(2) Norway: Military History and Notable Events

872 - 900 - Battle of Hafrsfjord (All Facts)

• Battle in which Harald Fairhair united the various princedoms and petty kingdoms into one unified Kingdom of Norway. thus proclaiming himself king as a result

991 - Battle of Maldon (All Facts)

• Battle in which the English were defeated by Olaf Tryggvason, the Norwegians, and the Vikings, who overcame the heroic English defense and after which they continued to advance deep into England until they were bought off by English King Aethelred II “The Unready”

1030 - Battle of Stiklestad (All Facts)

• Battle in which Canute the Great and his “Farmer Army” forces defeated Olaf Haraldsson and his forces to become King of Norway as well as King of Denmark and King of England

  • Olaf Haraldsson becomes a hero and saint after his death

1066 - Battle of Stamford Bridge (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Harald Hardrada and his Norwegian forces were defeated by Harold II and his English forces, after they tried and thus failed to invade England

1397 - 1523 - Kalmar Union (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between the Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden that joined them together as one sovereign state

• Treaty in which the three entities agreed to

  • be united under one monarch

  • carry out a common foreign policy

  • settle matters of royal succession by consensus

• The namesake entity constituted the second largest accumulation of European territories under one leader, Queen Margaret of Denmark, who spearheaded the treaty

• The namesake treaty had the namesake entity grow to some extent out of a general trend towards the creation of larger political entities at the time, such as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the expansion of Moscow in Russia

1450 - Treaty of Bergen (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Denmark and Norway that was an act of union in which the two kingdoms agreed to always have the same king

1521 - War of Swedish Liberation (All Facts)

• War in which Gustav Vasa and his rebel Swedish forces and peasants rose up and defeated King Christian II and his royal Danish forces, thus ending the Kalmar Union

• War after which Gustav Vasa became King of Sweden

1558 - 1583 - Livonian War (All Facts)

• War in which Tsar Ivan IV and his Russian forces were defeated by Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Transylvania, and the namesake confederation

• War which Tsar Ivan IV began due to

  • his ambition to transform Russia, which, at the time, had a rudimentary agriculture and little industry; by taking control of the Baltic and its ports, as they had already become, at the time, important centers of international trade and offered the prospect of benefit from the more advanced western countries of the time

• War in which Tsar Ivan IV

  • sent his troops into the namesake kingdom / confederation in a lightning strike designed to secure the Baltic region for Muscovy (Russia) and give it an outlet to the west

• War in which Tsar IV and his Russian forces

  • seized several large towns and fortresses

  • disputed with one another in Moscow and ultimately destroyed their momentum

  • may have overreached themselves during that period of the Tsar’s imperial expansion, but the Baltic region would have been a considerable prize nonetheless

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Narva

  • The Siege of Pskov

• War during which

  • the namesake Order of Knights managed to improve its military and diplomatic posture, still being the area’s main defense force

  • Riga (modern-day Latvia; of the namesake confederation / order) put itself under the protection of Poland

  • the namesake confederation was partitioned as Sweden and Denmark were poised to take over (modern-day) Estonia and Courland

• War which ended when Russia made peace with Poland gave up its claims to the Baltic state of Livonia

1563 - 1570 - Northern Seven Years’ War (All Facts)

• War in which Sweden fought against Denmark, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, and Lubeck

• War which ended with the Treaty of Stettin

1570 - Treaty of Stettin (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Denmark and Sweden, which ended the Northern Seven Years’ War and restored the prewar frontiers of the states involved