Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 48. (2000)

LAVERY, Jason: Emperor Maximilian II. and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563–1576

middle of August. The document hardly could have come as a surprise to Erik. On land, the war known as the Seven Years’ War of the North had already begun.13

The Scandinavian War and the Threat to the Empire

During the first months of the war, Emperor Ferdinand was reluctant to involve himself in the conflict. His son and elected successor, King Maximilian, mobilized the Imperial court to play a more active role in reconciling the combatants. In December 1563, the king appealed to his father to intervene in the Baltic conflict with a peace initiative. Maximilian outlined three potential threats that the war could pose to the Empire. The first was economic. The Imperial city of Lübeck, wrote the king, was suffering from Swedish attacks on its shipping. The Imperial court already had learned of the war’s negative impact on grain exports to western Europe from territories such as Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Brandenburg. Second, the Baltic conflict was connected to other external challenges. Maximilian feared that as long as the war lasted it would ’’deprive Your Imperial Majesty of any hope of a united or even the smallest Turkish contribution from the Empire’s constituent parts.“14

Third, and most important in King Maximilian’s mind, continued hostilities would ’’burden the general peace in the Empire [den gemainen frieden im Reich betrucken].“15 Two significant estates of the Empire were involved in the war: the Imperial city of Lübeck, and the king of Denmark who was also duke of Holstein. The movement of thousands of mercenaries from Germany to Scandinavia endangered the domestic order as well. Some 25 000 mercenaries left Germany to serve in the army of Frederik II, about as many who left to fight in the second round of the French religious wars in 1568.16 Fear of Swedish acquisitions of mercenaries was based on a widespread rumor in Germany that Sweden possessed a ’’silver

Emperor Maximilian II and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563 - 1576

13 Jensen : Danmarks konflikt, p. 70.

14 Österreichisches Staatsarchiv Wien, [hereafter: ÖStA], Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv [hereafter: HHStA] Dänemark 1, Konv. 1560-1563, fols. 16'— 18V, „Zu der Neiß,“ 1 Dec. 1563, Maximilian to Ferdinand (rec. Ina 7 Dec. 1563) (or); fols. 5r-8v, Prague, 8 Nov. 1563, Paulus Prisman to Ferdinand (rec. Ina 14 Nov. 1563) (or).

15 Ibidem, fols. !6r-18v, „Zu der Neiß,“ 1 Dec. 1563, Maximilian to Ferdinand (rec. Ina 7 Dec. 1563) (or) „Nit allain den gemainen frieden im Reich betrucken sonnder so lang ain solches be- stuennd E. Khay. Mt: alle hoffnung ainicher auch der geringsten turgenhulff gennzlich abschneiden würde.“

16 Ibidem, fols. 16r—18V, „Zu der Neiß,“ 1 Dec. 1563, Maximilian to Ferdinand (rec. Ina 7 Dec. 1563) (or); Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden [Hereafter: Sächs.HStA], Geheimes Archiv 8521/2, föl. 39-40v, ina., 18 July 1563, Ulrich Mordeisen to Elector August (or); Jensen: Danmarks konflikt, pp. 75-76; Lanzinner: Friedenssicherung, p. 517.

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