Kingdom of Vendsyssel

Kingdom of Vendsyssel
Kingdom of Vendsyssel
	Flag
	Motto: No official
	Anthem: Vendelboernes slagsang (Mel: Flickkorner fra Småland)
	; Kingdom of Vendsyssel, territorial claim
Capital and largest city	Hjørring
Official languages	Danish (Other non-official; English, Vendelbomål)
Demonym(s)	Vendelbo(er), Vendsysselsk(e)
Government	Absolute Monarchy
• King	Valdemar I
• Prime Minister	Vacant
Legislature	Altinget
Establishment	13 December 2018
Population
• (2019 estimate) census	300.000 (Official Citiziens; 2)
Currency	Danish Kroner (DKK)
Time zone	(UTC +1 DST: UTC +2)
	Website; ValdemarI@mail.com ; Mail to the king

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel is a micronation founded on 13 December 2018, commonly refered to as Vendsyssel. It is a secessionsit state, though seeking to obtain micronational and macronational recognition through diplomatic measures.

The territorial claim of Vendsyssel consits of all lands north of Limfjorden, formerly a part of the macronational state of Denmark.

Due to the small number of citiziens of Vendssyssel, all foreign affairs are at the moment conducted by the king himself.

History

Pre-History of Vendsyssel

The region of Vendsyssel was covered in ice during the latest ice age 18.000 years ago. When the ice melted the earth rose faster than the seas which resulted in Vendsyssel and England being attached to eachother by land. It was also during this period that humans started inhabiting the region. During the stone age, the water stood higher than today resulting in Vendsyssel being reduced to a number of small islands, before finally settling more or less as it is today.

In the year of 1085 the king of Denmark Canute IV the Holy (Danish; Knud IV den Hellige) assembled a fleet at Vestervig in the Limfjord for a planned invasion of England. However the fleet never set sail, as Canute was preoccupied at the southern borders, fearing an invasion from Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The warriors of the fleet, mainly made up of peasants who needed to be home for harvest season, got weary of waiting, and wanted the fleet to be dispersed. For a long time Canute kept the warriors waiting, before finally dispersing the fleet with the intentions of reassemble within a year. Canute took up royal residence at Børglum Kloster and before he could reassemble the fleet, a revolt broke out in Vendsyssel. The revolting peasants attacked the royal residence and chased the King and his men all the way down to Schleswig and from there to Odense where the king took refuge in the St. Albani Church. The rebels stormed the church and slew King Canute IV, his brother Benedict and seventeen of the kings guards. The leader of the revolt Piper also died in the church.

In 1534 civil war of succession broke out in Denmark named the Count's Feud. In support for Christian II, and in general revolt against the nobility, a Vendelboer named Skipper Clement raised an army of peasants and started burning property held by the nobility. In October 1534 the army of peasants defeated an army lead by the nobles of Jutland in a battle just south of Aalborg. In the following months Skipper Clement and his rebel army controlled most parts of Jutland. However during the autum months, Christian III's army commander Count Johan Rantzau defeated the peasant army in a series of small skirmishes eventually pressing the back to Aalborg. In Aalborg the peasant army made a final stand in December 1534 and was ultimately defeated in a hard fought battle, with Skipper Clement getting arrested shortly afterwards just east of Aalborg. Skipper Clement was then kept in prison till the end of the civil war and was then executed by breaking the wheel in Viborg.

During the Torstenson war in 1643 Sweden attacked Denmark-Norway without a warning, and thus quickly conquered most of the country. Finally the war came to Vendsyssel which fielded an army of poorly trained and poorly equipped peasants. The peasant army was commanded by a 84-year old peasant named Lars Dyrskjøt. Luckily for the swedes, the Limfjord had frozen over, and the swedish army could easily ride and walk over the ice and attacked the peasant army in Nørresundby. The well-trained swedish soldiers killed 600-700 of the approximately 700-750 man peasant army, including Lars Dyrskjøt - resulting in a death-rate of approximately 95%.

The railroad Vendsysselbanen was build in 1871, which had a huge impact on the future development and industrialisation of Vendsyssel.

Thoughts of revolts has never been far way in the minds of vendelboerne, seen in the examples of Piper's revolt against Canute IV, and Skipper Clements revolt against Christian III. In more recent times these thought has come to expression in 1954, 2004 & 2014.

In 1954 vendelboerne revolted against Denmark and declared independence as the "Free state of Vendsyssel". They felt overlooked by the government in Copenhagen. However the revolt ended quickkly and turned into a celebratory festival.

In November 1976 the flag of Vendsyssel was created as a symbol of independence and raised for the first time. The creator of the flag were two citiziens of Hjørring, one of them Mogens Bohøj, as well as the mayor Poul S. Poulsen.

In 2004 an organisation named Freedom Council of Vendsyssel (Danish; Vendsyssels Frihedsråd) declared independence from Denmark. However this non-violent revolt was largely ignored by the rest of Denmark and died out without much noise.

In 2014 the day after the Scots voted no to leaving the UK, a refendrum was held in Vendsyssel by the danish newspaper Nordjyske. When the voting was closed 67% of the votes was in favour of independence and 33% voted no. However the voting wasn't attended by the majority of the population and no formal declaration of independence was made.

Establishment of the Kingdom of Vendsyssel

The idea of a independent Vendsyssel has always been in the minds of vendelboerne, and for its current king Valdemar I it was no different. From an early age he had supported various attempts for a free and sovereign Vendsyssel, but none of these resulted in any progress and so he started laying the groundwork for his own secessionist movement, thus starting the creation of the Kingdom of Vendsyssel.

Geography

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel is an island encircled by the following waters; To the north; Skagerrak, to the east; Kattegat, to the south; Limfjorden and to the west; The North Sea. Across Limfjorden to the south is Denmark, to the east across Kattegat is Sweden and to the north across Skagerrak is Norway. The country is flat with an average height above sea level of 31 metres. The highest natural point of Vendsyssel is Knøsen at 136 metres. Most of Vendsyssel is rolling plains, with a sandy coastline and large dunes. Once the land was extensively forested, but now consits largely of arable land.

Climate

Vendsyssel has a temperate climate, characterised by mild winters, with mean temperatures in January of 1,5 degrees celsius and cool summers, with a mean temperature in August of 17,2 degrees celsius. Since 1874 the most extreme temperature was 36,4 degrees celsius (in 1975) and -31,2 degrees celsius in 1982. Vendsyssel has an average of 179 days with precipitation on average receiving 765 millimetres per year; Autum being the wettest and spring the driest. Due to its location the weather often changes and is rather unpredictable. Because of its northern location , there are large variations in daylight. There are short days in the winter with 7 hours of daylight, and long days in the summer with 17,5 hours of daylight.

Country sub-divisions

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel is divided into two Sysler which is further divided into 11 herreder further divided into a number of birker.

Syssel	Herred	Largest city (populous)	City population (January 2018)
Vendyssel	Horns Herred	Frederikshavn	23.423
Vendyssel	Vennebjerg Herred	Hjørring	25.994
Vendyssel	Børglum Herred	Brønderslev	12.598
Vendyssel	Dronninglund Herred	Sæby	8.874
Vendyssel	Kær Herred	Nørresundby	22.589
Vendyssel	Hvetbo Herred	Aabybro	5.850
Thysyssel	Hillerslev Herred	Hanstholm	2.136
Thysyssel	Hundborg Herred	Thisted	13.416
Thysyssel	Refs Herred	Hurup	2.754
Thysyssel	Hassing Herred	Snedsted	1.208
Thysyssel	Han Herred	Fjerritslev	3.458

Territorial claim disputes

While Kingdom of Vendsyssel 'de jure' claims an area of 4.686 km2, this area is also claimed and 'de facto' ruled by Kingdom of Denmark. The area which is under 'de facto' rule of Vendsyssel is 1.600 m2 / 0,0016 km2

Government

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel operatess as an absolute monarchy where the king or queen holds all power. He is advised by altinget which functions both as a legislative, advisory and judical body. In the absence of the king the alting is governed by the Prime Minister, though all laws must be signed by the king for it to be legal.

Altinget functions both as a legislative body and a privy council. As the legislative body, Altinget works out the laws of the kingdom though the law can't be passed before a signature from the monarch. Altinget is therefore also a privy council which acts as advisors to the king. Members of Altinget are appointed by the monarch and are usually given an aera of responsibility (E.g. Finances, Foreign affairs, Military etc.) and will hold the office as "Minister of xx". The monarch is head of Altinget, however in his absence the Prime Minister presides over Altinget.

As Altinget is both the political entity aswel as the legal court on the highest level, so is the lower subdivisions likewise represented by a "-ting" that functions as a political entity and legal court.

These are from top to bottom;

Altinget

Landstinget - only functions as a court

Sysseltinget

Herredstinget

Birktinget.

If the lowest member of the society wishes to get a law tried and passed by the king, it has to be accepted first by Birktinget, then Herredstinget and all the way up to Altinget.

Each subdivision is governed by a noble, conferred by the monarch. These are as follows;

Sysseltinget - Governed by a jarl

Herredstinget - Governed by a duke

Birktinget - Governed by a count.

Law and judical system

Law enforcement is the responsibility of the lowest subdivision. This means that a count is responsible for law enforcement in his birk. If he can't do his duty, then it becomes the responsibilty of the duke of the herred, then the jarl and in the end the monarch might step in. It is also the nobleman of his domain that presides over the legal court, and decides upon reasonable punishments if a person is found guilty. However all citiziens have the right to appeal if reasonable, and can possibly in the end have his case tried before the king. If a person on trial wishes for appeal, the case will be examined by an appointed body of neutral observers, and they will decide wether there is ground for appeal or not.

In the Kingdom of Vendsyssel, the right to be judged by your peers is also a right. These peers functions as judges who will vote of guilty/not guilty verdicts, and recommend punishments for the nobleman. The nobleman appoints the judges, and also has the right to rule againts these. If he does so, the case automatically qualifies for appeal, and can be tried at a higher level, if the person in question wishes.

Lawspeakers are persons who has studied the law in depth. They function as counsellors to the nobleman presiding over a court. They can also be appointed by the nobleman to preside over a court, and pass judgement in the name of the nobleman.

Structure of the legal courts

Altinget -Is the supreme court of the kingdom. The monarch presides over the court and rules in cases bought to the court. As judges an uneven number of either lawspeakers, noblemen, ministers or laymen will be appointed at the monarchs discretion

Landstinget - is the high court. Here decisions are solely based upon majority of votes. The judges are chosen randomly from lawspeakers and peers by the monarch, so that it is an uneven number, with a majority in peers.

Sysseltinget - is the regional court. A Jarl presides over the court. As judges an even number of lawspeakers and peers is appointed at the Jarls discretion

Herredstinget - is the provincial court. A duke presides over the court. As judges an even number of lawspeakers and peers is appointed at the dukes discretion

Birktinget - is the local court. A count presides over the court. As judges an even number of lawspeakers and peers is appointed. The count appoints the lawspeakers and the person on trial apoints his peers.

In cases where one person puts another on trial, a trial by combat can be requested. The nobleman of the court will decide if a trial by combat is granted. Trial by combat is regulated by laws, and thus certain principles must be followed.

Military

Vendsyssel maintains a "non-aggressive" policy towards the micronational word, and thus seek diplomatic solutions to disputes that could arise.

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel sees micronational warfare as "Stupid", "Pointless" and a "Complete waste of time"

This said, the Kingdom of Vendsyssel is prepared to defend them self against an outside aggressor, and will do so if necessary for the survival of the state.

Details about the military of Vendsyssel is otherwise classified

Foreign relations

Policy; The Kingdom of Vendsyssel seeks to create foreign relations with micronations of interest.

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel is currently only accepting dual-citizienship between Vendsyssel and other macronations, as there has been no agreements with other micronations.

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel recognises the following nations; Macronations;

Unilateral recognition;

All members of the UN - since 13 december 2018

Vatican City State - Since 13 december 2018

Kosovo - Since 13 december 2018

Micronations; -

The Kingdom is currently not a member of any multinational organisations

Treaties

The Kingdom of Vendsyssel has signed following treaties

Wrythe Convention - 16 August 2019

Culture

Language

The official language and mothertongue of Vendsyssel is danish.

Due to globalisation, english functions as a de facto official language alongside danish.

Another language is vendelbomål, which is almost extinct with only a few speakers left in the region of Vendsyssel. However there are plans to rectify this and making vendelbomål more popular.

Religion

There are no official religions in the Kingdom of Vendsyssel and each subject is allowed to practice their own religion as long as it does not break any other laws.

As there is no official religion, no religious communities are funded or helped through the government.

As all the subjects of Vendsyssel, the monarch is also allowed to practice whichever religion he wants. The current monarch however has chosen not to disclose his religious views as of yet.

External links