Father! Father!
It was October 21st 1448, and Martins 16th birthday, the day when he was to become an adult by the definition of Danish law. Martin was a blonde Swedish boy, quite tall for his age and living on a farm in southern Skåne which had been named Little Monks Mill, south of the town called Skurup. He had been born in Stockholm, but his family had moved to Skåne when he was young. He spoke Danish fluently and felt as Danish as he could do. His parents had made efforts to teach the boy Swedish, but they were quite fruit-less, not because it’s very hard for a Dane to learn Swedish, but rather because of Martin lacking the will to learn it.
There are some soldiers here! They say they want to speak with you. They say they bear message form the king he called his father. After him followed six horsemen, five of them with coats of arms and one carrying a large piece of paper. When they reached the yard of the farm where Martins father Mats was, the horsemen jumped off their horses.
So well, let’s hear what they have to say. Please, tell me why you are here, can I help you?
I bring message from His Majesty Christian I of Denmark the unarmed horseman said in a way that hinted he was an important man and a man to pay attention to.
I wish to bring you this letter The man handed over the piece of paper which Martin now saw wore the seal of the King of Denmark himself to Martins father.
It is an order from his Majesty, he wants your son
Martin’s father looked like he has gotten a punch in the face. After some seconds he responded, with a little shaky voice
My son? Why?
As you may now, Denmark is in horrible shape. His Majesty has annexed three northern duchies, despite the protests of the rest of Europe, and they now threaten to declare war on us. Denmark has not a single friend in Europe. His Majesty is in great need of counselling, and he has decided your son is the man for that job.
But why him?
His great great great great great great great great great great grand father was the advisor of one of the most successful rulers in history, we must have him. He’s got valuable blood, and his Majesty believes Martin will show great wisdom in his counselling.
The men then put Martin behind the unarmed mans horse, and rode away, ignoring his father’s protests.[/i]
*
Martin arrived to Copenhagen at January 4th 1449. It had been a pleasurable trip, since Martin was now a man of the King he got the best food there was to get and he slept in the best beds there was in every town he arrived in. He thought it was great, and he didn’t pay his family a thought at all during the trip. When he arrived at the castle of Denmark he was stunned by its greatness. The walls were three times as high as the one separating his farms yard from the rest of their land. He got one night sleep at a farm outside the city before the big day and although he had been the Kings man for 2½ month now, he still thought it was quite weird that he, a newly become adult, got the bed of the land owner. The land owner himself had to sleep in the kitchen.
Next day he got up early, and was ushered to the Royal Palace once again. He was led into the Throne Room immediately, and was ordered to wait until the King spoke to him
King Christian: Well done Van Engel, you succeeded in your plans, but with a little to much Danish blood lost I feel, this is why I must drop you as my Advisor.
Van Engel: What?!?! But I’m the best thing that has happened to Denmark!
King Christian: Sorry my Friend, I will keep you on as one of my counselors, but Martin will be my new Advisor.
Van Engel: What?!?! Flamey? He sucks at this kinda stuff!
King Christian: Be that as it may, he will be the new Advisor.
Van Engel: NOOOOOOOOOOOO……
King Christian smiled and looked at Martin
Flamey, or shall I say Martin? Flamey is the code name we use for you here
Martin nodded
I understand your Majesty he said, although he didn’t understand at all.
You will be my new advisor. You got good blood Martin, I hope you will not make me disappointed
I wont, your Majesty
I’m glad to hear that, now on with your work. What shall we do? The world hates us
Martin had a quick look at the map
I think we shall release Bremen your Majesty. If you allow, I’d say it was not a very good idea to annex them. It will also secure our border westwards. Our navy is strong enough to protect us on sea, and Bremen will be a nice buffer state.
Brilliant! The King clapped his hand
Shall we get them into our alliance too?
Yes, I’d say that is a good thing to do, but that will make us leave the Russian alliance though
No problem, I’ll do that right away!
Said and done, the alliance was left when Suzdal declared war on the Golden Horde, and a new alliance was created with the newly independent state of Bremen. After that, Martin decided it was best to wait. Time heals all wounds, and Denmark’s reputation had a huge wound which would take some time to heal.
1454 the Russians were done with the war against the Mongols and decided to take revenge on Denmark for dishonouring their alliance. The declaration of war was received at March 7th that year and Danish troops which had been stationed in Lübeck to protect it from eventual German attackers were loaded on the 55 ship Danish navy and transported up the norweigan coast all the way to Trondheim in the province of Trøndelag.
Danish troops rushing to the aid of their norwegian countrymen
As the Russians moved into Norway taking the Narvik and Finnmark colonies, the Danish army was split and one half of it was sent to Jämtland, to defend it from the Russian 8000 men strong horde. The Russians soon realized what they had gotten themselves into, when they started to lack food and water at the mountains of northern Norway, but instead of retreating back to their homeland, they began to move down to Jämtland. Danish scouts of course saw this, so the Trøndelag army was ordered do go to Jämtland and help the defence force there. The Russian army was crushed and Martin ordered a defence project to start being built immediately in Finnmark, to protect it from the Russian invaders. This however meant that Finnmark’s population had to be multiplied by 10, so Martin sent 900 workers there to begin building the fortification. This of course took a while so during the meantime a 3000 men strong Danish force patrolled the area so that no Russians would come through.
The First Swedish War
In 1457 when Denmark still was at war with Russia, the Swedes declared war upon us, and most of the Jämtland and Trøndelag armies were quickly ordered to board the ships in Trondheim again to get transported down to Skåne and defend the cities there. It was after all Martins home province and he wouldn’t want his family hurt by Swedish invaders. The armies got distracted by some minor Swedish and Russian troops though, and when the armies arrived there, Skåne was captured and Martins family had been killed.
This made Martin furious, he told the soldiers to kill every Swede they see, and a new cavalry regiment was raised in Copenhagen while the Danish fleet was guarding the Sund, sinking every Swedish ship it saw. When the Copenhagen Regiment, combined with the strengths of the Trøndelag and Jämtland Regiments reached Skåne the guarding Swedish force there had a snowballs chance in hell to get away from the furious Danish cavalry. The battle was won on three days, and not a single Swede survived.
When finally Lund, the capital of Skåne fell, Danish troops moved northwards into the provinces of Västergötland and Småland. Sweden, which obviously saw the danger in having Danish troops so near Stockholm, ordered their army which was currently sieging Jämtland down, and the Danish troops retreated to Skåne instead, which was more open and profitable for the Danish cavalry as an eventual battleground.
Now followed some years of building up both countries’ armies. Although there were some small disputes in both southern Sweden and Norway, they were quite minor. So, when 1461 came by Denmark sent two 5k armies to besiege the two southernmost provinces of Sweden, and the main Danish army stayed in Skåne, ready to protect the two from eventual aggressive movement from the Swedish army in Svealand. The Swedish army started moving to Småland, and the Danish cavalry of course rushed there to their countrymen’s aid. The battle lasted for long and was bloody, but ended with a Danish victory. The Swedish army retreated to Sveland, and the Danish cavalry followed them. Meanwhile, a small Norwegian force moved in from Jämtland to siege Gävle, the capital of Gästrikland.
It took about a year for the cities to fall, and a small Danish army moved into Västerbotten. This made Sweden realize the was was lost, and Gästrikland, Lappland, Västergötland and Småland was given to Denmark. Peace was also signed with the Russians. This was 1463
One year of peace followed, which was broken in 1464 by Pommern who declared war on the Kingdom of Denmark alone, hoping that others would join her. They didn’t, and Danish cavalry overrun them outside Lübeck, and moved on to siege the capital. It fell in 1466, and the King of Pommern was made a vassal under the Danish king. Relations immediately improved, and Pommern was invited into his Majesty’s alliance
The Second Swedish War
Summer 1469. Russia once again declared war, and Sweden followed. This time Denmark had no problem with Russia though, since the fortification in Finnmark made it hard for them to get through. The problem was Sweden who had raised a 50 000 men strong army in Stockholm during the last few years. The King of Sweden immediately moved these men northwards, towards Gästrikland and Gävle.
Gotta take that Gästrikland key province you know...
That proved to be a huge mistake. The Gästrikland wilderness was harsh and The King’s troops soon found themselves without food or water and people died like flies. When only half of the Kings’ men were left, the Danish King moved his army to siege Stockholm, which was now undefended. The Swedish troops finally decided to leave Gästrikland to defend their capital, but they experienced a crucial defeat outside the walls against combined Danish and German troops. Then there was only a matter of time before Sweden and Finland was overrun.
Finland is getting overrun
In the peace deal of 1478 was written that Sweden gives up the provinces of Bergslagen and Västerbotten, and the Swedish King will become a Danish vassal.
Martin was liked by the King but many people in Denmark disliked him. The peasantry was unhappy several times during the time he ruled since he was a Swede, and the clergy sighted meteors all over the sky in an attempt to make people angry with the king’s new advisor. January 4th, exactly 30 years after he had been appointed advisor, he was stabbed to death on the streets of Copenhagen.
Denmark as of 1479