Timeline (Nordic Empires)

Background
From 1520 to 1523, King Gustav I of Sweden led rebel forces within Sweden to unite against the Danish Crown and take back Sweden as independent, during the Swedish War of Liberation. He successfully took back the much of the land, and was elected King in June 1523.

The important city of Stockholm, traditionally the capital of Sweden, was still in Danish hands. Following his election and coronation, he swiftly moved to take it back. Through making of arrangements with foreign traders in the city, the citizens moved to let King Gustav's forces in. Later that month, Stockholm become once more the capital city of Sweden.

The Deceit of Malmö
Over the next year, King Gustav secretly liased with rebel forces in Norway, as many Norwegians resented the dominance of Denmark and the Danish language over what they still saw as their country. Despite being called Denmark-Norway, the so-called Union had a Danish King, was governed from Copenhagen and its only official language was Danish. Thousands of Norwegian men had been raised by the Swedish King for this cause, and he moved several thousand Swedish men to near the Norwegian border in preparation for 24 August 1524.

King Gustav I contacted the Danish crown claiming to want to make some kind of settlement. They planned to meet in Malmö at the end of August 1524, but the Swedes had formulated a plan. Men sent by the Swedish crown impersonating King Gustav (and others impersonating his generals) arrived in Malmö on 24 August 1524, and met with King Christian of Denmark and his generals and advisors. They all stayed in a fortified Danish royal palace there, and agreed that they were not to be interrupted until an agreement was made or they adjourned/cancelled the meeting themselves.

The real King Gustav and his generals travelled secretly to the Norwegian border, disguised as peasants, where they met with the rest of the Swedish army members who had been moved there. Once word had reached them that King Christian and the impersonator of King Gustav were inside the palace at Malmö co-ordinating a treaty, the Swedish troops met up with the Norwegian rebels. The underground movement which had been gathering momentum for over a year now came out in the open, and on 26 - 28 August 1524, they drove the Danish out of Norway. Little resistance was met, and no Danish army/navy response could be commanded quickly enough, as the Danish King and his generals were all inside the palace in Malmö.

King Gustav had cleverly insisted that some of his troops were stationed surrounding the palace, so that no news could get in of the invasion. However, when violence started to erupt outside as people tried to get in to bring the message to King Christian and his men, the noise could be heard from inside the castle. Knowing the meaning of this, the impersonator of King Gustav claimed he 'feared for his personal safety', and said that their agreements would have to be postponed. The representatives of the Swedish crown hastily left before the Danes, and fled the area for Stockholm.

The Scanian War
With the Norwegian state having the backing of Swedish forces, an instant scramble occurred to heavily fortify the ports and coastlines of Southern Norway, making any attempts at direct reoccupation by the Danes effectively impossible. While the furious Danish King tried to plot some kind of retaliation against Sweden, in Late September 1524, Sweden attempted to start to mount an invasion upon the regions of Southern Sweden under Danish control. While the area had quite strong defences, the Danes did have to really put up a fight.

Although the area of land was quite small, the two sides fought for over a year. Denmark showed no signs of giving in, before in October 1525, the Swedes managed to push the Danes back to just the city of Malmö itself. With the Danes not getting anywhere, and simply losing many men to the battle, the Danish Crown offered a conditional surrender to the Kingdom of Sweden on October 15. They said that they would surrender and retreat to Denmark, provided the Swedes promised to never attempt to invade any of the land in the area which has been traditionally referred to as Denmark (i.e. Jutland and the main Danish islands). The Swedish Crown said that it would agree, provided that the Danish Crown agreed the same thing for the Swedish and Norwegian mainlands. They swiftly accepted, and on November 17, The Danish Army withdrew from its last Swedish stronghold in Malmö.

The Beginnings of a "Greater Denmark"
The Danish Crown realised that while the core nation of Denmark was safe from Swedish invasion, the Swedes had formed a large empire that could potentially jeopardise any attempts to expand their territory in any way. As such, Denmark quickly sought to increase its power, influence and territorial extent as soon as possible.

King Christian IV knew that the leaders of the Union of the Duchies of German Nordland felt threatened by the Holy Roman Empire to its south. Despite having left the empire (just over a year before King Christian made his proposal) without any problems, there was an ever present hostile feeling from these Catholic neighbours. The Danish Crown made contact with the Union of Duchies in December 1525, claiming that if they were to enter into a personal union under his monarchy, they would be in a much stronger political position, and would have more of a defence force available to them. The dukes of German Nordland deliberated over this, and decided to agree to his terms.

With this, the Empire of Denmark-Nordland was formed.