The Scandinavian peninsula, which lies in the north western part of the Eurasian continent, forms the bulk of the land mass of three nations – Norway, Sweden and Finland. For practical purposes, the entirety of Finland can also be considered to be part of the peninsula, since it is separated from the rest of Europe by the Gulf of Finland in the south and Russia in the east, although historically Finland did extend further south than its current borders.
Separating this peninsula from the European mainland is the Baltic Sea, which has a gated entry of sorts. The narrow Danish Straits, Lillebælt (Little Belt), Storebælt (Great Belt) and Øresund (The Sound), connect the Baltic Sea to the North Sea (and the Atlantic Ocean), with the islands of Denmark taking over the role of the sentry. There are many islands in the Baltic Sea as well as in the region. Sweden, Finland and Norway together have more than 460,000 islands, though most are uninhabited.
On the western side of the Danish straits is the Jutland peninsula, again part of the European mainland, with Denmark in its northern part. The remaining parts, Schleswig and Holstein, currently in Germany, have a long shared history with Denmark as well. In fact, for a long time, the eastern shore of Øresund, which is currently part of Sweden in the Scandinavian peninsula, was part of Denmark as well and this gave the Danes crucial control over traffic from the North Sea. This control was broken in mid 17th century in a series of wars which ended with Sweden annexing Danish territories in the Scandinavian peninsula.
Due to Denmark’s long presence in the Scandinavian peninsula and its interconnected history in the region, Denmark is also seen as a Scandinavian nation. Further north, Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Islands, though nowhere close to Scandinavia, also have close ties with the region. They were for a long time part of Norway and later Denmark, with Iceland breaking away as an independent nation only in the last century.
Beyond their history and geography, these five nations also have a lot more in common. All five are predominantly Lutheran in religion, indicative of the success of the early Reformation movement seen in the region. The Human Development Index (HDI) organized by United Nations Development Programme routinely ranks all of them among the highest. In the latest rankings from 2020, Norway tops with 0.957, with Iceland in fourth with 0.949, Sweden in seventh with 0.945, Denmark in tenth with 0.945 and Finland in eleventh with 0.938. The 2022 World Happiness Report, published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, has Finland at the top with 7.821, Denmark in second with 7.636, Iceland in third with 7.557, Sweden in seventh with 7.384 and Norway in eighth with 7.365.
So it should not come as a surprise that all five nations were once ruled by a single person. Although the union was brief and did not last, it had a lasting impact in the region.
The Beginning
One of the first attempts to connect the Jutland peninsula and Scandinavian peninsula under a single ruler happened in the 10th century, when the king of Denmark, whose cognomen is more famous for connecting people and devices these days, conquered Norway around 965. After 975 however, King Harald Gormson relied on the Ladejarl (Earl of Lade) to govern the Norwegians and there were occasions when local leaders reacquired their rule.
In 1028, King Harald’s grandson, Knud Svenson, reasserted Danish authority in Norway defeating King Olav Haraldson and ruling directly and later through his son, Svend. King Knud, who had also conquered England in 1016, also claimed to be king of “some Swedes” as well, but his North Sea Empire fell apart after his death in 1035, especially after his sons died without progeny.
Magnus Olavsson, son of the Norwegian king Olav Haraldson, became king of Norway in 1035 and in 1042, laid claim to both Denmark and England after Knud’s sons had died. King Magnus was successful in Denmark, but his death in 1047 again separated the two kingdoms. (King Magnus would be succeeded by Harald Sigurdsson, his father’s half brother, who would also press his claim for England, but die in battle against the English in 1066).
For the next couple of centuries, there was no united rule in Scandinavia. However, in 1262, Althing, the Parliament of Iceland, swore allegiance to the king of Norway, uniting the two nations under the single crown. Around the same time, Sweden had also brought the Finnic tribes under their rule as well. Denmark, in the meantime, made deeper inroads into the Jutland peninsula, northern Germany and the Baltics, adding Schleswig in full and Estonia to its dominion and attaining suzerainty over Holstein and some of the northern provinces of Germany, albeit briefly.
The possibility of a united Scandinavia returned in 1319, when three year old Magnus Eriksson became the king of both Sweden and Norway under the regency of his mother, Princess Ingeborg of Norway. This union lasted until 1364, when Sweden deposed King Magnus and his son, Haakon, already king of Norway and elected Albrecht von Mecklenburg, nephew of King Magnus, as king. But another union was in the offing when King Haakon’s son, Olav, became king of Denmark in 1376 after his maternal grandfather’s death and inherited Norway from his father in 1381. But King Olav died in 1387 aged 17 and his mother, Margrethe, was made Queen of Denmark and regent of Norway.
It was at this juncture that Queen Margrethe forged the Union of the Scandinavia.
The Kalmar Union
In 1389, Sweden sought the queen’s support against their king and the queen answered. Soon all three kingdoms were brought under her rule. She then adopted her grand nephew, Erich von Pommern, as her heir and in Kalmar in 1397, united the three crowns, and by extension Finland and Iceland, under a single ruler.
Queen Margrethe handed over her kingdoms to her heir in 1412 after her death in battle, but King Erich could not hold on to all his crowns. By 1442, he was forced out of all three and his nephew, Christoph von Wittelsbach, was made king. But King Christoph’s death in 1448 again put the union into disarry, though eventually Christian von Oldenburg, Count of Oldenburg and a descendant of earlier kings of Scandinavia, was made king. However, it took the new king nearly a decade to bring Sweden back into the union, after they elected their own king. Even this union was brief, lasting less than a decade.
Despite the loss of Sweden and some islands near Scotland (which were pawned for dowry for the king’s daughter’s wedding to the Scottish king), King Christian managed to add on Schleswig and part of Holstein to his rule. Schleswig had been ruled by a branch of the Danish royal family until then, who had also acquired the rule of Holstein-Rendsburg over time. This brought most of the Jutland peninsula under his rule (The remaining part of Holstein – Pinneberg would be divided between Christian’s descendants and Rantzau in 1640).
Both Christian’s son, Johan I, and his grandson, Christian II, attempted to retake Sweden. But the latter’s conquest in 1520 proved to be the final blow for the fragile union. King Christian II led the brutal execution of many of the Swedish nobles who were against him, which united the country against him. Sweden elected Gustaf Eriksson Vasa as their new king and by 1524, Denmark was forced to acknowledge the end of the Kalmar Union.
Although the Kalmar Union was lost, there were still two unions in place – Denmark, Norway and Iceland on one side and Sweden and Finland on the other. The Treaty of Malmö that ended the union also ensured that Denmark retained Skåneland, which covered the eastern shore of Øresund, thereby keeping their control over the entry to the Baltic Sea from the North Sea.
The Breakup
Ironically, Denmark and Sweden were allies soon after the breakup of the union. Denmark had deposed King Christian II in 1523 replacing him with his uncle, but after that uncle’s death, they refused to back his son, Christian, mainly for his Lutheran views. This made the Swedish king a logical ally since he had ushered in Lutheranism when he became king. And thus despite the decades of rivalry, with Swedish backing, Christian managed to take back Denmark (and Norway followed soon as well) and make Denmark a Lutheran nation.
The two new royal families sought alliances from Europe. King Christian III, who had seen the Danish nobles back his younger brother, Johan, against him, partitioned Schleswig-Holstein with Johan and their youngest brother, Adolf. Though technically the duchies were united, their revenues and control were divided into three and later two after the childless death of Duke Johan. The County of Oldenburg had already been transferred to a junior line of the House of Oldenburg after the death of King Christian I. This meant that the Danish king had sufficient distance from Holstein and Oldenburg, that were part of the Holy Roman Empire and not of Denmark.
Though all the Scandinavian nations had become Lutheran, it took some time for it to become popularly accepted. This was evident when King Gustaf’s grandson, Sigismund Vasa, became Catholic on his election as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1587. However, his religious choice turned out to be his undoing after he was forced out of the throne by his uncle, Carl, in 1599. The next century saw Sweden become a regional powerhouse starting with King Carl’s son, Gustaf Adolf.
Gustaf Adolf became king of Sweden in 1611, when his cousin, Sigismund, was in full strength in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was on the verge of annexing the Tsardom of Russia. It didn’t take long for the king to mould Sweden into a strong military unit as Sweden took an active role in the Thirty Year’s War raging in the Holy Roman Empire (albeit after Danish intervention and retreat). Despite the king’s death in 1632, Sweden would continue to showcase its military prowess during this time. It was also during this time that Sweden finally got hold of the remaining Danish territories in the Scandinavian peninsula. They also gained considerable territory along the European Baltic coastline as well.
But early into the 18th century, most of Sweden’s continental gains were lost. Russia had annexed the Swedish territories south of the Gulf of Finland. But they retained their gains from Denmark in Scandinavia. Denmark, in the meantime, had reasserted their authority in Schleswig and Holstein. The descendants of Duke Adolf, younger brother of King Christian III, who formed the cadet branch of Holstein-Gottorp largely left for Russia, which, oddly enough, they ended up ruling till 1918 (along with Sweden briefly). But the Russian Empress Ekaterina II sought an alliance with Denmark against Sweden and decided to let go of her son’s claims in Schleswig, Holstein and Oldenburg.
As Russia continued to grow, they went further north of the Gulf of Finland, conquering Finland in 1809. Bruised from the loss, Sweden targeted Denmark, which had been weakened after attacks by the British. They managed to annex Norway in the process, although Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Islands, which were part of Norway, stayed with Denmark. Denmark also had to deal with invaders as well. Both southern Schleswig and Holstein were annexed by Prussia in 1864.
The union of Sweden and Norway lasted less than a century. In 1905, Norway voted for separation and elected a Danish prince as king. Finland managed to break itself off from Russian rule in 1917 during the First World War. The First World War prompted the Danish king to create a separate Kingdom of Iceland in union with Denmark. But with Denmark overrun during the Second World War, Iceland opted to break away from Denmark and become a republic in 1944.
And thus in the space of 40 years, five independent nations were created in place of two. Like in the pre Kalmar era, a union of Denmark and Norway was followed by a union of Sweden and Norway. But all five nations continue to share a level of unity rarely seen elsewhere.
A View From My Disjointed Laptop 