Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Reigns of the Sons of Gustavus Vasa, 1560–1611 - E. Wars with Neighboring Countries during the Period
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Wars with Neighboring Countries 143
safety. He returned, however, with a new force and
had made vast conquests when Charles IX passed
away.
Wars with Denmark. Gustavus Vasa had liberated
Sweden from the fetters of the Union. But Denmark
had, in the person of Frederick II, an ambitious king,
who hoped to force Sweden once more under the power
of Denmark. Besides, the proud Danish nobility could
not bear the thought that their country was not the
sole power in the North. In 1563 the so-called North-
ern Seven Years’ War broke out. Denmark was sup-
ported by Liibeck. The importance of Gustavus Vasa’s
naval preparations now became apparent. Never be-
fore nor since were such naval victories won by Swed-
en as now. Under the command of Sweden’s greatest
naval hero, Klas Horn, the Swedish fleet won a com-
plete victory over the combined fleets of Denmark and
Liibeck off Bornholm, 1565. The hostile fleets were
finally driven from the Baltic. By these victories Horn
protected Swedish commerce and prevented ravages
of the Swedish coasts.
By land the hostile forces vied with each other in
brutal ravages and bloodshed. When both parties were
exhausted peace was concluded in Stettin, 1570. There
was a mutual restoration of land captured. In its re-
sults this war was most unfortunate for the Scandina-
vian peoples. The mutual ravages engendered a hatred
between them which did not exist before. Hitherto it
had been only the Danish kings and their German and
Danish bailiffs that had been abhorred in Sweden. But
now a national hatred was kindled between the two
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