ABSTRACT
The century of scandinavian history which closes with the great settlement of the North in 1660 was a time of perpetual rivalry between the Danish and Swedish States. The geographical situation of Denmark marked her out for close relations with Sweden and Germany, the only nations whose frontiers marched with hers. The social and constitutional condition of the Danes under Frederick II, however, gave little promise of political advance. The ambition of the King of Denmark to intervene in the settlement of the Empire at least contributed to the maintenance of peace in Scandinavia. The great war kindled by the revolt of the Cossacks in 1648, after flaming up in a conflagration which remoulded northern Europe, had dwindled into a smouldering feud between Poland and the Tsar. The terms of the Treaty of Roeskilde supplemented those of the Treaty of 1645 and completed the expulsion of the Danish power from the south of the Scandinavian peninsula.
