Military History / Erik of Pomerania
 
 
 
King Eric VII of Pommerania.
The portrait is from 1420 and possibly potray him as he was.
 
 

King Erik 7 of Pommerania
 
 
When I wrote my two books ”The First Schleswig Holstein Wars, 1848 - 50” and ”Generals of the Danish army in the First and Second Schleswig Holstein wars1848-50 and 1864”, I had only briefly considered the longer term effects of the borderland history between Denmark and Germany. Of course, wars do not originate out of nothing, and instead have long histories of conflicts between peoples often at geological boundaries, in this case, the river Trene where the old border rampart, Dannevirke in Schleswig is situated. The wars I described in the two books mentioned, had two forerunners during medieval time. These two wars took place during the period 1410 to 1432 and essentially paved the ground for the conflicts in Schleswig Holstein of 1848-50 and 1864. This understanding led me along the path of Danish Medieval history, focusing particularly on the Danish King Erik VII of Pomerania (1382 -1459). He ruled over a vast area, the Kalmar Union, which included the kingdom Denmark, the kingdom of Sweden and Finland, the kingdom of Norway, and finally Iceland and Greenland. Although the Kalmar Union was large, the population was small, compared to the Central European kingdoms.
In many aspects, his destiny ends unhappy as the Danish nobilities in 1439 expelled him from Denmark and replaced him by King Christopher III of Bavaria.
This led me to prepare a new book “Medieval wars in the Duchy of Schleswig 1410 to 1432 and the quest for the Nordic Countries”.
The book is for the readers interested in medieval history and the conflicts of that time. Literature about the contemporary European rivalries is extensive but when it comes to the conflicts of the Scandinavian countries, books in English are more limited. I hope that this book will remedy some of this shortage.
 

The book is available from Amazon  (Amazon.) 

 An extract is available above.
 
 
Queen Philippa (1394 - 1429)
 
(Sculpture by H. W. Bissen 1850)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The order of the knight founded by Erik of Pommerania

Contemporary sources mentions the existence of King Erik's Order of the Knight, which he had founded in 1409. May be he was inspired by his wife's fathers order, the Order of the Garder. The members of the order was for selected aristocrats, which when knighted was in a trusted relationship with the king.

 
 
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 Medieval Guns
 
 
Canon dredged from a ship wreck near the island Anholt in Kattegat. The wood of the gun is dated as 1516, but the guns are old types. It is this type of canon that was used at the sea battle outside Copenhagen in 1428. These guns consist of smaller tubes which are forged together. They are breech loading with a smaller barrel in the end for the powder. After the gun barrel was loaded with the canon ball, the powder barrel was inserted and squeezed in position in order to obtain gas tightness. Then the powder was ignited. If several powder barrels were loaded and ready, the shooting frequency could be relatively high. The canon is about 4 m long. Exhibited in Tøjhusmuseet Copenhagen.