-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Fact box: A short history of Danes in Greenland
In an effort to the regain prestige and stability, Christians advisors came up with a great plan. In 982 the Icelandic chief Erik Raudi had discovered a land West of Iceland, were he had settled with his household. Soon many more followed him there. In 1261, the island became part of the Norwegian kingdom, but for years, no sign of life had been heard from Greenland. If Christian was to send a mission to find out what had happened to the settlements, a lot of internal and external prestige could be gained, maybe along with the riches of fur and bone that could be gathered at the coast of Greenland. In 1481, the captain Oluf Schlentz set sail for Iceland with three ships of the royal fleet. He was to stay a short while in Reykjavik to resupply before sailing for Greenland. In August of that year, he arrived at the coast of Eiriksfjord, or the Eastern Settlement, where the cathedral of Gardar was supposed to be. For two weeks they sailed along the coast, seeing wast green plains and deep iceblue fiords, but no signs of life, no smoke rising from the chimneys of farms or ships sailing out to fish. They did, however, see flocks of cattle roaming wild. This led the crew to believe, that a curse had hit the settlements, and they refused to go inland to explore what might be there. So Schlentz returned to Copenhagen, only to return the next year with more ships and a landing force led by a man from Sjælland called Troels Lingby. When the men reached Gardar, they found the settlement abandonded, with no trace of men. Or at least of Christian men. For near the beach, they found a strange boat only suitable for one man and made of sealskin. They also found different tools made of bone, which certainly did not look like anything made by norse settlers. And, more disturbingly, they found the still warm ashes of a bonfire. The men made it for the ships, and stayed there overnight. The next day, a small expedition was send further inland, and came hurrying back, telling strange and unbelievable tales.
"[They] had found a small group of people with black hair, dark brown eyes and dark skin. They had the most hiddeous faces, broad and flat and their eyes were only thin cracks in their face. They were almost naked and spoke in a way that was unlike anything tongue in Christendom. As I found this hard to believe, I myself went inland. After a good hour of walking, we found the camp, and saw that the men had spoken nothing but truth. The people were smaller than a normal man, but seemed strong. They invited us to sit with them, even if they did seem a bit hostile. I entertained myself with them for some hours, eating the meat of a sealhound, which they boiled in a large pot on a fire made from burning a fatty oil in a lamp of soapstone. They did not speak any word which could be recognized, but they surely had never seen a man as large and pale as myself. Tomorrow we shall go North, to see if the settlements there are still inhabited, though I fear the worst after seeing the sorry state of Gardar".
from the diary of Troels Lingby
View of modern day Christiania/Nuuk
When the expedition sailed further North, they found a large group of the small brown people, hundreds of them, who seemed to have gathered for Summer trading. They also greeted the expedition somewhat hostilely. Troels Lingby offered them some pearls and wollen cloth, which they seemed very happy to own. The expidition invited a few of them aboard and served them beer, which they drank with great thirst, before getting drunk and falling asleep. That night, when the men were sleeping on the ships, a large number of the primitive people sailed out in their small boats, and climbed aboard to look for their friends. In the Greenlandic night, the sun never went down, so the guards quickly saw them and alarmed the rest of the ship. The sailors got out of their beds, and a large battle broke out in which most of the brown men were killed, as they had brought no other weapons than small knives. The ships then set sail for Denmark, bringing the first guests, who were still passed out drunk, with them.
To of the men, who were around twenty at the time, survived the travel, and were later christened, taking the names Zakæus and Peter. When they learned Danish they told strange tales of their people, the Inuit, and its customs. They also explained, that the white men, the qallunaat, as they called them, had lived to the South for ages, and had both traded with and fought the Inuit, before disappearing completely. Zakæus’ grandfather had seen them as a boy, meaning that they must have disappeared around the 1420’ies og 30’ies. What became of them is not known.
The statue of Hans Lingby at Gardar/Igaliku
For twenty years expeditions would leave Denmark for Greenland, trading with the natives, but no permanent attempt at settling was made, as the state was not capable of giving enough financial support for the settlers. In 1499, after the large indemnities paid in the second war of the tripple alliance, and with the advances made in the royal shipwrights, enabling the ships to carry more goods over long distances, an attempt was made at resetling in Gardar. This was done with the encouragement of the archbishop in Lund, who wanted to expand his authority further, bringing the true faith to the heathen Inuit. One of the leaders of the settlement was Troels Lingbys son Hans, who had thaught himself some Inuit from Peter and Zakæus. After living among the Inuit for most of his life, he wrote the first book on their language. He landed at Gardar on the second of September 1499 and never left Greenland again. By 1504 the colony numbered 1000 Danish, Norweigan, Swedish, Baltic and German settlers and around 300 christened Inuit. These people lived primarily at Gardar, but also several other places in South Greenland, sending fish back to Copenhagen were the Royal Greenlandic Trade was soon established. Although Greenland never became a large source of income to the Union State, it would become an important bridgehead in the later colonization of Vinland.
This bishops staff was found when refurbishing the cathedral at Gardar, and has been used by the local bishops ever since. It is made of whale tusk and presumed to be from around 1200
Last edited:
Yaaaay Scandinavians return to take lands they rightfuly own. How do you say `United States of America` in Danish ? 
De forenede stater af Amerika
Or more correctly Amerikas forenede stater.
You keep teasing about some wars.. Sounds good.
Or more correctly Amerikas forenede stater.
You keep teasing about some wars.. Sounds good.
Yaaaay Scandinavians return to take lands they rightfuly own. How do you say `United States of America` in Danish ?
What's America, again? You mean Vinland?
It is- in a way. If a three front war is ever good..
Greenland- Jewel of the Danish crown...
Yes, and even more so than Memmel
Update, update, update, we want update... yes, yes, impatient ...
Took words outta my mouth!:rofl::rofl:
Hi!
Sorry for the recent lack of updates- and, if you are anything like me, sorry for making you think "oh, he's written on the thread, UPDATE!". Cause it's not an update. It's just me telling you, that my girlfriend and I are taking care of my cousin this week, which means I'm away from my notes. So no updates before (at least) Saturday... Have a nice week
Sorry for the recent lack of updates- and, if you are anything like me, sorry for making you think "oh, he's written on the thread, UPDATE!". Cause it's not an update. It's just me telling you, that my girlfriend and I are taking care of my cousin this week, which means I'm away from my notes. So no updates before (at least) Saturday... Have a nice week
Chapter XIII: The War of the Tripple Alliance
The coat of arms of the house of Pomerania
The coat of arms of the house of Pomerania
After being defeated in what is known as the war of independence, the kingdom of Lithuania spent several years licking its wounds. The futile claims on the Danish throne had been the cause of three wars, and resultet in the loss of all Baltic possesions and a Danish expansion inland. The military supperiority that had been build up durring the wars on the Ottoman Empire and Hungary was lost, as thousands of young men were killed and the state coffers were dried up. So when Stanislovas, the grandson of Frederik I, was replaced by his son Kazimier, one of the new kings first decisions was to shift the focus eastward. The Russian states of Muscowy and Novgorod were weak, but rich, and could serve as a good replacement for the lands lost to the West. Lithuania would not be able to break the Danish hegemony in the Baltic region for years to come, so another source of income was needed. So in March of 1483, king Kazimier invaded Muscowy. Muscowy had long been in a defensive alliance with Denmark and Poland, but the alliance had never been honoured, so Kazimier was expecting a walkover against a weak Muscowy. What he had not taken into acount was, that the Tripple Alliance was aimed against Lithuanian aggression, and that a Lithuania rich from conquest in the East was not a prospect that Denmark or Poland would take lightly. So for the first time in the history of the alliance, all three members vowed full commitment to a war. So as the main Lithuanian army fought the Muscovites on the Eastern border, Danish and Polish troops moved in from the North and the West, while a smaller Polish army was sent to fight off Meissen, an ally of Kazimier.
Poland was by far the weakest member of the Alliance, not counting the minor allies of Denmark who also fought in the war. Durring years of internal unrest, Poland had been crippled. Meanwhile, the kings of Hungary and Bohemia had their eyes fixed on Polish lands. Hungary was aiming to unite all of Central Europe after securing their Balkan Empire, and the king of Bohemia was eager to rebuild the country to its former glory after loosing land in several wars. So as the main army of Poland moved into Lithuania, the two kings launched a joined attack on the countrys southern border. Muscowy and Denmark once again honoured the alliance and declared war, even if Muscowy would never actually fight any other armies than the Lithuanian. Christian, however, sent his large army of Germany, which usually protected the Southern borders of Denmark against any imperial incursions.
Even in the face of a large invading army, the king of Poland kept his troops in Lithuania. This left the Danish troops as the only serious protection of Poland, a situation that was in no way sustainable. So by the fall of 1484, most of Poland was occupied by enemy forces, and a humiliating peace was signed whereby Poland released Krakow and Ukraine as sovereign states and let the Teutonic Order, which had been incorporated as a religious movement within the Polish state in the 1430’ies, in sovereign control of the entire Polish coast.
Meanwhile, the war in the East was not going well for Muscowy, as Lithuania had gotten the upper hand. Christian sent more troops to draw away the attention of Kazimier, which worked in so far as Muscovite troops began reconquering the lost lands, but without Polish support the war soon went into a stalemate.
Then, in 1486, England once again invaded the Orkneys. The small expiditionary force that had been left on the island proved no match for the English invaders, since the shipment of troops to Orkney had been cut short by a large pirate fleet led by the traitor Oluf Piil and his noble allies, who were now ravaging the North Sea. The Royal English Navy set sail for Denmark and fought the pirates on their way. This quick defeat of a pirate fleet, that had been a constant nuissance to the Danish king, underscored the supperior naval power of England. Once in the Baltic, however, the English troops were no real match for Christians armies. A peace was signed with Lithuania, ending the war in a status quo, releasing the manpower necessary to defeat the English invasion.
As the war dragged on, and Southern Sweden was sacked several times by English invaders, the Danish peasants grew tired of the war. In 1489 a large peasant uprising against the drafting of ever more young men, broke out in the countryside of Roskilde on Sjælland, and quickly spread to most of the island. In a matter of weeks, the peasants were marching on Copenhagen to demand a stop on taxation and drafting. Faced with this large crowd armed with pitforks, axes and skythes, and with an English fleet blocking the straits of Øresund and Storebælt for passage of the royal armies to rescue the capital, Christian was forced to sign a peace in which he gave up the Orkneys and released the duke of Münster from his bonds of vassalage.
For the first time in more than a century, Scandinavian people were now under the yoke of forreign rule, and the prestige of the crown had taken a heavy blow. The peace also meant, that the entirity of the British isles, except Southern Ireland, was under English rule. On the 5th of June 1492, King Adolphus I pronounced himself king of Greater Britain and Ireland, lord of the Northern Seas.
With the German emperor sitting in Cleves and no real threat to the south, Christian, and with him the Union, had found a new enemy. The British had attacked the Union twice in a decade, and were now surpressing the Norse population the Orkneys. Christian made a promise, that not only his loyal subjects on Orkney, but all oppressed people, should be freed from the English. In this quest, the old perception of Southern, Latininspired cultures, i.e. English and German, opposed to, and usualy bullying, the Northern, Celticinspired cultures, i.e. Gaellic and Scandinavian, was once again invoked. Christian fancied himself a leader in this greater war of cultures, much in the same way as his uncle Vilhelm had been in the wars against the Emperor. The excommunication by the Roman pope was only another proof of this.
Last edited:
Yaaaay. Damn the Englishmen, shatter them and send them to hell. As for the Order, I must say, I am glad that Poland dosn't rule the coast anymore, but I sense that the Order will stand in your way soon.
Ha! Well, now that you've been ex-d, you can go have fun smashing everyone! March, march Daneland!
March, march Daneland!
Resurected
Hi all
First of all, a profound excuse for my absence. I have been 100% concentrated on my Bachelor Project for the last two months, and finished it three weeks ago. Then I had an exam and an oral presentation of the project, which both went great but took a lot of time. After all this hassle I needed to spend some time with my friends and, especially, my girlfriend who has been half busy half very patient for the last month. And what better way to do so than going to a music festival for a week (YAY! ROSKILDE!)
Well, the point is, that I have no control of my notes anymore, so, with your permission, I will make a little jump in the story and resume it in October of 1523, that is 30 years after the new enemy, Great Britain, first entered the stage.
I hope you will still follow this fight for cultural independence and a unified Scandinavia. The next post, which will try to show where we stand in 1523 and also chronicle a war against two old enemies, will be posted as soon as possibly, if not tonight, then tomorrow.
Again, sorry for the long delay, and I hope some of you will jump back on this waggon
Cheers
Salik
Hi all
First of all, a profound excuse for my absence. I have been 100% concentrated on my Bachelor Project for the last two months, and finished it three weeks ago. Then I had an exam and an oral presentation of the project, which both went great but took a lot of time. After all this hassle I needed to spend some time with my friends and, especially, my girlfriend who has been half busy half very patient for the last month. And what better way to do so than going to a music festival for a week (YAY! ROSKILDE!)
Well, the point is, that I have no control of my notes anymore, so, with your permission, I will make a little jump in the story and resume it in October of 1523, that is 30 years after the new enemy, Great Britain, first entered the stage.
I hope you will still follow this fight for cultural independence and a unified Scandinavia. The next post, which will try to show where we stand in 1523 and also chronicle a war against two old enemies, will be posted as soon as possibly, if not tonight, then tomorrow.
Again, sorry for the long delay, and I hope some of you will jump back on this waggon
Cheers
Salik
Chapter XIV: An ever expanding union
The coat of arms of the house of Pomerania
The coat of arms of the house of Pomerania
Following the excommunication of king Christian, the monasteries closed, and with them and their annals, the primary source of information durring this period disappeared. From archeological evidence and the annals of German monasteries and courts, the history can be somewhat reconstructed. Following the peace with Great Britain, Christian turned his attention to rebuilding the country.
In 1497, Lithuania declared war on Muscowy, while the king of Poland tried to stop the expansion of Brandenburg by declaring war on him. Christian came to the aid of his allies, and conquered the kingdom of Meissen as his vassal. King Kazimier of Lithuania was defeated and payed a handsome ransom for his captital after the conquest in 1499. Using these new funds, Christian established permanent colonies in Grønland.
Christian died in 1507 and was replaced by his son, Frederik, the second king of that name. Shortly after ascending the throne, Frederik passed the Act of Protection, which declared the vassal duchy of Mecklenburg a royal estate, and all the people of those lands as subjects of the Danish-Swedish crown. By this move, the Union king became a major power in Northern Germany, challenging the power of the Emperor more than ever.
Frederik was 32 when he ascended the throne, the oldest man ever to be crowned king of the two thrones. Due to his long time as heir, he was also one of the best educated kings ever in the Union, and was familiar with the Icelandic sagas. According to the Vinlandsaga, Eirik Raudi, who discovered Greenland had a son, Leif, who sailed further West and found a fertile land, which he called Vinland, the Good. Frederik sent out an expedition to see if the sagas were true, and on the third anniversary of his reign, in 1410 the expedition came back to Copenhagen telling of a land with large forests and plenty of fish and game, which could be hunted for fur. Frederik installed the Royal Vinland Trading Company, KVH (Kongelige Vinlandske Handel) as a part of the 30 years old KGH, and made a fund for anybody willing to establish a tradingpost in Vinland. Halfway through the 1510’s, the first Danish settlement in Vinland, Frederikstad, was established and thriving with more than 1000 inhabitants, so that by October 1523, when the third war of the Tripple Alliance broke out, the Danish realm looked like this:
In Europe, Denmark-Sweden and Norway were two seperate kingdoms in a personal union under Frederik. Estland, Kurland, Livland and the swampy regions of Neva and Ingermanland were duchies under the Danish-Swedish crown, while the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck with surrounding lands were former parts of the Empire, now under protection by the Danish-Swedish king.
To the far West, Greenland and Vinland were Danish settlements, were immigrants from all over the Union lived with the native population. In 1523, the distinct Scandi-Inuit cultures, that we know today, were not yet established.
Last edited:
Quite an impressive Union there, I'd say! Nice work, sir, the stronger you are in Germany the stronger you are overall...
Nice work, sir, the stronger you are in Germany the stronger you are overall...