Denmark and Sweden are allies, and this alliance was only concluded a few years ago.
King Gustav I of Sweden successfully got rid of the vassal relationship with the Hanseatic League by virtue of this alliance.
Let's explain the Hanseatic League, which belongs to the German Commercial Cities United Group. It is a group of cities controlled by nobles and merchants that unite to do business. There are no additional taxes on each other's cities, and together they monopolize the trade profits of other regions.
They also have their own army. The small nobles of small countries are obedient and can directly fight to solve the problem.
Sea Coachman was originally the title of the Hanseatic League.
For more than a hundred years, the Hanseatic League has been boycotted by all countries and has almost become a lost dog. Under this situation, the Hanseatic League gradually weakened. Dutch merchants successfully took away the maritime trade of Western Europe, and by the way, they also took away the sea coachmen.
The title was taken away.
However, the Hanseatic League still monopolized the Baltic Sea, and most of the trade in Northern Europe was controlled by them.
While the Kalmar League was still in existence, the Hanseatic League was suppressed in Northern Europe. After the collapse of the Kalmar League, Margaret's father, Wang Ji's father-in-law, stood up to suppress the Hanseatic League again, and was eventually united by the Hanseatic League.
The Danish nobles were overthrown.
After Christian III and his son usurped the throne, they had no choice but to cooperate with the Hanseatic League again because they were really short of money and wanted to attack the nobility.
After the Danish local nobles were almost done, Christian III immediately turned his back and joined forces with the King of Sweden to suppress the Hanseatic League again.
What about Sweden?
Sweden has long been controlled by the Hanseatic League. At its worst, the crowning of the Swedish king required the consent of Hanseatic merchants. A country turned into a vassal of the merchant group, with legislative, administrative and financial power all in the hands of merchants.
A few years ago, Denmark and Sweden formed an alliance. The Swedish king finally stood up, no longer obeyed the orders of German businessmen, and abolished the king election system.
Who was Gustavus I?
This guy was born into a local noble. Because he led troops to fight against Danish rule, he was elected as the king of Sweden.
Gustavus I became king and found himself extremely poor. He immediately carried out the religious reform, under the banner of the reformed religion, confiscated the church's land and castles, annexed and disbanded the church's army, and made a huge profit from it.
What, the nobility opposed the Reformation?
Then fight!
Gustavus I defeated several big nobles one after another, abolished their fiefdoms, and sent officials from the central government to manage them. Hey, he made a lot of money just like this, and Mr. King became addicted to it.
Therefore, regardless of whether the local nobles were causing trouble or not, Gustavus I always found excuses to conquer them.
Within twenty years, every major Swedish noble was wiped out. Two-thirds of the country's land was owned by the royal family, and the Swedish king became the richest monarch in Northern Europe.
In comparison, Christian III used the same method, but he became increasingly poor in Denmark because he did not have a strong army and relied entirely on German mercenaries to "cut down the vassal".
The two formed an alliance to suppress the Hanseatic League. The Swedish king got rid of the control of the merchants, but the Danish king was suppressed by the merchants and allowed the Hanseatic League's actions in Denmark to go unchecked.
The alliance still exists, but it has essentially become useless paper, and border frictions between the two countries have begun to occur.
Gustavus I, a man of great talent and strategy, managed to pacify all the great nobles in the country and almost complete the centralization of power. His army was extremely powerful and his treasury was extremely wealthy. Naturally, he was unwilling to stay in Sweden. He wanted to annex Norway and then conquer Denmark.
Become the true King of the Nordics!
Wang Ji led his troops to attack, and the Danish border guards were recalled to the capital. Gustav I immediately took the opportunity to send troops.
When Gustavus I thought about it, no matter who won or lost in Denmark, it would take several months to fight. And it would only take a few months for him to conquer Norway by force, and then turn around to deal with Denmark.
How could he have imagined that the decisive battle for the Danish throne only lasted a few minutes...
…
Baltic Sea.
The trade fleet of the Hanseatic League saw Wang Ji's fleet passing by in a mighty manner, and the merchants began to discuss Wang Ji's strength.
"This fleet is very strong, especially the four battleships."
"I heard that the new king of Denmark issued a decree to attack the Hanseatic League."
"He did not issue a decree, he just announced his own policy. Moreover, he did not attack the Hanseatic League. He announced that all business groups would be treated equally."
"The Baltic Sea is the inland sea of the Hanseatic League. Treating merchants equally here is a clear intention to attack the Hanseatic League."
"But we can't stop him from sending troops, because the Swedish king is even more hateful!"
"Let them fight. It's best to fight to the death of both sides. The fight lasts for ten or twenty years. By then, we can provide loans and control Denmark and Sweden."
"The new king of Denmark's army seems to be very powerful."
"The King of Sweden's army is also very powerful. I hope they will be equal opponents."
"..."
The merchant ships of the Hanseatic League were very large. A hundred years ago, super ships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons appeared.
However, they are all defensive and low-flexibility offshore ships, mainly doing business in the Baltic Sea and the coast of Western Europe. They once completely controlled the trade of Western Europe and Northern Europe, and each of them was extremely wealthy, but they did not develop local industry and commerce, and were purely engaged in trading and
Mortgage, get greater benefits at the lowest cost.
The merchants were undoubtedly short-sighted. They were divided and suppressed by several kings, and they themselves became chaotic. Finally, the Dutch merchants took away the Western European trade.
In addition, the seven provinces of the Netherlands are not monolithic. Many cities in the Netherlands are members of the Hanseatic League, but their Western European markets have been taken away by the Netherlands. The Netherlands is also a target of public criticism in the Netherlands.
Nearly a hundred warships dispersed to blockade Swedish ports.
The Danish navy, which Christian III had worked so hard to build, was now all forced to submit to Wang Ji.
Wang Ji was the husband of a Danish princess, and he was abdicated by the old king, and he also fought against the Swedish invasion. His legal authority was immediately fulfilled, the Danish navy "loyally" joined him, and nobles from all over the country also swore allegiance.
"It's so cold here!" Zhou Fei rubbed his hands and shivered.
The son of Wang Yuan's steward and the pupil of Wang's fifth son, it is very likely that he will be appointed as the Prime Minister of Denmark, and he is fully capable of doing a good job as Prime Minister.
Zhou Fei followed the young master since he was a child, learning mathematics, physics and the Four Books and Five Classics. It doesn’t matter how much he learned, at least the breadth of his knowledge was far beyond ordinary people. He also practiced martial arts since he was a child, worked as a sailor with Wang Ji, and traveled around the world with Wang Ji.
They fought against natives and pirates in various places, and participated in many wars. The biggest war was the destruction of several sultanates in India.
In Denmark, where talents are scarce, Zhou Fei can be said to be an unparalleled national scholar!
Danish Admiral Olaf pointed forward and said: "Your Majesty, go around that bay, and ahead is Stockholm."
Wang Ji nodded and said: "Very good, let the whole army prepare to attack!"
There are so many islands near Stockholm that Wang Ji could have circled the island maze for several months without the guidance of someone who was familiar with sea routes.
The King of Sweden personally led an army to invade Norway.
Wang Jicai was too lazy to rescue Norway, so he directly brought his navy to attack the Swedish capital.