The First Hanseatic War
While Sweden and Norway were busy attacking Novgorod, Erik decided to take advantage of the Hanseatic League’s precarious situation, and declared war upon Holstein on the 7th of October. A rag-tag peasant army, supported by some thousand knights invaded Holstein, while the entire Royal Fleet was dispatched to the Sound, where a fleet from Mecklemburg and Pommern was driven back to port. Several Hanseatic ships were sunk.
The Danish war effort was less than brilliant. In January 1420, the entire army was driven back from Holstein, following an attack by forces from Mecklemburg and the Duchy of Holstein. Rumours had it that Erik had flogged one of the commanders afterwards. More troops were levied from every farm in Jylland. Erik was determined to win this war, no matter the costs. To cover his back from unwanted aggression, Erik managed to marry his niece to one of Henry V’s cousins, and also managed to marry into the royal house of Oldenburg.
Erik changed his strategy. He is quoted to say: “Why let the biggest fleet in the Baltic Sea remain unused and just rot in the harbour?”. Troops were landed in Mecklemburg, Holstein and Livland, and sieges were quickly instigated. By the 5th of August, Holstein fell. The army moved into Bremen, and in a bloody battle annihilated Bremens mercenary army. The Hansa was under pressure.
The worried elector of Hannover joined the coalition against Denmark, but as Mecklemburg fell to Erik’s now seemingly invincible troops, Hannover became the next victim of Denmark’s knights.
The Northern theatre saw Danish troops capture Livland, and moving out to be ferried to Pommern. After the fall of Lübeck, Danish knights attacked Stralsund in Vorpommern, burning several small villages on their way. Erik had instructed the knights to put the fear of Danebrog into the Pommeranians. "Show no mercy! Let the Pommeranians eat the scorched remains on their fields and smoked fish!", king Erik shouted to the knights assembled at the castle.
All was not well, as rats escaping from an arrested Hanseatic ship spread the Plague in Gotland. Nearly two thousand people died in Visby alone, rendering the city much like a ghost town.
By April 1423, Hannover accepted to become Denmark’s vassals. The battles against Pommern and the Teutons still raged on, and both Mecklemburg and Holstein refused to bow to Denmark’s demands of full annexation. Erik was furious. When confronted with these setbacks by his councillors, he went into a raging fit. By July, however, Pommern surrendered the city of Stralsund and the province Vorpommern to the Danish crown. It seemed as if Erik’s popularity at home was safe for now. After his knights had ravaged Hinterpommern and burnt the city of Stettin, the king of Pommern agreed to become a Danish vassal.
Mecklemburg’s rump army had sought refuge by taking Berlin from Brandenburg. Erik sent messengers to Brandenburg to get military access, and the elector prince agreed to Erik’s request. Danish armies poured into Berlin, having annihilated a small force of Mecklemburg’s Flemish mercenary troops, and liberated the city. The elector prince wrote a long letter, complimenting and thanking king Erik’s resolution. This alliance was cemented by the marriage of Erik’s young nephew and the elector prince’s youngest daughter in December 1423.
By October of 1423, Bremen agreed to become Denmark’s vassals, and Mecklemburg and Holstein ceased to exist as independent entities, and were swallowed by Denmark. The Hansa’s power was broken, and trade was once again in the hands of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. However, all was not well, as one of Erik’s closest allies, nobleman Søren Bjerregaard, was assassinated by a former Hanseatic official a month later.
January 1424 saw Sweden extracting Ingermanland, Kexholm, Karelia and Kola from Novgorod. A year later, Novgorod ceased to exist as a political entity as it was incorporated into the Greater Grand duchy of Muscowy. King Erik seized the opportunity to marry a daughter of the Grand Duke in Copenhagen the same year amidst grand celebrations.
The next few years were peaceful in Denmark. The rest of Christendom viewed king Erik and Denmark with suspicion, yes, in some cases even outright hostility. The kingdom’s territorial gains had severely damaged its reputation, which was rather bad.
