The sea, the harbour and the town
A lot of people have lived around Frederikshavn since the Stone Age. In Gaerum, there is one of Denmark's most beautiful long barrows and one of Vendsyssel's, and indeed one of Denmark's, largest and magnificent passage graves. A burial site has been found in Donbaek, which has been used throughout the Iron Age and at Lygten, Baekman and Donbaek, several, unexplained vaults have been found dating from the Iron Age.
In Hoerkaer moor, large stores of sacrificial items were found from the Stone Age with axes, knives and daggers displaying beautiful workmanship. During recent years fishermen in the Kattegat Sea found a drinking horn and the finding of many pieces of uncrafted flint in Sweden could suggest that there was an early trade of flint from the mines in Northern Jutland to Bohuslen, in Sweden.
It is not clear when Fladstrand, which Frederikshavn was called before 1818, emerged. It is first two years before the Reformation in 1536 that we see records of its existence. It was only when a merchant ship's captain complained that he did not have the same terms and conditions as traders in market towns that the town is mentioned in records.
Everything suggests that the Viking's and the Middle Age's most important urban communities were at the mouth of the River Elling, where the Elling ship was excavated in 1968. Elling Church was also established close to this natural harbour. Drift of material, the raising of the land and the larger drafts ships needed meant that the area could no longer be used.
Near the productive fields at the natural harbour, Lerbaek manor house was established in 1466 and the nobility grazed their oxen there, which provided an important source of income.
Therefore, it was important to find a new harbour that was not so vulnerable and could be used by the increasingly larger ships, which sailed around the area.
The Viking's had made a profitable business, which still continued even after their demise.
Mare Baltikum or the Baltic Sea continued to be an important trade route between East and West. This was a trade route, which the King of Denmark tried to keep for himself in competition with first the Hanseatic towns and then the Dutch traders, the English and not least the Swedes.
Around 1600 the trade that passed through the town was so important that King Christian 4th asked the customs in Saeby to check the amount of goods that went in and out of the harbour, which included both the goods the nobility could trade in legally, because of their privileges, and the smuggled goods.
One of the King's important sources of income was the customs tax on these goods, which was supposed to be paid into the King's treasury. These taxes were intended to give Denmark and the King a leading position as Northern Europe's most important Protestant royal court.
As is well known, this did not succeed. Instead Northern Jutland was occupied from 1627 - 1629 by the catholic imperial troops, who built the first entrenchment at Fladstrand.
Throughout the 1600's, the King lost his power of the whole coastal region from Blekinge to Halland and to Bohus. Fladstrand became the most important link in an attempt to join Denmark and Norway together.
The many wars and occupation of Denmark throughout the 1600's meant an important development for Fladstrand. The small, fishing town grew and the church had to be extended a few times. In 1669, the town's importance had grown so much that the Royal Customs House moved from Saeby to Fladstrand and in addition to this, a new consumption tax was introduced, which was the same tax as in the rest of the country's market towns. The town's trade people and businessmen were given this extra workload without getting anything in return for it. It was not until 1748 that a single businessman did something about this. He simply bought the entire town with its houses, land and also nearly all its inhabitants.
Up until 1690, Soendre's entrenchment was extended to an actual fort with a powder magazine tower that is still the town's landmark. Also the small island of Deget was fortified so the town's sea routes were protected by the three entrenchments and the island also got its own church, so the locals did not have to travel the long distance to Flade Church.
The scene was set for something big to happen and it happened when the Danish King lead an attack from Norway into Bohuslen to conquer the new Swedish town of Gothenburg. The campaign was a disaster because the King had forgotten that the soldiers needed supplies during the campaign.
The Swedish navy had become so strong that it could operate freely in the Kattegat Sea and it captured the Danish transport ships. It was not until the re-organisation of the Danish - Norwegian navy with Tordenskjold leading the convoy that they succeeded in supplying the army with supplies, so that they at least avoided a defeat. Furthermore, Tordenskjold succeeded in conquering the previous Danish fortress at Marstrand, while a daring attempt to attack Gothenburg failed.
After the Norwegian war, the development of the town slowed down. It did not have an actual harbour and the local inhabitants began to demand the re-development of the town again.
More larger ships passed the town, which was situated by a huge "sea motorway", which supplied England with corn. The English industrialisation was in full progress and the English could not get enough of everything the Danes, the Polish and the Baltics could produce and Frederikshavn was strategically situated at the most dangerous turn on the route to England.
After eighty years of peace, the drums of war began to beat again. This time it was England and France who argued over who should rule Europe and who had the right to colonies in the new world, which was what America was called.
Up until then, things had gone well in Denmark. The tradesmen earned money for the country by buying goods in the colonies and selling them to the English, the Germans and the French. The English did not like this and the English King decided to protect the merchant ships by letting them sail with the warships, thereby the English threw the Danes right into the arms of Napoleon.
The English war had important consequences for Denmark and Fladstrand. Yet again, it was a war that breathed new life into the town. Already before the English navy kidnapped the Danish navy and with the world's first terror bombardment of a capital city's inhabitants, there was a war like investment in Fladstrand. The old northern entrenchment was repaired and the building of the first small gunboat harbour was approved of shortly after the war had started.
The investments were intended to prevent the English conquering Vendsyssel and to protect the maritime navigation between the breadbasket of Eastern Europe and England.
The gunboats and not least the privateers, who were royal - authorised pirates, troubled the English merchant navy. Several English merchant navy ships were captured and priced at the Courts of Aalborg or Fladstrand and these towns came to function as market towns during the gunboat war. The biggest problem for Fladstrand was that the harbour had been built south of the fortress so the English could re-conquer a large quantity of ships. Therefore a new entrenchment was built, the Soender entrenchment and a lookout was situated at Pikkerbakken.
A lot of people have lived around Frederikshavn since the Stone Age. In Gaerum, there is one of Denmark's most beautiful long barrows and one of Vendsyssel's, and indeed one of Denmark's, largest and magnificent passage graves. A burial site has been found in Donbaek, which has been used throughout the Iron Age and at Lygten, Baekman and Donbaek, several, unexplained vaults have been found dating from the Iron Age.
In Hoerkaer moor, large stores of sacrificial items were found from the Stone Age with axes, knives and daggers displaying beautiful workmanship. During recent years fishermen in the Kattegat Sea found a drinking horn and the finding of many pieces of uncrafted flint in Sweden could suggest that there was an early trade of flint from the mines in Northern Jutland to Bohuslen, in Sweden.
It is not clear when Fladstrand, which Frederikshavn was called before 1818, emerged. It is first two years before the Reformation in 1536 that we see records of its existence. It was only when a merchant ship's captain complained that he did not have the same terms and conditions as traders in market towns that the town is mentioned in records.
Everything suggests that the Viking's and the Middle Age's most important urban communities were at the mouth of the River Elling, where the Elling ship was excavated in 1968. Elling Church was also established close to this natural harbour. Drift of material, the raising of the land and the larger drafts ships needed meant that the area could no longer be used.
Near the productive fields at the natural harbour, Lerbaek manor house was established in 1466 and the nobility grazed their oxen there, which provided an important source of income.
Therefore, it was important to find a new harbour that was not so vulnerable and could be used by the increasingly larger ships, which sailed around the area.
The Viking's had made a profitable business, which still continued even after their demise.
Mare Baltikum or the Baltic Sea continued to be an important trade route between East and West. This was a trade route, which the King of Denmark tried to keep for himself in competition with first the Hanseatic towns and then the Dutch traders, the English and not least the Swedes.
Around 1600 the trade that passed through the town was so important that King Christian 4th asked the customs in Saeby to check the amount of goods that went in and out of the harbour, which included both the goods the nobility could trade in legally, because of their privileges, and the smuggled goods.
One of the King's important sources of income was the customs tax on these goods, which was supposed to be paid into the King's treasury. These taxes were intended to give Denmark and the King a leading position as Northern Europe's most important Protestant royal court.
As is well known, this did not succeed. Instead Northern Jutland was occupied from 1627 - 1629 by the catholic imperial troops, who built the first entrenchment at Fladstrand.
Throughout the 1600's, the King lost his power of the whole coastal region from Blekinge to Halland and to Bohus. Fladstrand became the most important link in an attempt to join Denmark and Norway together.
The many wars and occupation of Denmark throughout the 1600's meant an important development for Fladstrand. The small, fishing town grew and the church had to be extended a few times. In 1669, the town's importance had grown so much that the Royal Customs House moved from Saeby to Fladstrand and in addition to this, a new consumption tax was introduced, which was the same tax as in the rest of the country's market towns. The town's trade people and businessmen were given this extra workload without getting anything in return for it. It was not until 1748 that a single businessman did something about this. He simply bought the entire town with its houses, land and also nearly all its inhabitants.
Up until 1690, Soendre's entrenchment was extended to an actual fort with a powder magazine tower that is still the town's landmark. Also the small island of Deget was fortified so the town's sea routes were protected by the three entrenchments and the island also got its own church, so the locals did not have to travel the long distance to Flade Church.
The scene was set for something big to happen and it happened when the Danish King lead an attack from Norway into Bohuslen to conquer the new Swedish town of Gothenburg. The campaign was a disaster because the King had forgotten that the soldiers needed supplies during the campaign.
The Swedish navy had become so strong that it could operate freely in the Kattegat Sea and it captured the Danish transport ships. It was not until the re-organisation of the Danish - Norwegian navy with Tordenskjold leading the convoy that they succeeded in supplying the army with supplies, so that they at least avoided a defeat. Furthermore, Tordenskjold succeeded in conquering the previous Danish fortress at Marstrand, while a daring attempt to attack Gothenburg failed.
After the Norwegian war, the development of the town slowed down. It did not have an actual harbour and the local inhabitants began to demand the re-development of the town again.
More larger ships passed the town, which was situated by a huge "sea motorway", which supplied England with corn. The English industrialisation was in full progress and the English could not get enough of everything the Danes, the Polish and the Baltics could produce and Frederikshavn was strategically situated at the most dangerous turn on the route to England.
After eighty years of peace, the drums of war began to beat again. This time it was England and France who argued over who should rule Europe and who had the right to colonies in the new world, which was what America was called.
Up until then, things had gone well in Denmark. The tradesmen earned money for the country by buying goods in the colonies and selling them to the English, the Germans and the French. The English did not like this and the English King decided to protect the merchant ships by letting them sail with the warships, thereby the English threw the Danes right into the arms of Napoleon.
The English war had important consequences for Denmark and Fladstrand. Yet again, it was a war that breathed new life into the town. Already before the English navy kidnapped the Danish navy and with the world's first terror bombardment of a capital city's inhabitants, there was a war like investment in Fladstrand. The old northern entrenchment was repaired and the building of the first small gunboat harbour was approved of shortly after the war had started.
The investments were intended to prevent the English conquering Vendsyssel and to protect the maritime navigation between the breadbasket of Eastern Europe and England.
The gunboats and not least the privateers, who were royal - authorised pirates, troubled the English merchant navy. Several English merchant navy ships were captured and priced at the Courts of Aalborg or Fladstrand and these towns came to function as market towns during the gunboat war. The biggest problem for Fladstrand was that the harbour had been built south of the fortress so the English could re-conquer a large quantity of ships. Therefore a new entrenchment was built, the Soender entrenchment and a lookout was situated at Pikkerbakken.
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