Eric XII | |
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Eric XII | |
King of Denmark and Viken | |
Reign | 9th September, 1605 - 19th February, 1629 |
Predecessor | Eric XI |
Successor | Christopher III |
Emperor of 'The Protestant States of Germania and Scandinavia' | |
Reign | 9th September, 1605 - 19th February, 1629 |
Predecessor | Eric I |
Successor | Christopher I |
Born | 14th October, 1572 Kiel, Denmark |
Died | 19th February, 1629 Cuxhaven, Electorate of Hamburg |
Spouse | Dorothea Sophie of Saxe-Weimar Anastasia of Tver |
Issue | Elizabeth of Denmark Christopher III |
House | Estridsson |
Father | Eric XI |
Mother | Hedwig of Jever |
Eric XII was King of Denmark and Emperor of the Protestant States of Germania and Scandinavia' at the beginning of the 17th century and beginning of the Fifty Years War. A vastly more competent ruler than his father, he would reinvigorate Denmark and its lands so it could weather the upcoming cataclysm.
Born in 1572, he was the second of Eric XI and Hedwig of Jever's six children. He would be brought up in his father's preferred residence of Kiel Palace where the young Eric would have experienced a vibrant court filled with visitors from around Scandinavia and Northern Germany.
On his mother's death in 1579 he was invested with her patrimony of Jeverland. The mayor of Jever, Enno Alting, was an eager tutor to the young prince and here he learnt the art of good governance, the importance of a mercantile policy and the short-comings of Danish domestic policy. He also spent much time with his neighbour, the soon to be Duke William-George of Oldenburg, becoming firm friends.
In 1590 he married Dorothea Sophie of Saxe-Weimar. She bore him two children, Elizabeth and Christopher, before accusations of adultery came to the prince's attention. The couple were divorced in 1599 and she was put under house arrest at Johannishus Castle in Blekinge County and her suitor, the Vikene Count Olaf Eggertsson, executed for treason. In 1601 he married Anastasia of Tver, a plank in Eric XI's putative anti-Polish alliance (her sister Maria married of Karl IX of Gothenburg at the same time. Despite being a political union Eric appeared utterly devoted to his new wife and lavished her with gifts. She in turn was relived to be out of her tyrannical father's court, eagerly adopted Lutheranism and charmed the Danish and Imperial courts 'with naive joy'. She would sadly die whilst pregnant when her carriage overturned near Akerhus in 1603.
On his father's death in 1605 Eric wasted little time in grasping the reins of power. The Riksdag quickly elected him king, and the Imperial electors fell in line quickly, handing him the Schmalkaldic crown too. He dismissed many of the yes-men that had attached themselves to the Kiel court and promoted Nicolaus Skielderup to be his Lord Chancellor. Skielderup had long been a marginal figure in Eric XI's government, but he had impressed the young prince with his intelligence and stubborn refusal to go along with projects just on the old king's whims. Indeed he would challenge the new king on numerous occasions but Eric was much more willing and able to take criticism than his father and rewarded Skielderup on more than one occasion when the chancellor's instincts proved right.
Eric resumed an itinerant court too, moving around his realm and cracking down on abuses and corruption. Whilst this stirred up some unrest in the regions on balance it improved tax receipts, restored justice in Viken and Scania (which had both complained bitterly to Eric XI), and meant he could comfortably move on to military matters. It would be on one of his visits to Aabrenraa that he met his third wife Elizabeth Winterfeldt and they would marry morganatically in 1610.
He took great interest in the military reforms going on in Svealand. At first this was merely on reports from his spies but after 1610 he personally reconciled with Gustav II and the Svealanders shared the main points of their reforms. He couldn't quite copy the concept of meritocratic advancement as he needed to keep the nobles on side but he had already copied the idea of shifting recruitment and upkeep to a local level overseen by parish churches. This led to a better quality of recruits than a general levy and meant in theory the men were better supplied. A dedicated army town south of Vejle, 'Eriksodde', was established to provide a centralised barracks and officer training facility, a plan which dove-tailed with the desire to build a strong fortress north of Schleswig.
There were similar plans to reform the navy but there was little time or money to spare. The reformed army barely had time to before it would be put to use as it was.
Fifty Years War[]
Eric, it is said, barely followed the initial events in Bohemia in 1618. He was more concerned with the organisation of a new Danish factory-fort in Kotte and the trading opportunities it promised. But when the Bohemian Protestants directly appealed to the Schmalkaldic Diet for assistance he felt honour-bound to oblige. This was of course his Empire's first real test of strength and adding Bohemia to it would have been a massive victory for the Protestants and justification of continued Danish leadership. There were still numerous Protestant states which had remained outside the Schmalkaldic League so Eric reckoned a decisive win over Austria would bring many more into the fold. The empire therefore mobilised and invaded Bohemia.
At this point Charles III of Luxembourg offered his assistance if the Eric recognised him as the rightful ruler of Bohemia. Eric sent the Luxemburgers away empty-handed, he wanted Bohemia in the empire not attached to the Luxembourgs, and besides, Bohemia had definitively rejected Luxembourg rule; the lords had appealed to Copenhagen not Antwerp for assistance. With hindsight this was obviously an error, turning a potentially limited 3rd Schmalkaldic War into a grand European-wide total war, though Eric had no idea Charles would throw his lot in with Austria.
Instead Eric's old friend William-George of Oldenburg, at the head of the invasion, was elected king by the Prague Diet. After purging the lords of Catholics and Austrian stooges his rule was effectively only propped up by the continued presence of the Schmalkaldic army. William-George's daughter Catherine of Oldenburg was born in Prague on 3rd January 1620, the same day Austria and Luxembourg concluded an alliance and secret plans to carve up Bohemia between themselves. The war now started in earnest: Bohemia was lost, William-George captured and imprisoned in Vienna, Brandenburg was gained. Attempts by the Catholic side to break into Jutland or the Baltic were foiled but on the Rhineland Luxembourg ran rampant.
Eric saw little direct action; he was at the Battle of Osnabruck in 1622 but this was Johann Toll's command, like in so much of his policies he did not presume to know more about tactics than the professional generals. He had been injured at a minor skirmish near Emden, a bullet entered his right shoulder which paralysed his right arm but behind the scenes he busied himself rallying the Schmalkaldic side keeping morale up despite the occupations and devastation already being wrecked. He was instrumental in bring Aragon into the war, first as a eager source of funding, then as an active combatant in 1622. Likewise France joined the fray in 1623 and Svealand was finally ready with its near-professional army in 1625. These additions stopped the collapse of the Protestant side and kept the Catholics fighting on multiple fronts.
Riding out to survey a fresh battalion at Cuxhaven on 17th February 1629, he was thrown from his horse and died from complications two days later.
Family and Succession[]
Eric was married three times and had five children, four of whom survived into adulthood. On his death Eric was succeeded by his eldest son Christopher.
- Dorothea Sophie of Saxe-Weimar
- Elizabeth of Denmark (1592-1614)
- Christopher III (1595-1659)
- Anastasia of Tver
- Elizabeth Winterfeldt
- Kristina (1612-1672)
- Elizabeth (1615-1640)
- Valdemar (1619-1631)
Ancestors of Eric XII of Denmark (The Kalmar Union) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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