Dansketida
A time of growth or 400 years of
night?
Background 1
Pre-historic times
• Stone Age
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age
Background 2
The Viking Age
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Norvegr
The rise of the king
The rise of the church
The rise of trade
The rise and the fall (?) of the peasant
In the hall of the Norwegian king
Background 3
The Golden Age
• 1202-1349
• Norway proper, IoM, The Hebrides. The
Orkneys, The Shetland Is, The Faroes, Iceland,
Greenland, Vineland
• Peace
• Growing population
• A great cathedral
Background 4
The Plague
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1349
Bergen og Oslo
50-75% died
SPECulate!
King
Nobility
Church
Common man
What was the Danish era all
about
Hisytorians in the 19th century:
• strong Norwegian resistance:
greatly influenced by 1814
• "Denmark's political crime against Norway"
(Nikolai Wergeland 1816)
• The first historians in Norway took the Danish
paragraph about submission literally
• And - Norway was dominated stronger than other
parts of Europe
Modern
• quiet growth undisturbed by the Danish
state (harmony vision)
• N ready to stand on its own feet in 1814
• Historians today: Norway were treated
differently than the other regions
• The Danish King inheritance rights of
Norway was important.
• Fight between King and nobility of the
period/National Council
• A peace need because of Swedish rivalry
• Counterfact history: But how would
the development have been without
Denmark?
• Norway is a raw material supplier
• Mercantile policies - An active state
• At the edge of a rapid development in
Western Europe: The major discovries
• A Europe of tension:
E + P <> GB/NL + GB<>F + NL<>GB +
S<>DK + S<>RUS + (D)
Daily life
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Farmers got a better life after 1349
But constant pest waves
More emphasis on livestock and fish
The population at the level of 1349: c 1650
High population only at the coast - west and
north
• Hanseatic trade: fishing - the good times
• Local Parliaments again important
Kingdoms of change
• 1319 Swedish Norwegian king under
• Magnus Eriksson +
• 1363 marries Margaretha, daughter of Valdemar
Atterdag of Denmark
• >>> changing kingdom between three Nordic
countries from that time of
• 1380-87 Olav Håkonsson king of the DK / N union
• Died "supposedly" of pneumonia 16 years old
• 1388-1412 Queen Margareta controls three
countries
• Kalmar Union 1397-1523
• 1468-70 Orkney Shetland gone forever (?)
The National Council
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One in DK, one in N
20-40: nobility and top clergy
Only a maximum of 10 nobles
The Arch Bishop becomes the leader rather than a chancellor, who
is unimportant in Norway
DK afraid of new positions of power in Norway and did not app oint
national officials to the National Council
A counterweight to the king:
The appointment of region rulers, financial matters, privileges, laws,
trade, foreign ...
Nobleman Amund Sigurdsson Bolt 1436-7: Towards Erik of
Pomerania
>>> foreign power weakened, strengthened national N.C.
Telemark Bonde Halvar Gråtopp 1438-39 rebels. No Results
• King Christoffer (of Bavaria) died
childless
• Sweden and Denmark wanted union a
with Norway
• Christian 1: king 1450. DK in the
union from 1458
• treaty of eternal union between two
equal kingdoms (DK & N)
• a choice of king made by the National
Council
Economy
The Hanseatic trade union
• Bergen, Oslo and Tønsberg factoria for
• Lübeck / Rostock
• The credit gave them entry
• A state within the state
• Very dominant and exploited fishermen
• Customs abolished for the Hansa in 1343
• But the Hansa and other immigrants: expertise and
capital
• Trade was important - increased use of money
• Oddevall city because this 1498
Trade routes
Governing
• DK / S - more and better soil
• The nobility there and clerical landowners were
richer and more powerful
• Private Castles (fortified) (Norway Olav only E)
• Castles were militarily important +
• Knights and professional foot soldiers
• Norway divided into Counties
• Sheriffs exercised royal duty
• From Båhus to Vardøhus
• Two main regions (amt): Bergenhus and Akershus
Eilif Peterssen: Christian II signs the death sentence of Torben Oxe (1875-76) .
Troubles: Sweden
• attempts to acquire all the power
in Sweden:
• Rebellion under Sten Sture
• C2 wins and gives amnesty to the
Sture party and crowned in
Stockholm
• But: The Blood Bath of Stockholm
Market Square: 94 massacred 7.10. november 1520
• 1521-23: Uprising under Gustaf
Vasa - C2 to Netherlands
• Gustaf Vasa starts the Swedish
rising kingdom: DK / S-rivalry
Troubles: Denmark
• The Norwegian State Council declares Norway
without a king.
• Fredrik 1 crowned king rapidly - in Denmark
• Danish National Council members to Norway
• Fredrik >>> 1 king, but his Carta strengthened
the national council
• C2 a threat from abroad - back in 1531 N with
great strength - but all waned away in
Båhuslän
• F1 die as 1533 in a very unclear political
position
Problembarnet Norge
• Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson
comes from Rome in 1523
• F1 up for Lutheran clergy
• >>> strong conflict with Olav
Engelbrektsson:
• Steinvikholm + fortress built
warships and soldiers to Nidaros
• Archbishop approached C2
(Catholic), but he was
imprisoned in DK
Troubles: Norway
• Lübeck merchants chose the king's son Duke Christian as its
candidate
• national council, with Archbishop Olav in lead, a cautious
approach
• Vincens Lunge sent to find a Catholic king
• But Lunge was Lutheran and put his efforts for Duke
Christian
• (- Archbishop should be + Lunge)
• Archbishop Olav Engelbrektson got Lunge murdered
• refused to honor King Christian 3: made ​in January 1536 an
coup
• Had to flee Escape - the Norwegian State Council
terminated
• 1536 nobleman Peder Hanssøn Litle into the Oslo
Fjord
• Cracks the rebellious Norway
• Magnus Bishop of Hamar leads a riot
• All resistance ends at Steinvikholm Fortress - 18th
of May 1537:
• Archbishop OE to Netherlands
• The Danish National Council continued
• Norway becomes a region in the Kingdom of
Denmark (called the paragraph by historians)
The Reformation
• Martin Luther in 1517
• The new faith quickly became popular:
• princes could take control of church property and
religious practices
• religion: created many churches, good preachers
using local language not latin
• Summer 1537 - C3 ordered all church property
under the crown
• Luther himself approved the Danish church
ordinance
• adopted by a lord’s meeting in Odense 1537 (all
Danish)
• Nevertheless, it should apply to Norway
• C3 had a strong personal faith in the Reformation
• But also had major financial problems
• tremendous growth of the crown estate + tithe
and the treasures of the church
• the monarchical looting went further in Norway
than in Denmark despite greater resistance
• a quiet introduction of Lutheran
church practice in the churches:
Catholic priests could continue
if they changed their belief
• quickly established a
confessional state with Christian
3 as state head of the church
• quickly in DK, slowly in N: more
imbalance/resistance
• Reformation implied a stronger
influence of the Danish
language: A majority of the
priests Danish and all educated
in Denmark
• psalms in Danish
A growing population
• lowest level in the mid 1400s
• In the tax lists from 1520: 150 000
• The first census in 1769: 880,000
• Until 1665 equal growth
• then higher level of growth in the
eastern parts
• Particularly strong growth in the 1800s
Grey: all Norway
Light orange: Eastern Norway
Dark orange: Coastal Norway
• Water- saw mills / mining opened new
markets
• the greatest economic expansion that country
until then had experienced
• tenants in the late Middle Ages unusually free
• Fisherman-farmers were common along the
coast
• Additional industries: timber, home industry,
driving to mines
Christian 4 - 1588/1596-1648
• Norway friend and a lady friend
• Often in Norway, concerned with
the North, founded towns and
mines
• Christiania, Christiansand and
Konningsberg (+ in DK / S / D)
• Founded Icelandic-, the Greenlandand the Danish East India
Companies
• Sent "Norwegian" lord and son
Jens Munk to the Northwest
Passage in 1619
• Economically active: mercantilism
• Politics - Norway should pay off
• Not always a blessing - had to buy expensive
Danish grain (-Baltic) and sell cheap goods to
Denmark
• Great Power Ambitions: the fleet upgraded
(Norwegian seamen!)
• but the army was not good enough –
mercenaries used to a great extent
• expensive German mercenaries in the
Kalmar War 1611-1613
• A kind of victory - more or less the last
time
• 1625 in Denmark
• the German "religious war": Thirty
Years' War 1618-1648
• 20,000 men in Germany: Crushed by
Johann Tserclaes Tilly and Albrecht von
Wallenstein - occupation and plunder
of Jutland
• Ditto in 1643 - Swedish troops
• The peace of Bromsebro - Jämtland,
Härjedalen, Gotland, Osel, Halland
The supreme king: 1660-1814 (1848)
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The background:
1) Changes in local government
2) and central government (professional, not birth)
3) Governor Hannibal Sehested outmaneuvered: the Norwegian danger
4) New wars - Carl Gustav Wars 1657-60: DK / RUS / Preuss - S
Karl X Gustav in Jutland and later across the ice to Copenhagen - NL to
the rescue
Two peace treaties:
Peace of Roskilde in 1658: - Scania, Halland (for good), Blekinge,
Bornholm, Bohuslän, Trøndelag and Nordmøre, all lost
Treaty of Copenhagen 1660: Bornholm, Trøndelag and Nordmøre back
>>> Financial crisis (causative)
5) The emergence of a bourgeoisie
6) >>>> bourgeoisie supported the king
7) The nobility less important. County arrangement military (prof /
fleet important), inc. Crisis (debt) etc >>> weakened
8) Split nobility (petty nobility) / clergy.
• In autumn 1660 the Danish
common assembly gathers:
only used for taxes and
gathered only in rare cases
• Government debt: 5 million
thalers
• Disagreements over the
distribution of tax –
• The nobility had originally a
military function – feudalism:
No tax
• No agreement: endless discussions
>>> zero
• Citizens and clergy (50%) suggests
the transfer of the inheritance of the
F3 to his family to weaken the
nobility
• The nobility refuses, but is under
pressure
• F3 declares state of emergency and
closes Cph to force the nobilty to
accept
• The national council ceases to exist
Northern Norway
• Crisis in Northern Norway in 1300-s
• The good times, 1450-1600:
• Administrative structure changed
• Major changes: 1500-1600:
• The outermost island?
• Fisherman population pay loads
of tax – they earn more than the
average farmer
• Hard taxation of the Sami
• A culture clash?
North
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Reformation, etc.
1) Fish prices go down.
2) Trading network fails.
3) Colder and wetter climate
>> Norwegians seeking additional industries
The Norwegian coastal settlement decreasing:
1567 - 2750 Norwegians
1690 - 2450 -"1769 - 1800 -"1801 - 1700 -"-
• In 1660, only boundary changes in north positive
• The Great Northern War 1700-1721
• S (Carl XII) takes on the rest
• Battle of Narva in 1700
• 8000 S faces perhaps 80,000 RUS
• 600 S dead, 15,000 RUS dead
• Battle of Poltava in 1709
• 21,000 to 45,000
• 10,000 dead and wounded S, 1300 RUS
• No changes for N, but S was out as a great
power
• Losing everything outside S: SF, Baltics
• Carl XII killed in a siege in Halden, Norway (by
his own or a “lucky” bullet?)
The towns
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6-8% from 1500 to 10% in 1800
Citizens: trade, crafts and Shipping
Workers
Citizens decided who would become citizens
Merchants were the elite, craftsmen not
Fellowships
Foreign elements - 50% in 1600 Bergen
Tension
• Farmers-crofters
• Citizens-workers
• Farmers-citizens
Food
• As in 1349 - livestock and grain. Grain in
mountain villages and north. Oats or barley or
mixed grain (o & b)
• Small animals – starved during the winter
• Hunting, fishing and gathering.
• 400,000 barrels of grain imported
• an overview of calorie production in Norway
including imports and supplementary production
- enough calories.
• Porridge was the most common eating
The fisheries
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cod and herring - fishing season
Ups and downs
Lofoten great fishing before 1620, 1740, 1800
Herring disappeared c 1785-1815
>>> Conservation and trade
Open wooden boats with sail and oars
Handlines, longlines and nets. Local production
Traders in the conservation and sale
Skogbruket
• Saw mills from 1500
• Increasing production of boards
• House- and ship building in Europe created a demand
• From Oslo Fjord to Bergen - along streams and rivers
• The nature under pressure>>> 1688 Sawmills privileges
(only export from particular mills)
• Stopping exploitation and increase prices. Prevent
foreigners from buying whole forests and rivers
Mining
• Also from 1500, but particularly from
1650
• Three types:
• Ca.20 ironworks from Arendal to Eidsvoll
• Ca.10 copper plants N-eastern and Tr.Lag
• Biggest of all: Silver in Kongsberg. 4000
miners in 1770 (max)
• Large consumers of wood +
transportation to and from: farmers
New 1700s
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5 new iron works from 1739 to 1776:
Salt Work at Vallø (Tønsberg) and four glassworks
(Nøstetangen, Ås, Hurdal, Hadeland)
blue color (cobalt) mine
• Foreigners
• Citizens (and king) main owner
• Often partisipantselskap (part ownership)
Shipping
• Transport, fishing and trade - as "always"
• Ships were often foreign: 1651 – The Navigation
Act - opportunities in England, though
• F / NL / GB rivalry - opportunities for neutral
countries of little importance
• 1670-96 - quadrupled fleet in tonnage
• 1750 - 500 ships. 1807: 1600. 12,000 employees
• All in all, >>>> growth and variation
Daily life
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Local focus
Danish into the church and school:
Gap between dialect and Danish
The elite bought art - little locally created
The only university in Cph
Gerhard Schønning: First Norwegian history
1770 published
The regions
of Norway
1760