Danish Occupation of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, 1684-1689




In the Treaty of Oliva 1660, Sweden had forced Denmark to recognize the independence of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (the line Gottorf (in Dan.: Gottorp) owned roughly half of the two duchies; the other half was Danish). The Duchy of Schleswig previously had been a Danish fief.
The Kings of Denmark regretted having had to make such a concession, and repeatedly invaded Schleswig-Holstein- Gottorf, so 1675-1679. On May 30th 1684, a Danish force under General Fuchs invaded and occupied Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf again and expelled Duke Christian Albrecht (1659-1694) who fled to Hamburg. Schlewsig-Holstein-Gottorf, being a patchwork of territories without natural defenses, was easy prey; the Danes hardly encountered any resistance. Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf's traditional ally, Sweden, did not act. Diplomatic mediation and pressure in 1689 resulted in the Treaty of Altona, which restored Duke Christian Albrecht to his territories. England and the Dutch Republic guaranteed the sovereignty of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf.



EXTERNAL
FILES 		Geschichte von Schleswig-Holstein (History of Schleswig-Holstein), from Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888-1890 edition, in German
Christian V. of Denmark, from Danske Konger, in English
Slesvig-Holsten-Gottorp, from Gladsaxegymnasium, in Danish
Christian Albrecht av Gottorp, p.532, p.535, p.536, p.535, from Dansk Biografiskt Lexikon, in Danish
Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins (History of Schleswig-Holstein), from Schlei Online, in German
Zur Geschichte von Schloss Gottorf, in German
Die Gottorfer, from Schleswig-Holstein von A bis Z, in German, illustrated
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on March 16th 2004, last revised on November 19th 2004

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