Frederick is the son of the first…
February 1500 CE
Frederick is the son of the first Oldenburg king, Christian I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and of Dorothea of Brandenburg.
The underage Frederick had been elected co-Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in 1482, soon after the death of his father, the other co-duke being his elder brother by ten years, King John of Denmark.
At Frederick's majority, in 1490, both duchies had been divided between the brothers.
He persuades his brother and co-duke in 1500 to conquer Dithmarschen, and a great army is called from not only the duchies, but with additions from all of the Kalmar Union for which his brother briefly is king.
In addition, numerous German mercenaries take part.
The fenland villages of Dithmarschen, which had in the fifteenth century confederated in a peasants' republic, enjoy remarkable autonomy.
Several times nobles and their mercenaries have tried to subdue the independent mini state, located on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula between the Eider and Elbe rivers, but without any success.
The greatest of these battles takes place at Hemmingstedt, where in 1500 the outnumbered peasants defeat the dukes of Holstein and Schleswig, Duke Frederick and Duke John; the latter is also king of the Kalmar Union.
The ducal army consists of the "Great Guard", four thousand mercenaries from the Netherlands, commanded by a petty noble (Junker) named Slentz, two thousand armored cavaliers, about a thousand artillery-men and five thousand commoners.
The defenders, led by the farmer Wulf Isebrand.
number about three thousand men, peasants all, but a well-armed, well-organized militia.
After seizing the village of Meldorf, the ducal army advances but is stopped at a barricade.
The defenders open at least one dike sluice in order to flood the land, turning it quickly into morass and shallow lakes.
Crammed together on a narrow road with no solid ground on which to deploy, the ducal army is unable to apply its numerical superiority.
The lightly equipped peasants are familiar with the land and use poles to leap over the ditches.
The casualties among the Dithmarshians are unknown, but the Danish and the Dutch lose together more than half their army, with about seven thousand killed and fifteen hundred wounded.
Most of the ducal soldiers are not killed by enemy arms, but drowned.
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