History of Scania - Viking and Middle Ages

Viking and Middle Ages

It was previously thought that society, like in the rest of Scandinavia, was made up of farmers and thralls, the former all being free and equal having their say at the things in the affairs of the society. Archeological findings on Jutland, the Danish islands and on the Scanian plains have modified this picture. It has now become clear, that the distribution of wealth, at least from the early Migration Period, was very uneven. The plains were to a large extent divided up between large farms which were far bigger than smallholdings, and were often grouped in villages. Subsequently, only a small faction of the population can be presumed to have enjoyed full civic rights. It seems now more likely that this society ought to be perceived as a system of tribes, each led by magnates or chieftains, in Danish often called gode, whose authority depended on the size and wealth of the tribe. These tribes would have had their own lid, their own troop of warriors, under the command of the magnates, as was the case long after the Viking Age.

It now seems likely, that a period of domestic colonisation within Scania, that was earlier believed to have started before the Viking Age, in reality barely took place until after the Viking Age, when donations of land to monasteries led to influences from Continental Europe and a transition from a predominantly animal husbandry to grain cultivation, which entailed extensive land clearing, possibly also connected with the liberation of the thralls, that led to the creation of many new settlements with names ending in -torp, -rup, and -röd.

Scania was first mentioned in written texts in the 8th century, stating it was part of Denmark. The province was a part of Denmark under Danish king Harald Bluetooth. The Scanian law, the oldest of the Medieval Scandinavian laws, came into force in the beginning of the 13th century. In 1332 the king of Denmark, Christopher II, died as a "king without a country" after he and his older brother and predecessor had pawned Denmark piece by piece. King Magnus took advantage of his neighbour's distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a huge amount of silver, which included Scania. The province was later reconquered by the great Danish king Valdemar IV of Denmark in 1360, as part of his conquest campaign to regain previously lost Danish territory. During the Middle Ages, Scania was known throughout Northern Europe for its herring and the market were it was sold.

Scania's geopolitical position, situated on the Scandinavian mainland but politically part of the Danish kingdom, made it for many centuries the focal point of the struggle for hegemony in the Baltic region between Denmark and Sweden, the so-called dominium maris baltici. The two Nordic countries were in conflict with each other for about five hundred years. By possessing both sides of the Øresund Strait, as well as The Belts, Denmark had effective control over the entrance to the Baltic Sea and was able to monopolize trade through the sounds. From the 15th century, Denmark started to collect the Sound Dues, a transitory due from all foreign ships passing through the strait, whether en route to or from Denmark or not. The Sound Dues constituted the major source of income for the Danish crown, up until the 19th century and was resented by the Swedish Crown.