Scandinavia

On 9 October 1771 masterpieces of Dutch art destined for Catherine the Great sank with the Vrouw Maria off the coast of Finland.

A bloody massacre in Stockholm’s city square set Sweden on a course for independence under the leadership of Gustav I Vasa. A master of the ethos of 16th-century monarchy, his legacy is complicated.

Is Orkney Scandinavian or Scottish? Having passed from the former to the latter during the Middle Ages, for centuries the Danish Crown sought to take the islands back.

The Cudgel War broke out on 25 November 1596, in Kyrö, South Ostrobothnia.

For the Swedish king Charles X Gustav, the freezing winter of 1658 provided a unique opportunity: to march across the ice and create a Scandinavian superkingdom.

A new old take on the Danish succession, complete with tales of derring do.

Scientist and, later, international statesman, Nansen embarked upon his great polar voyage in 1893, writes Michael Langley.

Once acclaimed as an “enchanter on the throne” Gustavus was both loved and hated; but, writes Oliver Warner, those who loved him were better men than his enemies.

In 1808, writes H.J. Barnes, a Scottish Benedictine played an important part in securing the return of Spanish troops from Denmark for service in the Peninsular War against Napoleon.

The British attacked Copenhagen in August 1807 because, Canning claimed, Denmark was about to become a French satellite. Hilary Barnes asks, was he mistaken?