It has been said that, during the union with Denmark, Norway had no history, and this is partly true. The history of the Oldenborg kings, with their wars, and court intrigues and mistresses, is in no sense the history of Norway. Nor was the social development of Norway parallel with that of Denmark, during the reign of these kings. Though oppressed and politically powerless, the remoter kingdom escaped the utter misery and degradation which overtook its oppressor. The Danish nobility, though, like hungry wolves, they consumed the people's substance, did not succeed in reducing the Norse peasantry to serfdom, as they did their own. The so-called Vornedskab[A] in Denmark was but another name for serfdom. The nobles, who held the land, in a hundred ways oppressed and maltreated their peasants; they could sell, though they were not at liberty to kill them. Denmark, being an elective and not an hereditary kingdom, afforded the nobility opportunities for continually strengthening their position, by exacting an increase of their privileges of each candidate for the throne, before consenting to elect him. This contract or charter granted by the kings to the nobles (Haandfestning) became a terrible instrument for the oppression of those estates which were either unrepresented or without influence in the Royal Council. From having been a body, subordinate to the king, the council gradually became co-ordinate with him, and at last his superior. From this state of things it followed that the king needed some counterbalancing support against its overweening influence, and this support he sought in Norway. Here the election was a mere form, the succession being based upon hereditary right. The king could, if he was minded to redress the grievances of the people, rely upon their loyalty. Even if he was deaf to their complaints, they were disposed to excuse him, and hold his councillors responsible for his shortcomings. But, as a rule, the kings of the house of Oldenborg did pay more attention to the complaints of their Norse subjects than to those of their own, and they did this—first, because it was important to them to preserve the loyalty of the Norsemen; secondly, because the Norsemen, if their petitions were unheeded, stood ready to take up arms. They knew their rights from of old, and a continued infringement of them, on the part of the foreign officials, made sooner or later the war-arrow fly from farm to farm; and the king was confronted with an armed rebellion. Again and again the obnoxious magistrates, who had imagined that these sturdy mountaineers were as meek and long-suffering as their Danish brethren, were mercilessly beaten, maimed, or killed. Repeatedly the government was forced to concede to rebels what they had not yielded to supplicants. Unpopular laws were revoked, oppressive burdens removed, and promises made of improved administration.

And yet, in spite of these ameliorating circumstances, Norway's condition during the Danish rule was miserable. The revenues of the country were spent in Copenhagen, and the people were heavily taxed to support a foreign court and a hungry brood of foreign officials, whose chief interest was to fill their own pockets. Danish nobles married into the great Norwegian families, and secured, by bribery and intrigue in Copenhagen, a virtual franchise for unlimited ill-doing. Great estates were accumulated in the hands of men like Vincentz Lunge, Hartvig Krummedike, and Hannibal Sehested, and the courts were prostituted to favor the land-grabbing schemes of noble adventurers. The public spirit which, in times of old, had jealously watched over the interests of the realm, had already been weakened by the incipient despotism of the last national kings; and what there was left of it now gradually expired. A most striking proof of this is the fact that when, in 1537, Norway lost the last vestige of her independence, being declared to be a province of Denmark, the decree was accepted without protest, and caused no perceptible excitement. So gradually had the change taken place, that no one was surprised. The same peasants who boldly resented any encroachment upon their personal rights and killed the magistrate who overtaxed them, heard without a murmur of the extinction of their nationality. It has been surmised, as a cause of their lethargy, that they did not hear of it—at least, not simultaneously, but gradually and casually, in the course of years; and it is not improbable that the imperfect means of communication was responsible for their apparent acquiescence.

No attempt will be made in the following pages to relate the history of Denmark, except in so far as it directly affected that of Norway, and the plan of the present work excludes any but the most general characterization of the social conditions. The story of the Union will, therefore, be disproportionately short.

The death of Christopher of Bavaria afforded the Swedes an opportunity to assert again their independence. The common hatred of the Danes enabled the hostile estates to forget their differences and to unite in electing Charles Knutsson Peasant king of Sweden. The Norsemen had a candidate for the throne of Norway in the regent, Sigurd Jonsson, a descendant of Agnes, the daughter of Haakon Longlegs, but they failed to support him. One party desired to make common cause with Sweden and elect Charles Knutsson, while another favored Count Christian of Oldenborg, who had just been elected in Denmark. This latter party, supported by the Danish nobles, who already wielded a great influence, was victorious. King Christian I. (1450-1481) arrived in Norway in the summer of 1450, and was crowned in the cathedral of Drontheim. At a meeting of the Council of Regency in Bergen, it was resolved that Norway was to remain eternally united with Denmark under one king, but that each kingdom should be free and the other's equal, and should be governed in accordance with its own laws and by native-born officials.

Christian could not give up the thought of reËstablishing the Kalmar Union, and he therefore waged war for several years with King Charles Knutsson. In 1452 the latter invaded Norway and conquered Drontheim, but the commandant in Bergen, Sir Olaf Nilsson, again drove him back across the frontier. Soon internal dissensions in Sweden enabled Christian to defeat Charles and expel him from his country (1457); and, in 1458, the three kingdoms were thus again united. Christian's extortions and shameless breaches of faith made him, however, soon so detested both among peasants and nobles, that a rebellion broke out; Charles was recalled, and, though he did not at once become master of the situation, he succeeded in keeping the Danes at bay. He died as King of Sweden in 1470. When Christian during the following year made an attempt to conquer Sweden, he was overwhelmingly beaten at Brunkeberg near Stockholm by the regent, Steen Sture the Elder.

In Norway Christian broke his promises with the same cynical disregard as he did in Sweden. Instead of appointing native officials, he allowed the Danish nobles to plunder as of old, and made no effort to discipline them. The German merchants in Bergen also became constantly more insolent in their behavior toward the citizens, whom they drove away from the wharves and treated like conquered people; but Christian did not dare to restrain them in their violations of law and order, because he feared that the Hansa might avenge itself by interfering in his war with Sweden. Even when the Germans murdered Sir Olaf Nilsson, his friend, Bishop Thorleif, and sixty other citizens, and burned the cloister of Munkeliv, the king refrained from punishing them.

Highly characteristic of the way the Danish kings regarded Norway was Christian's transaction with James III. of Scotland. A marriage was arranged with the latter and Christian's daughter Margaret, and the dower was fixed at 60,000 gÜlden. As the Danish king was unable to pay this amount, he remitted the tribute due from Scotland for the Hebrides, pawned the Orkneys for 50,000 gÜlden and the Shetland Isles for an additional amount. Thus Norway lost these ancient dependencies; for it is needless to say that they were never redeemed.

Christian I. was succeeded by his son Hans or Johannes (1483-1513). The Norsemen, who had now had a sufficient taste of Danish rule, were not anxious to be governed by him, and a rebellion broke out, which, however, was short-lived. The Danish nobles, who, by marrying Norwegian women, could obtain citizenship, had by this time secured a preponderating power in the Council of Regency, and had small difficulty in getting their king acknowledged. The Swedes resisted until the year 1497, when Hans defeated Steen Sture's army and was declared king of Sweden. Three years later, however, he suffered a terrible defeat in Ditmarsken (1500), whose inhabitants opened the dikes and called in the ocean as their ally. Four thousand Danes were here slain or drowned, and enormous treasures were lost. This was the signal for renewed risings both in Sweden and in Norway. The Norse knight, Sir Knut Alfsson, of Giske, who derived his descent from the old royal house, united with the Swedes and defeated Duke Christian, the king's son, in VestergÖtland. Then he invaded Norway and captured the fortresses Tunsberghus and Akershus; but was besieged in the latter place by the Danes under Henrik Krummedike. Seeing small chance of taking the fortress, the Danish general invited Sir Knut to a conference, under safe-conduct, but foully slew him and threw his body into the water. The wretched king apparently approved of this treason, for instead of punishing Sir Henrik, he heaped honors upon him, and declared the great possessions of the murdered man to be forfeited to the crown.

Once more the Norsemen attempted to throw off the detested Danish yoke (1508), under the leadership of the peasant Herluf Hyttefad, but the country was already too divided between the foreign and the native interest to afford sufficient support for a successful rising. Duke Christian came with a Danish army and quelled the rebellion, and executed its leaders. He did not, however, satisfy himself with this. He was a believer in radical measures. In order to break the rebellious temper of the Norsemen, once for all, he captured and murdered as many of the representatives of the great Norse families, as he could lay hold of. With atrocious cruelty he raged in Norway until every trace of the rebellion seemed extinct.

The Swedes were more fortunate in their resistance to this blood-thirsty tyrant. After the death of Steen Sture the Elder (1503), they elected Svante Nilsson Sture regent, and after his death, his son, Steen Sture the Younger. These brave and patriotic men conducted the government with wisdom and energy, and succeeded in maintaining themselves against the power of the Danes during the remainder of the reign of King Hans.

Christian II. (1513-1523, d. 1559), was forced, on mounting the throne, to grant a charter to the nobility, which nearly deprived him of all power. The rule of the nobles had by this time become so great a curse, both in Denmark and Norway, that any measure for its curtailment seemed justifiable. Their principle of government was that of hawks in a poultry-yard. Whatever the citizens undertook for their advancement was checked by the interference of the privileged classes; commerce and industry were discouraged, lest the bourgeoisie should gain power enough to assert itself. The peasantry were given absolutely into the barons' power, and their degradation was made complete by the so-called "right of neck and hand," which Christian II. granted as the price of his crown. By this concession the nobles acquired the right to sentence and punish their peasants at their own discretion, without the intercession of the courts. The king, however, felt the humiliation of this concession scarcely less than its victims. He determined to prepare himself for a life and death struggle with the nobility; and with this in view strove to increase his power. He secured foreign alliances and married the wealthiest princess in Europe, Isabella, sister of the German Emperor Charles V. In order to reach that summit of power from which he should be able to crush the refractory magnates he deemed it important to regain the crown of Sweden, and at Bogesund he defeated Steen Sture the Younger, who fell in the battle (1520). The latter had had a bitter enemy in the wily archbishop, Gustavus Trolle, who made common cause with Christian, and crowned him king of Sweden. The archbishop thought this a good chance to avenge himself upon his enemies, of Steen Sture's party, and at his instigation Christian executed fifty of the most eminent men in Sweden, among whom were two bishops, thirteen members of the Council of Regency, and many brave citizens.

This was the notorious Carnage of Stockholm. Secure in the thought that the Swedes were now cowed into submission, Christian II. returned to Denmark; but his dastardly deed had an unforeseen effect. A young nobleman, Gustavus Eriksson Wasa, whose father had been beheaded and who had himself been captured by Christian, escaped from his prison and became the deliverer of his country. The common indignation against the tyrant united once more all warring factions; the Danes were everywhere defeated, and Gustavus Wasa became first, regent, and later, king of Sweden (1523). From that time forth, the power of the Danes in Sweden was at an end.

The failure of his plans abroad discredited Christian II. at home. His overweening self-esteem and impetuosity led him to commit rash acts, whereby he gave his enemies an advantage. Also in inaugurating reforms, which would have been beneficial, if they could have been carried into effect, he failed to measure the strength of the opposition which he would be sure to encounter. He issued a decree abolishing serfdom, encouraged commerce and industry, and hoped in the impending struggle to find support among the bourgeoisie and peasants, whose gratitude he had earned. Nor did he in this respect deceive himself. But long oppression had made the people timid, and their support was largely passive, and could not, without energetic leaders, be made to assert itself. The upper estates were yet too powerful. Christian had, by his devotion to Luther's teachings, also added the clergy to the number of his enemies, and by his championship of Dutch and native commerce he had incensed the Hansa. His uncle, Duke Frederick, of Holstein, took advantage of his many blunders, made alluring promises to the nobility, allied himself with the Hansa and began a war against his nephew. Christian summoned an assembly of notables to meet him at Viborg, but the nobles of Jutland, fearing that he might repeat the Carnage of Stockholm, sent him a letter, revoking their allegiance. Christian lost his courage, and instead of summoning the citizens to his support gathered all his treasures and fled to Holland (1523).

Duke Frederick, of Holstein, now ascended the throne under the name of Frederick I. (1524-1533), and by the aid of the Danish nobleman, Vincentz Lunge, soon succeeded in gaining Norway. Sir Vincentz, who was a highly-cultivated but rapacious and unscrupulous man, had married the daughter of the Norse knight, Sir Nils Henriksson, whose wife, Inger Ottesdatter, was related to the old royal house. This remarkable woman, commonly known as Mistress Inger of Oestraat, played a prominent rÔle in her day, but, unhappily, threw the weight of her wealth and influence on the side of the oppressors. One of her daughters married the Danish nobleman Erik Ugerup, another Nils Lykke, and a fourth was betrothed by her ambitious mother to a Swedish impostor who pretended to be a son of Steen Sture and a candidate for the Swedish throne.

The doctrines of Luther were at that time being zealously preached in Sweden and Denmark, and were favored by the king and the greater portion of the nobility. In Norway there was no effort made to introduce the Reformation, and the people there remained devoted to the Catholic faith. Christian II. saw in this circumstance a chance of regaining his lost throne. He had previously inclined toward Luther, but he now declared himself the champion of the old faith, arrived in Norway with a fleet (1531), and gained a large number of adherents. But the same incapacity and imprudence, which had wrecked his fortunes before, again precipitated his downfall. In the critical moment, when resolution and courage were required, Christian, as usual, showed himself a poltroon. When the fortress of Akershus, which he was besieging, was relieved by the LÜbeckers, and a Danish fleet arrived under the command of Knut Gyldenstjerne, he began to despair and finally betook himself to Denmark under safe-conduct, in order to negotiate with his uncle. On arriving there he was unceremoniously thrown into prison. Frederick I., although he had pledged his royal honor, at the request of the nobility, broke his promise and Christian was held a prisoner until the day of his death (1559).

The Norsemen were severely punished for their alliance with the deposed king, although Frederick I. had promised them immunity, on condition of their returning to their allegiance.

At the death of Frederick I. an interregnum of four years occurred (1533-1537), before a successor was chosen. It was the religious question which had divided Denmark into two hostile camps. Christian, the oldest son of the late king, was devoted to Protestantism, while Hans, the younger, had been brought up in the Catholic faith. The nobles, accordingly, favored the former, and the clergy the latter, while the lower estates desired to reinstate Christian II. in the possession of his throne. In Norway there were but two parties, one headed by Vincentz Lunge, favoring Duke Christian, and a Catholic party, which pinned its hopes upon the imprisoned king. A sudden show of strength was imparted to the latter's faction, when the LÜbeckers took up his cause, and their general, Count Christopher of Oldenborg, invaded Denmark, and gave the peasantry a chance to avenge themselves upon their oppressors. This opportunity was eagerly embraced; castles were sacked and destroyed, noblemen murdered, and the wildest atrocities committed. For a while civil war raged in Denmark with all its horrors, and in the presence of this calamity the opposing parties buried their differences and elected Christian III. king (1537-1559). By the aid of King Gustavus in Sweden he succeeded in defeating and expelling Count Christopher, after whom this war is called the Count's Feud. The Norwegians were not disposed to recognize the validity of King Christian's election, concerning which they had not been consulted; and when, after the capitulation of Count Christopher, the cause of Christian II. seemed hopelessly lost, they declared in favor of his son-in-law, Count Palatine Frederick, whose candidacy was supported by the German Emperor. The Danish nobles, headed by Vincentz Lunge, were, of course, adherents of Christian III., while the archbishop, Olaf Engelbrektsson, was the leader of the opposition. At a meeting in Bergen, called for the purpose of electing a king, the people grew furious at the sight of the Danish magnates, attacked them and murdered Sir Vincentz Lunge. Many others were imprisoned and otherwise maltreated. If the Count Palatine had now arrived in Norway and supported his adherents, there might have been a chance of his success. But unhappily he lacked money and was not effectually aided by the emperor. The archbishop had therefore no choice but to offer his allegiance to Christian III. on condition of his respecting the ancient liberties of the land. But the Danish King, though he seemingly acquiesced, had no intention of granting such easy terms. He sailed to Norway with his fleet (1537), and although he met with no opposition, he seemed to think that he had conquered the country and had the right to do with it as he chose. He abolished the Norwegian Council of Regency and henceforth administered the government through a viceroy and a chancellor, both of whom were Danes. The last vestige of Norwegian independence was thus lost, and Norway became a province of Denmark.

Archbishop Olaf, without awaiting the king's arrival, fled to Holland, taking with him the treasures of the cathedral, and died in exile.