[1] It ended the hostilities between the parties in the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, where the United Kingdom and Sweden were part of the anti-French camp (the Sixth Coalition) while Denmark–Norway was allied to the French Empire.

[1] Specifically excluded from the exchange were the Norwegian dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which remained in the union with Denmark.

Norway declared its independence, adopted a constitution and elected Crown Prince Christian Frederik as its own king.

King Christian Frederik abdicated after convening an extraordinary Storting, which revised the Constitution to allow for the Union.

In the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark–Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden tried to maintain neutrality[4] but soon became involved in the fighting, joining opposite camps.

[5] Russia was therein obliged to attack Napoleon's enemies, and since Gustav IV Adolf refused to break his alliance with the United Kingdom, the tsar invaded Finland and severed it from Sweden in the Finnish War, 1808/1809.

[5] Sweden could no longer uphold her anti-French foreign policy, and French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810.

[9] Bernadotte's condition for entering the anti-Napoleonic alliance was the gain of Norway, which the United Kingdom and Russia accepted in May 1813.

Denmark, who had maintained the alliance with Napoleon because of the Swedish claim to Norway,[9] was isolated and, as a consequence of the war, bankrupt.

Frederick VI agreed to make peace once it was clear that Bernadotte would occupy Jutland and Zealand (with British naval assistance), if necessary to force the Norwegian cession.

[14] The articles added in Brussels were concerned with the property of Danish subjects in the colonies or in ceded territories, which was to remain untouched by the British for the next three years, and equal treatment of Danish, British and Hanoveranian subjects, who were not to be prosecuted because of their participation in the war on different sides, nor because of their political or religious beliefs.

[15] In article III, the Danish king promised to join the alliance against Napoleonic France,[16] and with reference to the Dano-British treaty confirms his obligation to put part of his army under Swedish command.

[18] The Norwegian kingdom was defined as consisting of the bishoprics of Christiansand, Bergen, Akershus and Trondheim, as well as the coastal islands and the northern regions of Nordland and Finnmark to the Russian border.

[17] In article VI, the Swedish crown took over the debts and financial obligations of Norway, which was to be determined by a joint Dano-Swedish commission.

[19] In article XVI, it was agreed that the governors general and all foreign-born officials of the exchanged territories, as long as they did not decide to remain, were removed from their offices.

The bishop Johan Nordahl Brun wrote to Claus Pavels and urged his religious colleagues in Christiania to grab their rifles so as to never surrender.