 Light green areas were ceded to Sweden, striped areas were ceded to Sweden and later returned to Denmark-Norway after the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660. Turquoise (Halland) was occupied by Sweden since before the treaty and was now permanently ceded to Sweden. | |
| Type | Bilateral treaty |
|---|---|
| Signed | 8 March 1658 (1658-03-08) |
| Location | Roskilde, Denmark |
| Original signatories | |
| Ratifiers | |
TheTreaty of Roskilde[1] was negotiated atHøje Taastrup Church and was concluded on 26 February (OS) or 8 March 1658 (NS)[2] during theSecond Northern War betweenFrederick III ofDenmark–Norway andKarl X Gustav of Sweden in theDanish city ofRoskilde. After adevastating defeat, Denmark–Norway was forced to give up a third of its territory to save the rest, the ceded lands comprisingBlekinge,Bornholm,Bohuslän,Scania andTrøndelag, as well asHalland.[2]
After the treaty entered into force, Swedish forces continued to campaign in the remainder of Denmark–Norway, but had to withdraw from the Danish isles and Trøndelag in the face of a Dano–Norwegian andDutch alliance. TheTreaty of Copenhagen restored Bornholm to Denmark and Trøndelag to Norway in 1660, while the other provinces transferred in Roskilde remained Swedish.
As the Northern Wars progressed,Charles X Gustav of Swedencrossed the frozen straits fromJutland and occupied the Danish island ofZealand, with the invasion beginning on 11 February 1658. A preliminary treaty, theTreaty of Taastrup, was signed on 18 February 1658 with the final treaty, the Treaty of Roskilde, signed on 26 February 1658.
The treaty's conditions included:[3][4][5]
The Swedish king was not content with his stunning victory. At theSwedish Council held atGottorp on 7 July, Charles X Gustav resolved to wipe his inconvenient rival from the map ofEurope. Without any warning, in defiance of international treaty, he ordered his troops to attackDenmark–Norway a second time. There followedan attack on the capital Copenhagen. Residents successfully defended themselves with help from theDutch, who honored their 1649 treaty to defend Denmark against unprovoked invasion by sending an expeditionary fleet and army, defeating the Swedish fleet in theBattle of the Sound and relieving the capital. His army partly trapped atLandskrona and partly isolated on the Danish islands by superior Danish and Dutch forces under Vice-AdmiralMichiel de Ruyter, Charles was forced to withdraw in 1659.[7]
Sweden also invadedRomsdal in western Norway. The local farmers rebelled and defied the Swedish taxes and military conscription vigorously. The Swedish governor was forced to send a full company of soldiers and 50 cavalry to collect taxes. The action was not successful, and the area remained largely autonomous.[8]
Meanwhile, Norwegian forces succeeded in expelling the Swedish occupiers fromTrøndelag. Eventually, the resultingTreaty of Copenhagen in 1660 restored Trøndelag to Norway, and the island ofBornholm to Denmark.
The relinquishment ofTrøndelag by the Treaty of Copenhagen reflects strong local resistance to the Swedish occupation. Although the Swedish invasion had been welcomed, or at least not resisted, the Swedes issuedconscription orders in Trøndelag and forced 2,000 men and boys down to 15 years of age to join the Swedish armies fighting in Poland and Brandenburg. KingCarl X Gustav was afraid that theTrønders would rise against their Swedish occupiers, and thought it wise to keep a large part of the men away.[9]
Only about one third of the men ever returned to their homes. Some of them were forced to settle in the Swedish province ofEstonia, as the Swedes thought it would be easier to rule the Trønders there. Many of Trøndelag's men were already in the Dano-Norwegian army and navy, so the Swedish-forced conscription nearly emptied Trøndelag of males. The result was devastating, as the farms were left without enough hands to harvest the fields, and famine struck the region. Some local historians of Trøndelag have termed this thegenocide of the Trønders.[10]
The few months of experience with Swedish taxation and conscription left such bitter sentiments, that it served to strengthen Dano-Norwegian unity and patriotism, making resistance to Swedish invasions of Denmark–Norway stronger over the next 80 years.[8]
In the ninth article of the Treaty of Roskilde, which ceded Scania (Skåne), the inhabitants of theScanian lands were assured of their privileges, old laws and customs. However the territories were gradually integrated in the Swedish realm.[11] The nobility was soon amalgamated with theSwedish nobility and introduced into theSwedish House of Lords with the same rights and privileges as the original Swedish noble families.
In1676 Denmark attacked and conquered most of Scania in an attempt to take back the province, but Sweden reconquered it. The provincialScanian Law was replaced by the national Swedish law in 1683. In the same year the national Danish law came into force in Denmark,[12] also replacingprovincial laws there. The SwedishChurch Ordinance[13] was introduced in 1686.
