introduced as the official religion, he prepared for armed resistance, but was defeated and fled to the Low Countries, where he died in 1538.
Fifteenth-century Scandinavia shows the same tendencies towards the strengthening of princely authority which can be observed in other European countries. In the Nordic monarchies, however, these were reinforced by the victory of the Reformation. The Church disappeared as a political factor, and most of the spoils fell to the crown. In Finland and Sweden, burgesses and peasants were not excluded from political life at the diets, despite the fact that one of Gustav Vasa’s first tasks was to eliminate the mining districts of Dalarna as a political factor. Since the time of Engelbrekt, too many revolts had begun there.
In Denmark—Norway neither peasants nor burgesses now had recognised political powers, and diets (assemblies of estates) were seldom convoked during the remaining part of the sixteenth century. Moreover, most towns were still small and generally unable to influence political decisions. The late medieval administrations had sought support from the bourgeoisie and the peasantry against clergy and aristocracy; for the century after the Reformation the aristocracy was allowed to share power with the king, until, in its turn, it was eliminated in the middle of the seventeenth century.
The fifteenth century is important in Scandinavian history because the instruments of government were modernised and the independence of the Church was eroded until it fell at the Lutheran Reformation (which can be seen as the culmination of German cultural influence); because wealth and political power were concentrated in the hands of the higher aristocracy to the detriment of the gentry; because Lubeck’s dominating role in Scandinavian politics was curtailed in favour of the Low Countries; and, finally, because the fourteenth-century union of Sweden—Finland and Norway broke up, leaving Sweden and Finland alone and aligning Norway, Iceland and Holstein with Denmark. The composite monarchies thus formed were to last until the nineteenth century.