| Summary
| | After Sweden´s conquests in the 17th century, it became the dominating power in the North and the Baltic. Sweden was surrounded by countries, which wanted their lost areas back. Among these Denmark, Russia and Saxony (including Poland) formed and alliance against Sweden. |
For most of the 17th century the Sound region was marked by the fight between the two regional big powers, Sweden and Denmark, over the control of the Sound and the Baltic. Gradually it became clear that the Baltic area also concerned the European big powers and these would not leave the entrance to the Baltic to regional interests.
Around 1600 the Dutch were responsible for 80% of the yearly ship tonnage, which went through the Sound and the repeated increase of the Sound Duty in crisis situations, where ships were arrested, was a thorn in the side of the Dutch and other shipping nations.
Denmark-Norway tried traditionally to maintain the control over the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
In the North Sea Denmark was hard pressed by England, and in the Baltic Sea especially Sweden provided an increasing competition, which developed rapidly with export of raw materials, such as iron, copper, wood for shipbuilding and agricultural goods.
Sweden felt fenced in by Denmark-Norway.
The Sound and the collection of the Sound Duty became the centre of the confrontations. The Nordic Seven-Year War 1563-70 struck the note and with the Kalmar War 1611-13 came a confrontation, which Denmark won. However, in the 1640´s the Swedes, who had allied themselves with Holland, defeated Denmark and the Danes had to give up Gotland, Øsel and Halland for a period of 30 years.
In 1657-58 disaster struck. Great parts of Danish territory were stormed and at the Roskilde Peace in 1658, Denmark had to give up the Scanian countries to Sweden.
Six months later the Swedish king Karl X returned and once again occupied the country, except the capital, Copenhagen, which was relieved by the Dutch, who had allied themselves with the Danes. Once again peace was made in Copenhagen in 1660.
Sweden won the war of revenge, the Scanian War in the period 1676-79, but both countries felt run over by the European big powers, Holland and France, who dictated the peace. It was now evident that the power relations around the Sound were part of the European big power interests.
Another Danish revenge attempt took place in the beginning of the 18th century during the Great Nordic War, which ended the big power era of Sweden.
Scania was traditionally Danish core country, but it is not certain that the Scanians and others felt that the transition to Sweden was an abrupt change. The Snaphane resistance was strong in some areas, quite a few Scanians chose to emigrate, but concrete changes in the everyday life were few.
After the Scanian War a “swedification” process was started, but it was also a part of general uniform process, where the authority of the state was increased, which was seen in Sweden as well Denmark in connection with the introduction of absolute monarchy. In Scania they concentrated on centralization around Landskrona, but the ambitious plans did not come off. In Zealand Kronborg´s fortification was reinforced and the Sound as a boundary mark was evident.
One thing is sure: The inhabitants on both sides of the Sound paid the price for the many acts of war. Population decrease, abandoned farms and epidemics were the results.Time of Christian d.4.
| | The age of Christian IV is marked by magnificent new buildings, the establishing of new towns, trade companies, but also by recurring wars and religious orthodoxy.
Part of the income came from recurring increases of the Sound Duty. |
Trade and magnificent buildings
| | During the reign of Christian IV mercantilism was the leading economic pricipal. The state supported a number of enterprises and trade increased.
During the reign of Christian IV several magnificent buildings were constructed. They were characterized by a mixture of red bricks and sandstone framings. The style came to be called the style of Christian IV. |
Christian IV
Christian IV came to power in 1588, but because he was very young a regency governed until 1596. Then he signed his coronation charter and entered the throne the next year. This happened at a coronation ceremony, where the parliament, by touching the crown, symbolically handed over the power to the king. The kingdom that Christian IV took over was still essentially medieval and feudal. The major part of the population, perhaps 90% were still living in the country and agriculture was the economic backbone of the country.
Christian IV |
The Will to Develop
Still the time of Christian IV was marked by new creations. He saw it as his most important task to modernize and develop his kingdom, a task, which was also laid down the coronation charter from August 17th 1596.
The country was still ruled by the feudal idea that all wealth and success come from the earth and the acquiring of land, but Christian also tried to improve the state of the country in many other ways.
Trade Companies
To further this several trade companies were established, which were to tend to the trade with America and India. The first East Indian Company was founded in 1618 as a private company after Dutch model. Colonies and trade stations were established in many places and the trade with for instance Iceland and the Faeroe Islands were monopolized.
They created companies in new areas, like mining in Norway, but also the processing of raw materials, like when a fabric production was started in Copenhagen. The state supported everything actively with capital or through monopolies and privileges. However, these measures were not enough to change the society thoroughly.
The Capital
The king and thus also the state power and the administration became more resident i Copenhagen. Certainly the king at the same time extended his properties in North Zealand and he often stayed there, but he created connections to Copenhagen by building so-called King´s roads, so he could get quickly to and from the capital.
The navy and other and other armament activities played an important part in the capital. The naval dockyard was far and away the largest enterprise in the country.
Copenhagen 1587 | 
Copenhagen 1611 | 
The Expansive Copenhagen | 
Copenhagen 1674 | 
Holmen |
Copenhagen Outside the Stock Exchange | 
Copenhagen with the Stock Exchange | 
Rundetårn (The Round Tower) |
Rosenborg Castle
Another example is Rosenborg Castle, which was built in 1605-1634 with constant changes in the building plans. The castle developed into a mixture of intimate private residence and magnificent representation palace, where the king impressed his guests with clever music installations.
After the building of the castle plans are made for a systematic building of an adjoining garden layout. A sketch from the year 1649 exists, which shows a typical Renaissance layout with low, geometrical beds. In 1647 the first garden book, Horticultura Danica is published and there is information of ordered plants for the Rosenborg Garden.
Christian IV | 
Rosenborg | 
Rosenborg Garden | 
Horticultura1647 | 
Garden Work |
Grafting | 
Vine | 
The King´s Garden |
Frederiksborg Castle
He continued in his father´s steps and continued building in North Zealand, and began around 1600 a rebuilding of Frederiksborg Castle, so it had a more uniform look. The large castle was finished in 1626. If Kronborg appeared as a closed fortification, Frederiksborg Castle had a large open courtyard, where the fountain and the surrounding buildings gave a more open, more representative and modern impression.
But the castle had simultaneously lost its significance as a fortification and instead functioned as a magnificent frame for the royal power.
Like Frederik II built his summer castle near Kronborg, Christian IV built a house next to Frederiksborg Castle, which was called ”Sparepenge” and even ”The Bath”, where it was more comfortable and informal to stay.
Frederiksborg is built in Dutch renaissance with towers and spires with richly decorated house ends.
Frederiksborg Castle | 
Frederiksborg Castle | 
The Audience Gate | 
Iron Grating | 
FrdgSlot |
Renaessance Style
Frederiksborg is built in Dutch renaissance with towers and spires with richly decorated house ends.In the time of Christian IV the characteristic mixture of red bricks and decorative sandstone bands, which is seen on many of the royal and noble buildings of the time, was developed. Like Frederik II built his summer castle near Kronborg, Christian IV built a house next to Frederiksborg Castle, which was called ”Sparepenge” and even ”The Bath”, where it was more comfortable and informal to stay.
Frederiksborg Castle | 
The Summer House | 
The Trinity Church |
The Kalmar War and the Horn War
| | At the end of the 1630´s the Danish king convinced the chancellery and the estates of the realm to establish a standing army, which was financed through a considerable raise of the Sound Duty. This made the Netherlands form an alliance with Sweden, which were disastrous to Denmark. |
War and City Plans
Around the year 1600 the Dutchmen were responsible for around 80 % of the yearly ship tonnage through the Sound. Thus it was of vital importance to maintain good relations with the Dutchmen. However the perpetual increase of the Sound Duty and crises situations, where ships were arrested was a thorn in the side of the Dutch and other shipping nations.
Especially the relationship with Sweden was problematic. The Swedish economy flourished with export of raw materials like iron, minerals, wood for ship building and agricultural goods from the southern areas, but Sweden felt fenced in by the Danish Baltic Sea empire.
The Kalmar War 1611-13
The Danish and Swedish chancellors prevented further confrontations for a time, but the ambitious Danish king, Christian IV (1588-1648) aspired to “propagate, improve and enhance the state of the country”, as it was stated in the coronation charter that he had to sign at his accession. It was this passage in the coronation charter Christian used in his request to the chancellery January 31. 1611, when he referred to Swedish violations, which he would not stand for:
“...as it would bring about in posterity a bad memory in Our grave, because We have tolerated and allowed that, which a lawful king must not allow or tolerate and which We have sworn at our coronation and coronation charter and have promised by name and by seal...”
The alleged violations related to the conditions in northern Scandinavia, including Sweden´s access to the Norwegian Sea. The chancellors were reluctant, but when the king threatened to declare war in his capacity as duke of Slesvig-Holstein, he had his way.
Map from around 1600 | 
Map Dedicated to Gustav II Adolf | 
Christian IV | 
Christian IV´s Flagship | 
The Fortress Varberg |
The Siege of Kalmar |
Scania was ravaged
This time too, it was mostly the civilian population that suffered. Scania was ravaged by Gustav Adolf in 1612 and he himself said:
“We have been in Scania and we have burned most of the province, so that 24 parishes and the town of Vä lie in ashes. We have met no resistance, neither from cavalry nor footmen, so we have been able to rage, plunder, burn and kill to our hearts´ content. We had thought of visiting Århus in the same way, but when it was brought to our knowledge that there were Danish cavalry in the town, we set out for Markaryd and we could destroy and ravage as we went along and everything turned out lucky for us.”
Christian IV won the Kalmar War, but this time too the civilian population paid a heavy price. After the war Christian IV started the building of a number of fortified towns, which could protect the civilian population in wartime. The market towns Vä and Åhus in north-eastern Scania were abandoned and instead the fortified town of Christiansstad was built. In Blekinge Christianobel was founded and in Halland Halmstad was fortified.
At the peace in Knärød in 1613 Denmark took over the fortress of Elvsborg until a compensation of 1.000.000 rix-dollars was paid. Holland´s policy was that no big power should have total control of the Baltic. Therefore the Danish victory led to the signing of a Swedish-Dutch defence alliance in The Hague in 1614.
The Peace in Knærød 1613 | 
The Swedish Instrument of Debt |
Kristianstad
The increasing central governing meant that a number of new towns were founded, often for military reasons. The most prominent became Kristianstad in northwestern Scania. The market towns Vä and Åhus were shut down and they built an entirely new town, which better could withstand the attacks of the Swedes in the area. Dutch experts were called in and in 1614 they started to build a town with perpendicular streets surrounded by fortified bastions.
The town also had a magnificent church, the Trinity Church, which is considered one of the main works of the Christian IV period. It was built in the renaissance architecture of the time and was inaugurated in 1628.
The church has an equilateral Greek cross. There are a number of slender granite pillars, which carry a very elaborate roof construction. The opulent altar in black alabaster and white marble was made in the Netherlands. The organ is a brilliant renaissance work of art.
Kristianstad | 
The Fortress Christiansstad | 
Christianopel |
The Trinity Church | 
The Church Room |
The Trinity Church | 
The Side Entrance | 
Ornate Baroque | 
Monogram |
Sweden dominates
The next time Christian IV wanted to go to war was when he in 1626 involved himself in the Thirty Years´ War and that same year was defeated ignominiously at Lutter am Barenberge. This time Christian IV had gone to war in his capacity as North German duke and on his own account, that is, with a mercenary army. This ended in disaster and Denmark was now seriously weakened, whereas Sweden was victorious in the Baltic area.
By the end of the 1630´s the Danish king convinced the Chancellery and the Estates of the Realm to establish a standing army, which was financed through a considerable raise of the Sound Duty.
From 1636 to 1639 the king´s income from the Sound Duty rose from 266.000 to 620.000 rix-dollars.
In the course of the 1640´s war and recession set in. Around this time the value of the corn export was about 400.000 rix-dollar a year, the steer export was around 50.000 stk. a year, while the value of the yearly import constituted around 400.000 rix-dollar.
The Horn War 1643-45
As a reaction to the continued increase of the Sound Duty, the Netherlands entered into a mutual defence and alliance treaty with Sweden, which became disastrous, when Sweden without warning attacked Denmark in 1634 from the south. Jutland was occupied, but at first the navy prevented a total disaster. In Scania field marshal Gustav Horn began a campaign and Denmark was threatened by war on two fronts. The province was ravaged once again and the Horn War was remembered for many years the.
The united Dutch-Swedish fleet defeated the Danes at Fehmern and at the peace in Brömsebro in 1645 the Danes had to give up Gotland, Øsel, Jemtland and Herjedalen in Norway and surrender Halland to Sweden for a period of 30 years. This was the beginning to the end of the Danish Baltic reign and at the same time the prosperity of the period of Christian IV ended with his death in 1648.
Danish naval control | 
Sound Duty gambling | 
Three Fleets in the Sound 1644 | 
Gustav Horn | 
Kolberger Heide 1644 |
Brömsebro | 
The Brömsebro Stone |
Administration and Court
| | The cities had a certain administration of justice and liberty of action via the city courts and the artisans´ guilds. But the tendency after the Reformation was more regulation from central quarters.
At the top was the king’s court and then the absolute royal power. |
Administration and Administration of Justice (GB)
In addition to the internal administration of justice, which was exercised in the guilds, it was the town´s council, which from the beginning took care of the judicial matters and the administration in the town. They did not yet discern between the administrative/ executive and the judicial power. The daily administration took place in the council room and here they also passed sentences and interrogated witnesses. In some cases the used juries and sentences could then be appealed to the parliament and ultimately to the king´s court.
Oversæt
Until 1619 the town government consisted of two mayors and aldermen, who were selv-sufficient and solely represented the upper classes. In addition the town council appointed town bailiff, who dealt specifically with practical assignments. He could also engage different ”civil servants” like workhouse principal, executioner, midwife a.s.o. At a random day 6.12.1562 the following are present in the council hall:
"Thenn 12. dag junij, neruerinndis paa raadstuenn her y Hellssinngør Hendrich Moenssen och Hanns Pouillssen, borgmestere, Annders Saxenn, Jacop Hanssen, Rassmus Hanssen och Jørgenn Wiig, raadmendt, Jenns Jepssenn, byfogit, mett noger aff borgernne."
Valuation cases, inheritance questions and other elucidations of financial claims are fixed items on the agenda, and cases concerning trade also appear frequently.
Elsinore Town Hall |
The public Moral
The council also took up matters regarding law and order and supervision of the public morals. The protocol from June 12th 1562 testifies to this:
A Scotsman by the name of Thomas Væver complained that his neighbour Mikael Skrædder´s wife, Charinne, ”often greets him with scolding and improper adress” Thomas therefore threathened to take her before the council, to which Charinne allegedly answered that she did not give a damn about him , mayor and council (”... you and they are just like turds”). The mayor asked Thomas Væver to prove this and he called upojn two witnesses, who confirmed his allegations. Rasmus Olsen Bager could add that he the other night saw Charinne go home in the evening with ”... a man, who was wating for her in an alley and followed her into the house...” The mayor told the good men to remeber this incident another time.
Prostitution
The suggested that Charinne was a woman of easy virtue and that was not very sensational in a town, where prostitution was so extensive that they had to send the entire regiment of women packing. Poor womaen, who had to do anything to survive was probably the most exposed group in the society. it is often women from this group we meet in the witch trials, which become more and more common during the renaissance.
Prostitution | 
The Sword of the Executioner |
Actions against Witches
| | Witch trials was found sporadically in Elsinore in the time after the reformation (1564, 1571 and 1582), but after the centennial the number grew and culminated with an entensive trial in 1625-26, where no less than eight women were sentenced and burned at the stake. |
Witch Trials
Witch trials was found sporadically in Elsinore in the time after the reformation (1564, 1571 and 1582), but after the centennial the number grew and culminated with an entensive trial in 1625-26, where no less than eight women were sentenced and burned at the stake.
The witch trials connection to the changed view of man and the changes the reformation brought with it, are still subject to research and debate, but some enlightening fasct can bepointed out. The witchcraft trials almost entirely struck women from the lowest classes in society.
The Witch´s Test |
White and Black Magic
In the Middle Ages they discerned between white and black magic. The black is used to hurt others. The white magic, which is used positively for the solving of porblems, was not deemed harmful. Furthermore it was hard to discern from the medieval medicine of the magical conception of reality, which was prevalent in the Catholic church.
The reformation brought with a reaction against the reality perceptin of the Catholic church. Faith and salvation suddenly became a matter of the individual. In any ways a void ensued, where supernatural interpretations and explanations no longer existed. They were against old theories, but did nog replace them with new ones.
Witch Goya |
The Character of the Processes
In the time before the reformation the witch trials became solely a secular affair and in Denmark they created a tradition for the accusatory legal process, where there had to be a direct accusation from a civilian person.
In Christian III´s so-called Copenhagen Recess from 1547 it was established that persons, who was tainted in some way, was not allowed to bear witness and that torture was not allowed in order to force a confession.In 1576 it was decided that sentences, where people was sentenced to be burned at the stake, always had to be tried in higher court.
In 1617 Christian IV issued a proclamation on witchcraft. According to this you could be tried for witchcraft even if no one had been harmed. It was also a criminal offence to use the services of ”wise” men and women. If you had exerted witchcraft without harming anybody you could be punished with loss of property and valuables, but if you had harmed anyone the punishment was the stake.
Witches burnt at the stake |
The Karl Gustav Wars
| | In 1657 catastrophe struck the Danish kingdom. Denmark declared war on Sweden in the hope of revenge of the defeat from the 1640´s. Instead Denmark was overpowered in the summer of 1657 and the following winter, where Karl X Gustav went over the ice to Zealand and hastily approached Copenhagen. |
The Karl Gustav Wars 1657-60
In 1657 disaster struck the Danish kingdom with a vengeance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in the hope of revenging the defeat form the 1640´s, but was run down in the summer of 1657 and the following winter, when Karl X Gustav went over the ice to Zealand and approached Copenhagen. A quick peace was made in Roskilde. The peace negotiator on the Swedish side was the former Danish chancellor Corfitz Ulfeldt, who was married to Christian IV´s daughter, Eleonore Christine.
The peace terms were severe: Denmark must forever give up the Scanian countries, although paragraph 9 secured a cultural autonomy in Scania. The occupation ended with a so-called peace banquet in Frederiksborg Castle, whereupon the Swedish king went to Scania, where he inspected the captured areas.
Karl X Gustav | 
Crossing the Ice to Funen | 
Ivernæs in Funen | 
Erik Dahlberg | 
Karl X Gustav at Storebælt |
The Peace in Roskilde
The peace terms were severe: Denmark must forever give up the Scanian countries, although paragraph 9 secured a cultural autonomy in Scania. The occupation ended with a so-called peace banquet in Frederiksborg Castle, whereupon the Swedish king went to Scania, where he inspected the captured areas.
The Peace in Roskilde | 
The Vicarage in Høje Tåstrup | 
Joachim Gersdorf | 
Corfitz Ulfeldt | 
The Arrival at Frederiksborg Castle |
Frederiksborg Castle (section) | 
Frederiksborg Castle (section) | 
Frederiksborg Castle (section) | 
Frederiksborg Castle (section) | 
The Party at Frederiksborg Castle |
Karl X Gustav in Elsinore | 
Karl X Gustav is Received in Helsingborg | 
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Landskrona | 
Karl X Gustav Arrives in Malmo | 
Karl X Gustav Outside Christiansstad |
Scania 1662 |
The War continues
Six months later Karl X Gustav regretted that he did not annex all of Denmark. He occupied Zealand and captured Elsinore and Kronborg, which fell after a three-weeks´ siege.
Copenhagen was besieged, but was relieved after a naval battle in the Sound by a Dutch fleet, which had formed an alliance with Denmark. The events culminated with the storm of Copenhagen in February 1659, when the Swedish attack was repelled.
The Siege of Kronborg
| 
The Siege of Kronborg | 
The Naval Battle | 
The Battle in the Sound | 
The Battle of the Sound |
Slaget i Öresund
(Tegning) | 
The Assault on Copenhagen 1660 | 
The Storming of Copenhagen | 
Sketch of the Attack | 
Instant Sketch |
The Peace
Peace was made once again in 1660, by which Bornholm returned to Denmark and Trondhjem´s estate to Norway.
Changes in the status of Scania, Halland and Blekinge were not discussed and it was clear that Denmark´s ally, Holland and the other European big powers, did not want any changes in the relations around the Sound. The manoeuvre of the international politics was to prevent one power to control both sides of the Sound.
A later observer, Robert Molesworth noticed in 1691 that Christian IV was favoured by the Dutch war against Spain and that king Jacob I of England favoured the Danes, because of his marriage to a Danish princess. Molesworth noticed that Danish sovereignty over the Sound would correspond to Spain having invoked power over the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance to the Mediterranean. The Sound Duty was still functioning, but the income, according to Molesworth, had dropped from 150.000 rix-dollars in 1645 to 80.000 in the 1690´s.
Axel Urup (1601-71) | 
The Peace Treaty 1660 |
Buxtehude
| | Buxtehude ended his career as an organist in Lübeck in northern Germany. This picture is from there. Before Buxtehude was a good example of a Sound citizen, who worked on both sides of the Sound, in spite of war and trouble in the area. |
Buxtehude – A Sound Citizen
It is difficult to say how the man in the street experienced Scania´s abrupt transition to Sweden at the peace treaties in 1658 and 1660. In paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty it was stated that all estates in Scania had the right to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics and inherited rights, so nothing prevented them from living as they had done before. Furthermore it was difficult to say how much nationality meant for the individual. Sweden as well as Denmark was at this time complex – in reality multinational states, which to some extent demanded some loyalty from their citizens, but hardly a national disposition in the modern sense. That came with Romanticism’s worship of the nation and the people at the end of the 18th century.
The example of the composer Diderich Buxtehude may illuminate this connection. Posterity has not succeeded in establishing where he was born – in Holstein, Elsinore or Helsingborg – in any case he was born in an area, which belonged to the Danish state around 1637. His father, Johannes Buxtehude came from Oldesloe in Holstein – to where he probably had emigrated originally. In 1638 he became an organist at the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In the years 1638-41 the father worked in Helsingborg and here Diderich had some childhood years. In 1642 the father was the organist at the St. Olai Church in Elsinore, where he was active until around 1670. Diderich Buxtehude thus spent his childhood and youth in Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Music with Class
During the first half of the 17th century the musical scene at the Danish court and in the major churches was of a very high standard. (It is to be remembered that the court and the churches at that time were the most important customers, when it came to music and thus the music scene evolved around these institutions). Names like Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland are still remembered. Schütz was a church musician in Copenhagen and there he established the court orchestra. Dowland, a famous lutanist and composer, was a court musician. He lived in Elsinore. Johann Lorentz worked during the first half of the 17th century as a royal organ builder and he built or rebuilt all the important organs in the Sound region in a quite conservative renaissance style, a style, which then were represented by Schütz and Dowland. One of the most important remnants of Lorentz´s activity is in the organ facade in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad.
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father’s footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg | 
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore | 
The Old Organ | 
Buxtehude | 
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary) |
Connections over the Sound
In his time in Elsinore Buxtehude kept in close touch with Swedish as well as Danish officials. The only piece of music we know of that Buxtehude wrote in his time in Elsinore, is from 1665 and dedicated to Christoffer Schneider, a Swedish postmaster and later consul resident in Elsinore. From his time in Elsinore Buxtehude also was friendly with the Swedish court conductor and organist Gustav Büben. Perhaps it was on his request that Buxtehude composed the wedding cantata to the wedding between Carl XI Gustav and his Danish queen Hedvig Eleonora in 1680.
| |
 | | Large | Aperte mihi portas iustitiae, Elsinore 1665. (Diderik Buxtehude) |
| | Large | Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude |
In Lübeck
In 1668 Buxtehude moved to Lübeck, probably for career reasons, but also to get away from the meagre financial circumstances in the devastated Sound region. The three Maria Churches in Helsingborg, Elsinore and Lübeck are the main threads in his life. Even though he spent most of his active life in Lübeck and even though he achieved fame and honour there, he never forgot his roots by the Sound. That was why the periodical “Nova litteraria Maris Balthici” could claim in 1707: “He considered Denmark his native country” (Patriam agnoscit Daniam).
Diderich Buxtehude´s career as a composer and an organist culminated in Lübeck and great composers like Händel and Bach came and listened to his music. He was especially renowned for his “Lübecker Abendmusiken”, which were concerts in connection with the evensong before Christmas. He wrote new organ works for this every year.The Scanian War 1675-79
| | The Dutch and Danish fleet defeated the Swedish fleet south of Øland in the late summer of 1676. During this naval battle the Swedish flagship, Kronan, sunk – at thte time the biggest man-of-war in Europe. |
The so-called Scanian War was a Danish-Norwegian war of revenge with the purpose of recapture Scania, which Denmark lost in the Karl Gustav-Wars in 1657-60.
Alliances
After the death of Karl X Gustav Sweden was governed by regency headed by Gabriel De La Gardie. After the peace in Copenhagen the foreign policy was a matter of avoiding war and the guarding of the Danish border. This was to be done by a balance policy between the great power blocks of Europe.
Opposite the big power France stood a union between Austria, Holland, Spain and Brandenburg. In 1672 Sweden approached France and they formed an alliance. When the European Great War began Denmark joined Sweden´s enemies and when France succeeded in making Sweden go to war against Brandenburg, Denmark and Sweden ended up on different sides in the European conflict. When the Swedes were defeated in Swedish Pomerania, the Danes attacked Sweden seeing the opportunity to revenge the disastrous defeat in 1658.
Danish Attack
The Dutch and Danish fleet defeated the Swedish fleet south of Øland in the summer of 1676. The Swedish battle ship Kronan, at the time the biggest warship in Europe, was sunk.
On the command of the Danish king Christian V around 15.000 men were landed in Rå south of Helsingborg and subsequently the citizens of Helsingborg pledged allegiance to the Danish king. Furthermore a Danish mayor was elected.
The Danish Invasion Fleet 1676 | 
The Naval Battle of Øland | 
The Invasion Fleet on its Way to Råå | 
The Capture of Helsingborg |
A Bloody War
The Scanian was a cruel and bloody war, which mainly took place on Scanian soil. The Danes drove the Swedes back and gained control over all of Scania except Malmo. Many Scanians joined the Danes. Violent battles were fought at Christiansstad, Halmstad, Lund and Landskrona.
The Battle of Lund was the bloodiest battle ever fought between Denmark and Sweden. The young king Karl XI led the Swedish troops. The battle turned the war in favour of the Swedes and they were able to drive the Danish troops back. At the end the Danes only held Landskrona and Helsingborg, but they were forced to face the fact that the situation was hopeless. Thousands of refugees crossed the Sound to Denmark.
The Citadel in Landskrona | 
The Capture of Landskrona | 
The Capture of Landskrona | 
Landskrona Surrenders to Christian V | 
The Siege of Christiansstad 1676 |
The Capture of Christiansstad | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 |
Karl XI | 
The Battle of Malmo 1677 | 
The Battle of Landskrona 1677 | 
The Battle of Tirups Hed, Landskrona | 
The Battle in Køge Bay 1677 |
Peace
At sea the Swedish navy had lost, but the Danish army were defeated on land.
You could say that France settled the war. Sweden´s ally, France, had the upper hand on Denmark´s ally, Holland, and made peace on behalf of Sweden too. As Holland had made up with France Denmark stood alone at the negotiations and came out of the war empty handed at the peace settlements with Sweden in Lund in 1679.
In Sweden they were not satisfied with the way France handled Swedish interests. Similarly the Danes were dissatisfied with the Dutch having abandoned them in the final phase of the war. This led to Denmark and Sweden exchanging allies. Denmark made an alliance with France and Sweden came to an accord with Holland.
Political Marriage
After the war a political rapprochement took place between Sweden and Denmark and they formed an alliance, which was confirmed by the marriage of Carl XI and the Danish princess Ulrika Eleonora. She was taken across the Sound to a cannon salute and arrived in Helsingborg in May 1680. In Helsingborg she met with Carl XI´s mother, Hedvig Eleonora. Then they travelled through a landscape ravaged by their war to the wedding festivities in Skottorp in southern Halland, where the priest Haqvin Spegel waited to officiate at the wedding.
The Danish Princess Ulrika Eleonora |
| |
| | Large | Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude |
The ”Snaphaner”
| | The Scanian war was a disaster for Scania with much destruction and the loss of many lives. The brutality of the war was also caused by the fact that it was also partly a partisan war. Among others by the so-called “Snaphaner”. |
Rebels
The terrible devastation, which affected Scania in connection with the Scanian war, was not lessened by the fact that the war was partly carried out as a partisan war. Local peasant forces, often with the support of the Danes, carried out ambushes, robberies and other attacks against the Swedes. Thus a force of Goenger succeeded in capturing the Swedish war chest at a hold up in Loshult just south of the border of Småland. It cannot be ruled out that peasants in Småland cooperated and the value of the captured amount was 50.000 rix-dollars.
Even the so-called free riflemen corps with an all-military organisation participated in this guerrilla war. Many poor peasants and soldiers too enlisted as Danish free riflemen and entered into the Danish war organisation. Such groups were active all over Scania and there were also poor adventurers and others, among them criminals, who almost led their own war in the forests in northern Scania on the Småland border.
Scanian partisans | 
Assaults | 
Snaphane contract | 
Scania 1677 |
Scania 1662 |
The Word "Snaphane"
All these who were part of peasant forces, free riflemen companies and gangs of robbers were called “Snaphaner”. Perhaps the word comes from the German “schnappen”, which means: to rob. In that case the term implies something negative and every Snaphane was deemed a robber.
The Border Area
The population in the border area was particularly exposed. Traditional cooperation across the border was opposed and the fact that the Swedish state had raised taxes in these areas created dissatisfaction. Peasants on both sides, which had not liked national borders earlier, made a so-called peasants´ peace and thus demonstrated their independence of the national demands of the central power. Such a peace was were made between Osby in Scania and Virestad in Småland in 1676.
Sometimes the Scanian war is referred to as the “Snaphane War”. The adventurousness, which marks a partisan war probably fed the imagination, and the many stories, often with romantic and heroic touches that posterity tells of should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. The Snaphaner and above all their leaders´ great significance is not questioned, which the reactions to them clearly show.
Punishment
The hard and harsh punishment that the Snaphaner were sentenced, is proof to the fact that the Swedes were disturbed by these attacks, which caused great damage on the Swedish central administration and it delayed the uniformity work. Scanian peasants were in some towns punished collectively, because some of them had become Snaphaner. There are many reports and testimonies to atrocities.
In the spring of 1677 the Swedes demanded loyalty statements of the inhabitants in Scania and in April 1678 the king issued a command to burn all farms and kill all men capable of bearing arms in Ørkned parish in the north-eastern Goenge district.
Sporekulla Farm | 
Farm form the 17th Century | 
Snaphane statue |
Scanians to Zealand
In the summer of 1679, when the Scanian war ending, the Danish king once again encouraged the Scanians to flee to Zealand and tempted them with promises of a twenty year exemption from taxation. Opinions are divided as to how many who took this offer, but 10.000 is probably right and that was quite many by the standards of the time. Some had already fled during the war and more did so at the conscription of soldiers in Scania 1680.
The experience from the last war showed that the young Scanian men were deported to distant areas in the Baltic States and did not return.
The Scanians and others, who fled ended up in Zealand and Amager, where some were able to take over copyhold farms, while others lived wretchedly and some returned to Scania. The relationship between the refugees and the residents was good and a number of Danish cities, for instance Copenhagen, Dragør and Elsinore had an increase in population.
Reduction
Many were frightened by the harsh punishments but many farmers were also tired of the endless lootings and ravaging, which took place and a conflict of interests rose between the Snaphaner and many Scanian farmers. This led to the reduction of the snaphaner and by the Danes´ return in connection with the Great Nordic War in 1710; the Snaphane movement did not have any significance anymore.The consequences of the wars
| | The Karl Gustav wars and the Scanian war resulted in big changes both in Scania and Zealand.In Scania a swedification process took place, but not without great problems.
Elsinore now became a border town and Kronborg´s fortifications were reinforced. During this period the Zealand border towns received a great number of pro-Danish refugees from Scania.
The Danish Chancellor, Griffenfeld, right from the beginning, considered Christian V´s war of revenge against Scania without an alliance with France to be a catastrophe. In this he was proved right, but with great personal costs. |
The Swedification of Scania
| | The general governor in Scania, Johan Gyllenstierna, took up a strong and central position. As a trusted man of king Karl XI his task was to turn the former Danish Scania into an integrated part of Sweden. That is to “swedify” Scania. |
Swedification is term, which is used in our history books of the activity, which followed the Swedish takeover in Scania. The question is, what swedification means in this connection. Is it about lawful adaptation, is it the appearance of a new national feeling, or is it about an ethnical purging in order to create a nationality?
The Situation in Scania
After the death of Karl X Gustav in 1660 nobility regency governed Sweden. This government knew that it was important to attach Scania to Sweden, but which relations should there by between Stockholm and Scania? Paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty form 1658 gave, at least on paper, Scania the possibility of some degree of autonomy.
The problems were confronted at a meeting in 1662. Here it was established that old laws and privileges from when Scania was Danish were still to apply and that Scanian noblemen, priests and peasants were allowed to send representatives to the Swedish parliament... Here they would receive “seats and a voice”.
The Real Swedification Starts
The Scanians were thus to be quite independent of Sweden and have a certain amount of autonomy and at the same time have influence in the Swedish parliament. The agreement from this meeting, which is called the “Malmo Recess”, did not include a hard “swedification”.
The foundation of Lund´s University in 1666, however, did spring from a will to attach Scania closer to Sweden. This also applies when it came the placing of “real” Swedes in important posts and the establishment of a Swedish military union in Scania.
When the nobility regency was replaced with Karl XI and absolute monarchy was introduced in Sweden, the situation changed. The king now demanded regimentation in the kingdom. The general governor Johan Gyllenstierna designed the plans for a swedification of Scania. He wanted to deal harshly with the Scanians, who were pro-Danish. He demanded an oath of allegiance to Carl XI, a demand, which were followed by threats and which contributed to the disarmament of the pro-Snaphane peasants.
Johan Gyllenstierna |
Landskrona – Plans for Centralization
“The three largest cities in Sweden are Stockholm, Landskrona and Gothenburg”, perhaps this would have been the case today, if the amazing plans for Landskrona, which existed at the end of the 17th century, had been carried out.
The general governor in Scania wanted a strong basis for the swedification of the landscape. Landskrona was suitable, because of its central position near the Sound, and because they were able to monitor the Danes from there. Karl XI, who trusted Gyllenstierna, agreed to let Landskrona play an important part. The idea was to unite Scania´s foreign trade, fortifications and town system in this new south Swedish city.
The Plan
Gyllenstjerna wanted a city with room for 5.000 citizens, which would have brought the sum total of the population to 20.000. At this time a very high number of inhabitants and with these plans Landskrona would have become the second largest city in Sweden next to Stockholm. The medieval city was to be rebuilt, enlarged and fortified. Erik Dahlberg, a versatile man, who knew about architecture, fortifications and warfare, was selected to draw up a new city plan and he put forward several proposals, but he himself was somewhat doubtful of the grand designs, which he found unrealistic. Therefore his final proposal was not as fantastic as Gyllenstjerna wanted, but the city would have 1500 inhabitants, which was not so small, after all.
The Ideal City
The plan was accepted in 1680 and according to Dahlberg Landskrona should have a university as well as a diocese. The old church was to be retained as well as the citadel, but apart from that new ideals were to mark the city. It was to be almost circular and reflect Dahlberg´s idea of an ideal city in the Swedish kingdom. A big power city should have strong fortifications and an almost symmetrical composition. Dahlberg had gathered his ideas from his travels and studies in Europe. There are certain resemblances to Mannheim in Germany.
Sketch of Landskrona | 
Plan of Landskrona |
Protests
The idea of Landskrona as the absolute centre for the church, education, administration and trade, brought about protests from Malmo, Lund and Helsingborg. That was why the Danish princess Ulrika Eleonora was met with a welcome, which clearly showed a great deal of unrest about the projected centralization of Landskrona, when she came to Helsingborg in connection with her marriage to Karl XI. Johan Gyllenstierna accompanied the princess and they were greeted with he following welcome speech:
Although Landskrona´s rise seems to result in the ruin of Helsingborg, we cannot imagine that the place and the city, which heaven with the first steps of your royal highness has made happy, is heading for ruin, but instead to the eternal glory of your royal highness receive even better privileges than before, so that it may flourish into an immortal moment for now and forever, and bear witness to all descendants of the blessed gem that your royal highness have given Sweden and Denmark.
The Plans were realized - in Karlskrona
The death of Johan Gyllenstjerna in 1680 made other cities in Scania breathe a sigh of relief, inasmuch as nobody longer thought of Landskrona as a large city. In 1682 Karl XI decided to demolish the fortifications and Landskrona was to be turned into an open town and thus not become the capital of Scania. The Swedish state instead concentrated on enlarging the new harbour in Karlskrona. City planning, labour and building materials were moved to Karlskrona instead. Thus Landskrona remained a small town, ravaged by war and the plague, just like other Scanian towns.
Aschebergs methods
After the death of Gyllenstjerna in 1680 Rutger von Ascheberg was appointed general governor and he continued the swedification process, although somewhat milder. The Swedish administration succeeded in persuading the Swedish aristocracy to waive the Danish (Scanian) laws and privileges in 1683. Thus the Malmo Recess was abolished and the independence of Scania removed. The Swedish middle classes and the clergy had already accepted Swedish law.
Rutger von Ascheberg | 
Herman Schlyter´s House | 
Scania 1682 |
The Role of the Church - but not only in Scania
The church played an important part in a goal-oriented swedification process at grass-roots level. In the Swedish congregations Swedish priests were appointed before Danish or pro-Danish priests. Swedish textbooks, Swedish liturgy and Swedish-speaking church services were introduced. The bishop of Lund, Canutus Hahn, led this process.
But it is important to emphasize that this was not only because Scania was to adjust to a united Sweden. At that time there was a strong local self-determination in Sweden, which involved different dioceses had catechisms and hymnbooks of their own. Sweden was not a homogeneous country. Gotland and Finland, for instance, were not more Swedish than Scania. The number of diocese hymnbooks had been increased by the middle of the 17th century, and there was a great number of different hymnbooks. Bible publications were characterized by great diversity and many unauthorized editions had been published. This is why there was a demand for uniform religious books.
Sweden had its first authorized hymnbook in 1695, a revised variant of the one that the preacher Jesper Svedberg had presented the previous year. In the same way the country had a state bible in 1703, the so-called Carl XII´s bible, which was worked out under the management of Haqvin Spegel. Furthermore a new church law was introduced in 1683; a catechism in 1689 and an altar book in 1693. All in all great efforts were made to create uniformity in the church in Sweden. Scania was part of these efforts, but not only in this area.
From Christian 4. to Carl XI |
The Language
Certainly there was special matter in Scania and that was the language. The introduction of Swedish as the reading and written language was carried through with new ABC books and the above mentioned religious publications, but it was also supported by the fact that the reading skills of the Scanian peasants were quite bad and Swedish became the first reading language for many of them.
Schoolbooks in Swedish |
Rewards and Punishments
The Scanian farmers had support and certain tax relieves and in that way the Scanian farmers did not feel more ill-treated under Swedish rule than they did under Danish rule. Furthermore a certain distrust in some towns had resulted from the lootings and ravaging by Danish soldiers during the Scanian war. Skanør, Trellborg, Ystad and Simrishamn on the south coast were particularly damaged.
A mixture of threats, promises, punishment and reward helped to introduce Swedish law, Swedish privileges, Swedish church customs and Swedish reading language relatively fast in Scania. It also contributed to the fact that only few Scanians participated in the war on the Danish side in the war 1709-10.
The swedification, which was carried through in the end of 17th century and in the beginning of the 18th century, was about creating a more uniform Sweden with concurrent laws, church services and language, but these efforts did not only concern Scania. It was not a question of a new patriotism. It was still the village and town community that created solidarity. The Scanians, just as other Swedes first experienced a sense of patriotism, when nationalism broke through in the 19th century. And it was then nationalist monuments, like the Magnus Stenbock statue in Helsingborg were set up. Perhaps the term adjustment is better than “swedification”.Oversæt
| | The Karl Gustav-Wars took its toll on the town. And the Swedes´ bombardment of Kronborg, where the south tower succumbed, meant plans for extensive fortifications around the castle.
The proposals for a rebuilding of the south tower have, strangely enough, never been realized.
The Swede, Erik Dahlberg, suggested this during the war.
|
Elsinore and the War
For Elsinore´s part the Carl Gustav wars culminated with the siege of the town and the capture of Kronborg in 1658. The amassed costs, or losses, if you will, of the siege were 500.000 rix-dollars. After the peace with Sweden in 1660 the population was increased with newly arrived Scanians, who were tempted with offers of tax exemption for 25 years and in 1675 the town consisted of 833 families divided in 10 taxation classes.
The urban communities in Zealand were apparently deeply impoverished after the Scanian War. In Elsinore the pressure of taxation was increased in the following years because people moved out and in the year 1688 there were several hundred vacant farms and houses and the number of families had been reduced from 800 to 300.
At the end of the 1680´s the taxation burden was relieved in different ways and in 1690 the town was exempt from paying land tax for 10 years in order to set the town on its feet again and 32 named officials and citizens were exempted from tax payments. Around the turn of the century there were still problems with empty houses and people moving out, and it was said that members of the ferry guild signed on on foreign ships. The town itself did not own a ship for foreign navigation, only 12 smaller vessels for domestic navigation, but they had to pay around 12.000 rix-dollars a year in taxes and excise duty and as a minimum and arrange for the accommodation of 720 men.
The Fortification of Kronborg
At the peace in 1660 there were plans to reinforce the fortifications around Kronborg. It was evident that the fortification had not worked during the Swedish siege. The great south tower had been brought down, and anyway the castle was too close to the town, and the Swedes could fire directly at Kronborg from the town wall and the adjoining parts of the town. During the Swedish siege Erik Dahlberg drew a sketch with enlarged future fortifications around Kronborg. In the sketch Dahlberg chose to reconstruct the south tower after the bombardment – but that was never done. In the foreground is the district, which was shot to pieces. It was never rebuilt, which in the long term made it possible to enlarge the fortification and the building of a harbour.
Before the Bombardment | 
Kronborg Becomes a Border Fortress | 
After the Bombardment | 
Elsinore |
The Crown Works
A plan of Kronborg´s fortification from 1663 indicates a reinforcement, which apparently includes the former state harbour and a better round towards the beach. But it was not until after the Scanian War in 1688 that they started to implement the enlarged fortification plan in earnest. The management of the work was given to Dominicus Pell, who was accommodated in Elsinore “together with 30 horses and orderlies, 26 bricklayers, 1 shipbuilder with assistants and 5 non-commissioned officers, 1 drummer and 70 men of the household troops.” The external fortification, which was finished in the course of the 1690´s was named Kroneværket (The Crown Works) and over the Kroneværk gate is a contemporary inscription by Thomas Kingo:
Trin ind, om Du est værd, jeg lader op min Bue
Og åbner Pladsen til det Cronet Slot at skue,
Tre Konger der har ført af Vand, af Ild, af Skud,
Trods Havets Svælg, trods Brand, trods Fjendens Kugle-Brudd!
Nu har Kong CHRISTIAN den Femtes Magt og Møje
Ret Kronet Værket, trods den avindsyges Øje,
GUD give Kongen og hans Slægt en evig Rod,
Så længe Øresund skal kysse Kronborgs Fod.
Kronborg with Extended Fortification 1663 | 
The Crown Work Gate in Kronborg | 
Extension plan for Kronborg, 1700 | 
Kronborg´s Extension, 1730 |
Enlarging
A map of the town from 1697-98 shows that the work was not quite finished at this time. The fortifications were enlarged under Frederik IV, where the front in 1713 was converted into ravelins in the spirit of the time. The Kroneværk gate was enlarged around 1740. At that time Denmark and Sweden had been through yet another war, which mainly took place in Scania. Kronborg, which now marked the frontier, now appeared as a military barracks with a garrison and Elsinore as a garrison town.Social conditions
| | The good market conditions and the intensive trade brought with it an increased growth in the cities of the Sound region. This was especially the case with Copenhagen, Elsinore and Malmo. Because of the Sound duty Elsinore had a special international atmosphere. |
Upper-class and underclass
| | Both upper-class and underclass met in the streets of Elsinore, whose straight lines indicated that everything was under control.
Nearby, Kronborg, which had put the town on the map.
But the conditions of life certainly differed.
|
Oversæt
Elsinore had, because of the Sound duty quite an international atmosphere. The French diplomat Ogier relates extensively his first meeting with he town of Elsinore in ½1634. We are among other things taken to the best public house in town, where the French messenger lodged.
Elsinore 1658 | 
Elsinore Befor 1658 | 
The Mayor Family Leyel | 
Mother and Children | 
Thot´s Diary |
The Poor
For the underclass, the large group, which stood outside the community in the established society, there were almost no opportunities. Many lived on the outer edge of society, hung out edge of town and lived on begging, prostitution or crime.
The church probably did a lot and the fine box of the guilds also contributed to the support of the poor. As mentioned earlier they had in the old Our Lady monastery established Elsinore Public Hospital (1541), which treated the sick and poor. This institution had a good economy as it had the rights to collect some of the king´s part of the tithe in a number of neighbouring parishes, and it also had income from its land in Scania. Here meals were provided for the poor, but also for the students and teachers at the grammar school.
The Pillory |
The Poor Relief
The poor relief of the time implied that every town took care of its own poor. The distributed beggar tags, which were to be carried by the poor and they appointed beggar kings, who should help to expose beggars, who did not belong to the town.
In the 17th century the poor relief was systemized more. A report from 1695 states the size of the public means, which were at the poor relief´s disposal and how th money was distributed. A principal was hired to administrate the poor relief. Of the means they commanded in 1695, support was given to 66 people in the ages 1-90, and 69 people in the ages 20-87 had permission to beg.Illness and Care
| | Epidemical diseases ravaged regularly through the 17th century and they were powerless against the plague, cholera and different children´s diseases.
The Renaissance’s interest for dissections increases knowledge of the human anatomy and physiology. |
Sickness and Health
Epidemics were well-known since the black death in the middle of the 14th century, but in the latter half of the 16th century Elsinore was struck 13 times. It has been established that more or less local epidemics took place every other year. It was different forms of the plague, but also typhoid fever, cholera and children´s diseases took many lives. The priest and writer in Elsinore, Hans Christensen Sthen, wrote a comfort script after having lost eight children in one of the epidemics.
Tycho Brahe lost in 1576 a two-year-old daughter, after which he put up this plaque in the Mary Church in Helsingborg with this inscription:
Kirstine led, when she went away, her tender dust here.
She, who was once Tycho Brahe´s daughter.
She was just an insignificant inhabitant of this world.
But in that short time, she grew considerably. In spiritual goodness, she exceeded her gender, in good deeds her young age, in eloquence her contemporaries.
This is why nature has taken her back
So that she would not exceed the boundaries of the standards.
But still she lives; she has defeated the resistance of nature.
Instead of the short time, she now owns the period of eternity.
And improved by the Heavenly Good she rejects the Mortal,
as she through Christ have been admitted to Heaven.
Died in the Plague on September 24th
in 1576, lived for 2 years and 11 months, 11 days and 11 hours.
Death
The sooner the more dear
The later the bitterer
To Kirstine my beloved daughter
Lively and well-bred for her age,
Have I, the father, written this.
Tycho Brahe’s Daughter’s Epitaph |
Death - a Common Follower
Death was a frightening and common follower in people´s lives and naturally it marked their outlook on life. Ordinarily it is claimed that parents, because of the constant presence of death, did not want to attach themselves to close to their children. This does not seem to be the case with Tycho Brahe.
With his sister, Sofie Brahe, he manufactured medical preparations and in 1625 she sent a prescription for plague elixir to Christian 4.
It wasn´t until the 18th century they started to have efficient quarantine facilities and better medical training and this had a great effect on the population development later.
The Age of Dissection
Better medical science and treatments preconditioned a better knowledge of the human body. In The Middle Ages they disagreed whether they should examine the human body, as it was the creation of God. In the Renaissance this attitude changed and dissection of the human body became acceptable. Michelangelo was openly interested in the human body and its proportions and Rembrandt´s depiction of a dissection scene from 1634 is famous.
Dissection |
Niels Stensen, Steno
In 1638 Niels Steensen was born in Copenhagen. In the war years until 1660 he studied in Copenhagen, where he was came into contact with great people in the field of natural science: The brothers Thomas and Rasmus Bartholin, who here physician and mathematician-physicist and the chemist Ole Borch. Niels Steensen was especially interested in anatomy, which could be practised in dissections in Copenhagen, but in the period 1660-64 he went on a study visit to Amsterdam and Leiden in Holland. Both cities were centres of anatomical studies.
Dissection Scene | 
The Anatomical House |
Heart and Brain
During a short stay in Copenhagen in 1664 Niels Steensen published dissertation on muscles and glands. In it he claimed, contrary to the beliefs of the times, that the heart was a muscle. That same year he goes to Paris, where he gave his famous speech about the anatomy of the brain. It was published in 1669. Here he contradicts the French scientist and philosopher Descartes´ contention about a physical connection between body and soul.
Niels Steensen was a controversial and innovative scientist, who was nevertheless admitted into the leading circles in Paris and from 1665-72 he stayed in Italy, where he surprisingly converted to Catholicism.
Science and Theology
The first years in Italy was fruitful. In 1667 he published a dissertation on the muscles and two years later his most famous work. A dissertation on solids naturally settled in other solids. With this Niels Steensen, or Steno, as he now called himself moved into the field of geology and crystallographic with studies of fossils in different stratums of earth in Tuscany.
In 1672 Steensen went back to Copenhagen, where he was appointed royal anatomist at the University of Copenhagen. As early as 1674 Steno returns to Italy, where he took holy orders in 1675. Later hen went to Hanover, where he met the German scientist and philosopher Leibniz. He regretted having left the natural science and said that he went from being, ”…a great nature scientist to become a mediocre theologist”. Steensen was a brilliant practician and observer, but he never formulated a coherent contribution to the medical science of the 17th century.Despotism
| | It is evident that the absolute monarch in practice couldn’t exert power, pass sentence and in particular make laws and reforms in these areas. The king needed good officials. The scientist Ole Rømer was one. |
Absolute Monarchy
The Danes of course considered the loss of the Scanian countries in 1660 a catastrophe, but the simultaneous transition to absolute monarchy, gave the events another perspective. With the introduction of absolute monarchy the days of the nobility rule was numbered. And the impotence of the nobility during the war set the scene for a clash with the privileges of the class. A strengthened central power headed by the king took over and began to create a modern state government. A new tax system, which broke with nobility´s exemption from taxation, was introduced, office conduct was changed and in many ways the state government was put into a more modern framework.
Homage to the Autocratic Monarch |
Aministration Reforms
The introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660 involved radical changes in the Danish government. The end of the privileges of the aristocracy meant the introduction of a so-called college management and the former fiefs were replaced by counties. Overall legislation was introduced. Danske Lov (Dansih Law) 1683, for the entire kingdom, new regulations involving market towns and guilds in 1682 and a new church ritual in 1685. In 1683 there were reforms concerning measurements and weights, the surveying of the roads in the kingdom and in 1700 a calendar reform, which introduced the Gregorian calendar.
Important was also the so-called Store Matrikel (Great Land Register) in 1688, which became the foundation of the tax state: A centralised state with needs and possibilities for increasing the income and expenses of the country. The historians still debate what the purpose of the reforms and the increased taxation was. Larger flexibility and cementation of the absolute monarchy played an important part, the political showdown about the privileges of the aristocracy was behind it and the foreign policy was marked by a revenge against Sweden until the end of the Nordic War in 1720.
The Servants of the State
It is evident that the absolute monarch in practice could not exert power, pass sentence and in particular make laws and reforms in these areas. The king needed good officials. He could ecruit these among gifted citizens and foreigners, and especially Germans played an important part.
On the other hand there was a danger that prominent official usurping too much power, as was the case with the commoner Peder Schumacher Griffenfeldt, who was the man behind the King´s Law, but he dismissed in 1676 around the beginning of the Scanian War. Later, in 1771-73, Struensee is an example of a commoner usurping power under the mad King Christian 7.
The Career of Ole Rømer
The experience of the Griffenfeldt-affair dictated that the absolute stat avoided giving individuals too much power, but instead spread tasks to a number of faithful servants. An example of this is the astronomer and scientist Ole Rømer. In posterity Rømer is first and foremost known for his discovery of the hesitation of the light, which he described in 1676, but his career in the absolute administration is just as remarkable.
Rømer participated in the work with the land register in 1688, he played a central role in the shaping and implementation of the reform concerning measurement and weight in 1683, and he was the anchorman in the surveying of the kingdom. From 1693 he functioned as a judge in the Supreme Court. In 1705 he becomes chief of police in Copenhagen and his crowning achievement is his baronage in 1706. This means that he and his family gain access to court and state events.
Ole Rømer | 
Surveying | 
Milestone | 
Milestone Mound |
The Records of Ole Rømer and Tycho Brahe
Ole Rømer was originally from Århus, but after high school he was admitted to the University of Copenhagen in 1662. Here he stayed with mathematics professor Rasmus Bartholin. He trained his skills in mathematics and astronomy occypying himself with the observations of Tycho Brahe, which was decisive factor in his further development.
When Tycho Brahe left Denmark in 1597 he took with 21 years of records from Hven. They were left to Johannes Kepler, when Brahe died. Kepler formulated the gravitation laws of the planets´ mutual circulation on the basis of Brahe´s notes. In 1655 the Danish king Frederik 3. bought Tycho Brahe´s records back and in 1664 they were let in the hands of Rasmus Bartholin, who lets them be worked over by 6 students with the purpose of publication. Ole Rømer was one of these 6 students.
The Meeting with Picard
Tycho Brahe’s edited notes were ready for print in 1669, but the new King Christian 5. did not want to use money on this expensive endeavour. Around 1671 new opportunities occur, which directly involves Ole Rømer. In August 1671 the French astronomer Jean Picard from the Royal French Scientific Society arrives in Copenhagen in order to compare new observations from the observatory in Paris to Tycho Brahe´s observations from Hven, which required a determination of the difference in longitude between Uranienborg and Paris.
Thus Picard came to Copenhagen to visit Hven, but he hadn´t taken into consideration that Hven after 1658 was Swedish. However he succeeded in obtaining a visa and access to Hven, which he visited with Bartholin og Ole Rømer. The windy autumn weather of the Sound did not agree with Picard and he preferred to stay in Copenhagen and left the practical work to Rømer. The observations continued until the spring of 1672, where the time difference, the longitude could be determined.
Observatories | 
Hven Map | 
Oversæt |
Rømer in France 1672-1681
By the end of the project asks Rømer to accompany him to Paris in order to attend to the printing of Tycho Brahe´s records in the royal printing house. Rømer is granted a yearly support of one hundred rix-dollar and leaves in May 1672. He was 27 at the time.
Rømer takes residence close to the observatory in Paris. He gains access to the observatory and soon after to the circle around the French Academy. Rømer begins a close collaboration with Picard. Apart from astronomy Rømer also occupied himself with cartography, levelling and hydraulics. The first with reference to a surveying of France, a job Rømer later benefitted from in Denmark. Levelling and hydraulics were to be used for the construction of fountains in the Versailles Park.
The Meeting with John Locke
During his man years´ stay in Paris Ole Rømer met scientists and intellectuals from all over Europe and among them the Englishman Johm Locke, one of the mos important thinkers of the time. Among other things he formulated some of the basic principles of state formation and he became perhaps the most important inspiration for the French Enlightment philosophers.
Locke came to Paris in June 1677, where he met Rømer and persuaded him to travel to London to visit Flamsteed and the Greenwich observatory. Here he met the most prominent English scientists and busied himself so much that Locke complained that he did not have the opportunity to spend much time with him. His stay in England was very short and he probably didn´t have time to descuss politics with John Locke – if Rømer at all was interested in that. However, there was good reason for that as France was becoming more and more intolerant towards the protestant minority. Nevertheless Ole Rømer was selcted to become the private teacher of the French Crown Prince. He probably demonstrated hsi two planet machine and a so-called Eclipsearium, which could show all solar and lunar eclpses between 1580 and 1780, for the prince and the French Academy.
The Heliocentric Picture of the Universe
The encounter with Tycho Brahe´s records created a lifelong ambition to finally prove the new heliocentric picture of the universe. In a letter to the German philosopher G.W. Leibnitz in 1703 he reveals his ambition to combine the systematic and precise observations of Tycho Brahe with the new technical possibilities, which the telescope, the pendulum and the micrometer provided. However, Ole Rømer´s many activities and posts in Denmark prevented him from continuing the systematic scientific work, but this was probably not the only reason.
Ole Rømer´s discovery of the hesitation of light was only recognized after many years of intense debate and it seems that Rømer did not want to enter these wearying discussions again. In a letter to Lebnitz April 21st, 1703 Rømer mentioned this. After his arrival in Copenhagen Rømer was happily married and he lived until 1710, without having published his final evidence of the heliocentric picture of the universe.Links
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