Disputed, see § Outcome Upper Rhine France Southern Italy North Germany and Scandinavia Pyrenees Americas Naval battles The Scanian War (Danish: den Skånske Krig; Norwegian: den skånske krig; Swedish: det Skånska kriget; German: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden.

After some hesitation, King Christian V started the invasion of Skåneland (Scania, Halland, Blekinge, and sometimes also Bornholm) in 1675, while the Swedes were occupied with a war against Brandenburg.

Although the Danish offensive was initially a great success, Swedish counter-offensives led by the 19-year-old Charles XI of Sweden nullified much of the gain.

At the end of the war, the Swedish navy had lost at sea, the Danish army had been defeated in Scania by the Swedes, who in turn had been beaten in Northern Germany by the Brandenburgers.

By December, the Swedish army had grown to around 26,000 men, roughly half of which were stationed in garrisons in Bremen, Wismar and Pomerania while the rest were free to operate under Lord High Constable and field marshal Carl Gustaf Wrangel.

[5] Another defensive alliance formed in September 1672 between Denmark–Norway, Emperor Leopold I, the Electorate of Brandenburg, and the duchies of Brunswick-Celle, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Hesse-Cassel.

Roi soleil Louis XIV intended to weaken the anti-French alliance by engaging them on their eastern frontiers: he supported John Sobieski, candidate for the Polish throne, he also supported a contemporary revolt of nobles in Hungary, and aimed at binding the Brandenburgian army in a war with Sweden.

Wrangel advanced into the Uckermark, a region on the Brandenburg–Pomeranian frontier, securing quarters for his forces until the weather would permit him to turn westwards to Hanover.

Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg received the news in the Rhine valley, and turned northeast to confront Wrangel.

[5] The Fehrbellin affair was a mere skirmish, with actual casualties amounting to fewer than 600 men on each side—but it was a defeat by a numerically inferior force from a territory for which Sweden had little regard.

But when the numerically superior Swedes lost the Battle of Fehrbellin on 28 June 1675, it was the first such defeat of Swedish forces since the Thirty Years' War.

The Swedes were hampered by the high number of mainly German deserters because, after the imposition of the Imperial Ban it was forbidden to take up arms against member states of the Holy Roman Empire.

In November the Allies sent their troops into winter quarters with the result that the conquest of the last remaining Swedish strongholds had to wait until the following year.

[12] In early August a Danish–Norwegian expedition was sent north to take the town of Halmstad and then advance along the Swedish west coast to seek contact with General Gyldenløve's forces.

Christian V brought his army to Halmstad and besieged the town for a couple of weeks but gave up and returned to winter quarters in Scania.

[11] The Swedes mounted a counteroffensive under the command of Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, sending an army of 8,000 to expel the Norwegian forces.

After facing the whole Swedish army on the plain west of Kristianstad Christian V opted not to give battle but to retreat back to Landskrona and evacuate all his troops from Scania.

In the Battle of Öland, 1 June 1676, the Danish and Dutch fleet won a great victory over the Swedes, sinking one of the largest naval vessels at that time, Kronan.

The Danes–Norwegian had been blockading a Swedish squadron in Göteborg (Gothenburg), and each side had been sending fleets out regularly in the hope of a decisive victory at sea.

The Swedish ships, under Erik Carlsson Sjöblad, left to return to the Baltic Sea and there met a larger Danish–Norwegian squadron under Admiral Niels Juel.

[13] In Scania itself, however, the war had a devastating effect in raising the hopes of the pro-Danish guerilla known as Snapphane and their sympathisers, who thereupon suffered savage repression from the reinstated Swedish authorities.

[15][16][17][18] Historian Michael Fredholm von Essen also claims that one could argue that the real winner of the Scanian war was the French king, Louis XIV along with Brandenburg.

[19][20][21][22] The result of the war and the terms of the peace treaties were a large dissapointment for Denmark, being referred to as "En skiden og skammelig fred" by a priest in Copenhagen.