User:Tinkaer1991/Siege of Copenhagen (1523)

The Siege of Copenhagen (1523) (Danish: Københavns belejring) was a siege of the Danish capital of Copenhagen occuring between June 1523 - January 1524, during the war between duke Frederick of Holstein (later Frederick II) and King Christian II of Denmark. The siege initiated by Frederick was sucesful and led to the adbication of Christian II, who would be the last monarch to adbicate until the abdication of Margrethe II nearly 500 years later.

Background
Christian II ascended the thrones of Denmark and Norway in 1513 after his father John, King of Denmark. He also inherited the intense conflict with Sweden, which had been constant since 1501. Sweden was divided in two factions, an anti-Danish faction (also called the Sture Faction. Swedish; Sturarna) led by Sten Sture the Younger, and a pro-Danish faction led by Archbishop Gustav Trolle. The Swedish throne would be the main focus of Christians foreign affairs until his demisal in 1523.

Danish trade league
Christian II was heavely restricted by the coronation charter (Danish; Haandfæstning) made by the Council of the Realm (Danish; Rigsråd.) The Haandfæstning did though not stop Christian. In the early-1510s, he planned a ambitious commercial project. A Danish-led trading company intended to rival and overtake the Hanseatic League. With staple-towns at Copenhagen, Stockholm, Viborg, and Bergen, the Danish monarchy could monopolize Western European trade within the Baltic region. Christian’s marital ties to the Habsburgs, through Isabella of Austria, would give him access to varioes commercial centers in the Low Countries, like Antwerp. Yet this project would depend on Christians ability to bring Sweden into the Kalmar Union and to secure the cooperation with danish nobles, many of whom profited from trade with Hanseatic towns. This cooperation was never fulfilled, instead the relations between Christian and the aristocratic elite began to worsen during late 1917 and Christian began to shift away conciliar aristocracy.

Invasions of Sweden
Concurrently the anti-Danish regent in Sweden, Sten Sture the Younger, sought to revive the course for independence, yet the pro-Danish faction did not support his struggle, and the two parties soon became embroiled in a dispute. Christian saw this as an opportunity to end Swedish resistance and over the summers of 1517 and 1518, Christian would dispatch fleets to Stockholm with the intent to topple the Sture faction, yet these attempt ended with a failure at the Battle of Stäket. Christian made a finalized attempt in January 1520 in response to the imprisonment of his ally and leader of the pro-Danish faction, Gustav Trolle. Led by Otte Krumpen, the mercenary army drove towards Västergötland and defeated and subsequently killed Sten Sture in the Battle of Bogesund. By the end of summer 1520 only Stockholm was left, defended by Christina Gyllenstierna, yet it too fell in September. Christian was crowned on 4 November same year and in revenge against the Sture party demanded the execution of 80+ Swedish nobles. This directly led to the Swedish War of Liberation, led by Gustav Vasa.

Reforms
After a prolongued visit to his brother-in-law, Charles V, in the summer of 1521 Christian returned to Denmark.