Norway 1814-1864






Norway under Danish Rule 1525-1814



Norway, as an HEREDITARY KINGDOM, was a secure possession of the Danish kings, few of whom bothered to even visit the country. After the Norwegians once had opted for a Swedish king in place of a Dane (Karl Knutsson, 1448-1457) a treaty had been signed that turned Norway into a HEREDITARY KINGDOM, and was assumed to protect the rights of Norway's council of the realm.
Denmark and Norway were united by DYNASTIC UNION. In situations when the Danish nobility rebelled against their king and elected another king, such as in the case of KING CHRISTIAN II. in 1523/1525, this band connecting the two nations was severed. While the new King Frederik I established himself in Denmark, Norway stayed loyal to King Christian II. until 1532; then the dynastic union was restored.
In 1536 the Reformation was introduced in Denmark and Norway, with the Danish translation of the New Testament being used in Norway. Danish came to be used as language of administration and education, and strongly influenced the MODERN NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE (which is much closer to Danish than to Old Norse). The Norwegian council of the realm was disbanded.
In the wars of the 17th century which preceded absolutism, Norway suffered with Denmark; JAEMTLAND and HAERJEDALEN were ceded to Sweden in 1645, BOHUSLÄN and STIFT DRONTHEIM (Trondhjem) in 1658, the loss of the latter - the country's old capital - cutting it in two.

KING FREDERIK III., in alliance with the powerful Dutch and English, was able to recover Stift Drontheim. He introduced ABSOLUTISM to run the state more efficient, which meant a centralization of administration. Norway's capital was moved to CHRISTIANIA (present Oslo), but many things were decided in Kopenhagen. Danish policy in Norway was that of BENEVOLENT ABSOLUTISM, respecting the country's separate identity. Often, Norwegians were appointed for Norwegian offices. There was no major resistance to Danish rule.
It is striking that the Norwegian nobility (unlike the Danish and Swedish nobility) did not develop a corporate identity and ceased to be a major political factor in society. The population was spread over a vast area, BERGEN, Norway's leading trading city, was the largest town with about 14.000 inhabitants (ca. 1750).
The MERCANTILIST policy of 17th century absolutist monarchs favoured monopolies. Such monopolies generated a secure income for the crown. There was a monopoly for selling Norwegian iron in Denmark proper, for selling Danish grain in Norway. These monopolies somehow took consideration of mutual interest; however, when the monopoly for trade with Norway's northernmost province of Finnmark as well as with the ancient Norwegian possessions of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroes given to a Danish company based in Kopenhagen, this annoyed the merchants of Bergen.
In 1760, the Trondhiemske Selskab (Trondheim Society), presently referred to as the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, was established.







EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Union with Denmark, in : History of Norway, by Tor Dagre, from Norway Info, scroll down
Chronicle of Scholarly Societies founded 1760-1779, from Scholarly Societies Project
The War of 1807-1814, from Elverum Company of Skiborn Troops
The Union of Norway with Denmark, by øystein Rian, in Norwegian; examines the evaluation of the union with Denmark by successive generations of historians
DOCUMENTS Symbols of right or wrong, 1762 painting by Mathias Blumenthal, from EuArchiv Bergen
Document witch trial 1593 Bergen, from EuArchiv Bergen
1740 view of Bergen's port, from EuArchiv Bergen
Map : Bergen, XVI c., from Mappe di citta Italiane, ed altre mappe antiche diverse
Poem : Henrik Ibsen, Terje Viken, from Gaslight's Napoleonic Poetry, on the consequences of the Continental Blockade on Norway's population, with historical introduction; poem in engl. translation
Letter by Major Didron, 1718, from Svensk Krigshistoria
The Norwegian Campaign 1718, from Svensk Krigshistoria, in Old Swedish
War Council in Tistedalen 1718, from Svensk Krigshistoria
Norwegian Coins 1800, 1805, 1809, 1810
Norwegian Uniforms 1709-1720, by Dan Schorr from Napoleonic Medals
Essex Register, June 22 1814, reports Norwegian ports placed under blockade, posted by Napoleon Bonaparte Internet Guide
Norwegian Banknote of 1695, from Jan Erik's Norwegian Banknote Pages
Coat of Arms, King Frederik V., from Heraldica


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

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