The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy

DENMARK, 1513−1660 This page intentionally left blank Denmark, 1513–1660 The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy PAUL DOUGLAS LOCKHART 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Paul Douglas Lockhart 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lockhart, Paul Douglas, 1963- Denmark, 1513–1660 : the rise and decline of a renaissance state / Paul Douglas Lockhart. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-927121-4 (alk. paper) 1. Denmark—History—1448-1660. I. Title. DL183.8.L63 2007 948.9’03—dc22 2007023080 Typeset by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–927121–4 13579108642 To my brother, Keith, with thanks for his love and encouragement This page intentionally left blank Preface To write a survey history of a single European state, covering a period of a century and a half, is to undertake a daunting task. It is especially so for a state like Denmark. In the century following the Reformation, Denmark—or rather the dynastic state ruled by the kings of the Oldenburg line—was a conglomerate state, consisting of three major components: Denmark, Norway (including its vassal-state Iceland and the Færø islands), and the ‘Duchies’ of Slesvig and Holstein. Thus a survey of the Oldenburg state must take into account the historical literature and the historiographical traditions of all of these areas. Although there have been many collaborative efforts in Nordic historiography, like the magtstatsprojekt (‘power-state project’) of the 1980s and 1990s, there have been only a very few attempts to examine the history of the Oldenburg state as a whole, to bring Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Duchies together in a single overview. The series Danmark-Norge 1380–1814, published in the late 1990s, is a notable exception. My intent here is to provide a broader international audience with a history of the Oldenburg state at the height of its power, namely in the period between the Reformation and the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, a point which also coincides with the first major partition of the conglomerate state after the disastrous wars with Sweden in 1657–60. Although Denmark was a major participant in European international politics during this period, it has been poorly served in the English-language historiography, or indeed in historical literature written in any language other than the Nordic tongues. Scandinavian historians, in growing numbers, have taken up the habit of presenting the results of their research in English, in order to reach a larger readership. Unfortunately, much of this research is narrow in scope, reflecting the Scandinavian historiographical interest in agrarian, fiscal, and administrative history, and presuming a background knowledge of Nordic history that outsiders generally do not have. Historians outside Scandinavia, especially in the anglophone world, have written off Scandinavia as ‘peripheral’ to the mainstream of early modern historiography. As a result, those scholars and students of history who do not read the Scan- dinavian languages are hard-pressed to find survey histories of the region, and especially of Denmark. A few conventions should be noted from the beginning. I have eschewed the use of the term ‘Denmark-Norway’, which is still in fashion among some early modern scholars, since Norway was clearly not an equal partner in a dynastic union. For most of the period under examination here, Norway was a mere province of the Danish monarchy. Hence I have preferred to use the term ‘Denmark’ to refer to the entire Oldenburg monarchy, unless stated otherwise viii Preface (e.g. ‘Denmark proper’ to refer to Denmark without including Norway), or the term ‘Oldenburg state’ when discussing the entire conglomerate state. For place names, I have generally employed common English-language equivalents where they exist–e.g. Copenhagen instead of København–with the single exception of Helsingør, which for various reasons I prefer to the English ‘Elsinore’. The same holds true for titles of Danish and Norwegian political offices, except for rigshofmester, simply because it does not translate well into English. See the Glossary for brief explications of such terms. For the spellings of personal names, I have relied on the standard versions employed in Povl Engelstoft and Svend Dahl (eds.), Dansk biografisk leksikon, 23 vols. (Copenhagen: Gad, 1933–44). Since Denmark did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1700, I have kept all dates in the Old Style, in accordance with the Julian calendar. The basic monetary unit used in this text is the Danish rigsdaler, closely equivalent both to the Swedish riksdaler and the German Reichsthaler;fourDanishrigsdaler were the rough equivalent of one English pound. Scandinavian orthography can cause some problems for those not familiar with the language, especially since Nordic characters have changed over time. ‘Å’ is a modern convention for ‘aa’ (pronounced much like a long ‘o’ in English); ‘ø’ is close to the German ‘ö’; and the ‘æ’ ligature is very similar to the German ‘ä’. In Icelandic names and terms, I have retained both the ‘eth’, or soft ‘d’ (‘ð’), and the ‘thorn’ (‘þ’, instead of the transliteration ‘th’). I would like to express my gratitude to the many individuals who have made this work possible, through gifts of time, advice, and encouragement. My friends in Denmark have been the most important source of counsel for me over the twenty years in which I have pursued the study of Danish history. I cannot possibly name all of them here, but I should extend special thanks to: Dr Michael Bregnsbo, Professor Knud J. V. Jespersen, and the late Professor E. Ladewig Petersen, all of the University of Southern Denmark, Odense; Professors Karl- Erik Frandsen and Martin Schwarz Lausten of the University of Copenhagen; Leon Jespersen (Rigsarkivet), and especially Hans Kargaard Thomsen and his wife, Yvonne, who have always been unstinting in their hospitality during our visits to Denmark. Ms Diana Kaylor, head of inter-library loan at the Dunbar Library, Wright State University, patiently and efficiently filled the scores of book requests I made of her. The College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, granted me academic leave in 2004–5 to facilitate the writing of this volume. Mr Daniel W. Studebaker of West Milton, Ohio, lent his considerable talents to the production of the maps for the book. Finally, I must recognize the contributions of my family: my mother-in-law, Maria Beach, my brother-in-law, Ralph C. Beach III, and my parents, Newton and Marilyn Lockhart, for their love and encouragement. My children—Kate, Nicholas, Paige, Philip, and Alexander Lockhart—graciously put up with the many times in which my writing intruded upon my time with them, as always. My wife, Jo Anna Chu Lockhart, was of course my greatest source of inspiration. Preface ix She sacrificed countless hours to allow me to work undisturbed, to listen to my ideas and my readings of innumerable rough drafts. This book simply could not have been written without her. PDL Kettering, Ohio 21 May 2006 Acknowledgements Illustrations 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 and the cover illustration appear by courtesy of the National History Museum at Frederiksborg Castle (Det Nationalhistoriske Museum på Frederiksborg Slot), Hillerød, Denmark. I must extend my thanks to Steffen Heiberg for his assistance in procuring these. Illustration 4 appears by courtesy of the Royal Library (Det kongelige Bibliotek), Copenhagen, Denmark. Contents List of Illustrations xii List of Maps xiii List of Abbreviations xvii Introduction 1 I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSENSUAL STATE, 1513–1596 1 The End of the Medieval Monarchy, 1513–1536 11 2 The Rebirth of the Oldenburg Monarchy, 1536–1596 29 3 Reformation and Culture 58 4 Commerce, Rural Economy, and the Structure of Society 83 5 The Mistress of the Sound: Denmark and Europe, 1513–1596 104 II. THE AGE OF CHRISTIAN IV, 1596–1660 6 The Activist Monarchy of Christian IV 127 7 Baltic and German Hegemonies: Denmark and Europe, 1596–1629 148 8 Church and Court: Culture in the Age of Christian IV 173 9 The Death of Government by Consensus, 1630–1648 194 10 State and Society, Centre and Periphery 211 11 War and Absolutism, 1648–1660 226 12 Epilogue 248 Glossary 258 Bibliographic Essay 261 Index 269 Illustrations (Between pp.

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