Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad (was Re: elves and jinn (...))

Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> Jan van Steenbergen scripsit:
>
> > > Excuse a stupid and OT question, but does that mean that the Union of
> > > Kalmar did not finally break apart in the early 16th C?
> >
> > I think so. But if you really want to know, ask Kristian Jensen. He is in
> > charge in Scandinavia, and he laid a solid historical foundation for it.
>
> In fact no, Kalmar did break up.
Please don't say that Kalmar broke up - it gives me unpleasant pictures in my
head of major earthquakes occuring where they shouldn't!

> But it re-formed during the Napoleonic
> Wars.
> Denmark-Norway was neutral, and when Sweden's king was deposed for insanity,
> they cleverly elected the Danish king.
Since Finland's still in, the 1808-09 war presumably didn't take place, which
means there wasn't a reason for the '09 coup - which got the king's old uncle
placed on the throne with a Danish prince as heir apparent* - so doing away
with a Swedish king at this point would be another example of IB unmotivatedly -
 altho not necessarily unaccountably - mirroring our world. Is this intentional?

* This guy then promptly died, whereupon, bizarrely, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte,
a Marshal of France on bad terms with Napoleon, was made heir. His descendants
still occupy the Swedish throne.

> The result is called the
> Scandinavian
> Realm, and now includes Slesvig (as part of Denmark), Holstein, Oldenburg,
> and various places in the Caribbean, India, and China.
China? How and why did they get a foothold there?

(*Here*, Denmark for a while had a foothold in Guinea. I thought someone might
want to know!)

                                                           Andreas

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