The introduction of the Reformation resulted in the establishment of the two largest and most ardent Lutheran countries in northern Europe, the kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland. In Reforming the north James Larson gives a detailed account of the developments leading up to and following the two crucial events in the history of the Scandinavian Reformation: the radical reduction of episcopal power and the secularisation of ecclesiastical estates carried out by the Swedish king Gustav Vasa in 1527 and the Danish king Christian iii in 1536. Both events were closely connected to the breakdown of the political union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden which had been established in 1397 and had made the Danish king lord of all three kingdoms. It is therefore appropriate that Larson begins his narrative in 1520 with the event that triggered off this breakdown: the military campaign of the Danish king Christian ii against his ‘disobedient subjects’ in Sweden, which culminated in the horrible Bloodbath of Stockholm.

‘Lord of the northern world’ is the title of the first part of Larson's book, dealing with the reign of Christian ii from his accession in 1513 until he was forced to leave his realms in 1523. In Sweden it was a popular insurrection led by Gustav Vasa that removed Christian ii from power, while in Denmark it was a conspiracy between leading aristocrats and the king's uncle, Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein. As new rulers these two men are the main figures in the second part of the book, ‘Successors’, dealing with the years from 1523 to 1533. In this period Lutheran ideas began to penetrate both Denmark and Sweden, coming in through channels such as German merchants trading in the countries, Nordic students visiting universities in northern Germany, and the spreading of religious literature. Included were tracts by Luther, but also a Danish translation of the New Testament, made by followers of Christian ii in his exile in the Netherlands. The translation was smuggled into Denmark and spread together with propaganda for the return of the king who had become a devoted adherent of Luther after having met the reformer in Wittenberg.

In 1531 the exiled king succeeded in financing an army with which he landed in Norway. The southern part of the country recognised him as king, but in the end his attempt to reconquer his former realms failed. In 1532 Christian was persuaded to sail to Copenhagen to negotiate with King Frederick, but the promise of safe conduct was broken, and he was thrown into prison in a castle in southern Jutland.

The third part of his book Larson devotes to the civil war following the death of King Frederick, the so-called Count's War (1533–6). Rallying under the banner of Christian ii in his prison, Danish commoners joined forces with the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, which was fighting to uphold its trading privileges in Scandinavia, and especially to keep competing Dutch merchants out of the Baltic. Against this alliance the son of the deceased king, Duke Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, fought to be recognised as his father's legitimate successor to the thrones of Denmark and Norway. The young duke was also an admirer of Luther, and had already initiated ecclesiastical reforms in his duchy. Thanks to support from the Netherlands and Sweden the duke – in 1534 elected as King Christian iii – won the civil war, and in a veritable coup d’état he introduced the Reformation in Denmark. In the fourth part of his book Larson describes the establishment of a new political and ecclesiastical order in the years 1536–45. His main focus is on Denmark where the new royal rule of the Church was followed up by changes also in confession and rituals, codified in an official Church Ordinance (1537/39). In Sweden the Church did not receive the same decidedly Lutheran character until the 1590s, and Larson therefore only gives a short outline of the further development of the Swedish Reformation.

In his fine conclusion Larson provides an interpretation of the Scandinavian Reformation from a state formation perspective. Ironically, he says, the reigns of Christian iii (1534–59) and of Gustav Vasa (1523–60) saw the realisation of a political programme originally conceived by their old foe Christian ii around 1520: state power was strengthened, the Church was brought under royal control and the Hanseatic domination of trade was eliminated. The result was two new early modern states, much stronger than their medieval forerunners in an administrative and financial as well as in a religious and ideological respect. The conclusion is up-to-date in its use of results and viewpoints from current research, but the same cannot be said about Larson's book as a whole. Its 500 pages contain an old-fashioned retelling of events, in many cases with reference to primary sources, but just as often based on standard secondary works from the end of the nineteenth century. There are no critical evaluations of the sources, no discussions about the interpretation of them, nor any sign of the author being aware that the course of events that he is describing is only one among several possible reconstructions of a historical past. These methodological deficiencies are underlined by the fact that Larson seems to be without knowledge of relevant historical terminology. Throughout the book he uses German words like ‘the Kaiser’ and ‘the Reich’, and very many expressions in the primary sources are either retained – for instance ‘Knechts’ for lansquenets or mercenaries – or ‘translated’ in a way that makes no sense in English.

James Larson is a former professor of Scandinavian languages, so his book on the history of Scandinavia from 1520 to 1540 is the work of an amateur historian. I am impressed by the enormous amount of work that he has done in writing the book, but I must admit that I do not quite know why Cambridge University Press accepted it for publication.