| Great Unlaw |
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| Part of St. George's Night | |||||||
 Hussite Danish nobles flee Copenhagen after the Bloody Riksrad of 1474. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Bavarian party
Griffins party
Griffins
| Albertine party
Albertines
Albertines
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Christopher of Bavaria † Alv Sigursson Erik Saemundsson Wartislaw X of Pomerania Bela Csaba
|  Albert II of Smolandia and Mecklenburg  Albert III Achilles
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| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000 (variable) | 20,000 (variable) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | Heavy | ||||||
The Great Unlaw was a prolonged period of civil conflict fought within and between a number of Scandinavian and Baltic states from 1450 to 1483, so-called because it led to a massive breakdown in law and order. Initially a war of succession fought between two potential heirs to Eric of Pomerania, who ruled Norway, Svealand and Denmark, the conflict eventually subsequently became one which pitted the nobility against supporters of a strong central monarchy, although it also rapidly developed religious implications as Hussite peasantry, with some noble supporters, began to attempt to force through a change in state religion. Albert II of Mecklenburg, the surviving original claimant, was then challenged by a Hussite-sympathetic claimant, Duke Wartislaw X of Pomerania, provoking further splits among the regional nobility. Estland also intervened in Finland against Albert. With Estlandic aid, Wartislaw successfully gained the thrones of Norway, Denmark and Finland by 1483, although Albert II successfully reunited Sweden under his rule. Consequently, the new united Scandinavian kingdoms, barring Sweden, were converted to Hussitism; this mainstreaming of Hussitism meant that the war marked the beginning of the end of the Papacy's unchallenged political power.
Background[]
Eric of Pomerania's death and the succession crisis[]
Eric of Pomerania, who had succeeded Margaret I, uniter of the Scandinavian kingdoms after the Ingrian War, was a less skilled politician who rapidly alienated the nobility of all three kingdoms by his disrespect for their prerogatives. He was also much less comfortable with the tacit acceptance of his Estlandic vassal's paganism than his predecessors had been, and offered no aid to Estland during the Curonian Crusades. In 1440, when Aulemb I, reigning Estlandic Duke, died and his bastard son Kostutõiv claimed the throne over his legitimate, but Christian, son Karumeel. Estland's nobility and most of its military power rallied to Kostutõiv, who broke Karumeel's hastily gathered militia outside Kaleva and hung him. Kostutõiv proceeded to conduct a purge of Estlandic Christians, although mainly Kostutõiv's supporters - he was careful to avoid the Flemish merchant community, whose goodwill Estland badly needed. Nevertheless, several thousand died. Eric was justifiably enraged, and rallied to the Pope's proclamation of a fresh crusade, placing Estland under a royal ban and declaring Kostutõiv an outlaw. However, when Eric landed on Oeselia in 1443, he, over confidently, brought only a few hundred knights, and also chose to attack the Estlandic ruling house's historical patrimony, where paganism and support for the Duchy was strongest. A hastily gathered Oeselian fleet drove off Eric's ships and he was besieged by several thousand Estlanders on a rocky peninsula east of Kuuresaare Castle. Eric's force rapidly ran out of water; a last-ditch charge saw the majority, including Eric, slaughtered as they were surrounded by the Estlanders.
With Eric dead, there was no clear heir to the Scandinavian thrones. Albert II of Smolandia, the transplanted German kingdom established in southern Sweden after the Ingrian War, immediately announced his intent to claim the throne. However, the Hanseatic domination that he clearly represented meant he was loathed by the Danish and Swedish nobility, who instead backed Eric's nephew, Christopher of Bavaria, a German nobleman of no particular distinction or power. He was clearly meant to be a puppet of the Danish Riksdag, or State Council. Unexpectedly, however, the Norwegian nobility, whose power was much less dependent on Baltic trade and hence felt less threatened by the Hanseatic League, professed their willingness to accept Albert. Estland, now alienated from the Scandinavian monarchy, offered no opinion, although it did not explicitly repudiate its vassal status.
Inconveniently, Svealand - and its Finnish territories - were connected to Denmark only by Norwegian territory, so a simple division of the kingdoms would have left it isolated by Albert's territory. Svealand, which had only narrowly avoided being incorporated into Albert's kingdom in the Ingrian War, had no intention of letting it happen now, and Svealandish nobles began to call up their levies and garrison border fortresses with Smolandia, while Albert's Hanseatic backers bankrolled a substantial army of German mercenaries to augment his forces.
1450-60: Bavarians and Albertines[]
Initial divisions[]
By 1450, war seemed inevitable, although the Norwegians avoided explicitly declaring Albert king. However, as Christopher and his Danish backers began to transfer troops to Helsingborg in Scania, seemingly in preparation for an attack on Norway. In response, Albert moved his forces to Eskjo, near the border with Denmark's mainland Scandinavian territories. Hanseatic ships also began to gather in the ports of Gotland, seemingly in preparation for an attack on the Danish islands. Ultimately, however, the war was triggered when the Norwegians officially declared Albert king in December, fearing that Christopher and the Danish nobility now planned to use the gathered forces against them even if they backed him. In response, the Svealandish army, under the castellan of Styresholm, Gustav Anundsson, invaded Smoland, while Christopher's Danish army moved north into southern Norway, advancing on Oslo.
Stalemate[]
As rapidly became apparent, however, the buildup of fortifications in response to the Ingrian War and its aftermath, combined with the territoriality divided nature of the war's combatants, which meant that the rear of each force was under threat if it sought to attack another, prevented decisive results in the war's early years. This was further exacerbated by peasant revolts in Denmark and, even more severely in Smolandia, where Albert's mercantile focus, and a series of bad harvests, provoked popular anger. Nevertheless, Albert was clearly better positioned. He had virtually unlimited Hanseatic funds, and his professional mercenary army could remain in the field longer, unconstrained by the need to gather the harvest. Additionally, with Norway a virtually unassailable natural fortress by virtue of its mountainous geography, with the heavily fortified Oslo barring entrance to the coastal plain from Scania, his position was strategically stronger than Christopher's.
Christopher was also weakened by his efforts to establish himself as king in his own right, which provoked Danish nobles to withdraw their support for him at various points in the war. Consequently, his repeated sieges of Oslo failed, particularly as Hanseatic naval superiority kept the city well supplied. By contrast, Albert was able to seize the island of Bornholm in the Baltic and capture the Svealandic city of Falun. The loss of its valuable copper mines damaged the Svealandic economy, reducing its nobles' ability to keep their army in the field while bolstering Albert's revenue. He also sought to encourage Karl Knutsson, a powerful Svealandic baron in Finland who governed the region and controlled the fortress of Turku on the Gulf of Bothnia, to defect to his side. Albert was also able to move troops from his duchy of Mecklenburg, which was invulnerable to Danish invasion by virtue of its position in the Holy Roman Empire and its geographical isolation from Denmark. By 1457, it was clearly apparent that Albert would, barring a sudden change in the military situation, win the war. Dissension was emerging within Denmark, with some nobles openly adopting the "Albertine" label and speculating that Albert might permit them virtually complete autonomy, unlike the increasingly overbearing Christopher.
Christopher of Bavaria's death[]
In spring 1458, Christopher decided to push for a decisive battle, reconciling with as many Danish magnates as he could to gather the largest force possible in Scania. His 15,000 men significantly outnumbered Albert's 10,000, but Albert's German heavy infantry and cavalry were significantly more professional. Christopher also had difficulty supplying his army as he advanced across Holland on the city of Kalmar; the famine that had provoked peasant rebellion there was now working to his disadvantage. Albert's forces caught his on the road in retreat from the siege in midsummer; Christopher's peasant levies scattered and Christopher, along with most of his loyalists and personal guard, were cut down by Albert's knights. The remaining Danish magnates fled the field, returning to Scania or withdrawing to their manors.
Although Albert invaded Scania briefly, he was unable to capture Helsingborg, and the Danish island were too heavily garrisoned to attack. Nor did Albert particularly want Denmark. Instead, he now turned on Svealand in force, routing its already-weak army as it attempted to block his crossing of the Dalalven River. Most of its nobles either submitted or, more commonly, fled to Finland or Denmark. Karl Knutsson chose the former, which also brought Albert at least nominal control of Finland. In 1460, Albert swept triumphantly into the province of Jamtland, curtailing its long-time autonomy and preparing to advance into Norway to confirm his authority there (a prospect its nobles did not now greet with particular enthusiasm).
1460-67: Hussite Rebellions[]
However, peasant discontent throughout the region was now beginning to manifest itself in religious dissent. This was driven largely by the spread of Hussite ideas among priests. At least initially, religious grievance did not explicitly drive the expansion of Hussite sentiment. Instead, Svealandic and Smolandian peasantry, as well as some of the less wealthy nobility, saw it as a means of reasserting their language and national identity against the encroachment of Albert's German-speaking administrators and the power of Hanseatic-allied urbanites. Vernacular bibles and local autonomy in church matters would also strengthen their political authority against efforts to curtail it by the monarchy. From their initial appearance in Smaland in the 1440s, these ideas spread northward into Svealand and westward into Norway, where they initially provoked less political tension, due to the less strained relations between peasantry, nobles and the monarchy. However, in 1460 Svealandic peasants, lacking noble leadership, exploded into revolt, provoking a resurgence of rebellion in Smolandia as well. Risings in Jamtland then spread into northern Norway, where opportunistic nobles in the north led revolts as an effort to expand their own power, and in response to increased taxation by the more powerful magnates who supported Albert to sustain the war.
Aided by exiled Svealandic nobles, a peasant army from Jamtland and northern Norway advanced on Trondheim, the largest city in northern Norway, where they seized the city, expelled the Archbishop of Nidaros, and replaced him with Alv Sigursson, a fervently Hussite priest. Of lower noble origin, Sigursson was literate and more radical than most of his followers, aiming at an explicit break with the Papacy, as the Hussite Bohemians had done. However, he initially concealed this to maintain support, focusing on the grievances of the peasantry in his preaching. Many regional nobles backed him for fear of what his army might do to them and their property otherwise. Sigursson's peasant supporters blocked Albert's efforts to advance through the mountains in 1461, and Albert withdrew south out of Jamtland, where the peasantry rallied behind a revival of the traditional peasant assembly and attacked his forces. Although the fortresses of Svealand were generally holding for Albert, his control of the countryside was tenuous. His mercenaries might be able to win pitched battles but they had difficulty bringing the rebellious peasantry to battle.
Although Hussite doctrines also gained some support in Finland, church structures were too rudimentary there to have produced a major backlash, and the revolts that broke out there in 1462 were generally directed at specific Swedish nobles, or by rural Finns against Swedish-speakers concentrated along the coast. Knutsson, with Albert's aid, was generally able to defeat the revolts. However, he was unable to prevent Estland from occupying the eastern fortress of Viborg in 1464, leaving the Finnish border vulnerable. From this secure base, Estland funded Finnish rebels in the interior, as well as expanding its preexisting client list networks with the Saami tribes of the far north westwards. As a result, much of central Finland slipped out of the control of Albert's allies and into the control of local Finnish peasant leaders or particularly popular nobles.
The Riksrad and the Hussites ally[]
In Denmark, the Riksrad, despite the death of Christopher of Bavaria, was determined to carry on the fight and refused to submit to Albert. In fact, Danish magnates committed more fully to the war without the prospect that it would strengthen a centralizing monarchy as well. However, no agreeable substitute for Christopher was found; many nobles thought they would be better able to select a monarch after defeating Albert, when there would be no chance of the war redounding to their disadvantage. They willingly sought alliances with rebel leaders in northern Norway and Sweden, hoping to counterbalance Albert's improved strategic position by maintaining pressure on him in the north. This was facilitated by the lack of clarity of the peasant rebels' religious position, which was not yet explicitly Hussite. The Steward of the Realm, Niels Gyldenstjerne, who had been notable for his opposition to Christopher's efforts to expand royal authority, took up effective leadership of the Riksrad, expanding support for the war. In the early 1460s, the Riksrad's disorganization allowed Albert to seize several border castles in Scania, but he was unable to take Helsingborg, the region's key fortress.
However, the Hussites' surprising success alienated the Svealandic noble exiles, whose dislike for Albert was decidedly less than their fear of an upsetting of the social order by a militant peasantry. They, along with most of Svealand's remaining military resources, abruptly shifted their allegiance to Albert, giving him a substantial military force in the rear of the rebels blocking his entry into Norway. Meanwhile, the Norwegian magnates also gathered an army under Alv Knutsson, a powerful southern Norwegian baron, to expel the rebels from Trondheim. The merchants of Bergen and Oslo supplied a powerful fleet, guaranteeing naval superiority. Thus, Albert appeared in a good position to reassert his authority in early 1464. However, the Riksdag chose this point to re-engage, launching an attack on Oslo, forcing Knutsson's army to abandon the northern campaign and relieve the city. Meanwhile, Archbishop Sigursson's peasant irregulars attacked the Svealandic nobles in the streets of Trondheim, leading to several days of vicious street fighting, particularly around the cathedral, that devastated the city. Sigursson's forces, with the advantage of superior numbers, broke the Svealanders' army; most escaped the city or surrendered to the Hussites. Now politically strengthened, Sigursson pressed Hussite doctrines more aggressively, leading to breaks with the moderate Norwegian nobles who had backed him initially. However, Albert's attacks on the rebels in Svealand and Smolandia brought dividends; with the nobility more willing to back him, popular support increased and the peasant armies weakened. He was increasingly able to reassert control over the countryside, although the traditionally rebellious Jamtland remained defiant, barring his access to Norway.
Meanwhile, tensions were arising in Denmark between the more devoutly Catholic nobles, who argued they ought to ally with Albert against the Hussites, and the more pragmatic ones, who argued for the continuation of the existing arrangement. Gyldenstjerne inclined toward pragmatism, and, at least in the mid-1460s, was able to personally dominate the Riksdag and keep it in line with his preferred policy. Nevertheless, even he was concerned about the potential spread of Hussite ideas into Denmark itself, and he sanctioned efforts to purge the church hierarchy of Hussite-sympathizing priests that provoked Danish-allied rebels' anger.
By 1465, both sides' power bases were weakening. Hussite doctrines proved surprisingly popular with urban burghers in Norway, where resentment of Hanseatic mercantile elites who dominated the dried fish trade was surprisingly mobilizing. Norway's dominant Albertine nobles worried about an alliance between the townspeople, peasantry, and lower nobility against them. Meanwhile, Albert's Hanseatic backers were growing tired of the vast expenditures that Albert's mercenaries required, forcing him to rely on less effective Mecklenburger levies, and on his Swedish noble allies. Meanwhile, some Danish nobles and burghers alike were showing Hussite leanings. Resentment of the Church's alliance with the Holy Roman Empire had always been strong in Denmark, particularly where prince-bishoprics' lands restricted potential southern expansion. Backing the Hussites also offered some nobles a potential advantage over their rivals in any future power struggle, especially if the rebels triumphed in Norway or against Albert. Consequently, tacit invitations were extended to Duke Wartislaw X of Pomerania-Wolgast to seek a claim to the throne. Although not a particularly powerful prince, he had long been in conflict with Brandenburg over Pomerania-Stettin, and had consequently allied with Brandenburg's Hussite Polish enemies. He was rumoured, as a result, to be Hussite-sympathetic, if not Hussite himself, and had certainly tolerated such preaching in his territories. He had also shown himself to be an effective politician, effectively uniting several of Pomeranian territories and resisting Brandeburger encroachment - which meant his claim threatened the anti-centralization nobles in the Riksdag.
1467-75: Pomeranian Involvement[]
Wartislaw's claim[]
In 1467, Wartislaw decided to officially attempt to claim the throne, based on his relation to Eric of Pomerania. He hoped, no doubt, to expand his power, but also reportedly entertained hopes that the power of the Denmark would allow him to reunite Pomerania and finally repel Brandenburg. Cognizant of this possibility, Brandenburg, under its Duke Albert III, called "Achilles" for his military acumen, made overtures to Albert, offering support. Initially, however, Wartislaw's intervention seemed to help Albert more than it harmed him. Evading Hanseatic ships, Wartislaw's arrival in Copenhagen - with only 500 Pomerania troops, who were themselves less than impressive, did not raise hopes that he would be able to decisively win the war. Gyldenstjerne easily rallied support against him in the Riksdag. However, Wartislaw rapidly left Copenhagen; displaying his characteristic skill at spotting a political opening, he sailed to Bergen to personally court the Norwegian nobility. Entering the port, several Hanseatic ships moved to board Wartislaw's. This affront provoked the burghers' anger at Hanseatic autonomy within their own city, however, and they swiftly moved to seize the local Hanseatic kontore, or trading post, forcing them to release Wartislaw.
Sigursson, meanwhile, seized the opportunity of a Hussite-sympathetic monarch by marching southward, paralyzing the main Norwegian noble army, which could not advance on Bergen. Worse still, risings in January 1468 saw Oslo's burghers also revolt against Hanseatic dominance, confining noble control to the city's citadel, Akershus fortress. Knutsson was forced to seek Hanseatic aid to mobilize another mercenary army, while the League also bankrolled the transport of Brandburger forces to join Albert in Scania. In 1469, Knutsson was able to regain control of Oslo, but only at the cost of a bloody assault, in which Norwegian troops had to bear the brunt of the attack, with the mercenaries declining to risk their future fees by storming the walls. Sigursson and Wartislaw united their forces at Lillehammer in May 1470, where the two issued a united declaration of support for Hussite doctrines, and Sigursson personally crowned Wartislaw king of Norway. With this, even some noble defections to Wartislaw began, notably the commandant of Tonsberg Castle, Erik Saemundsson - yet, at the same time, it would weaken his position in Denmark and Sweden.
The powerful Danish nobility of Scania, whose positions were now under direct threat if peasant insurrections in southern Sweden spread into their lands, began to consider defecting to Albert, or at least opposing Wartislaw directly. Their anti-Wartislaw sentiment was driven partly by the preaching of the exiled Archbishop of Nidaros, Alsak Bolt, who rallied substantial opposition to Wartislaw's alliance with the Hussites, and, in 1469, moved into the Norwegian Ostfold at the head of a substantial German-Swedish army given him by Albert. He combined with a force commanded by Knutsson and Bishop Jens of Oslo, and the new force advanced on Lillehammer. They were forced to withdraw back southward after Saemundsson, in concert with a force drawn from Oslo's exiled Hussites, attempted to cut them off from the capital, however.
The war spreads to Germany and Scania[]
Tensions between nobles who supported Wartislaw's claim and those who opposed it increasingly fractured the Riksrad. Heinrik Juelke, a former High Councillor to King Christopher and the commandant of Helsingborg, defected to Albert in 1471, leading to the collapse of the Riksrad's position in Scania, which was lost to Albert as their naval control of the Oresund fell apart. This divided drove increased support for the war in the Hanseatic League, which now organized a fleet to blockade Wartislaw's capital of Wolgast in concert with an army led by Elector Albert III Achilles of Brandenburg, who besieged it on land. Wartislaw, isolated in central Norway, was in no position to relieve the city. However, the Elector was forced to raise the siege after a Polish raid threatened his Brandenburg territory in 1462, although he did successfully gain control of much of the disputed territory around Stettin. The Hanseatic League instead resolved to repeat their 1428 attack on Copenhagen, hoping to force the Riksdag to acknowledge their commercial dominance and end efforts to restrict it using Oresund tolls. Their attack, in concert with troops supplied by Albert, severely damaged the Riksdag's fleet and ability to project power into Scania and Norway.
Civil war in Denmark[]
Meanwhile, tensions in Denmark did not abate. Gyldenstjerne's position was weakening, and many nobles left the city to return to their estates, fearing Hanseatic raids. A majority of the Riksdag now supported some form of accommodation with Albert, even up to outright alliance against the Hussites. In late 1473, Gyldenstjerne successfully summoned most of the key nobles to a new meeting of the Riksdag. Unexpectedly, however, Heinrik Juelke, armed with a significant quantity of Hanseatic gold, appeared in the city. Gyldenstjerne attempted to have him arrested, but a number of powerful nobles - driven by bribery, or perhaps legitimate sympathy for the Albertine position - led their retainers to defend him. Startlingly quickly, this devolved into an outright slaughter of Wartislaw's backers and of the pro-Hussite alliance nobles. Dozens of nobles, accompanied by thousands of their retainers or Hussite townspeople, fled the city, seeking passage across the Oresund to Norway or crossing the ice southward to Jutland. This "Bloody Riksdag" did not bring the outright defection of Denmark to Albert's side, however; instead, it triggered a fresh civil war, with peasants and pro-Hussite nobility in North Jutland rebelling against Juelke's regime in Copenhagen. Juelke's initial attempts to attack the rebellion in 1475 failed, as the rebels attacked his knights along the Agger Tange sandbar connecting North Jutland to the main peninsula and drove them into the sea.
Meanwhile, Albert crossed now-conquered Scania to join his Norwegian allies, giving them a total force of 25,000, including nearly 5000 knights and 8000 highly professional mercenary heavy infantry. They routed Saemundsson's much smaller army near Lillehammer and caught Wartislaw and Sigursson as they withdrew north, shattering their rearguard and scattering the peasant rebels. Sigursson, with perhaps 3000 of his most loyal followers, escaped back to Trondheim, where Bolt and Knutsson besieged him. Wartislaw, meanwhile, fled with his surviving Pomeranians into Jamtland, where he was grudgingly given refuge by the peasant assembly.
1475-80: Estland Intervenes[]
Finnish campaign[]
Unexpectedly, however, Estland abruptly made the decision to intervene in the war. Although the threat of Muscovy limited the numbers of troops they could deploy, Bela Csaba, the Hungarian castrati general who had played a key role in defeating Novgorod in the 1460s, was given 2000 pikemen and ordered to at least displace Albert's administrators from Finland. More broadly, Estland's ruler Vaisvilka, saw the possibility of an alliance with the Hussites, who, she hoped, would consider the Catholic powers of Europe a greater evil than pagan Estland.
Moving west from Viborg, Csaba's force was joined by thousands of Finns and Saami auxiliaries, who provided him with a substantial force of light infantry. Karl Knutsson, who still held Turku in at least nominal allegiance to Albert, immediately sought aid from his overlord. Albert's Hanseatic allies, themselves scraping the bottom of their financial resources by this point, dispatched several thousand Mecklenburgers and hired German knights to his aid, also transporting a substantial army of Swedish levies across the Gulf of Bothnia. Knutsson summoned all of the Swedish nobility of Finland and moved west along the coastline to confront Csaba. As long as Knutsson clung to the coast, the Hanseatic League could continue to supply him, but when his 15,000-strong army moved inland in an effort to force a confrontation with Csaba, it rapidly became clear that he had far too many troops to supply in interior Finland. Knutsson's knights' horses starved, as - more slowly - did his men. The Swedish levies rapidly became afflicted by scurvy, as they were forced to survive almost entirely on game and horsemeat. Meanwhile, the Finns responded to Knutsson's looting by harassing his foragers and cutting his supply lines back to the coast. When Knutsson turned around to head back to the coast in fall 1476, however, he found that the Estlanders had positioned themselves at the southern end of Lake Paijanne, blocking any southward movement and trapping him in the interior. Knutsson's dismounted knights tried to force their way south, but they were broken by an Estlandic push of pike and Knutsson was forced to try to escape around the north end of the lake, harassed by Finnish and Saami irregulars the whole way. When the snow began to fall in November, Knutsson's force simply fell apart, with the starving Swedish levies attacking the German mercenaries, easily crushed the mutiny. Knutsson abandoned the mercenaries and tried to return to Turku with most of his Swedish noble allies, but they were set upon and killed on the banks of the lake by a band of Finns. Most of the surviving Germans simply scattered into the forest and starved.
In spring 1477, Csaba swept along the coast, seizing Turku and all of the other Swedish forts there, now stripped of their garrisons and castellans, instead emplacing his Finnish allies as garrisons. He then set out north around the Gulf of Bothnia. From Korsholm, he was able to hire fishermen to transport the remaining Estlanders across the Gulf to Umea, where he recruited more Saami and marched into Jamtland. Wartislaw, who had spent the past two years living at the mercy of the Jamts, with only a couple hundred Pomeranian troops remaining to him, was thoroughly surprised at the Estlandic arrival. Nevertheless, he, unsurprisingly, accepted Estlandic aid. In early 1478, a combined army of Jamtlandic peasants, Estlanders, Saami auxiliaries, and Wartislaw's remaining Pomeranians and Norwegian allies - numbering perhaps 7000 - moved across the mountains to relieve Trondheim.
Relief of Trondheim and Bergen[]
Outside the walls of Trondheim, Alv Knutsson, still commanding the Norwegians loyal to Albert, and Archbishop Bolt had spent the past three years besieging the city. Sigursson's still-loyal Hussites viciously defended the city, driven by Sigursson's appeals to the cult of St. Olaf, who was buried in the city. Despite an intermittent Hanseatic blockade, the vast stores of dried fish in Trondheim, combined the impossibility of maintaining the siege during a northern Norwegian winter, had prevented the city's fall. Knutsson and Bolt were justifiably surprised when they received news of Csaba's advance out of the mountains, but thought they were dealing only with a small force of Jamtlandic peasants. Their knights, however, were instead repelled by the Estlandic pikemen, while Wartislaw led his remaining horsemen against their less experienced Norwegian infantry. Meanwhile, Sigursson's forces poured out of the city and took the besiegers in the rear. A rout, in which Bolt and Knutsson both died, ensued, although at least some of the Norwegian nobility yielded and swore allegiance to Wartislaw, who promised to protect their privileges.
Albert rapidly realized he lacked the forces to maintain his siege of Bergen. With his remaining Mecklenburgers, he withdrew back to Oslo, and then into Scania. The combined army under Wartislaw, Sigursson and Csaba marched southward to Bergen, and then, in spring 1480, advanced on Oslo, now held by a Norwegian force under Bishop Jens. Although he was successful in rallying some support within the city, playing up the brutality of the pagan Estlanders, most of his garrison was unenthusiastic about resisting, particularly with many of Oslo's burghers in the besieging army. Members of the garrison opened the gates and the Bishop was besieged in Akershus fortress, where - lacking access to Hanseatic supplies - he surrendered after a siege of three months. Wartislaw - whose three years in Jamtland had, at least, given him some idea of how to appeal to the Norwegians - had himself crowned by Sigursson as Olaf V in the city's cathedral. He also gave Sigursson full authority to reform the church in Norway, and Sigursson began by seizing Oslo's Dominican monastery and expelling the monks, as well as embarking on a spate of further renamings of churches and expulsions of monks and priests across the south of the country. The newly crowned Olaf also set about seizing Hanseatic property in the newly captured cities, which, at least, helped increase his popularity, particularly after he cut taxes in response to the extensive new royal revenues the seizures created.
In Scania, Albert, although he left a substantial Hanseatic garrison in Helsingborg, withdrew back to Sweden proper, where he hoped to raise a fresh army. There was, however, no enthusiasm for this in Sweden, where peasant revolts had never fully dissipated, and Albert had to occupy himself pursuing peasant guerrillas in his territory's heartland and purging the towns - hitherto his key base of support - of anti-Hanseatic burghers. From this point forward, although not technically abandoning his ambition to gain the Norwegian and Danish thrones, Albert effectively dropped out of the war.
1480-83: Religious Civil War[]
With a substantial Norwegian contingent under Erik Saemundsson now augmenting his army, Olaf declined to advance into Scania, instead ferrying part of his forces across the Oresund to North Jutland, where he joined the existing Hussite Danish forces. The combined army advanced into the main peninsula. Although Heinrik Juelke could count on many Danish nobles, and a contingent sent by the Hanseatic-allied Count of Holstein, to back him, he declined to confront Olaf and instead withdrew onto the Danish allies, allowing Olaf to destroy the isolated Holsteiners outside the city of Aarhus and conquer Jutland more or less unopposed, where he purged the clergy and the nobility. Juelke was counting on Hanseatic naval superiority to keep him in control of Zeeland. However, Juelke's noble backers began steadily to defect, and he lacked the funds to maintain his forces, as the Hanseatic garrison in Helsingborg prevented him from exacting sound tolls. Although he made efforts to whip up Catholic sentiment, most Danes were weary of the civil war and not willing to die for a relatively distant Papacy. Olaf made increasingly generous promises to respect noble autonomy, and even reached out to the Hanseatic League, which had spent a vast sum on a war that looked less and less likely to bring the kind of economic dividends they had hoped for. As most nobles with lands in Jutland defected in return for their restoration, Juelke lacked the forces to hold the straits against Olaf and was forced to withdraw into Copenhagen, allowing Olaf to make an uncontested crossing and take the ill-fortified city in 1482.
Meanwhile, most of the Estlanders had set off back into Finland in 1480, although Csaba, at the head of the remainder, as well as some Hussite Danes and Norwegians, had been besieging Helsingborg. The town was well-supplied by the Hanseatic League, but with the opposite shore now in Olaf's hands, holding Helsingborg became of limited use, particularly as the strain of maintaining the garrison was becoming intolerable to a financially exhausted League. In 1483 the garrison was withdrawn, thoroughly slighting the fortress before they left. This, effectively, marked the end of the war. Olaf sent out peace feelers to Albert, and to the Elector of Brandenburg, who was still periodically besieging Wolgast, to resolve the war.
Aftermath[]
As the war's various surviving participants congregated in Visby, several power shifts became apparent. First, the Estlandic-emplaced Finnish rebels had now replaced the slaughtered Swedish nobility of Finland, who had died with Karl Knutsson in 1476, as de facto rulers of Finland. Second, there was no remaining political will, except perhaps among the Brandenburgers, for further war. And, third, the Hanseatic League's naval power and financial muscle was no longer enough to win wars without widespread popular support, and the League could not impose a friendly government on an unfriendly Scandinavia.
Ultimately, then, the settlement was fairly amicable. Albert II's control of the whole of Sweden, including the Scanian border territory he still held, was confirmed. Olaf V was recognized as king in Norway and Denmark, with Finland now elevated to a full kingdom to replace the lost Svealand. Albert and the League both agreed not to give aid to displaced Catholics' efforts to reinsert themselves into Olaf's kingdoms. Brandenburg also had its control of Stettin confirmed, although it was clear that, with Pomerania now backed by the full might of three Scandinavian kingdoms, this control might not last long. The issue of the Sound tolls was left unresolved, but Olaf showed no inclination to let Hanseatic commerce pass freely. Moving his capital to the city of Lund in Scania, Olaf set about building up his kingdoms' navy and refortifying Helsingborg, as well as Helsingfors on the Danish side of the Oresund. Meanwhile, church reforms continued apace. Estland's status as a member of this union (which historians call the "Union of Visby") was resumed after lapsing since Eric's crusade that had initiated the whole war.
In most of Scandinavia, the war saw Hussite doctrines firmly replace Catholicism. Archbishop Sigursson rapidly set about building an independent church and establishing religious and diplomatic ties with Hussite Bohemia and Poland. The expulsion of monks and seizure of church property were swift, but Sigursson's personal association with the cult of St. Olaf meant he was less eager to attack saints' cults, although he did criticize the veneration of the Virgin Mary. This meant that Scandinavian Hussitism rapidly developed into a more moderate form than its Bohemian counterpart, which would lead to future tensions as the schism spread southward and westward.