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Book Review: Colin Helling,The Navyand Anglo-Scottish Union, 1603–1707. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2022. 300 pp

This essay reviews the policy of Church and State in Scandinavia to ensure confessional uniformity across the kingdoms. In neither the Oldenburg kingdoms of Denmark and Norway nor that of Sweden under the House of Vasa was the implementation of the Reformation either swift or uniformly enforced. Moreover, Crown policy could deviate from the ambitions of the national Church even after the acceptance of the Reformation, which could lead to problems in confessional matters, especially when the reformed Scandinavian kingdoms found themselves under Catholic monarchs. However, while tensions simmered between Crown and Church, the real problem to the ecclesiastics in each kingdom came not from Catholicism but from contesting forms of Protestantism. Thus, difficulties arose when the Swedish and Danish-Norwegian churches, in opposition to royal policy, sought to limit, or even prevent, the immigration of non-Lutherans, arguing that immigrants of contesting confessions of faith would disturb the peace of the kingdoms.

Such concerns had to be carefully balanced against commercial factors, which often pitched Court and Church policy at loggerheads as the expanding states required ever increasing revenue streams to stay afloat. The emerging commercial centres of Copenhagen, Bergen and Trondheim in Denmark-Norway experienced the same need for foreign finance and expertise as the Swedish cities of Gothenburg and Stockholm. All required migrants to develop and compete on the international markets, and all found mechanisms to circumvent the apparent contradictions thrown up by Court policy trying to accommodate Calvinists, Catholics and even Jews within the framework of a national Lutheran Church. In a shift away from the usual approach to migration into Scandinavia, this essay does not look at one ethnic group or confession of faith. Rather it follows the establishment of foreign enclaves and integrated minorities across the major commercial centres with an eye to their ability either to circumvent Court decrees or to integrate into society with Crown blessing regardless of Lutheran exclusionism. The results reveal a fresh understanding of how the migrants achieved this aim, leading to a reassessment of the issues embedded in the title of the essay, namely, Crown policy, Church decrees and Civic Necessity in the Nordic world.

John Brown was the chosen name of a few black woman who enlisted in the Royal Africa Company as a soldier in the 1690s. The article traces her origins and motivations for joining the slaving vessel in London. It looks to her discovery and postulates the purpose of her journey. In so doing it reveals aspects of attitudes towards race, gender and confession of faith.

THis article is republished by World History Connected after 20 years as being one of the selection of lasting contributions to the journal. It is accompanied by  a generous editorial introduction and a reflection on the use of the article in teaching etc.

THis is a book review of a monograph which focusses on the Role of the Royal Navy in Scotland in the period between the Union of Crowns (1603) and the Treaty of Union (1707).

This article tackles preconceptions as to the architect (s) behind the Peace of Stolbova. Sir John Merrick's role has long been understood, but here for the first time the role of te Scottish General in Swedish service, Sir James Spens, is brought firmly into view.

In this article some misconceptions are addressed and new information brought to bear with implications for the undersatanding of Scottish, English (dare one say British) interactions with Sweden, Russia and the Northern World. 

The Battle of Lemgo (1638) is traditionally viewed as a complete route of the Swedish forces under Lt General James King (an Orcadian) and an allied army led by Prince Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate. In this presentation, Dr Kathrin Zickermann and Prof Steve Murdoch have reassessed the battlefield reports following the battle and the subsequent actions of the Swedish-Palatine Army. In so doing a number of flaws in the conventional orthodoxy have been exposed. Missing from all previous mentions of this event has been any attention to the Swedish accounts of the battle, or even objective scrutiny of the available German and English ones. This paper returns to the basic principles of the study of history by reviewing the battle objectively and from all sides equally. In so doing we overturn the orthodoxy surrounding the battle and its aftermath. We can conclusively show that far from being a route which saw King and Karl Ludwig return to base with only five survivors (the myth), the battle witnessed an orderly retreat and was followed up by subsequent actions previously overlooked in any Swedish, German or English language accounts. This placed the Swedish army in a stronger position than prior to the battle, albeit the Palatine force was denuded of some of its most senior commanders. We address the mythologizing of these (such as Prince Rupert of the Rhine) and contemplate why the obsession with romantic figures has helped obscure the historical reality of the day.

This chapter looks at relations between the kingdoms of Scotland and Norway over two centuries. In particular it looks to periods of conflict and asks questions about these impacted upon commercial and cultural relations. Celebrated, but localised incidents are put in context against periods of outright warfare between the nations.

This book is a contribution to Maritime history in all its contexts - Military Warfare at Sea, Archaeology, Great Power and Imperial History, World History, Global History.