| 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. |