Malmö

Malmö received its town privileges in 1353 and grew in the 15th century into one of the largest towns of Denmark, some 5,000 strong, living on the herring of the Sound and the Hanseatic merchants who came to its market. In 1434 a new citadel rose on the shore south of the town, the beginning of Malmöhus. The burghers turned Lutheran early, and in the Count's Feud of 1534–36 they staked everything on restoring the deposed Christian II and lost. Christian III answered by ringing Malmöhus with a moat, heavy ramparts and four great gun towers, held by a strong garrison.

The Treaty of Roskilde gave Malmö to Sweden in 1658, and it became a quiet frontier town. In June 1677 some 14,000 Danish troops besieged it for a month without breaking the Swedish garrison. The wars of Charles XII and plague cut its people to about 1,800 by 1727, and only the new harbour built from 1775 turned the tide: by 1815 the town held 6,000 people, more than in its Danish heyday.