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Denmark

Stats

Area

Government

Religion

Mission Tree

Playstyle

Scandinavia

Kingdom

Catholic

Diplomatic trade and maritime

Requirement

Difficulty (RP)

Difficulty (Start)

Importance

Special Rules

Rank 4 & Situs

Medium

High

None

The Kalmar Union

The unification of Scandinavia is complicated, here in short:

Magnus is born to Swedish prince Eric and Norwegian Princess Ingeborg. He becomes king of both kingdoms in 1319.
Magnus IV & VIII of Sweden and Norway under Swedish House Bjelbo marries Blanche of Namur, they have two children.
Eric XII the eldest son becomes King of Sweden in 1344
Haakon VI the second son becomes King of Norway in 1343
Valdemar IV is King of Denmark from 1340-1375
Haakon VI of Norway is 18, he is betrothed to six year old Margaret in 1359. She is the daughter of Valdemar IV. They have only one child, Olaf.
Eric XII of Sweden dies to the plague and Haakon VI of Norway becomes King of Sweden in 1362.
Swedish nobles revolt against Haakon, they support the claim of Albert, the son of the Duke of Mecklenburg, Albert and his wife Swedish Euphemia, the sister of Magnus IV & VIII of Sweden and Norway.
Albert invades Stockholm supported by local Swedish nobility, several German Dukes and several Hanseatic cities. He becomes King of Sweden in 1364.

At this point the three kingdoms are all independent from each other, things are a bit complicated but this is when it unites:

King Valdemar of Denmark dies in 1375 and Olaf, the son of Haakon and Margaret becomes King of Denmark.
King Haakon dies in 1380 and Olaf becomes King of Norway.
Olaf was born in 1370, but his mother Margaret ruled as his regent, even after he became of age.
Olaf dies unexpectedly in 1387, ending the House of Bjelbo.
Margaret becomes queen of Denmark and Norway the same year.
Albert, who was highly unpopular, ruling Sweden from Mecklenburg and taxing the Swedish nobility excessively, which caused instability and unrest in Sweden. Many powerful nobles in Sweden pledged loyalty to Queen Margaret if she would help them get rid of Albert.
Margaret invades Sweden and the powerful nobles holds a conference in Dalaborg Castle in 1388, they elect Margaret as their ruler.
Albert sends a mercenary army to Sweden that is defeated in 1389.
Queen Margaret is now the ruler of the three Scandinavian Kingdoms.

King Valdemar IV of Denmark (1320-1375).

Famous for the reunion of lost Danish territory after the bankruptcy and mortgaging to finance wars under previous rulers. He spend most of his life fighting the powerful Hanseatic League.

Margaret I, Queen of Denmark, Norway & Sweden (1353-1412.)

The unified Scandinavia was peaceful and stable under Queen Margaret I, however, she spared no pains to recover lost Danish territory and actively expanded the union's influence both through cunning diplomacy, war and gold.

Harald's Runestone depicts the crucified Christ.

The Jelling Stones - The Birth of Denmark

Now we understand how the three kingdoms became unified in the Kalmar union, however, each of the kingdoms are severely different with their own deep history. 'The Danes' and 'Denmark' has been mentioned in earlier scripts on coins, viking tales and other Scandinavian shenanigans. Example is Ogier, a Dane that fights with Charlemagne in the Song of Roland.

Gorm the Old is King of Denmark, he is a Norse Pagan and he raises a runestone in honor and memory of his wife Thyra. The runes describes her as Denmark's adornment. This is the oldest inscription of the term Denmark found here.

Another runestone is raised by Harald Bluetooth, who honors his father Gorm and his mother Thyra. He mentions that he won all of Denmark and Norway, united them and made them Christian.

Harald was king from 958 to 986. The Catholic Church is spreading in Scandinavia giving birth to the powerful clergy class, however the many disorganized tribes of the viking period were first more united into the feudal system in around 1200, giving birth to the noble class as well.

Suppress the Church - Fund the Warmachine

Situs Requirements

The Holy Roman Empire is not your big rival. However, several provinces in the north of the German region used to be under the Danish throne. The powerful Hansa league is made with the purpose of suppressing your power economically. They are your rivals. Lots of factions within the HRE are your rivals, not the HRE itself.
Your king at the start of the game is a Bavarian noble. The pirate-rebel that controls Gotland used to be the King of Denmark and he is from Pomerania from the House of Griffin. Lots of nobility, clergy and powerful people in Denmark are of German culture and the Danish culture is not that far separate from the German culture in the eu4 timeline. The mentality of nation states built upon culture is a modern concept. From the middle ages and up until the EU4 timeline there were many titles and powerful positions covered by both Germans and Danes in Denmark. It should be covered in your RP narrative that your culture and the German ones are not distinct.
Denmark is more international and “globalized” compared to Sweden and Norway. Norway is a very large nation and their diplomatic focus is more around their neighbors of the North Sea and Denmark + Sweden. Sweden is also huge, badly represented in EU4 as the majority of the sámi were completely independent and Finland was more of a tributary to Sweden until recently in the eu4 timeline. Sweden's diplomacy is also a bit isolated with their neighbors being centered around the Baltic Sea and the Russian duchies. Denmark however, can be seen as the “Italy of the North” geographically. Their center location in Northern Europe gives them diplomatic reach and influence deep into almost all of Europe. It is wrong to isolate yourself in Scandinavia and ignore the European stage, as you are a part of it.
The Hansa League is your primary enemy.
It is disencouraged to join the HRE. Unless you lose both unions and Scania, then it can be an option.
Unless the Catholic Church does an extra job to shepherd Scandinavia and stop focusing only on affairs in middle and southern Europe, then the rulers of Denmark find the things from the reformation very appealing. This point is not to force you to pick reformed or protestant, but to remind the player that Scandinavia is not well represented in the Catholic Church and finds reforming it appealing.

Danish Ideas

Traditions

Historical Mod

Traditions

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