The Count's Feud (), also called the
Count's War, was a
civil war that raged in
Denmark in 1534–1536 and brought about the
Reformation in Denmark.
The Count's Feud takes its name from the
Protestant Count
Christopher of Oldenburg, who supported the
Catholic King
Christian II, deposed in 1523 and at that time in exile in Holland.
After
Frederick I's death in 1533, the
Jutland nobility proclaimed his son, then Duke Christian of
Gottorp, as King under the name
Christian III. Meanwhile, Count Christoffer organized an uprising against the new king, demanding that Christian II be set free. Supported by
Lübeck and troops from
Oldenburg and
Mecklenburg, parts of the
Zealand and
Scania nobilities rose up, together with cities such as
Copenhagen and
Malmö. The violence itself began in 1534, when a
privateer captain who had earlier been in Christian II's service, Klemen Andersen, called
Skipper Clement, at Count Christoffer's request instigated the peasants of
Vendsyssel and
North Jutland to rise up against the nobles. The headquarters for the revolt came to be in
Aalborg. A large number of plantations were burned down in northern and western Jutland.
On
10 August 1534, Count Christoffer accepted
Scania for Christian II's rule. The month before, Christoffer was heralded as
regent on Christian II's behalf by the Zealand Council in
Ringsted.
The battles of Svenstrup and Aalborg
An army of nobles under the leadership of
Niels Brock and
Holger Rosenkrantz was defeated at the
Battle of Svenstrup on
16 October 1534.
Christian III in the meantime forced a peace with Lübeck, from which great reinforcements could be freed up to fight against the rebels. Under the leadership of
Johan Rantzau, the royal troops pursued the peasants all the way to Aalborg, where the latter, under the leadership of Skipper Clement, had taken refuge behind the city's fortifications.
On
18 December, Rantzau's troops stormed the city, and it fell. At least 2,000 people are thought to have lost their lives in the storming of the city and in the plundering of the following days. For his part, Skipper Clement, badly wounded, managed to escape, but a few days later was recognized by a peasant in
Storvorde east of Aalborg and handed over to Rantzau. Skipper Clement was later sentenced to death by the judicial council in
Viborg and executed in 1536.
The battles of Helsingborg and Øksnebjerg
Fortune did not fare well for the rebelling supporters of the Catholic faith, nor for the farmers on the
Swedish front. The Swedish King
Gustav Vasa sent a Swedish army to the aid of Christian III, which invaded
Scania at
Loshult and plundered, burned, and murdered their way throughout the
Gønge area as it advanced toward the town of
Vä. Later, a Swedish army invaded
Halland, which was destroyed by fire and sword. Some of the Scanian nobles sided with the Swedes, but
Tyge Krabbe in
Helsingborg Castle supported Count Christoffer. In January of 1535, the Swedes and the army of nobles advanced on Helsingborg. An army consisting of residents of Lübeck and Malmö under
Jørgen Kock was entrenched outside of the castle, and in a decisive moment, Tyge Krabbe suddenly had the castle's cannons open fire against its defenders, after which he opened the castle to the Swedes, who set fire to Helsingborg and reduced the town to ashes. With that, Denmark east of the
Sound was lost for Count Christoffer.
After the victory at Aalborg, Rantzau brought his troops to Funen, and on
11 June 1535, they fought the
Battle of Øksnebjerg, where the rest of Count Christoffer's army was decisively defeated. Both Copenhagen and Malmö, however, were able to hold out until 1536, when they were forced to capitulate after several months' siege. With this, the
Count's Feud was officially over.
The aftermath
In the aftermath of the feud, the nobles regrouped and healed the rifts the usual way, namely through inter-marriage. One of the most powerful among the Danish nobility in
Scania at this time was the Bille family, who were tied through blood relations to seven of the eight Catholic bishops of Denmark. The Billes also had six family members on the Council of the Realm and owned castles throughout Denmark and Norway. In order to keep the family's powerful position, in spite of the religious affiliation with the Catholic faith,
Claus Bille (of
Stockholm Bloodbath fame, second cousin to
Gustav Vasa), protected the family by forming a political alliance through marriage with the Brahe family, another powerful Scanian family among the Danish nobility at this time. The Brahe family was one of the first among the nobility to convert to Lutheranism. Claus Bille gave his 18 year old daughter Beate in marriage to
Otte Brahe, and thus became a grandfather in 1546 to the perhaps most famous Scanian of the era, the astronomer Tyge Brahe, better known as
Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe's paternal grandfather, whom he was named after, Tyge Brahe of Tosterup in eastern Scania, was killed
7 September 1523 during the siege of Malmö, fighting for Frederick I. Axel Brahe, the brother of the older Tyge Brahe, served as governor of Scania for a long period, and was one of the first to convert to Lutheranism.
In contrast, the consequences of the peasant uprising cost all parties dearly. Many were forced to purchase their lives with great gifts both to the king and to the nobles. Moreover, the dissatisfactions of the peasants, which had culminated in the uprising of the Count's Feud, were only made worse, as the nobility began to stick together even more after this incident. Moreover, Christian III's rule, ushered in by this war, saw the rise of royal absolutism in Denmark, and, with it, greater repression of the peasant classes.
An important consequence not sufficiently appreciated by Danes at the time was the introduction of a Swedish army into Scania. Though in this case the Swedes came at the invitation of a Danish King to help subdue his rebellious subjects and duly handed over to the King the territory which they conquered, it had a clear effect of whetting Swedish appetite to gain the territory for themselves, which was manifested in a long series of subsequent wars culminating with the final Swedish victory and conquest in 1658.
Dates of the Count's Feud battles
In popular culture
The science fiction novel
The Corridors of Time by
Poul Anderson — an American of Danish origin, whose work often includes themes from Danish and Scandinavian history — includes a vivid description of Jutland in the immediate aftermath of the Count's Feud and the continuing struggle by hunted diehard rebeles, as seen by a time-traveller from the 20th century.
See also
References and notes
Category:16th-century conflictsCategory:1530sCategory:1534 in DenmarkCategory:1535 in DenmarkCategory:1536 in DenmarkCategory:History of DenmarkCategory:History of SwedenCategory:Wars involving DenmarkCategory:Wars involving SwedenCategory:History of LübeckCategory:Wars involving the Hanseatic LeagueCategory:ScaniaCategory:16th century in DenmarkCategory:History of Aalborgda:Grevens Fejdede:Grafenfehdeet:Krahvivaenuses:Guerra del Condeis:Greifastríðiðnl:Gravenveteno:Grevefeidenpl:Wojna Hanzy z Danią, Szwecją i Prusamiru:Графская распряfi:Kreivisotasv:Grevefejden
