The North Remembers - Short(ish) AAR

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Do you ever feel that the campaign you're playing would make a great after action report, but you are already too far to start? The story of Denmark practically wrote itself as I played. I haven't really played in Europe since patch 1.20, so this should be fun. I'll keep this one short(ish), as I write this I've completed six chapters and there's few more to make.

With the release of the tenth chapter this AAR is now completed.

Spoiler: Chapters

Chapter I - The She-King
Chapter II - The Pearl of the Baltic
Chapter III - The Second English War
Chapter IV - War of the Two Kings
Chapter V - The Third English War
Chapter VI - War in the North
Chapter VII - The Lion of the North
Chapter VIII - The Second Kalmar War
Chapter IX - The Empire
Chapter X - The Dream Achieved
Epilogue

Spoiler: Monarchs of the Kalmar Union and Scandinavia

Margaret I 1387 - 1412
Eric VII of Pomerania 1412 - 1439 (Abdicated)
Christopher III of Bavaria 1440 - 1452
Margaret II 'the Great' 1452 - 1512
Frederik I 'the Bloody' 1512 - 1514 (Rule ended by the War of the Two Kings)
Christian I 'the Good' 1513 - 1554
Eric VIII 1554 - 1579
Frederik II 'The Lion of the North' 1579 - 1606
Christina 1606 - 1655 (From 1644 Queen of Scandinavia)
Christian II 1655 - 1674
Frederik III 1674 - 1699
Eric IX 1699 - 1722
Christian III 1722 -

Style of the Scandinavian Sovereign used during the reign of Christian III :
"By the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia and Britannia, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Holstein, Estonia, Ingria and of Livonia. Master of the Americas, Protector of the Baltic Sea and of Lord Novgorod the Great"

Prologue

Once upon a time there were three kingdoms in the harsh land of Scandinavia. The crowns of Denmark, Norway and Sweden still remembered the proud times when Norsemen conquered much of the known world, either through trade or force of arms.

There was a time when the kings of England and France feared the longboats of the Vikings, but those days ended a long time ago. In the year 1066 Harald Hardrada lost the battle for the English crown against the Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson, though Harold later lost the battle of Hastings against Wilhelm the Conqueror, himself a descendant of Vikings. In Ireland the Northern rule lasted until 1171 and in Scotland until 1263, after that the Northern kings turned their attention to their own borders.

The Danes fought against each other, and against the German lords of the south, the Norwegians experienced a series of civil wars that lasted for 110 years until king Haakon IV stabilized the country. The Swedes expanded their realm to the east, forcefully converting the local Finns into christianity and later they fought many times with the Novgorodians.
Life went on, but the Northern men looked at each other with envy.

All changed when the daughter of the king of Denmark, Margaret, married the king of Norway, who was the son of the exiled king of Sweden. Their son Olaf thus had a claim on all three crowns of Scandinavia. The boy became the king of Denmark after his grandfather died in 1376, and the king of Norway after his father died in 1380. Unfortunately the young king died in 1387 at the age of sixteen and the future of the realms was entrusted to his mother, who was recognized as ruler of both Denmark and Norway.

Effigy of Margaret I on her tomb in Roskilde cathedral

In Sweden the crown was in crisis. Albert of Mecklenburg had been summoned to rule the country in 1363, having been forced to relinquish much of the royal power to the nobility, but he never truly ruled in Southern Sweden, and later he turned against the nobility, who called for Margaret's assistance.
At the battle of Åsle in 1389 the Danish forces defeated Albert, who was taken prisoner together with his son. In the same year the Swedish regency council declared Margaret as Sweden's ruler. Though Stockholm wasn't taken until six years later.

Albert begs for mercy before Margaret I

To secure the Swedish crown the queen adopted her great-nephew Eric of Pomerania, who was acceptable heir to all crowns, and on the 17. day of June in the year 1397 the seventeen year old Eric was crowned as King of all three realms in the Swedish city of Kalmar, and thus the name Kalmar Union was born. Scandinavia was united, barely. All three realms kept their own regency council's and local laws. The crowns remained elective, though bound by the Union contract. "all three realms should exist together in harmony and love, and whatever befalleth one, war and rumors of war, or the onslaught of foreigners, that shall be for all three, and each kingdom shall help the others in all fealty ...and hereafter the Nordic realms shall have one king, and not several" declared the treaty. The Act of Union was never completed, and so the kingdoms were "united in disunity", especially the Swedes were wary of the growing Danish power.

Margaret I "Mother of the Union" remained the true power of the Union until her death in 1412.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Chapter I - The She-King

The long reign of Eric of Pomerania was plagued by rebellion in Sweden and the war against the Hanseatic League. Eventually after losing the war against the Germans the Danish nobility grew tired of the king , who withdrew into the island of Gotland into a kind of "royal strike".
The next king was his nephew, Christopher of Bavaria, who was intended to serve as a puppet monarch of the nobles. During his rule the Union contract was changed so that much of the royal powers were given to the nobility.
However today king Christopher's rule is mostly remembered from two things:
1. He started the Livonian war against the crusaders to regain Estonia, which the Danes had sold away in 1346
2. He was the father of Margaret II, known as Margaret 'the great'

Christopher died suddenly at the beginning of 1452 at the age of 35. The Livonian war was still being fought, the Swedish general Gjöran Hjärne fighting to the tooth and nail against the forces of the Grand prince of Moscow, who supported the Livonian knights. In Denmark the regency council expected to gain even more power by choosing the late kings six year old daughter as the new ruler. They were sadly mistaken.

The Kings death caused a power struggle in the court, the winner of that fight was the queen dowager Dorothea, daughter of the prince-elector of Brandenburg. She was a strong willed woman, who raised her daughter to be a strong minded independent sovereign in a world dominated by men. the queen mother especially stressed the importance of the Kalmar Union as a way to maintain Nordic power and independence.

Dorothea Von Hohenzollern, the Queen regent of the three kingdoms

The knights of Livonia were defeated in 1453, and they were forced to sign a treaty were they seceded the duchy of Estonia and parts of Livonia to Denmark. The order was fatally weakened, and rest of Livonia was annexed into Denmark in 1472, after the knights were invaded by Denmark's ally Poland.

Bear of the East

Sweden's attention had been in the east for generations. There they waged wars against the republic of Novgorod, until the Union was founded and their attention was turned towards inner struggles of Scandinavia.
During these times the Mongol power in Russia waned, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow rose to dominate the lands of the Rus, invading and annexing large amounts of territory from the neighboring Novgorod, and challenging Nordic dominion over the coasts of the Gulf of Finland.
In 1461 Queen Margaret turned 16, and took full power from her mother. In the same year she married a Swedish noble Eric Rosencrantz, cementing the future name of the royal dynasty.
The Queen soon proved to everyone that she needed no master, when she masterminded the the war of 1461-1463, where the Union conquered all of Karelia from the Kola peninsula to the coasts of Ingria from the severely weakened Novgorod. Soon after the Muscovites conquered the city of Novgorod itself and the three hundred year old republic came to an end. The Russian forces now gazed towards the Baltic sea, where the red and white Dannebrog flew proudly from the fortress of Nyenskans in Ingria.

Queen From Over the Northern Sea

The 1470's is remembered in Denmark as the return of Royal authority over the nobility. The queen crushed two rebellions in Denmark and one in Sweden, gaining much of the power lost by her father. This enabled the queen to turn her gaze to England, once ruled by the Norsemen. In 1461 Margaret had forced Norway to secede the islands of Shetland and Orkney to the Suart kings of Scotland, in exchange for a military alliance against the Lancaster's of England. In the First England war of 1481-1483 the combined armies of Denmark and Scotland crushed the English, still recovering from their defeat in the Hundred Year's war.

The treaty of York was signed on the Christmas eve of 1483. Yorkshire was seceded to Denmark and Northumberland to Scotland. Thus the Danelaw returned to England, and the city of York was once again known as Jorvík. From year 1485 a text concerning the queens titles calls her "By the Grace of God, Queen of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Jorvík, Wends and of the Goths, Duchess of Schleswig, Holstein, Estonia, Livonia and of Ingria." Her enemies call her the "she-king"

Margaret II, Queen in the North (18th century painting)

The year is now 1488, peace has lasted for five years, yet the queens ambition drives her towards new conquests. Moscow covets the rulership of "all the Russias" while the powers of Europe try to discover a new trade routes and the criticism against the Pope rises to new heights. Exiting times are ahead.

Europe, 1488 AD on the 36th year of the reign of her Majesty the Queen.

Realms and territories of the three crowns, the alliance with Scotland and the triple alliance of the Union, the Electorate of Brandenburg and the Polish crown, originally formed against the Hanseatic league and the power of it's merchants.

Triumph's thunder louder, higher!
Nordic pride is running high!
Nordic glory sparkles brighter!
We have humbled English might

Hail to you for this, o Margaret!
Gentle mother to us all!
-Nationalist anthem of later times, honoring Margaret II

 

[Nikolai]

Interesting. So focusing both West and East? Bold.

 

[Stonewall]

Brave man taking on such a large border with Muscovy.

 

[stnylan]

Do you ever feel that the campaign you're playing would make a great after action report, but you are already too far to start? The story of Denmark practically wrote itself as I played. I haven't really played in Europe since patch 1.20, so this should be fun. I'll keep this one short(ish), as I write this I've completed six chapters and there's few more to make. Dharma is just around the corner and I fear I'll lose interest if I don't complete this before September 6th.

All the time. I did an AAR of one such start by simply starting in media res. It seemed to work, as I am sure this will too.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Interesting. So focusing both West and East? Bold.

Not so much focusing, more like trying to prevent the formation of the Russian Baltic fleet

Brave man taking on such a large border with Muscovy.

Part of me really wanted to take Novgorod to prevent Moscow from forming Russia, but the role player in me finally won. Large border certainly is a risk, especially as Russia has permanent claims on most border provinces. Polish alliance seems to keep them in check for now.

All the time. I did an AAR of one such start by simply starting in media res. It seemed to work, as I am sure this will too.

I know right. Once I finished an entire campaign and thought. "If only I had taken screenshots"

Chapter II - The Pearl of The Baltic

During the 1490's cardinal Rudolf Arenstorff was the most influential statesman in Denmark, originally from Hamburg, he moved to the Queen's court and began a long and fruitful career in the service of the crown that lasted until his death in 1510. Under the cardinal the power of the church grew in Denmark, but it's popularity among the people waned.
The people did not like the cardinal, but he did manage to stabilize the Danish economy, allowing the queen to turn her gaze towards the two richest Hanseatic cities in the Baltic, Riga, "the pearl of the Baltic", and Lübeck, capital of the Hansa.

The Hanseatic league had been a thorn in the flesh of the Danish crown for a century. When Eric of Pomerania started (rightfully) demanding the Sound Toll from ships using the Öresund strait, Hansa had waged a victorious war after which their ships were exempt from the toll.

The second Hanseatic war began in 1493, Danish goals were to destroy the German merchant fleets, take the main Hanseatic cities of Riga, Lübeck and Hamburg and to force the Hansa to pay the sound toll.

Danish general Stefan Munk led the Union forces in the German front. He managed to defeat the Hanseatic forces on land and later led the siege of Lübeck, whilst Swedish forces besieged Hamburg. In these sieges the Union utilized cannons effectively for the first time ever in Northern Europe. The Danish artillery easily crushed the medieval walls, and the cities surrendered by January 1493. The Danish Baltic Army, barely half the size of the main army, conquered Riga only few months later.

Lübeck, the Queen of Hansa, in 1492, just before the walls fell victim to the Danish guns.

On the sea the war was more difficult, German pirates robbed Danish and Norwegian merchant ships with English support. Finally a Norwegian admiral Elias Torgeirsson managed to destroy the Hanseatic fleets in the battle of Helgoland, the battle was brutal and especially the Danish ships suffered many losses. The war however was at an end.

At the peace of Wismar Riga was annexed by Denmark and Lübeck was occupied indefinitely, in addition the Hanseatic league paid reparations for the 1428 bombardment of Köpenhagen. Finally the Germans had to accept the Sound toll.

The victory was complete.

Or it would have been without a certain house of Hapsburg.

The Queen was forced to negotiate with the Imperial ambassadors and eventually the Danish forces were withdrawn from Lübeck, but in return the Emperor promised the Queen free hands in dealing with the Dithmarschen peasant republic that had been avoiding noble rule for generations.
Soggy marshland was of course not worth a Hanseatic capital, but the Queen couldn't afford to anger the Emperor, for her enemies had joined together.

Henry VIII, King of England and Feodor II, Grand Prince of Moscow had formed an alliance against the "Nordic aggression", this was the first time ever that these two countries had any diplomatic contacts.
It would seem that the phrase 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' was indeed true.
The Union would have to advance carefully, Scandinavia didn't have the population to fight a two front war with England and Moscow, not without Polish aid, or perhaps the Frankish kingdom would help to defeat their dear enemies...

The brave men of Denmark sailed across the Northern Sea for the battlefields of England, at the same time a storm rose in the low countries, as storm that would change European history forever.

“Since then your sere Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."
-Joachim Leew, Dutch professor of theology, priest, monk and a composer, whose teachings started the Protestant reformation

 

[stnylan]

Yes, don't want to tussle with both of them at the same time if it can be avoided.

 

[Nikolai]

So then the Leewerans are born.

 

[guillec87]

subbed

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Yes, don't want to tussle with both of them at the same time if it can be avoided.

Quite right, I was impressed that the AI was clever enough to form such an alliance.

So then the Leewerans are born.

Yes, the reformation spilled itself all over the Low Countries

subbed

Much appreciated.

Chapter III - The Second English War

On the sixth of June in the year of our lord 1506 the Union declared war against England, which was under the control of a regency council at the time, since Henry VIII had died and his son William III was just six years old.
Using this situation in his advantage, king Charles VIII of France had promptly invaded England's remaining continental possessions with Scottish assistance. Now the Danes were also coming, and England was under attack from all sides at once.

There fighting also started in the east, where the Grand Prince of Moscow had foolishly honored his alliance with the English. The Swedish army handled the operations in the east, with the support of the Danish Baltic army and it's strong artillery.

Moscow's situation was not strong at the time, Asian nomadic tribes kept raiding the grand principality's border regions and the country waged war against the Ottoman Turks in the Caucasus. Now the country was invaded by the combined forces of the Union and Poland-Lithuania.
The Grand Prince put his faith on the size of his country and on the length of the winter.

On the English front the Danish forces under the command of a German born Wilhelm Krumpen were advancing on Northern England with their eyes set on Lancashire, from where the English royal family got their name. At the battle of Cumbria Krumpen defeated an army of Dutch mercenaries and some English auxiliary forces led by the marquis of Salisbury.

Meanwhile the main English army under Earl Hugh Talbot had besieged Jorvík, but rushed now to unite his forces with the Dutch remnants in order to stop the Danish advance. The two armies met in the county of Chester on new year's eve 1506.

The English crossing the river Dee during the battle of Chester. Talbot's longbows caused heavy casualties among the Danish forces.

Many songs were sung of the battle of Chester, cheerful in England, sorrowful in Denmark. The Danish crown prince Eric was badly wounded during the battle, though general Krumpen was able to retreat the battered remnants of his army back to Jorvík. The English recovered much of the North, though they were unable to fully exploit their victories as Talbot abruptly had to march south.

The French had landed at Dorset and moved fast towards London. This gave the Danes some much needed respite. The army was in mourning as the news broke that the crown prince had succumbed to his injuries at the age of 44. The new crown prince was his younger brother Fredrick, who was rumored to be a secret protestant, and was thus unpopular among both the nobility and the clergy, who would rather support the queen's youngest son prince Christian. The sixtyfive year old queen was deeply shocked by the death of her eldest son and the rumors of the queen's weakness started the whispers about the royal inheritance, and it's problems.

Meanwhile the war in the east was going well, the Union forces stayed within range of their supply lines, taking great care not to advance too deep into Russia. The Poles had nearly wiped out the Muscovite armies and occupied Moscow itself. The war on the Caucasus was lost and the Russian nobility was either tired, captured or dead. Eventually Moscow sued for peace. They had to secede the important fortress city of Pskov to the Danes and give up their alliance with England. Poland-Lithuania received nothing from the war, other than the loot her armies had taken, and this worsened the relations between the two allies.

In the main stage of the war the play was moving towards it's final act. The French besieged London whilst the Dano-Scottish forces occupied the rest of the country. Talbot's forces were lurking in the South where the Danish forces caught up with them and prepared to take their revenge for Chester and the death of the crown prince.

In Dorset the Danes fought like their ancestors in Ragnar Lodbrok's time and the enemy forces were swept away. From the imprisoned longbow men the Danes cut off their index and middle fingers, according to French example. The English forces had been destroyed and London had fallen, in this situation the regency council had no choice but to appeal for peace, which was finally signed on the eight of March 1511.

In the peace England lost all of it's continental possessions to France, the county of Cumberland to the Scots, East-Midlands and nearly the entire North-Western England to Denmark.

Much of the Scandinavian nobility gathered to Copenhagen together with the representatives of their allies to celebrate this great victory, but the queen was not among them, she was ill.

Few day later church bells rang across the Union

Kongen leve, dronning er død!
Hail the king, the queen is dead

 

[Nikolai]

Leve kongen, dronningen er død - indeed. She accomplished a lot.

 

[stnylan]

Well now that is certainly one way to do it. A most excellent peace against England.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Leve kongen, dronningen er død - indeed. She accomplished a lot.

Yes, a queen worthy of being called "Margaret the Great"

Well now that is certainly one way to do it. A most excellent peace against England.

I'm not sure what you mean by "one way to do it" but yes, a fortuitous peace indeed.

Chapter IV - War of the Two Kings

The Queen was dead, and her body was still warm when the vultures arrived.

Frederik was the rightful king, but much the nobility with the support of the clergy, resisted him. He was crowned king in Denmark with a Danish bible present in the ceremony. Protestantism was legalized.
He also planned to abolish the Swedish regency council and appoint Danish governors in it's place.
During a banquet celebrating his accession as king of Sweden in Stockholm, the king ordered more than sixty Swedish nobles executed right then and there. This event became to be known as the Stockholm bloodbath. When the king left for Norway to take the Norwegian throne the nobility in Denmark as well as in Sweden declared Frederik's brother Christian as king of Denmark and of Sweden. Civil war descended upon the North.

The Norwegian regency council supported Frederik, and the king set up his court at Oslo, while the nobility supporting him took up arms in Sjaelland and in Estonia. The new king Christian on the other hand could rely on the support of Sweden, where both his father and wife were from. The queen was from the powerful house of Vasa, who had lost four men in the Stockholm bloodbath, the remaining members were keen on supporting Christian with their men and wealth.

Rebellious spirit soon spread into the east, where the Novgorodians rose up with Muscovite backing. East was still quite untamed, and the power of the crown rarely reached beyond the walls of the forts and cities, especially as men were called away to fight in wars.

In Denmark the people were more divided on religion matters, rather than on the matter of who gets the crown, as the reformation spread like wild fire. The king refused to purge the Protestants, but neither did he support them. On the other hand he didn't really support the papists either. Danish version of the bible was already available to many churches. In Sweden too the people could finally hear the word of God in their own language.

The hero of the English war, Vilhelm Krumpen defeated Frederik's Norwegian army in a battle waged in the deep North of the country. Oslo had already been taken and the Swedes were purging the eastern provinces.
Frederik and his sons had escaped into the island of Iceland, where king Christian sent ships to bring his brother home. The rebel king was exiled into the island of Bornholm with his family.

In England too the rebels tried their luck at the instigation of the local nobles. The army arrived to save the city of Jorvík and the heads of the English nobility soon decorated the city walls.

In August 1518 the realms were finally at peace. Christian was formally crowned as king over all three kingdoms (and Jorvík) at Kalmar, at the same time he declared that the new royal house would bear the name of house Rosencrantz, the family of his Swedish father. The war had lasted nearly seven years and exhausted the Union. The state was burdened by debt and Norway was in ruins. On the other hand the nobility had suffered many losses, and because of that the royal power grew. King Christian was determined to rebuild the Union, but for that he needed money, or otherwise his mother's achievements could be wiped away. There was money to be found in the monasteries, and the Catholic bishops were wealthy...

 

[stnylan]

I'm not sure what you mean by "one way to do it" but yes, a fortuitous peace indeed.

Sorry for the confusion. It was meant in the context of "that is a good way to conduct a successful invasion of England".

And a most excellent unification.

 

[Tom D.]

Welcome to the art of being a writAAR, I hope you'll have a good experience in AARland. It seems Denmark and the Union survived the first real troubled period, although rebuilding everything that was lost will be a difficult task.

 

[Nikolai]

Sweden and, I'm sorry to say, Norway, need to be integrated further into the Union.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

Sorry for the confusion. It was meant in the context of "that is a good way to conduct a successful invasion of England".

Ah! Thanks.

Welcome to the art of being a writAAR, I hope you'll have a good experience in AARland. It seems Denmark and the Union survived the first real troubled period, although rebuilding everything that was lost will be a difficult task.

I thank you, I looked at your AAR's and they're quite entertaining. And yes, Denmark's brothers doesn't seem to understand how glorious the union really is.

Sweden and, I'm sorry to say, Norway, need to be integrated further into the Union.

Easier said than done. I really can't think why I need ADM tech 20 to unite the lands. Integrating them and having a red blob reading "Denmark" over Scandinavia doesn't seem right. The Norwegian revolt was a surprise though. (It happened by event and luckily I had the Count's feud disaster at the same time, so I could combine those two.

Chapter V - The Third English War

Christian I, By the Grace of God,
King of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Jorvík, the Wends and of the Goths,
Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Dithmarschen, Estonia, Livonia and of Ingria,
Protector of the Baltic Sea,
King in the North.

After consolidating his power the king started his reforms in Denmark and in Norway with a firm hand. In Sweden he was more cautious, as growing Danish influence was feared in Stockholm. (as always) Norway on the other hand had been subdued after the war of the two kings and the king had almost more power in Oslo than he had in Copenhagen. 1520's were (mostly) a time of peace and reconstruction in the Union. The army was modernized and so was the navy. The king was interested in almost anything from farming to religion.

The Danish church was modernized at a synod in December 1528, originally the plan was to modernize the Catholic faith, but the king was very interested about the protestant ideas of a earthly sovereign serving as the head of the church. Ultimately by the 1530's Denmark was considered a Protestant country.

The reformation was swiftly executed in the Union. Monasteries were abolished and their funds given to the crown. There was some resistance, particularly in the Danelaw, but the army maintained peace. The Northmen would no longer take orders from some pope in the south.

In addition of his many feats, King Christian is also remembered as the one who started a new age of Nordic exploration. He authorized the first Norwegian colonies in Vinland and Danish colony's in the Caribbean. New world called, and with it a new age would dawn.

The winds of change also blew over the British isles. Scotland's eternal struggle against her southern neighbor seemed to finally go well for the Scot's. King James asked Christian for help in a struggle concerning English rule in Ireland. This led to the so called "Irish war", also known as the third English war in Scandinavia.

England offered very little resistance to the allied forces. The Irish welcomed the Scot's as liberators and Denmark conquered London, taking with many spoils. King William III had no choice but to sign a peace treaty granting all English territory in Ireland to the gentle hands of the Scots. In addition East-Anglia was given to the Danes. The English had been pacified.

The British isles after the Peace of Oxford. Danelaw was now approximately at it's historical size, but Cnut the great had ruled the entire country...

In the end the reformation and the Danish expansion influenced the nations diplomacy as well. Tightly Catholic Poland resisted the reformation and border disputes had risen between Poland-Lithuania and her two protestant allies. the alliance was only upheld by Poland's Hohenzollern king, and after his passing the alliance dissolved. Former allies now looked more like enemies. The Baltic sea appeared too small for both the Danes and the Poles. Denmark and Prussia would stand together.

Europe 1535 AD

 

[stnylan]

It would be rude to let the "free" English suffer the lack of your enlightened rule.

 

[Nikolai]

Agreed. Now is the time for Knud den Store's empire to be fully reunited.

 

[Tom D.]

I thank you, I looked at your AAR's and they're quite entertaining. And yes, Denmark's brothers doesn't seem to understand how glorious the union really is.

Thank you!

Great that the English have been subdued, but the question arises what if the common enemy of Scotland and Denmark has succumbed? Will border conflicts break the alliance? Will the British Isles become one big battlefield for domination? Interesting times ahead for sure.