Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 48. (2000)

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

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

dukes of Holstein to acquire mercenaries in the Empire.30 Denmark received active support from inside of the Empire from Lübeck and Elector August of Saxony. On the other hand, in spite of rumors of a ’’silver cake,“ Sweden’s army consisted almost entirely of native-born troops. Even before the outbreak of hostilities, an informant of Maximilian in Lübeck reported no evidence of mercenaries leaving for Sweden.31 In April 1564, a mercenary captain named Georg Kegell informed Elector August of Saxony that, while the Swedes had the money to acquire a mercenary force, German princees and cities were unwilling to allow such troop concentrations in their lands. It was feared that mercenaries in Swedish service would invade Holstein from within Germany.32

The Danish royal house of Oldenburg’s political, constitutional, and familial ties to the Empire made Denmark the lesser of the two Scandinavian evils. The Danish monarch was in alliance with Lübeck against Sweden. King Frederik was not only duke of Holstein, but also a brother-in-law of Elector August of Saxony, arguably the most influential Imperial prince of the immediate post-Augsburg era. Since the Peace of Speyer in 1544 between Emperor Charles V and King Christian III, the Danish Oldenburgs had enjoyed good relations with the Austrian Habsburgs. In fact, the two sides were conducting marriage negotiations just as the Seven Years’ War of the North war erupted.33 In other words, Frederik II represented the Empire’s internal order.

Mediation and the Obstinacy of the Combatants

By the end of May, the delegations of Sweden’s enemies had arrived in Rostock. Perhaps jaded by the events of the previous year’s Rostock conference, few of the mediators hurried to reach the city. First to arrive was Ferdinand’s representative, the Bohemian Neoutraquist nobleman Boguslav Felix von Hassenstein und Lob30 Hafner Karl: Geschichte des niedersächsischen Kreises von der Augsburgischen Exekutionsordnung bis zum Abfall des Kaisers von der „gemäßigten Mittelpartei“ 1555-1569. Stadtroda 1940, pp. 20-21; Jensen : Danmarks konflikt, p. 104.

31 HHStA, Familienkorrespondenz A:3, fol. 470r-471v, Lübeck, 6 May 1563, Friedrich Speth to Maximilian (ndr) (or).

32 Säch. HStA, Geheimes Archiv, Loc. 8526/2, fol. 30-31’', Das ander buch der churfurstlichen sechsischen obristen, rittmeister, haubt unnd ambtleute Dresden 22 April 1564 Georg Kegell to August (ndr) (or).

33 Frö b e, Walter: Kurfürst August von Sachsen und sein Verhältnis zu Dänemark bis zum Frieden von Stettin 1570. Leipzig 1912, pp. 58-60.

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