Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 48. (2000)
LAVERY, Jason: Emperor Maximilian II. and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563–1576
Maximilian and the Scandinavian Kingdoms 1571-1576 Unsuccessful in dealing with the estates, Maximilian attempted to increase his power in the Baltic by engaging the Scandinavian powers. Here too, the emperor experienced that the onset of peace in Scandinavia actually made it more difficult for him to expand his power in the Baltic. Maximilian relied on the continuation of the anti-Swedish alliance to ensure Swedish compliance with the treaty. This coalition collapsed shortly after 1570. Elector August was more concerned about collecting his debts from Frederik than about enforcing the Stettin treaty. Danish- Lübecker relations worsened over Danish piracy against Lübeck’s shipping, Frede- rik’s raising of the Sound tolls, and Fiibeck’s control of the island of Bornholm.115 Denmark’s relations with Poland remained strained because of Polish piracy against Danish commerce.116 Tensions between Denmark and Russia over Livonia grew after 1570 as well.117 With limited room to manoeuver diplomatically, King Frederik could choose no other policy toward Sweden than peace. For his part, King Johan wanted peaceful relations with the Danes. Unlike his half-brother Erik, Johan felt that Sweden could not conduct wars on both the Scandinavian peninsula and Livonia simultaneously. He chose to channel his scarce resources into fighting the Russians in Livonia while trying to avoid war with the Danes."8 As a result of this rapprochement, relations between Sweden and Denmark improved gradually over the 1570s. The two monarchs chose to avoid divisive issues such as the Three Crowns.119 They violated the provisions of the Stettin accords in respect to Livonia as well. Johan never relinquished his Livonian holdings to Frederik. The Danish monarch, seeking an exit from Livonia even before ratifying the Stettin agreements, never sought to hold Johan to the terms of the treaties. In fact, the Danish monarch helped his Swedish counterpart to expand in the region. Frederik ignored developments in Livonia even though Duke Magnus was suffering military defeats at the hands of the Swedes and political indignities from the Russians. Frederik’s formal withdrawal from the Livonian conflict was further eased in 1578. In that year, Duke Magnus, having suffered enough in Ivan’s service, fled to his lands in Kurland. Frederik ended Danish involvement on the Livonian mainland in 1580 altogether by making an agreement with King Johan whereby the Danish king renounced any claims to the mainland in exchange for Swedish recognition of 115 Paul, Johannes: Lübeck und die Wasa im 16. Jahrhundert: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Unterganges hansischer Herrschaft in Schweden. Lübeck 1920 (Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte der Freien und Hansestadt Lübeck vol. 5, no. 1), pp. 113-118. 116 Schäfer, Dietrich: Geschichte von Dänemark. Gotha 1902, vol. 5 (Geschichte der europäischen Staaten 13), pp. 202, 207-208. 111 Roberts: Early Vasas, p. 259. 118 Ibidem,p. 253. 119 Ibidem, pp. 347-359. 225 Emperor Maximilian 11 and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563 - 1576