Taking a fresh look at the history of diplomacy, this book looks at the fight for hegemony between France and Austria after the Peace of Westphalia 1648, showing how their clashes dragged the Scandinavian kingdoms into European top-level politics and forced them to take part in the play, constantly negotiating risks and profits. Historians Peter Lindström and Svante Norrhem discuss how the Great Powers were binding allies to their side, and how the Scandinavian countries and their political elites responded. Many of the diplomatic strategies were solidified through family alliances, patronage, and economic politics, something quite different from what is expected from today's diplomatic neutralities.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
  • Danish–Swedish diplomacy in action—royal marriage negotiations in the 1690s
  • The Europe of alliances
  • The aim of the study
  • Periods, sources, and methods
  • Definitions and concepts
• Background—royal councils and diplomacy
  • The councils and their political status: a brief history
  • Everyday diplomacy
• The great powers’ strategies
  • Gifts in theory and practice
  • The effects of gifts
  • Subsidy policies
  • Families, states, and loyalties
  • Patronage
• Meeting the great powers
  • Royal councils in the 1650s
  • Politics in the 1650s
  • Royal councils in the 1690s
  • Politics in the 1690s
  • Royal councils in the 1730s
  • Politics in the 1730s
  • Summing up Scandinavia
  • Transnational families
  • The effects of patronage
• A comparative analysis
  • Foreign factors
  • Domestic factors in Sweden
  • Domestic factors in Denmark
  • Borders and transnationality
• Conclusions
• Maps
• Notes
• Bibliography